Do meds have lousy side effects? Yes. Are meds themselves lousy? No, no and more no.

Back before the first antipsychotic medication came out, people with severe mental illness were locked up. For life. Never to return to society. Ever.

The fact of the matter is even though meds do have shity side effects, without them, pretty much all of the 2.3 percent of Americans who have schizophrenia would simply not be able to live an even close to normal life. They just wouldn't. Look at the literature that was written before medication became available: people were rightfully portrayed in a very terrifying even grotesque light, because they simply were terrifying and grotesque. I mean, look at even a children's book, Tintin, which was written in the 30s -- people were called mad, they were locked up, they were considered to be the worst, the worst of people, barbaric, scary, and terribly inhumane. And to an extent that was true -- would you want to be surrounded by individuals who talked to flowers or lunged at you? You'd be frightened, and you'd want to put those people away. Everyone would.

Do you really want to go back to those days?

And forget about people who were sane, let's talk about the people who were insane: they SUFFERED. They were being internally TORTURED. They were living in HELL. Why would you want people to be in that kind of agony with themselves? I know when I was in the grips of schizophrenia, I thought that people I loved were going to die. I saw them getting thrown into vats of boiling oil. I saw them getting their clothes stripped off and being burned at a stake. I saw them being shot and stabbed and strangled. Now, was I having fun at the time? Was I howling with laughter? Of course not.

And how about all the family members of people with mental illness? If your spouse or daughter had schizophrenia -- would you want them to live in an institution for the rest of their lives? Would you want your precious little child to have to be restrained on a gurney, locked in the seclusion room, while receiving shots of tranqualizers every hour? Is that what you'd want?

Cutting to the chase, WE NEED MEDS. Meds are GOOD. Without them, people would be living disasters -- disasters for society, disasters for their loved ones, disasters for themselves.

But of course I concur: medication does have very negative and painful side effects. Look at the note I just posted -- I suffered from medication, and I know I'm not the only one. Medication is terrible at times.

But what is the price you're willing to pay? Would you rather gain an extra 30 pounds but yet live a decent, regular life, or would you rather stay trim, yet live in a state hospital for the rest of your life?

Basically, I think in some respects, you're doing people a disservice. Being such a crybaby about inconsequential side effects such as heavy head or weight gain or any other completely livable inconvience, is just wrong. Encouraging people to rebel or go off their meds is stupid and totally idiotic in every sense of the word.

I think you need to open your eyes and see that there's more to life than having every possible luxury and comfort that the world could ever offer you. Grow up.