Comments on: Superb Advice

By: Atypical Antipsychotics « WillSpirit

Atypical Antipsychotics « WillSpirit — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 02:32:38 +0000

[...] on HuffPost by Dr. LLoyd I. Sederer. My thanks to Liz Spikol for her The Trouble With Spikol blog post summarizing the [...]

By: JX

JX — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 15:36:52 +0000

We can’t trust anyone and you wonder why we’re paranoid. I can’t even tell if people are trying to fix us or eradicate us to tell you the truth. I don’t even feel like I need to be fixed and I don’t know what is so great about being normal anyway. You are all hypocrites.

By: Gail

Gail — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:28:14 +0000

The advice clearly makes a great deal of sense and could be very helpful to someone in the condition to make sense of it. However, when one is in the throes of either a manic or depressive episode the ability to make sense is often diminished and control of one’s actions, fortunately and/or unfortunately, ends up being given over, hopefully, temporarily, to the medical community. Sometimes that saves a life; sometimes an inordinate amount of time is given over to side effects. Navigating bipolar illness is a complicated task for the person who has it as well as family and friends.

By: Alison Hymes

Alison Hymes — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:16:29 +0000

NAMI and MHA both accept money from big Pharma so I would not suggest them as independent sources of information about drugs. Also you don’t mention all the folks who are coerced or forced into taking drugs by law and who have no chance to make a choice. Coming to PA soon if you don’t fight it.

By: Will Meecham

Will Meecham — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:30:09 +0000

What good advice! As a (former) surgeon with major psychiatric illness (primarily bipolar disorder, but also some other stuff), you would think I’d know enough to avoid taking medications that were both unhelpful and unhealthy. But I decided (naively) to trust my psychiatrist and not be my own doctor. Years later, I see that she followed the pharmaceutical industry’s suggestions with great diligence, to my detriment. I should have been far more cautious, asked more questions, and taken less medication. So I hope those who are just getting started (or ready to make changes) in the psych-medication realm will heed your words. Maybe they can avoid what happened to me: slow recovery and terrible side effects. Thank you.

By: abby jean

abby jean — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 21:15:45 +0000

It’s notable how many of these things are impossible for people who lack the education, language skills, information access, ability to stand up to authorities like doctors, and access to multi-modal treatment options. No wonder low-income folks and immigrants are so poorly served by the mental health system.