people on this website don’t seem to realize that for some people/populations the pressure to take psych meds is just as great or greater than the pressure to not take them and that “you don’t have to take medication if you don’t want to” is just as important a message as “you can take medication if it helps you”
My dad worked for Kaiser as an allergy doctor for many years before he retired, and when he was still practicing, he would routinely come home with stories of having to re-diagnose patients who had been misdiagnosed by other doctors. Quite a few of those patients came to him after weeks or months of taking completely unnecessary medications as the result of having been misdiagnosed by former doctors.
The medical industry’s a lot more imperfect than people on this site think it is. The branch of medicine dealing with mental health has a really long, dark history of over/mis-pathologizing, and even wrongfully institutionalizing women, queer people, people of color, etc.
Not to mention the medical industry, like every other industry in the US, is a for-profit industry. It is legal in the US for pharmaceutical companies to give doctors money for promoting their drugs.
Imma say that again:
It is legal in the US for pharmaceutical companies to give doctors money to promote their drugs.
[source: CBS News] [source: NPR]
Studies estimate pharmaceuticals are the fourth leading cause of death in the US: [source: Harvard.edu] [source: Medical News Today] [FDA.gov]
So use your judgement.
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Thoughtfulfangirling 