Thoughts on Medication

Medication works when people are given a choice. The ability to choose empowers people to take a hold on their own lives. People talk about the safety of society and of the people in need of medication; safety is not won over through coercion and external motivation, safety is won with people making decisions from within. It’s obvious that people just want to feel safe and comfortable in their own minds, but people are often unsure about how this is attained. Medical providers point to medication, but often without a real explanation as to why. Medical providers must be competent in answering what the medications do, and they must be able to translate the process in layman terms to people who may not be health literate (the vast majority of people in the world won’t know what a beta blocker does). As a right, we decide as people whether or not we want to put something in our own bodies, and it is a reasonable expectation that these pills are well understood (we aren’t lab rats). To ingest something is one of the most sacred and personal things, especially while being in a state of mind where symbolic meaning is important. What does it mean symbolically to be forced to swallow a foreign object? What is the metaphor of invasion, of colonialism, and of rape that can unfold with systems of power being unchecked? We cannot let medication become a power play, where tension builds between patient and worker. We need to cultivate shared decision making and promote voices heard; we have the power to choose where our mind must go, and for many, this may be a voyage without medication. This is a right to freedom and the pursuit of happiness.

With that being said, I take medication for my own well-being and pursuit of happiness. I’ve been on Abilify for over 4 years, the injectable dose. It contributes to keeping me in the grounded state of mind, but it is not the magical cure unless I add my interpretation of the effects myself. You see, it is ultimately my own mind at play with the substance that determines how I will respond. But, what then is my own mind in a natural state? Perhaps the real fear is that by placing people on medication, they are losing their natural mind, or state of being. I can sympathize with these sentiments, but I will argue that it is up to the person alone, to determine who they naturally are.

If I notice that I am hyper vigilant, and I also begin to notice that my thoughts are racing with stimulation, I know that this is not how I want to naturally become. I thereafter can attempt to alter my mind with dopamine blockers, so that the signals are not overcrowding my palette, my mental taste buds. Granted, I like stimulation and a good spice to life, but I know there is a healthy limit - and so, psychiatric medication, like an antacid pill, keeps me from noticing details that shouldn’t be noticed. In my case, I take Abilify to calm my mind, but it only works because I have combined medication with therapeutic understanding. Medication should never stand alone without a fully aware mind.