Taking an antipsychotic can be difficult due to the cultural stigma about serious mental illness, psychosis, and the actual drugs themselves. It was so complicated for me to accept using an antipsychotic, where the fear of taking a stigmatized medicine impacted my course of treatment and overall health outcome. I fell into powerful traps and pitfalls common among patients with severe mental illness as regards to taking an antipsychotic.
So let’s debunk these common myths that hinder treatment and positive health outcomes.
Myth 1: Only if I take an antipsychotic does it mean I have a serious mental illness.
I thought that if I didn’t take an antipsychotic, then I could avoid having an embarrassing problem. In other words, I am only sick if I take this medicine. However, not taking the medication doesn’t make the symptoms of mental illness go away. We don’t think like this for heart disease. People with heart disease don’t believe that the symptoms will go away on their own if they don’t take medicine. Such thinking would have life-threatening consequences.
Stigma produces reversed logic with antipsychotics. Using an antipsychotic seems to say something about you as a person versus a medical condition. Instead of treating a medical condition with medicine, the challenge is to fix ourselves on our terms without medication. If we are successful, then nothing is really wrong and flawed about us after all. I should have understood that only if I had a serious mental illness would I be prescribed an antipsychotic.
Myth 2: My life is over if I go on an antipsychotic.
I thought my life would be over if I took an antipsychotic. I complied with treatment for many years, but I was hard on myself and lived in fear of anyone finding out about my big secret. I judged myself for taking an antipsychotic and ended up going off the drug prematurely out of these feelings, which led to a relapse. What I now know in retrospect is that instead of my life being over if I take an antipsychotic, the truth is that my life is only over if I don’t take an antipsychotic.
I thought I couldn’t be part of a romantic relationship if I took an antipsychotic. Still, the great reality is I could not start that life relationship until I took an antipsychotic. While disclosing my health history and what medicine I take to my partner was scary, disclosure became essential to building a trusting and supportive relationship.
Because of stigma, a professional suggesting antipsychotics can sound like a threat or a judgment rather than a positive, lifesaving answer. Antipsychotics, while not perfect, helped save my life and provide a foundation for the future I have always wanted. They are just like any other lifesaving medicine.
Myth 3: Only if I take an antipsychotic do I face a stigmatized diagnosis.
Receiving a stigmatized diagnosis can feel condemning and like a judgment – I’ve been there. Receiving a diagnosis like schizophrenia can feel like your life is over, and no one will want you because of stigma. Because of this fear and feelings of being defined by what is considered an extremely negative word in our society, we avoid treatment; we avoid facing the issue altogether, like hesitating to go to a psychiatrist, because taking an antipsychotic seems like just one more step towards being judged as a person.
The fact is, you can’t change reality by not addressing it. Your illness won’t go away by not treating it. For example, if you have a heart attack, you most likely cannot save your life without going to the hospital. You could have another heart attack if you don’t seek treatment, change your lifestyle, and perhaps take medicine. Psychosis is no different.
Myth 4: If I take an antipsychotic, then something is fundamentally wrong with me as a human being.
Stigma makes your drug not just a medicine for medical conditions but a confirmation or proof that there is something flawed or wrong with you as a human being. It is, therefore, easy to think antipsychotics are the proof you have a severe mental illness instead of serious mental illness symptoms being proof to you that you need an antipsychotic.
Because taking an antipsychotic proves to some people that you have a big red flag, it is easy to view your illness through the eyes of others instead of through your own. Only when you look at your disease through your perspective and sense of compassion for yourself can you act reasonably based on what you know about yourself, your situation, and what is suitable for you. The other truth is that we often make essential health decisions based only on what we think other people might think when that perception may not even be accurate.
Have Compassion for Yourself and Do What’s Best for You
I have been stable for a decade while taking a maintenance dose of an antipsychotic each day. In this decade, I have married, I have a child, a career, and I am thriving. The truth is, the rest of my life could not begin until I was consistently taking an antipsychotic. And I learned my lesson—I am taking antipsychotics indefinitely.
The antipsychotic I take is my safety net and an insurance policy that helps comfort and assure me that I probably don’t have to suffer through psychosis again. I have chosen to see my illness through my eyes instead of others’ and make reasonable choices based on what is best for me.
Forget stigma and have compassion for yourself. Let that compassion guide you.
A version of this blog was originally published on the NAMI Blog.
Original article featured in Psychology Today | August 3, 2023. Image credit: Alex Green / Pexels