To my friends out there who’ve been psychiatrically diagnosed and subsequently medicated, who’ve gone on to realize the story of “mental illness needing life-long pharmaceutical treatment” isn’t for you, who’ve decided to come off your meds and leave behind those labels, and who’ve then been told by those with professional degrees who’ve never been psychiatrically diagnosed or medicated themselves that your struggles in withdrawal are in your head, or a sign that you’re not strong enough, or a manifestation of chosen victimhood, or a “relapse” of “mental illness,” I want to say this:
You are the only person in the entire world who has the right and the ability to define your internal truth. There is no one else– no matter the letters after their name, the prestigious institutions in which they’ve studied, the articulateness with which they speak their words, the platform upon which they stand– who has that right, or the power to decide for you what your pain means, and whether it’s valid, and what you should do about it.
I must add this, as well: there is no way– NO WAY– to come anywhere close to grasping the depth and intensity and profundity and duration of the pain caused by taking and coming off psychiatric drugs unless you have taken and come off them, yourself.
Never let anyone try to convince you otherwise.
Brothers and sisters, trust your inner compass. There is no one out there who knows better than you do, yourself, what your pain means, what you need to do in response to it, or who you are.
❤ and ✊
GreatCosmicMothersUnite 