In our joint paper, Zsuzsanna Chappell and I quote an autobiographical piece by Tom Todd, a Scotsman who was forcibly medicated under the mental health act for quite a long time. He suffered such horrendous side effects that he thought life wasn't worth living on meds. He argued that he'd rather be unmedicated, try his be…
In our joint paper, Zsuzsanna Chappell and I quote an autobiographical piece by Tom Todd, a Scotsman who was forcibly medicated under the mental health act for quite a long time. He suffered such horrendous side effects that he thought life wasn't worth living on meds. He argued that he'd rather be unmedicated, try his best to prevent relapse by alternative strategies, and if he still relapsed, he could be hospitalized and medicated for a while until he stabilized again and then once again taper off. Better to have the occasional relapse and hospitalization than 24/7 horrible suffering forever. Yet he pleaded in vain, the mental health tribunal insisted that he's better off on meds than off them, because what if he relapses?
It took QUITE SOME TIME before he found a psychiatrist who agreed and said yeah, sure, this is a rational decision on your part, and supported him so he could get off meds. (After our article was published he actually reached out to us and he's doing quite well now.)
Extreme example:
In our joint paper, Zsuzsanna Chappell and I quote an autobiographical piece by Tom Todd, a Scotsman who was forcibly medicated under the mental health act for quite a long time. He suffered such horrendous side effects that he thought life wasn't worth living on meds. He argued that he'd rather be unmedicated, try his best to prevent relapse by alternative strategies, and if he still relapsed, he could be hospitalized and medicated for a while until he stabilized again and then once again taper off. Better to have the occasional relapse and hospitalization than 24/7 horrible suffering forever. Yet he pleaded in vain, the mental health tribunal insisted that he's better off on meds than off them, because what if he relapses?
It took QUITE SOME TIME before he found a psychiatrist who agreed and said yeah, sure, this is a rational decision on your part, and supported him so he could get off meds. (After our article was published he actually reached out to us and he's doing quite well now.)