Your feedback is essential to the psychiatrist.  In the beginning patients want to be “fixed.”  They want the medication the doctor prescribes to solve everything.  You have to take an active role in your treatment.

Question everything the physician does, every medication you are put on.  After all, it is your body you are putting the medication in.  Learn what to expect, with every medication adjustment.

Learn what a therapeutic level is.  How long it takes to get there, what changes to expect.  Learn the side effects of each medication you are on, whether you can live with them.

Learn, also, what changes will occur in you body and mind, when to determine whether the medication is, truly, helping you.

You are not a passive participant.  The doctor can not prescribe medications properly without your accurate feedback.

Know the time frame of each medication, how long you have to wait before it works properly, if at all.

The medication is only an aid.  You still have to help yourself.  The medication does not work properly if you do not take care of yourself:  that means eating correctly and sleeping enough regularly.

You have to know if the doctor is listening to you.  Don’t be afraid to change doctors if they are not.  I have fired a few in my time.  This is harder to do if you are going to a mental health center but it can be done.

Learn everything you can about every medication before you take it so you know what to expect.  Your feedback is essential to the doctor.  He can not do his job properly without it.

An open letter to an young adult struggling with mental illness:

I am sorry you had to spend New Year’s in an hospital.  I pray you get the help you need in the hospital (and when you get out).  You hardly eating for several days did not help.  Medications can do strange things if you are not eating properly.

Unfortunately when you get diagnosed mentally ill and exhibit aberrant behavior like paranoia and psychosis others simply say you are “mentally ill” when the very drugs you are taking may be causing you those symptoms.  I can’t say for sure.

I still don’t think you are on the right medication.  You did well on one drug but it had an unfortunate side effect.  It is very difficult taking medication because you have to admit you have a problem.  After all these years I still don’t like I take medication.

I urge you not to go back to your parents.  It is not good for you.  Everything centers around a job.  You may not get there immediately.  Your independence.  Your residence.  Your ability to choose your own doctor.  Everything.  It is up to you.  You have to take more responsibility for your life.  It does not happen overnight.

You have to find a regiment of medication that helps you.  It is just an aid–no more.  You still have to help yourself.  When you become stable again please look for work.  Don’t expect others to take care of you.  You still have to take responsibility for your life.  The more you do so, the better you will feel about yourself.

Love

From one who went through it and wants to make the journey for another a little easier.