EndGameNYC

So did I. Until it nearly killed me.

We all know that reactions to medications vary from person to person. But there is also a lot that is common for most people, including both therapeutic effects and side effects. Some people cannot tolerate the initial side effects, while others barely notice them. And there is a subset of people who stop using meds because they are terrified that they are experiencing side effects due to the reality that they've never truly known what it is not to be depressed all the time, when in reality they're experiencing the intended effects.

Such was the dilemma around the advent of atypical antipsychotics. That if we medicate people who carry a diagnosis of schizophrenia, and their more florid symptoms subside, they'll suffer severe trauma, realizing that they've been living a crazy life for most of their lives, and not having a clue as to how to adjust to what, for them, was an alternate reality.

I'm neither an advocate nor an opponent. But I do believe that if quality of life is compromised to the extent that it becomes difficult to function, something else needs to be tried. We only get one shot at this.