Most Helpful to You During your mental health care, have you often felt hopeful about your chance of getting better? No. I was convinced that I would be on medication for the rest of my life and be going in and out of the hospital. Because I complained about my care I was considered…
Recovery Isn’t Just Personal During your mental health care, have you often felt hopeful about your chance of getting better? Yes. I have felt so much more hopeful in the past year or so after finding a student group that is designed for students with mental health labels to get support and take part in…
A Diagnosis is Not a Destiny In what ways have you found psychiatric medication(s) helpful, if any? Helps me feel more in charge of my moods, although I can’t be certain if this is the medication or my belief in the benefits of the medication. In what ways have you found psychiatric medication(s) harmful, if…
Master of My Own Life In what ways have you found psychiatric medication(s) helpful, if any? The meds that I’ve continued to take are helpful in that even though they don’t “cure” things, they do make things easier to manage by keeping the extremity of things to a lesser degree. When not on the ones…
Starting Over Vicci N., RN, CCM Always Take Your Medication? I was hospitalized for 6 days with acute, paralyzing depression in Jan. 1999. On discharge, I was diagnosed as having bipolar disorder and later I was diagnosed bipolar I. I was prescribed Klonopin at the time of hospitalization and I took it for 14 years.…
Never Give Up Hope Justin Scott; Syracuse, NY I have had many experiences with the mental health system in my life, some good and some bad. I have been in psych wards in several hospitals as well as in jail. Throughout this journey, there have been very few moments of hope. That is what I…
Overcoming Tourette’s Through Meditation Trying To Suppress It With Medications I would just like to share that I was diagnosed with Tourette’s Syndrome as a child, which is kind of like a more intense case of what doctors term ADD or ADHD. And for years they tried to suppress it with medications like Valium, Clonidine,…
The Rest of My Life In what ways have you found psychiatric medication(s) harmful, if any? During the 13 days I was forced/coerced to ingest psychiatric psychiatric medication, I experienced an acute dystonic reaction to forced injections of Prolixin — twitching and cramping of my arms and legs followed by loss of control over the…
I Quit the Public System During your mental health care, have you often felt hopeless about your chance of getting better? When I was in the system I felt totally trapped and held down by the professionals’ lack of understanding and their pessimistic attitudes. I felt like my life was over and that I was…
There Are a Lot of Alternative Medicines During your mental health care, have you often felt hopeless about your chance of getting better? I was always told that I would have to take medication for the rest of my life in order to manage whatever they consider to be symptoms. Even with the medications, I…