Exploring Diverse Paths: a response to criticism about being med free

I wrote the below response to someone who (admitted she) couldn’t be bothered to read my post nor watch the video but felt it important to tell me that bragging about being drug free for seven years was nothing to be proud of. LinkedIn is often the source of these sorts of comments that come my way these days. It seems people come upon the work and it shocks them.

She was responding to: Message to those labeled by psychiatry (audio included), 7 yrs off psych drugs

I share it here so that we might consider how to respond to such criticism that so often comes our way.

We must all, of course, respond in the moment to personal attacks to the best of our ability. When we’ve been gravely harmed and people challenge our reality it can feel very threatening and if you’re like me, it can trigger post traumatic stress symptoms in a big way. We were harmed because of these prevailing attitudes so of course it feels awful to be challenged in these ways.

It’s worth remembering that the folks that come at us with such demeaning and sometimes cruel arguments against our experience are also feeling threatened (this woman admitted that her experience included coming off drugs and suffering for it…we all know how little support there is for doing things differently and so there are many folks like her…hurt and afraid, just like we too have been hurt and afraid). I try to speak to the part that feels threatened in these folks so that perhaps we can both feel safer with one another and come to a meeting place where dialogue can actually happen. I always try to  come to a place where real communication can happen. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. It’s worth trusting our guts on when it’s time to bail or whether it’s worth giving it a go. 

Here it is:

“I’m pretty clear all the time about the fact that there are as many paths as there are people. Many of us need the information shared here…it’s life and death for some of us…if it’s not something that resonates with your experience there is no need for any conflict in that. Your experience is yours. Mine is mine. I get thousands of emails making it clear that the information shared at Beyond Meds is life saving to many. Those who don’t benefit from the information shared here can go elsewhere and that is the beauty in diversity. No one’s story should be silenced. 

And perhaps if you’ve not read or watched the video. The video is the real message so it’s premature to assume anything. The drugs almost killed me and rendered me bed ridden and non-verbal for many years. Those of us affected in these ways need to know there is a way to life and health again. It’s mostly denied in the medical field that this even happens and yet there are clearly 10s of thousands of us. There is likely a whole lot more since often times when the crippling occurs the reason isn’t recognized. If you spend times on the withdrawal boards it becomes clear that an epidemic of harm is happening and we have found that we have each other.

Again, this doesn’t change your experience.

And it doesn’t diminish the harsh reality for those of us who’ve been harmed if you find our experience threatening.

A lot of people who have found themselves both needing and not needing to use medications have found this article helpful.  — To be or not to be on psych meds“ (more Exploring Diverse Paths)

Related: When we are told our experience is too ugly to be heard…

***

*it is potentially dangerous to come off medications without careful planning. Please be sure to be well educated before undertaking any sort of discontinuation of medications. See: Psychiatric drug withdrawal and protracted withdrawal syndrome round-up

It’s become clear to me that whenever it’s possible that it’s helpful for folks who’ve not begun withdrawal and have the time to consider a carefully thought out plan to attempt to bring greater well-being to your body before starting the withdrawal. That means learning how to profoundly nourish your body/mind and spirit prior to beginning a withdrawal.

For suggestions on how to go about doing that check the drop-down menus on this blog for ideas. Anything that helps you learn how to live well can be part of your plan. That plan will look different for everyone as we learn to follow our hearts and find our own unique paths in the world. Things to begin considering are diet, exercise and movement, meditation/contemplation etc. Paying attention to all these things as you do them helps too. The body will start letting us know what it needs as we learn to pay attention. 

For ideas about how to create a life filled with safe alternatives to psychiatric drugs visit the menus at the top of this page.

Support Everything Matters: Beyond Meds. Make a donation with PayPal. or contribute to food as medicine, a Kroger eGift card works too!