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what’s your opinion on mental illness medications?

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SW-User
Way too broad to really speak upon. I will express something I saw, my ex's mother was schizophrenic. It took years for her to find help, while her daughter for the longest time had to be her mother's caregiver at the age of 9. When she could no longer, her father stepped in (who was absent, but I do believe cared), took her away from her mother from seeing too late what was going on. She then saw her mother in back alleys, as her mother needed to be away from being seen. It was only when her mother accepted help, they truly had a relationship again. It took treatment in a mental health hospital, then years of medication. Medication she can't stop. Her mother did stop, by accident years ago, found how she was feeling better physically for a short period of time. Then all the troubles she had with her mother years before slowly started to reappear, and was alienating everyone in her life again. She was on a path of homelessness again, and a part my ex saw she needed to see, her mum was clear and clairvoyant, but no longer able to have functioning relationships (again). My ex went to a justice of the peace, as she could not watch her mother undue all of her progress, even though she knew the medication hurt in another way.

Once she had access to seeing what her mother was taking again, she was able to plead with her mother to listen. They had to put her mother on a different medication, as the previous one, once outside her system, could not be given again, but everything I know from that story, they have a much more loving relationship now together that would have been lost.

All that said, though, we do live in a world that prescribes before listening. Don't know why you are asking, and medication may not be the only thing that helps; but don't close down the idea either.
@SW-User well written. schizophrenia is terrifying. I wish every day I didn’t have it. and I agree that the topic is very complex and not just one answer for all for a variety of reasons. for people like her and I, not medicating is not really an option.
SW-User
@JustGoneNow Thank you. I remember it being terrifying watching. I knew the stories before, not the way she would have, and there was a part of me listening always wanting to give, but I also knew this was something they together needed to find out together. My ex, had to decide when to step in and intervene, I know she hated doing it. She studied bio-ethics, applied philosophy, mostly centred around health that measured the need for care and autonomy, and I know through my heart why she chose that, but even the study didn't make it easier for her. I think she was right to step in, to get her mother forced to open up, as it was also an innocent mistake of her Mum screwing up her medication when she got older. Only to illustrate, how hard it can be to see, how it can affect another making a choice, and her Mum's choice, feeling better (temporarily) is also understandable.

I also remember the cries she had watching her Mum, while trying to find what was right for her Mum. Her basically forcing the justice of the peace to enact her power of attorney, how she knew her Mum differently from, and the time away from medication when my ex was an adult was an eye opener, for her. She hated having to push. She also could not endure what she saw her mum deal with before.

It meant a new medication, as once the old one was out of her system, she could not go back to it. She's healthier than she ever was now. And I know it depends on severity on conditons, and the medications, her Mum is always somewhat catatonic from the meds, and it hurts her watching, but sadly she also knows when there are supports, help, that is better than her being homeless.
@SW-User I wrote about my struggles on SW, to try to help people try to understand what it’s like.

https://similarworlds.com/thoughts/personal-feelings/4341117-Whats-schizophrenia-and-mental-illness-like-for
SW-User
@JustGoneNow Thank you for the share. There are parts I understand well, and I think it's important you wrote how it affects you. Its an umbrella in terms of diagnosis, I don't think two people, unique, will feel the effects the same. I'm not going to divulge much this way, but even with her Mom, you could say became delusional in paranoia, where she saw everyone from Ontario as Romans as trying to attack her. There's also a logical explanation, my ex's father was Italian, she moved to Ontario for him, while he hurt her mother intimately with having an affair with her best friend. Many would have seen her talk of Roman's as illogical and nonsense, but if you follow how she was hurt most intimately, my ex believes was the trigger, you begin to understand how her mind understood and wasn't coping with trauma and loss. It doesn't change how she felt Romans were chasing her to where she had to hide behind street corners to see her daughter, but...

I appreciate what you wrote, and it can certainly offer help for some.
@SW-User I’ve spent enough time with other mentally ill people including other schizophrenics that I know how it manifests is very unique to each individual along with any and all other diagnoses (ie depression, anxiety, BPD, etc.) My goal was of course not to define my disease but to share my own personal experiences with it. I’ve shared a lot over the years but I think it’s important to try to give people an understanding to hopefully reduce the stigma. And not all of it has been bad. Hope is mixed in there too.

https://similarworlds.com/thoughts/personal-feelings/4211240-I-got-convinced-by-a-friend-to-share-a-part-of-my