commanderfraya:

rhythmic-idealist:

commanderfraya:

i think amidst encouraging people to take their meds and trust their therapists we should also keep in mind that bad medication combinations and bad therapists do exist

if your mental health medication is making you feel numb/out of sync with the world/sad/paranoid/any number of other things (im just listing some that have happened to me) then your medication is not working right. medication is not supposed to make you gray and sad all the time

similarly if you’re feeling worse in therapy its okay to think about whether you really click with your therapist, oftentimes the first or second or even third therapist you try isnt the right one

ive been thinking about this a lot lately because theres been both a pushback against mental health treatment in general AND a pushback against that that boils down to “all doctors know best listen to them exclusively and therapists can do no wrong”

im on the right combination of meds for the first time in my life but it took ages to get here, and if i hadnt trusted myself in the past i never would have gotten this far. i guess what im trying to say is, have some nuance in how you think about mental health treatment because everyone has different experiences and accessibility levels with the systems in place. and if youre seeking treatment, trust yourself and do your best to find doctors/therapists you trust

This is very true. Advocate for yourself! Mental healthcare is much less cut-and-dry than I ever expected it to be and I’ve learned that sometimes you do actually know what’s best for yourself.

A lot of the time new medications/therapists take a few weeks to fit right, and you’ll be told to give it a chance, which is usually good advice. That said, if it keeps making you feel bad/flat/unlike yourself, or if you are not going to be able to make it those few weeks, yes, you can in fact say “no, this is not working, I need something else.” The idea that medication necessarily makes you not yourself is a myth.

Improper treatment sucks but it’s a reason to keep advocating for yourself, not to give up on getting proper help! @commanderfraya‘s a step ahead of me in terms of finding medication that works, but hearing about their/my rocky path to get there isn’t any reason to be discouraged, the idea is that you do eventually get there. You can and deserve to be well and feel good.

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(Small qualification – if you’re going to stop a medication against doctor advice, please learn how to do so safely, and I’d recommend keeping your doctor in the loop – your mental state will change and they’ll need to know why, even if they haven’t been great at treating you. This is something I’ve done and I’m not down on it but you gotta do the research to keep yourself safe, yknow? Even if a medication’s severely messing you up, dropping off it improperly can be even worse. In my case a nurse was able to help me confirm the advice I’d found online when my psychiatrist wouldn’t entertain the idea of stopping the medication.)

good thoughts here re: being responsible with your meds!! you’re definitely not stepping on any toes, knowing how to responsibly manage your medication and monitor whether its working is super super important when taking care of your mental health