Posted by Dinah on October 12, 2012, at 8:28:52
In reply to Lou's Little Shoppe-death-o-meter, posted by Lou Pilder on October 11, 2012, at 20:08:27
Lou, as someone from a family with a history of mental illness, and someone who has seen the results of brain based mental illness not being adequately treated, does it ever occur to you that if you do manage to frighten someone into going off their needed medications, you may be harming them? Does it occur to you that someone who is ill enough to take your death-o-meter seriously enough to stop their medications may be ill enough to cause themselves harm off medications? I've seen my relatives who fight taking medication do things like jump off buildings thinking they could fly. I've seen them destroy their lives and their relationships with their families. And I've seen my relatives with similar issues who take their medications lead healthy lives and maintain their relationships.
It's easy enough for me to dismiss hyperbole. There are members of my family for whom such hyperbole would encourage their own desires to go off medications, their own wishes that faith could be enough, and their own fears about people trying to harm them.
If anyone were to go off their medications, and think they could fly, or go off their medications and destroy their relationships with their family, based on posts like this, would you feel any guilt at all?
It's easy to say that you have the way to peace and happiness without medication. Several of my relatives also had that faith in God. A legitimate and good faith that could be extremely beneficial in their lives. But they forgot that God has many ways to help people. As the old story goes...
There was a man sitting on top of a roof with the flood waters rising. A couple of boats came by, but he waved them on saying that God would provide. A helicopter came by and he refused help, saying God would provide. The floodwaters rose and he drowned. He asked God why he hadn't provided, and God answered "I sent you two boats and a helicopter. You refused them."
Medications can be a helicopter for some people, a life raft for others, and for some they can be a weight around the ankle. To make blanket statements about medications causing death is as dangerous as blanket statements about medications curing all. With God's grace, man has the intelligence and resourcefulness to create tools. We need to use them responsibly and wisely. Don't scare people away from a lifeboat, just to warn people of the dangers of unneeded medications.
Moreover, remember YMMV. What works for you may not work for everyone. What works for you may not work for the people around you. Please be respectful of that while trying to alert people of possible dangers.
poster:Dinah
thread:1028372
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20121009/msgs/1028400.html