Excellent, excellent response Liz. I had a whole reply to Irrellus formulated in my head until I came across this post of yours. I can’t possibly say it any better.
Irrellus,
Your friend’s condition seems very similar to that of my sister. I was in elementary school when her symptoms began to develop as such that she became a danger to herself. My family fell apart, she was transferred around to at least half a dozen hospitals and “care” facilities, and I was essentially left in the dark all the while. My dad refused to believe her problem was beyond her control, mom was lost, and a few doctors told them, quite frankly, they couldn’t [or didn’t know how to] treat her. Anyway, to keep things short, my sister was in desperate need of both love and medication. Love saved her life, but medication gave it back to her. I can’t put it any clearer than that. She is the reason I come chime in on these threads suggesting drugs are the devil. Some drugs are over prescribed, some are abused, some probably shouldn’t exist at all – I can agree with all of that. However, for some people a reliance on medication is not a prison sentence. It is just another consequence of living their lives, like eating and sleeping. I don’t know why, but that fact seems much more difficult to accept for people on the outside looking in, than the people who actually experience the difference. The trade-off can be difficult sometimes because certain medications, specifically anti-psychotics, have a very sedating effect that disagrees with some people. I just believe that some drugs, for certain cases, can come as nothing short of a blessing. My sister lives on her own with a husband and kid now, and is probably happier than I am. She still takes her meds, too. My only advice to you, as you seem to have a good head about you already, is to find and stick with a doctor you can dare to trust. There are good and bad doctors, like anything else, but there are some who actually care. If you ask me, a pill is a small price to pay for a drastically improved quality of life. It just doesn’t seem right to regard the drugs as a crutch in every circumstance. Nobody should ever feel guilty or less-than-‘normal’ for wanting to experience life as their loved ones do.