Fighting stigma around mind medications

By Virginia Winder

One of the biggest stigmas about living with experience of a mental illness is taking medication.

Everywhere I’ve turned lately, I have come up against the belief that being on medication is some sort of cop out and you’re a hero or heroine if you give it up.

Please, never encourage people who have diagnoses of bipolar, schizophrenia or depression to quit – especially if the medication is helping them.

Talking about suicide, the website Bipolar Lives says: “Dramatic reductions, both for attempts and completions, is one of the most striking impacts of lithium and other effective mood stabilisers.”

One of the most compelling aspects of living with bipolar is the temptation of going off my meds. Why? Because I miss the manic highs. They are amazing and you feel like you can conquer the world.

But these highs don't last.

When the mania erodes, like the slow shattering of a glass-made world, there’s the plunge – I call it the drop zone – when you find yourself at ground zero. All memories of what that “high” felt like are gone and often there’s huge embarrassment about the things you may have done or said “up there”.

The depression is made worse because the difference between the high and low are so acute. A large number of people with bipolar complete suicide – a rate of 15%. Of those living with bipolar, 50% will attempt to take their life and 80% will think about it. 

Those are horrifying statistics.

Images like this feed the stigma around taking
life-saving mental health medications.

For me, lithium keeps me stable – I don’t have the huge mood swings I used to. Yes, I still feel joy, have wildly creative thoughts, and also feel great sadness and anger.

But if I went off my medication, the outcome could literally kill me. So please think carefully, before you congratulate someone going off their meds or even worse, make them feel bad for being on them.

Would you applaud a diabetic for going off insulin? Or a person with powerful migraines to just tough it out? Or an asthmatic to give up their inhaler during an attack. Two of these scenarios are life-threatening.

Going off mental health medication can be exactly the same.

I came across a person once who had had a lung transplant – a huge medical procedure that required drugs so the organ wasn’t rejected.

This same person had a sibling on medication to help live with the debilitating illness of schizophrenia, and raved about how their loved one shouldn’t be on these drugs.

Weird that it’s OK to have all the medical intervention in the world for something physical, but not for a mental illness. I’ve talked with people who hear voices, who live with psychosis and paranoia, and know it’s heart-breaking and terrifying. Can you imagine walking around with a voice talking in your head the whole time, which you can’t switch off?

What many of those people don’t know is that for some people, like myself, medication is a life saver.

Yes, I tried St John’s Wort, but it caused me to have mini seizures. So that’s crossed off the list. However, it can work wonders for some people. 

Advice: Don’t ever take it at the same time as antidepressants, because you could end up with a nasty temporary condition called serotin syndrome. Yes, you can have too much of a good thing.

The thing about mental health medications is you need to get the right drugs. You need to work with your doctor or psychiatrist to do that. Unfortunately, it can take time and patience and, sometimes, you may suffer a raft of unwanted side effects before the ideal drug or combo is found. The same goes for medication for physical conditions.

I was put on lithium after I became one of the 50% (see above).

Nearly three years on, I have been stable, with one short dip on the way. Lithium has changed my life and my life expectancy.

So please don’t hassle people on mental health medication to get off and be wary about supporting those who stop taking their pills, especially those with a long history of extreme mental illness.

If it’s you who’s quitting, ask yourself why? Is it the stigma, do you miss the highs (if you’re bipolar), or is it a push from the natural health advocates that’s shaping your opinion? Could it be side effects? If so, work with your doctor to try something else.

For those who are suffering and won’t even look at mental health medication, think carefully about why. Do you think you deserve to suffer? Is depression a familiar, almost comfortable place to hide? Are you frightened of medical intervention? Would you feel the same if you had a heart attack? Or meningitis? 

This is a great book full of
mindfulness tips. 

Then there are those people who won’t go on medication – or go off it – and instead self-medicate with alcohol or drugs. This is extra harmful because both can make the illness worse, feed into depression and/or mania and may cause psychosis.

Believe me, medication isn’t the only answer. For me mindfulness is my cornerstone, along with Acceptance Commitment Therapy, creativity, family, friendship, love, laughter, meaningful work, good sleep, healthy food and exercise. Staying well takes a lot of hard work.

Every now and again, I look at my rock-of-a-husband, and say: “Sometimes I really feel like going off lithium so I can feel that exquisite high again.”

“I’d rather have you alive,” he replies.