Sunday, May 8 marked the end of Mental Health Week. During this thematic period, the emphasis was on the importance of empathy, so that we can “speak for real”.
Posted at 12:00 p.m.
As people who take or have taken mental health medication and who have started steps to reduce or stop it, we would like to be able to feel that we are “heard for real” about our questions and our specific needs in terms of link with the psychotropic drugs that are prescribed to us. There are taboos and prejudices that prevent us from having access to all the information necessary to make free and informed choices. In the same vein, we need support that takes us into account in all that we are, beyond mental health issues, which unfortunately rarely happens.
Since the fall of 2019, we have been training, with the support of the Regroupement des ressources alternatives en santé maladie du Québec (RRASMQ), a group of people who have experienced a reduction in or withdrawal from psychotropic medication with the aim of to help our peers overcome or avoid the many difficulties we have faced. Together, we see that we don’t talk enough about medication, especially the end of treatment, and the innumerable and lasting impacts of psychotropic drugs on our lives.
When it comes to mental health issues, medication is often the first – and sometimes the only – option available to us. However, these drugs come with their share of side effects that can be serious and serious, even, for some people, more inconvenient than the very reasons for which they were prescribed.
“Medication can be part of the options for taking care of your mental health. It can bring benefits. It also has risks and limitations that are not talked about enough or that are swept under the rug”1.
In addition, each person being the expert of his situation, it is up to him to choose whether all that means taking medication is appropriate for him or not. Because we may not want to take medicine all our lives, we want the barriers that limit our right to health to fall. Alternative solutions of all kinds exist, and contrary to what prejudice conveys, we are in the best position to decide what makes us feel good, while being suitably supported.
And beyond the effects felt, taking medication in mental health also comes with a lot of preconceived ideas and prejudices that affect us in many areas of our lives.
This aspect is all the more present when the time comes when we want to reduce or stop our medication, for all sorts of reasons. On this subject, we have a great desire to develop alliances respectful of the knowledge acquired through our experiences with the health professionals we work with so that we are better equipped in our decisions.
We have implemented some of the solutions by putting the We and Medication site online. We hope that it will make people talk about the issue it addresses. Knowing that the issue is important and that it calls for broader and collective action, the leadership of the Government of Quebec, but also that of the various professional orders of health and social services, are key elements in this process which will lead us to have real power over our situations. Because each person should be at the center of the decisions made concerning them, whether they have mental health issues or not.
* Co-signers: Anne-Marie Boucherresponsible for communications and co-responsible for socio-political action at the Regroupement des ressources alternatives en santéALE du Québec (RRASMQ); Diane Dupuiscoordinator at Action Autonomie, the collective for the defense of mental health rights in Montreal; Doris ProvencherExecutive Director of the Association of Mental Health Rights Advocacy Groups of Quebec (AGIDD-SMQ)