Why stop meds??

[forever]

I am doing my best to understand someone with BP. She was doing so well, own home, stable taking meds, rebuilding her life well,lots of support from family and m h team etc, after years of being unstable, Shes been in hospital so much of her life, this year seemed a real improvement. She was at her best for years but she suddenly stopped her meds and now shes back in hospital and very ill. Can anyone who has been down this route themselves explain why ...this is not new this has been happening now for 20 years..... I am trying to understand. But I can quite get my head round why anyone would make themselves so ill.

 

[mad as a hatter]

i,ve done the same so many times in my life i,ve got bipolor i don,t think it,s that simple think it,s just the way the illness works i think i got 2 the stage where i was feeling ok that i didn,t need the meds ne more that i was cured in someway but in reality it,s the meds that r keeping u that way i just wish i could have seen that at the time before each episode i think it,s took me around 8 yrs since my dignosios 2 realise that i need meds all the tme i don,t know if i,m making sense or not

 

[forever]

trying

Yes Im trying to understand...my stepdaughter has stopped and become ill so many times now, over so many years I do not think she will ever 'get it'. Im pleased you have realised that its the meds that keep you well. Good luck and Thank You.

 

[rasselas]

you have altered me not restored me...

... is the feeling i have been tortured by in the past when making that decision.

my reasons or anyone else's reasons won't necessarily be the same, naturally.

you have to try and understand that if you, I, tony blair, the pope, the dalai llama or nigella lawson take an 'antipsychotic', an 'antidepressant', an 'anticonvulsant', an 'antianxiety' tablet, the actual objective effects (ie how it's altering the brain) will be very, very similar. it's only the subjective effects that separate people out (only about 40-51% of people respond to antidepressants - about the same as placebo).

so if you really want to know why someone feels the compulsion to stop taking these drugs, the only rational way of getting close to understanding why is to take them yourself for a couple of months.

then you may have a better understanding. because you can't experience what it's doing to another person's subjective reality. you can't experience how it makes them feel within themselves.

of course - most people consider that to be the most preposterous suggestion. when i have suggested this to people in the past they have said, "but i don't have a chemical imbalance. i don't have an illness. and besides, i wouldn't take the risk..."

in that kind of reply you find... a very telling (though painfully ironic) truth.

 

[Clementina]

Maybe, the medication has extremely bad side effects, as well.

 

[jax]

Sometimes - going from being unstable to stable - it is a little strange getting used to being stable. I missed my highs - my infectious laughter (As described by others), My ability to make others laugh, my feelings that I was someone with special powers, feeling amazing etc. These things were missed by me when I became stable after years of being unstable. Perhaps she missed her highs?
Jacqui x

 

[DiagnosisBipolar2]

... is the feeling i have been tortured by in the past when making that decision.

my reasons or anyone else's reasons won't necessarily be the same, naturally.

you have to try and understand that if you, I, tony blair, the pope, the dalai llama or nigella lawson take an 'antipsychotic', an 'antidepressant', an 'anticonvulsant', an 'antianxiety' tablet, the actual objective effects (ie how it's altering the brain) will be very, very similar. it's only the subjective effects that separate people out (only about 40-51% of people respond to antidepressants - about the same as placebo).

so if you really want to know why someone feels the compulsion to stop taking these drugs, the only rational way of getting close to understanding why is to take them yourself for a couple of months.

then you may have a better understanding. because you can't experience what it's doing to another person's subjective reality. you can't experience how it makes them feel within themselves.

of course - most people consider that to be the most preposterous suggestion. when i have suggested this to people in the past they have said, "but i don't have a chemical imbalance. i don't have an illness. and besides, i wouldn't take the risk..."

in that kind of reply you find... a very telling (though painfully ironic) truth.

Brilliant post; says it all

 

[forever]

I can never put on someones elses shoes

I do understand that my normal is not my stepdaugters normal...we are all different..and yes I think she enjoys the power the illness gives her. With the meds she has nothing....without them she is 'in control' of herself and everyone around her. If only I did not care for her .......