Well it's thier loss. If they ever end up in the unfortunate circumstance of having to survive thru serious adverse effects caused by the medications they still consider oh so safe, they may be back again with a different opinion.

This comment I believe is a perfect example of medication spellbinding. And "not taking responsibility for their actions"? In my view the vast majority of regular commenters on this blog are exactly the people who have taken responsibility for themselves and bothered to figure out exactly what's going on out there and don't have blind faith in someone else to help them solve their problems.

I was thinking about how hard it's for people understand, let's say, the extent of harms SSRIs promotes.
Reading the list of side effects is nothing.
People have no wounds to show and unfortunately side effects are very hard to understand.
How can you make it clear what a drug-induced suicide ideation is if you are under psychiatric care?
They say it's because of the depression.
What about sexual problems? Hard to talk about it and people spend years experiencing it without having the guts to tell their psychiatrists or GPs because it's hard to talk about sexuality.
Those who report it receive silence or the famous "-It does not happen to my other patients."
What about withdrawal?
brain zaps - what do people know about it?
feelings of unreality -
feelings of being hot or cold...
sweating...
Reading these lists don't give 1% of the dimension of how incapacitating and how hard it's to cope with it all.
It's a hard task to explain how deep these drugs alters not only the body and the mind.
It's easy to say that we are a bunch of resentful people.
This is one of the most disappointing in all this struggle.
We cannot fight mainstream media, FDA, MHRA... psychiatrists claiming that all these symptoms are mild or don't even exist.
It's sad.
But the reality is: we are not the exceptions.

Philip,
This is so funny. I just got off the phone with my older sister. I was telling her how I much better I'm doing now that the mental health professionals are out of my life, how disempowering it's been to have a chorus of people criticizing my every thought, desire and deed.

And I am not just *feeling* better. I'm now working part time, walking a LOT, planting a garden, caring for my domestic and farm animals, writing, not waking up suicidal (most days), able to problem solve, etc., etc. Yes, a lot of this is due to feeling better because my medical condition--missed by all those "concerned" mental health people in favour of a constant barrage of criticism--has finally been diagnosed and treated. But that only took me so far. In the past year and a half I've been reclaiming my life, rebuilding it brick by brick. And I've done it myself, with the help of my true friends and people like the folks on your site.

Accountability is actually the only way I've found out of the hell hole of mental illness. And psychiatrists and their minions only prevented that, with their endless assurances that my brain had fallen and would never get up. I would still be shuttling in and out of the hospital, still wasting precious energy going on and off these much vaunted meds (that never helped), still feeling like a total loser, still on the receiving end of permanent written discharge-summary retaliation for my "non-compliance" had I not escaped the psychiatric profession's blandishments.

As for medication, I've been having a lot of trouble lately with severe anxiety. One person in my life has been pressuring me to consider medication and I've actually discussed it with him as the anxiety built up over time.

But yesterday I had a major break-through experience that related to my abuse history and realized this had been generating that anxiety as it worked its way to the surface.

This morning, as I sipped my tea in a relaxed state, I was thinking "I couldn't have done this work had I been medicated." I've been medicated and know how it removed me from my emotions, how it blunted my inner experience, how it blocked my access to all that I need in order to heal. On medication I would have lacked the tools to take this step forward.

I wouldn't tell anyone to not take meds if they think they help. But no one needs to be judging me because I no longer chose to spend my precious time in the company of so-called professionals (most of whom are far loonier than I ever thought of being) who wish to consume my life with their negative judgments of the quality of my thoughts.

Excuse me, but I have to go now. I have a paycheck to deposit.

Wow. I did not see the entire original comment, but the excerpt you cite expressed disagreement that, while strong, was not remotely inappropriate. Yet you banned this person from further comments--it is clear that dissent is not welcomed here. Yes, the price of popularity is criticism, both constructive and not. I suppose I'll be banned now.

I've written about one of my drug-induced suicidal ideation, and I'm finding hard to write about the other one.
I had this thought during Effexor withdrawal. For two times it was very hard.
I KNOW what drug-induced suicidal ideation is. But how hard it's to explain.
Will there any person to validate it?
Will any institution or physician say that it was really induced by the drug?
No.
I don't care. But I only wish that my experience could prevent people killing themselves because of a drug.
If someone really wants to take their lives I respect their choice.
But nobody should take their lives due to a feeling that is not real.

...people who would rather place blame than take responsibility for their actions.

This person has no idea that some of us had to struggle with all our strength, unimaginable amount of strength to be responsible for our actions.

I dunno, I think you should have let them keep posting. It would have been entertaining in a macabre way -- particularly to see you and my fellow commenters tear them apart over and over again.

Philip,

I thank you profusely for this blog. Heck, I am depressed as heck reading comments that are so senseless so I can't imagine how you must feel.

However, I do agree with Larry why you should have let the person keep posting. LOL Larry as I had the exact same thought.

Ana, as one who is having the day from hell, thanks to dealing with severe insomnia as a withdrawal symptom, you have nailed the situation precisely. I have to use every ounce of energy I have to not go down the path of depression that we all know leads to nowhere.

To that commentator - Yeah, I guess I should be grateful for a hearing loss, worsening of learning disability issues, and severe apathy. NOT!

You have no idea what my life is like so if you can't say anything nice, don't say it all. If you hadn't been banned, I would have said to this directly to you.

I will prevail and have the last laugh while you're still spellbound and stoned on your beloved psych meds.

I hope their Cymbalta prescription only gives them the same side effects I suffered from, and that their Lyrica prescription affects them less than it's harming a friend of mine.

It looks on the face of it that this person is a parent or "loved one" of someone with mental illness. It is also apparent from what they wrote that they don't think for themselves.

Thank you for providing an avenue for critical thinking that affects my quality of life.

~pri

Philip,

I think I made the offer before, which still stands, to act as gatekeeper. It's a lot easier to deal with personal, and other, attacks, when they're not aimed at one, I find.

Up to you, entirely, but I know from my own experience that comments (particularly anonymous comments), which are apparently only concerned with making personal attacks, can act as a trigger for a whole bunch of stuff. The sender might even be aware of that, I wouldn't know, although it's a dirty trick, if they do.

Please yourself whether you publish this.

Matt

There are a lot of people out there who have staked their belief system on psyc. meds period. This is understandable, given the bias of the profession of psychiatry. So to come into this blog and find people in all stages of situations, on and off drugs, side effects, new research, might be a cold water bath for some. At the same time, I do not see this blog as a place for battle. It is a place for information, sharing the latest, breaking stories, and help. There are plenty of other places to go for warfare, Pharma blogs, and the like. This blog has its own special and unique place in the world, and does not need people with their fists out.

turn comments off then.

You banned this person? Yikes.

I completely went off my mega psychiatric drugs 5 years ago. I had no idea what the drugs had been doing to me-that they were in fact causing my problems.I had every side effect in the book and more-my shrink said he'd never heard of them before. Kept saying it sounded like Extra Parameter Symptoms-what ever that means???
I can think clearly again/feel calm/relaxed. In charge of my life. No longer have the drug induced panic attacks. No Akthisia. I'm involved in exciting activities, developed healthy relationships/lifestyle and most of all am my own person. I truly believed the shrink was helping me. I trusted him.When I finally asked him point blank what in the world was happening to me with these drugs he was surprised.On my own I started withdrawal by tapering and it was an absolutely horrid nightmare-my body screamed in protest.
I found out later about the stigma of "mentally illness" as a diagnosis.Most ill people can be considered well but not a psychiatric patient-we are always referred to as the mentally ill one. This diagnosis is like being branded across our foreheads.I was told repeatedly I would NEVER be well and able to go off drugs.
Thank you for your blog.The public needs to know about pysyhe drugs and we all have times in our lives that can be very traumatic. We need to work through them and not to think the answer is in a pill.

melissa, the attack, which i edited out of this post, was pretty personal. i'm fine with ideological differences, etc, but personal attacks on me are unacceptable.

No longer have the drug induced panic attacks.

Shelby,
I also started having panic attacks after being put on Tofranil but as I never heard of anybody claiming that it was drug-induced I've kept it to myself and thought I was wrong.
I felt so anxious due to Tofranil that it was seen as a disease.
It's amazing that side effects are not recognized by physicians and they listen to little.
Perhaps if the he had payed more attention and asked me some questions to raise my story he would have come to the right conclusion.
But he was only taking notes of the symptoms I felt not wanting to know when they started.
I didn't need to be put on five medications that caused more side effects.
The sad of it all is that if a psychiatrist read this comment it will be taken as a nuts who is resentful and is in denial.