Last month when I spoke at the Strenghtening Families group for the BCSS about 90% of the parents there expressed problems with medication compliance with their loved ones.
We discussed briefly the reasons for it and what steps they could take. One young mother was having her son committed that week and as hospital policy is here, meds are administered on the ward.
I tried to give them some insite from my own experience into what these kids are feeling and I recalled that during those times for me, I was very manic so any drug that took me down from that gave me a bad feeling.
Although it is difficult to educate people when they are discharged from hospital, we do have a peer-support program here. It is a pilot project and hopefully it will take hold.
We have a large group-home complex in town but sadly, too many are left homeless and self-medicate with drugs, though efforts are being made to house them.
Four billion dollars has been given to Mental Health by the Canadian Government this week as part of a new `Mental health Strategy `. Maybe we will be able to see some real results in the coming months.
Don Fraser
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As you know, I don't have a lack of awareness that I am sick. But sometimes I seem to have a lack of awareness that I need medication. Because the sickness seems like "me." The me I know. I have taken many drug holidays and have thus been hospitalized about 16 times for inpatient treatment and a couple of times for outpatient treatment. Even when I experienced my first great step toward recovery and began to recover emotional expression and began to once again see the beauty in the world, and knew that the medication was responsible at least in part, I struggled to see the need for medication. Me + Medication did not equal something better in my mind, Me + Medication = something crippled that needed a crutch.
It was not until several things happened, over a period of years, that I came to believe medication was probably going to be necessary the rest of my life.
#1 My psychiatrist told me I was going downhill in 2002, and within about 15 years I would probably be totally dependent on others for my basic care. That scared the hell out of me! So I became compliant...for a while.
#2 I finally was able to switch to a medication that stopped my social paranoia (I hadn't realized how it had a stranglehold on my everyday life) and didn't have such bad side effects.
#3 After a while, I noticed I was taking an interest in the world rather than merely concentrating on what a bummer my illness was and expecting everyone to take pity on me. It was kind of nice to be able to read a book and understand it. Nice to walk across the room without crushing self-awareness. Nice to actually be a part of the family rather than sitting in my room or in a corner.
I had thought the illness was me because I had dealt with it for so many years. I didn't remember anything else. I couldn't imagine a world without the voices and "entertainment." I didn't know life could be good. I didn't realize that it would be rewarding to help other people. I also relaxed my personal standards of perfection (I know how odd that sounds considering how far I was from perfect) and began to except who I was, where I was, the past, the present, all of it. All of it was me, not just the years of illness.
Now, I find myself having to return to the original medication that led me into the ability to feel emotion again, the ability to have a personal vision. Some of the side effects are horrible. I'm wondering if I'm going to be able to commit to taking it as prescribed. But then, compared to the total nothingness my pre-medication awareness encompassed, or rather the total somethingness of pain, real mental torture, maybe I can take it and know I do have a future. And I should have a future. And I am worth the hard work it takes.
I think high levels of magnesium help.....
People like you are so strong so sensitvehope you know how much you did that was not wrong you just gullible andeasily lead but too beautiful for this creul world