When someone you know or love acts as if they are psychotic, it can be alarming and frightening, for not just you, but the person experiencing it as well. The tendency is to want to make it go away, and quickly. Drugs are the solution of choice. Drugs will make the observers of psychosis more comfortable because often the drugged person is quieter, more manageable. But drugs don’t cure psychosis. Never have. As a matter of fact, no psychiatrist has ever cured anyone of anything, with or without drugs.
But Aren’t Drugs Medicine?
Medicine is given when you have a verifable physical ailment such as a bacterial infection. Your physician takes a swab, a test, sees physical symptoms. They prescribe an antibiotic. The medicine is taken for ten days and the physical illness is cured. Psychiatric drugs are drugs. No blood tests are given, no physical tests taken before the prescription is written. Most often, not even a physical examination is given to rule out physical illness, hormonal problems, or other physical causes of the symptoms.
The general idea is that there is a kindly psychiatrist in a well-appointed office somewhere who is able to unlock the mystery, and in one dramatic moment the psychotic person realizes it was all in their childhood and becomes well. All thanks to modern drugs and the clever detective work of the psychiatrist, with or without a German accent.
In real life, a visit to a psychiatrist usually means a new prescription and a bill sent to your insurance. And when you are in the mental health system, the friendly chats and fancy offices are few and far between.
What is Psychosis?
There is a lot of confusion on the subject of psychosis, a lot of false information, and dramatic television shows. The fact is, while it is entertaining and sells soap for the sponsors, none of it is very helpful or factual.
The term “psychosis” comes from “psyche” (soul) and “-osis” (an abnormal or diseased condition). Sometimes we refer to the “psyche” as the mind or personality as well.
If it is the mind or personality or soul that is diseased, why are we drugging the body?
If it is the mind that is skewed, and the mind is the tool that can figure things out, then why are we drugging the body and clouding the mind?
Psychiatric drugs take away the very source of the psychotic person’s ability to rise above their own situation. That ability lies in their will, their inner strength, their certainty, your help, and their basic ability to fight back against what is affecting them. It is not simple or easy. And you and they will need every strength you have at your disposal to grapple with a mind that will not cooperate.
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