Are psychiatric meds dangerous? Is psychiatry/psychology too unsafe/controversial for the average person?

Question

I firmly believe that the average person, if you don't have moderate to severe mental health issues, shouldn't go to see a psychologist or a psychiatrist. We all need life coaches, best friends, people who care about us to give us advice, etc, but these professionals seem to exist to treat "mental illness" and they don't really seem to be there to be your best friend. Oftentimes, that's all people need.

And, furthermore, psychiatrists over-prescibe medication. I used to think, there was no harm in this, as long as it makes you feel better, right?

WRONG.

I've experimented from SSRI's, to anti psychotics, mood stabilizers, and the benzodiazepine family.

The ONLY med I to this day will take and is great is Ativan, part of the benzodiazepine family, since it doesnt seem to produce dramatic affects on your personality.

You're still you, just more calm.


HOWEVER, SSRI's, and the anti psychotics and mood stabilizers, like Paxil, Zyprexa, Prozac, Lamictin, Effexor, even af

ter the first pill, seem to completely change your whole consciousness, personality, awareness, intellectual abilities, ...everything. They seem to have this profound and dramatic effect, and I only took a few days doses of Lamictal, and then stopped, and didnt feel like myself in over a week!!

This medication ..I believe is dangerous.

I really do.

And these people want you on high doses for life possibly.

Is there an agenda?


Are these meds designed to destroy the minds of who psychiatrists deem to be dangers to society?

Because that's waht these meds seem to do.

They seem to totally F*Ck with your mind.

Answer 1

You make good points, and I understand how you are perplexed. It's easy to read between the lines and assume that you are an American. Why is that important? Because the drug lobbies, the FDA, and especially the threat of medical malpractice lawsuits are much more part of prescription of medications in the Untied States than in other countries.

Many people point to the drug companies, but I believe it is the legal issues which cause the most trouble. U.S. doctors tend to group together and diagnose and prescribe like everyone else does. It's not just kick-back money from the drug companies. It's safety in numbers.

I have had personal experience taking some if not all of the medications you mentioned. Often, in visiting a psychiatrist for help, one feels like he's just throwing drugs as aimlessly as darts at some target across the room. I was, when suffering from terrific anxiety after a breakup, given Prozac, and had that suicidal reaction which has now become well-known. But at the time, it was considered a panacea (as Xanax was ten years earlier) -- I even heard Prozac described at the time by one person who'd taken it for a while as being "A Gift From God". This was in the course of yet another of her flow-of-consciouness ramblings that characterized her talk in AA meetings. She sounded like a dumb Marcel Proust! And sure enough, hands came up from all over the room, followed by equally dreamy people testifying agreement with her, each of whom said they were taking Prozac themselves.

Though you've had success with Atavan, I will suggest you ask your physician about "Buspar", which is a specific against anxiety, and unlike the Serotonin Uptake Inhibitors, can be started and stopped abruptly, and which has no multiplying effects should you drink alcohol. Not that I recommend that -- but it shows that unlike the others, Buspar is not a cousin of alcohol. Also, unlike the Benzodiazepines, there's little if any risk of abuse or addiction. It helped me, like a cast on a broken leg, and I am now better and drug-free.

But in the end, it is not the drugs that are really the problem.
With a few exceptions, most drugs which are available and have passed necessarily rigorous standards are not detrimental per se IF CORRECTLY PRESCRIBED. This, for the reasons I cited before, is far from being what usually happens.

I even had one wag, who was head of the drug-administration section of the psychiatric department of a Major New York hospital (St. Vincent's), decide after three visits with me that he would like to try giving me a "small dose" of an anti-psychotic, Haldol. He nonchalantly warned, "If your head gets stuck, just go the emergency room." So I Googled the medication and read that one of the possible side-effects was permanent paralysis! Christ.
I also had one incident there where a resident told me "I am on to your game. You are just interested in getting drugs." and promptly cancelled my prescription, which was for the completely non-addictive Buspar. Think of what might have happened if the person he'd decided to single out for correction (he wasn't even a full-fledged M.D.!), had been more seriously ill than I was! Needless to say, except for a letter to the hospital Director to warn about the cowboy resident, that was the end of my relationship with St. Vincent's.

I'll add that my trouble at that time was not the one I'd faced some 15 years before when I was given Prozac. But that experience (where my life was only saved after taking it for two weeks because my window was too small to jump out of!) -- that experience had made me wary of just blindly following doctor's orders. In fact, it was some two years after the Haldol business that I got my records from St. Vincent's in order to pursue legal damages against the creeps who had hurt me in the first place, and made me seek psychiatric help. It was yet another crazy priest, whose malfeasance the Church was covering up -- someone to whom I'd gone for solace and who had tried to take advantage of me. But that's another story.

The point is, when I read the history of my treatment over one and a half years as an out-patient at the hospital, the diagnosis went from "moderate anxiety with no psychotic affect" to "delusional, paranoid with psychotic tendencies". The crux of the problem was, it turned out, that among the the psychiatrists between whom I was shuttled, NONE believed a word of what I was telling them! The fact that I was embroiled in a nightmare lawsuit against what turned out to be a serial perpetrator and kept hitting brick walls -- the diagnosis went from one doctor to another, each one reading what the last had written after a visit of two. As I was passed down the daisy-chain, my "diagnosis" grew in seriousness at each juncture. "He keeps repeating this story about some church and some priest who supposedly attacked him," said the papers. It was astonishing. Not ONE actually took the time to consider if what I was telling them was simply the truth. It was there in black and white.

God knows I do suffer from mental illness. Thank God, too, that over time it has subsided. But at its worst, the hardest part was to realize that you have been infected by something which inhibits your ability to carry on your everyday life -- to hold a job, to have a love-affair -- sometimes even to do the simplest things like dialing a telephone. It's really terrible. My experience with medication is that at best, as with Buspar (or aspirin!), it can relieve the worst of the symptoms. But so often, as you say, taking prescription psychiatric drugs not only doesn't help with what's wrong, it even other causes serious problems. And doctors, I've found, are as a group far more interested in protecting their prestige and income than they are in truly helping patients, much less admitting mistakes.

It is truly a shame that we live today in a society where the sort of namby-pamby Newspeak we hear from so many of our "leaders" creates the impression that being 'Politically Correct' comes before being aware, discerning, or even sane.

Wishing you the best.

Answer 2

I'd say that the effects of most meds are worse than the problem they attempt to solve and *that* is shotty at best. And when they're able to find the right combination (for those needing more than one symptom to be corrected) they have to keep giving you new meds to cater to your unique needs.
As for the effects - I mean, sure, you're not completely down in the dumps but you can't go to the bathroom right and, when you do, you end up fainting (in some cases). You don't want to kill yourself but you worry about something that you can't help but do. Or you just end up becoming a zombie and have no opportunity to get those natural highs that come from the higher end of the Bipolar spectrum (again, saying that's the case).

In most situations, it's not harmful for the average person to get therapy, just unnecessary. At a certain point a person no longer knows what's best for their overall mental health or just doesn't know the best way to handle their problems and so this is when therapy is needed.
A lot of people get counseling when they really don't need it but, in some cases, come out more able to handle themselves when things DO get difficult, saying that it ends up being that way.
Of course, therapy can become just as addictive as any of the drugs they prescribe - you feel helpless and unable to continue until you get that visit in.

There has to be a separating factor in the relationship between therapist and client or else the therapist would then *become* the client. It's like an actor that takes his/her role too seriously. Just think about what would happen if Anthony Hopkins weren't able to separate himself from his role as Hannibal...it's scary just thinking about it.
But there's a definite note of distance between the two which could make it more difficult for some to heal. As long as the patient realizes there *has* to be some degree of separation, there'll probably be more healing than harm done.

It's like the old adage goes...everything in moderation.

Answer 3

Depends on the person, the meds and the condition. For example, a person with depression who takes meds would loose no credibility because of that. A person with schizophrenia on meds could be a different story. That's not to say schizophrenics can't have spiritual experiences, but they might have a little less credibility in relating the experience, because it would be hard to tell what was real and what wasn't. There are quite a number of emotional illness, as opposed to mental illnesses, where credibility should not be a concern.

Answer 4

Wow, well said, all of it!

Yes, you only should see a psychiatrist/psychologist for severe mental health issues (requiring meds usually). There are a great deal of counselors out there that are caring and charge much less than the big boys.

You have to be careful with any medications, but especially with psychotropic drugs. They are being handed out like candy (because any doctor can prescribe them even when they don't have a degree in psychology or related field). These are drug whores that are creating a tragedy in this country and all for what? The want to make a buck.

Beware public, what you put into your body can really have some horrible affects. I know a young man who was having some problems, someone put him on psychotropic meds that wiped out his pancreas. He is only in his early 30's and will most likely never see his 40's.

Answer 5

I (somewhat) agree. I think that if the proper medical evaluation is not done on a patient, and perhaps other methods of treating whatever ails the person are not done before medication is perscribed, then people who don't really need it are taking it. Therefore, the medications are having strong affects. I think that people are quick to reach for medication because they would rather numb the pain then get to the root of the issue and deal with it. However, having said that, there are some people who really do need the medication in addition to therapy before they can see results.

Answer 6

i suppose there could be an ulterior motives... as for OVER prescribing, yes. changes of life stress of the decade bla bla bla... im in the hospital. referred to a certain Dr Death as my friends soon dubbed him Dr. Death was to be my best friend once a week for.... who knows. this med that med here a med take a med how ya feel? what? we have new symptoms. you should take some of these and some of those. In one year time (i think. i'd have to ask a friend for sure.) it was a self perpetuating self destroying self surpassing one in a constant state of, duh. not like someone smoking herb duh.like (whistle) gone, gone. all prescribed to me by my friend Dr Death, referred by county hospital. had a friend tell me several years later that he read some news paper articles showing he was being sued by several families for wrongful death( i didnt see the article, but it fits). find a friend. i had to move a 1000 miles, but it worked. ROUGH!! whew those first couple weeks. if your need therapy, its a good precursor to actually seeing the quack (which are defiantly needed), sometimes. i had really needed some help @ that time and Valium is nice in a tight spot, but i swear I probably was given 20 deferent meds over the coarse of him being my Dr. dont let them get you. pharmasuticle companies are big

Answer 7

Ummm...No and no.

I've taken Lexapro for years now and all I can tell you is that it made me feel like ME for the first time in decades.

The correct dosage of the correct medication can change lives for the better.

From your question, though, I can only suggest that YOU need to go OFF Ativan, because you may FEEL calm, but buddy, you're bouncing off the walls.

Bottom line: show this post to your doctor and see what he/she says; go from there.

Answer 8

If your mind is already messed up then they are used to control it so that you don't act so crazy. They are probably dangerous to normal people. That's why a lot of crazy people don't like to take medication and they go off their meds and may harm themselves or someone else. You see it on law and order all the time.

Answer 9

I agree with you...I think they are dangerous to your health....sometimes, occasionally one may be necessary....but I have a friend who is trying to solve all her personal problems with medications and she is taking way too many.

And I would choose a Christian counselor anytime because they will try to help you change....not just medicate you.
So if you need professional help...and you may...to work through your problems.....then find a Christian counseling center. They will be able to really help you.

Answer 10

Any medication is going to have side effects. One of the hardest things I have ever done is coming off of SSRI's. This medication is crap and the withdrawls on all of them are debilitating. If you don't have to take it steer clear. I feel your pain man!!