When it comes to mental health, one narrative seems to persist – solve your own problems; otherwise, you are a failure. This means that external sources, especially medication, are often stigmatized, including by those suffering from mental illness, which is disheartening.
Living with or recovering from a mental illness typically requires work and progress in many areas, done by both the sufferer and those around them. Unfortunately, the glorified path to better mental health consists of being active, getting involved in activities and trying to think positive at every turn. Medication, psychiatry and, sometimes, even counselors are frowned-upon solutions for living with and being happier despite mental illness.
The truth of the matter is that medication can work wonders for some people. In a six-year-long study published in early 2018, it was shown that around 60 percent of mental health patients report about a 50 percent reduction in their symptoms after two months of taking antidepressants, according to The Guardian. Antidepressants were proven to work better than placebos across the board in a study that was supposed to put the whole debate to rest. Yet the stigma persists, telling patients who take antidepressants that pills are not a real solution or – even worse – that even if they feel better on medication, it is not real success.
People suffering from a mental illness who have found success all have their own unique recipe they followed to get them there. For some, medication did not work, but therapy and lifestyle changes did. For others, they could not get better until some medication lifted off the huge weight keeping them eternally isolated. Unfortunately, the former is often praised, while the latter is said to be wrong.
What is even worse is when people who suffer from a mental illness have this mentality. The stigma from the outside works its way to the inside, and now, some in the mental illness community are perpetuating it. They isolate themselves and push themselves to “feel happy” or “get better on their own,” convinced that using medication to help is not an option. As destructive as that opinion is for themselves, it gets more damaging when those same people apply that opinion to other sufferers, frowning on other people’s path to a healthier life.
It is one thing for a person suffering from, say, depression to hear from those who do not understand the feeling that medication will turn them into some kind of emotionless zombie or stop them from being who they genuinely are, but it hurts more when that sentiment is expressed by those who should understand how oppressive depression and similar illnesses can be.
There is also the idea that medication is altering one’s identity, as if this damaging, detrimental mental condition is how they were meant to be. Some even channel that idea into fields like art and creative writing, insisting they could never create great works if they took medication or stopped feeling depressed on a regular basis or that their work is well worth the mental turmoil it took to create it.
Bottom line: you are worth it. Everyone is worth it, and no one has a right to tell you that one path to success is not actually the right one. To those who do not suffer, please try to help those who do by not shaming whatever efforts they choose to make themselves better. To those who do suffer, know that you are worth being mentally healthier, and whatever path gets you there should be celebrated.
Photo by Maria Pericozzi | The Oswegonian
