One of the things that makes poor mental health so hard to address is stigma. There is stigma surrounding depression, anxiety, suicide, addiction, eating disorders, just about anything that can be classified as a mental health problem can be made more difficult with the added stress of external and internal judgement. And this is just the issues themselves. Another problem is that one of the main ways we have to treat a mental health diagnoses is psychiatric medication, but the idea of being medicated for a mental health problem is so heavily stigmatised that many people will do anything to avoid it, even if it might be the best option for them. Now, I am one of those people who will only take pain killers as a last resort and I always have been. I don’t like not knowing how much pain I am actually in, which sounds like a weird relationship to have with pain, but I think a lot of people feel this way. This and the fact that I was quite young when first offered them, plus the stigma surrounding “crazy-pills”, is why I didn’t start taking anti-depressants until a few years ago when my depression got uncontrollable. I couldn’t work, socialise, often couldn’t shower or even get out of bed, and I was at breaking point. I would try anything and everything to make that feeling go away. And anti-depressants helped. It took time, and a bit of experimentation with different types, but now I am in a much better place. Medication isn’t the be all and end all of mental health remedies, and it doesn’t necessarily work for everyone, but it is so important to shatter the stigma surrounding psychiatric medication so that it is more accessible to those who need it. In the same way that stigma surrounding depression might stop someone seeking help, the stigma surrounding medication might well stop someone accepting the treatment that will help them most. If you broke your leg and a doctor offered a cast as a form of recovery from the injury, having had the method tried and tested many times over, you wouldn’t think twice about accepting the remedy. Why then, when antipsychotics are also tried and tested remedies for a specific medical need, do we have such trouble accepting them as a treatment? And why do those who take these sort of medications feel the need to keep them secret, ashamed to say that they take a daily pill for a problem that they didn’t ask for. There are many different types of antipsychotic medications; anti-depressants, betablockers, anti-psychotics, mood stabilisers, and there is lots of information online about all of them. Mind’s website has particularly useful set of resources that help to explain the differences between all these types of medications, what they do and how they work. Check out their website here for all their info. It can also be particularly useful for those supporting anyone on antipsychotics to read about them from website like this, rather than just skimming the ‘possible side-effects’ on the medication instructions (which don’t really tell you what the medications does, just the scary things that it could result in). Taking tablets for your mental health is nothing to be ashamed of, and nothing to hide from - if it helps, it helps. The problem is not you and the way that you deal with your illness, the problem is the stigma and the taboos that, over time, we will shatter. Silent Faces return to VAULT Festival from 27 Feb - 3 March with A Clown Show About Rain, a dazzling physical comedy about the complexities of understanding and dealing with mental health.
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