I mean, I’m anti-meds for treating exogenic issues when something can be done for those exogenic issues.
If I’m sitting at home with the heater on and I start feeling warm and flushed, I wouldn’t take an ibuprofen (as an anti-pyretic) to bring my temperature down, I’ll turn the heater off.
It’s the same for mental health, if the sole source of the stress/sorrow is external, medication is nothing more than a bandaid, which is better than nothing if the exogenic influence is outside your individual control (which it often is)… But we are at a point where the majority of people with mental health issues are experiencing a level of exogenic influence and there are enough of us that if we organised we could change the factors that are causing or worsening our mental health symptoms.
So it bears talking about, is medication always appropriate?
Medication is important, especially for endogenic conditions, and medication is life saving. But if you have exogenic depression and the meds aren’t working, the new prescription is protest.
Medication isn’t just a bandaid on outside factors, it can serve as a short term treatment tool to help someone face the issues they are struggling with. I would bet most people on some kind of antidepressant were not on them permanently, just long enough to get stable and see results from therapy and work. That’s the problem with being anti-medication without much nuance, it stigmatizes the tools people use as being unnecessary bandaids or crutches. It just screams “you don’t need meds, just deal with your issues”.
I mean, I’m anti-meds for treating exogenic issues when something can be done for those exogenic issues.
If I’m sitting at home with the heater on and I start feeling warm and flushed, I wouldn’t take an ibuprofen (as an anti-pyretic) to bring my temperature down, I’ll turn the heater off.
It’s the same for mental health, if the sole source of the stress/sorrow is external, medication is nothing more than a bandaid, which is better than nothing if the exogenic influence is outside your individual control (which it often is)… But we are at a point where the majority of people with mental health issues are experiencing a level of exogenic influence and there are enough of us that if we organised we could change the factors that are causing or worsening our mental health symptoms.
So it bears talking about, is medication always appropriate?
Medication is important, especially for endogenic conditions, and medication is life saving. But if you have exogenic depression and the meds aren’t working, the new prescription is protest.
Medication isn’t just a bandaid on outside factors, it can serve as a short term treatment tool to help someone face the issues they are struggling with. I would bet most people on some kind of antidepressant were not on them permanently, just long enough to get stable and see results from therapy and work. That’s the problem with being anti-medication without much nuance, it stigmatizes the tools people use as being unnecessary bandaids or crutches. It just screams “you don’t need meds, just deal with your issues”.