let’s talk about medicines, baby.
people often don’t like to talk about medications for mental illness, because temperatures can run high; other people, effectively, think they know best, and what they know is that medication is optional. so - i say, i take this - someone will say ‘oh, well, i get sad sometimes - i go for a run’. and it can be TOTALLY well intentioned, but it still has to stop.
people with severe/enduring mental illnesses are experts re their own conditions. we have to be! dr’s don’t take us seriously, and often enough GP’s and stuff don’t have a lot of experience with us. so. if we say we need something to live, people need to listen.
i wouldn’t even say i ‘know’ bipolar - i know my bipolar.
anyway - medications.
i take one to balance/stabilise my moods and help with psychosis (antipsychotic), an antidepressant and a medication to help with anxiety.
i will, no doubt, have to take medicines for the rest of my life - and this doesn’t bother me. i see no moral failing in taking medicines - other people do though. and that upsets me. because medications come with side effects - and if you mention the negative aspects of these, people question why you need the medicine at all. but. trust me. without medications i wouldn’t be here.
so. give people the room to be sad/angry/annoyed about their medications, and their side effects, without jumping all over them with an article from the Guardian about running! please?!
