A message to all pill shamers

Before you shame people on their medication, think about why they need it. Why are you not on meds? You should be ashamed of yourself for not being on something. Why are you putting down those on meds? “Oye Loca!” is not a funny expression to hear over Christmas, really it isn’t. Keep your mouth shut. Don’t give me shit for taking medication. This phrase will be a t-shirt, “Don’t give me shit about my meds.” I am appalled by how many anti-medication morons seem to need a good verbal putting-in-their-place.

They do not stop to think that medication saves lives. It’s better than being suicidal, homicidal, or psychotic. Medication allows mentally ill people to function. I had extreme emotions in high school. I suffered from gut-wrenching fear. I barely slept. I spent the first 20 years of my life sleep-deprived. This is no way to live. What are you doing not on medication if you have similar problems? I have schizoaffective-bipolar 1 OCD. It means I will take meds my whole life. I’m on the schizophrenia spectrum, the bipolar spectrum and the OCD spectrum. For the people I knew in college, I was nowhere near the autism spectrum. I was testing in as a schizophrenic not a person with autism.

Schizophrenia and alcoholism run in my family. So does a whole lot of “denial is not just a river in Africa.” My dad refuses to wear a hearing aid despite the fact that he needs it, a hearing aid refuser, who would rather make his disability an inconvenience on everybody. I never wanted my disability to inconvenience anybody but in high school I was forced to go to school without medication. I spent four years being consistently denied medication. As a comedian if I have the balls to do an open mic night, I plan on applying public pressure on my parents to get medication, in particular, to make my dad wear his hearing aid.

I use an insulin pump for my diabetes, which is under control. You could say I do not qualify as disabled, hence my desire to write online and publish my work. Why do you anti-medication people shame those on meds? You sickos. Medication takes away the pain, freak shows. You have a screw loose when it comes to understanding western medicine with all your natural medicine nonsense cluttering your head. For that matter, I can’t fathom the anti-vaxxers who don’t take any vaccines. You want to die of measles, mumps and rubella? You really want to allow these illnesses, even polio, to make a regressive comeback? This is what happens when kids do not have vaccines.

Anti-vaxxers suck. Anti-medication people drive me crazy. When you invent other ways to treat mental illness, let me know. There really are few options in how to treat bipolar or schizophrenia. A huge symptom of schizophrenia is imagining everybody is out to get you or is talking badly about you. This is related to paranoia or feelings of paranoia. Schizophrenics are delusional all the time if they don’t take medication to control the delusions. Voices can be shut off with meds. Sometimes the voices tell a schizophrenic to kill oneself, or to do harm to somebody else.

So before you go thinking that medication is bad for people who take it, think about all the bad things schizophrenics have to deal with including being majorly lazy if the meds aren’t working enough to allow somebody on the schizophrenia spectrum to write, or be creative since many of us bipolars have an innate creativity going for us. Taking medication after all should be the next big thing since these days we schizophrenics have a lot of options. I want to make taking medication something even celebrities are willing to do. The fact is that some people in office actually need medication. This is why this person acts out the way he does. The coke can’t help either. Mentally ill people use drugs or caffeine or alcohol to self-medicate.

The pain of mental illness is intense. Mania cause a high mood which can quickly crash into a massive depression. You pill shamers think that you can bluster us pill consistent people into not taking our meds. You are the one who needs medication, hypocrite. The hypocrisy, I can’t stand the hypocrisy. How on earth do you survive not taking medication? Life is better without constant delusions. Or extreme mood swings that make you want to attack somebody. I’ve studied martial arts for 7 years, I currently have no rank and at least my medication reduces the chance I might act out. I really do not need a criminal record since companies hire ex-cons over disabled people.

Yes, I, schizophrenic, am looking for a job. You are stuck in a rock and a hard place because of stigma. I feel duty bound to tell my employer. Lying does you no good. Pretending you don’t have a disability is just as bad. Faking being normal cannot lead to good when I’m also a type 1 diabetic using infusion sets to stay alive, thanks. I have to tell somebody. What would suck more than me having an actual emergency (which rarely happens), and nobody knowing how to help me. I’m duty bound to get a good night’s sleep. I’m writing this article as a person who rarely knows what sleeping the whole night feels like; and well, I’m that person. Pediatric schizophrenia kicks in at 1 year old. The most obvious symptom is staying up late, being unable to sleep well. Of course, certain people can be dumb about medication treating a 1-year old like I was 35 years ago. Especially if schizoaffective runs in my family, and well, I know it does by now since I have read many books and understand my symptoms ever so much better since in high school I didn’t have access to self-help books. Don’t shame those of us who have medication as our treatment choice. Quit being all bluster and quit acting dumb about Western medicine. Medication helps. We can all remember, those of us on meds, how bad it was when we weren’t on it or had inadequate treatment because we lacked a concrete diagnosis from seeing the wrong sort of Western medicine psychiatrist. Please do yourselves a favor, quit preaching anti-medication, oh woe, it’s poison or petroleum like one jerk told me. I reserve the right to be an extremely rude person to those of us who medication shame. Or who scream at one while demanding help and acting out from mania because this person doesn’t take medication for both OCD and bipolar. Being around manic people endangers my health. So I avoid them. Quit shaming people on meds, grow up and take yours.