Pros and Cons of Psychiatric Medication

On a daily basis, people who are in a crisis have an interesting dilema - do they take psychiatric medication or control their symptoms through alternative methods. This is a major issue for people who are psychotic and don't trust medication, people, or even themselves. Plus the voices in their head are screaming at them to get away and never return!!!

If you had a choice would you take medication never taking it before? How do we avoid the use of medication anyway? Well if you had the perfect diet, used the perfect nutritional and/or herbal suppliments, had eight hours of restful and energizing sleep, and kept this routine everyday - this would lower your need for medication if you were on the cusp. For many with debilitating anxiety, depression, mood swings, and psychosis medication is the only alternative.

Many people believe on the other hand believe medication is the only way to treat mental illness. These people laugh at counseling, think working through emotional scars of the past is something ridiculous! Why open up old wounds when they are neatly covered up by psychiatric medication? But are they? Do you yell at the kids? Kick the dog? Do you get into road rage? Monks are well known abusers of their students. If we don't pay attention to our core issues, they have a way of gaining our attention through interesting means.


For optimum mental health, we recommend a multilayered approach that addresses the Physical, Mental, Emotional, and Spiritual aspects.

Physical: Take suppliments, exercise, get adequate sleep/rest
Mental: Turn negatives into positives. As Monty Python would say: "Look at the Bright side of life.
Emotional: Address core issues with gentleness and compassion.
Spiritual: Nurture a bond with the God of your understanding.

If you had a heart ailment, wouldn't you take heart medicine? Diabetics have to take insulin on a daily basis. Mental illness is often a brain ailment that can only be stablized with proper medication. The key is having a psychiatric evaluation to see if you need medication in the first place. If therapy is recommended you may want to try that route first. If you are debilitated and need a little bit of a jump start, Psychiatric medication may be the first step towards symptom relief.