No Medication for Me: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
When a character takes medication for a mental illness, they might feel that something that made them unique is taken away. Alternatively, the side effects make them miserable. So the character (or sometimes a parent/guardian) decides to drop the [[Blessed with Suck]] meds to live life insane but alive. This can happen in [[Real Life]]; the medication can affect brain chemistry in ways that inhibit mental skills, as everybody reacts differently to different types of medication. But such a scenario should ''always'' be discussed with one's doctor (and a second opinion never hurts) rather than going cold turkey.
In
What's often intended as a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] instead becomes [[Television Is Trying to Kill Us]]. Doing this in [[Real Life]] can be harmful and possibly deadly from withdrawal symptoms (which can include suicidal tendencies in the case of mood stabilizers). Also, some symptoms of mental illnesses can only be successfully controlled through the use of medication. As stated above, there are multiple valid reasons for going off psychiatric medication, but it's always safer to discuss it with a mental health professional.
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== [[Fan Works]] ==
* In ''[http://www.angelfire.com/anime2/superhighway/Staik/staik.html The Tales of Ranma and Ranko]'' by Jack Staik and Lady Tesser, Ryouga turns out to need anti-psychotic medication, but has refused to take it because its effects prevent him from performing his signature [[Ki Attacks|Ki Attack]]. ([[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|And because it gives him heartburn.]]) Once his father ensures that he takes his meds properly, Ryouga calms down considerably, gets in a relationship with one of Ranma's former fiancees, and becomes a valued friend and ally to Ranma.
* In [[Real Person Fic]], ''[https://archiveofourown.org/works/21828973/chapters/52145371 Just Taken]'', [[Spice Girls|Melanie]] requests not to receive pain medication. While this was respected in the first hospital, this was rejected at the other she found herself thanks to being sectioned under the Mental Health Act. Melanie isn't happy about being forced to take medication, even her dad, Alan, pleads with her to listen to [[Doctor's Orders]].
== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[Garden State]]'' is something of a subversion, since its made clear he never really needed the medication in the first place. His father acted as his psychiatrist (which the film [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] as very bad practice) and reacted quite emotionally to him {{spoiler|pushing his depressed mother in a childish outburst just as the dishwasher door accidentally opened, which caused her to fall over and become paraplegic}}. The fact that the father was unwilling to accept it as a freak accident caused him to conclude his son had intense emotional problems; hence the unnecessary medication.
* In ''[[A Beautiful Mind]]'' (itself ostensibly based on John Nash's life), his anti-psychotic medication impairs his mathematical ability. Because of this, he ends up dropping it so he can continue his career. This is also subverted
* Played rather disturbingly in ''[[Observe and Report]].''
* Lampshaded/played
* A rare [[Subverted Trope|subversion]] in ''[[As Good as It Gets]]'': Obsessive-compulsive Melvin starts taking medication for his disorder because [[Love Interest]] Carol [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|makes him want to be a better man.]]
{{quote|"I've got this, what--ailment? My doctor, a shrink that I used to go to all the time, he says that in fifty or sixty percent of the cases, a pill really helps. I ''hate'' pills, very dangerous
* Played straight in ''[[What the Bleep Do We Know]]'', when the main character tosses away her anti-anxiety medication after she starts feeling good about herself.
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* In [[Isaac Asimov]]'s short story "Light Verse", a robot that is malfunctioning is the creator of light sculptures. When its unique problem is "fixed", it can't create anymore. The robot's owner murders the scientist who fixed it, but it's noted that the victim (who has just realized that he's singlehandedly cut off what could have been a fruitful avenue of robotics research) utterly—perhaps ''intentionally''—fails to defend himself.
* In ''The Phoenix Dance'', Phoenix is bipolar and becomes incredibly creative in her "up" moods, so she starts taking less of her medicine to keep the good moods. Unfortunately, this just means that her bouts of depression come back, too.
* In ''[[One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest]]'' it is mentioned that the anti-seizure medication causes your teeth to fall out, which is a good reason why some of the patients don't want to take it. One gets the unfortunate side effect mentioned above
* Serge Storms, the protagonist of the ''Florida Roadkill'' novels, is supposed to be on quite a lot of
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** The episode "Haunted" is about a man who went off his antipsychotic meds (with the approval of his psychiatrist) in order to access repressed childhood memories. These memories end up being ''much'' worse than anyone had imagined, causing him to snap and go on a killing spree.
* The reason Billy goes off his meds in ''[[Six Feet Under]]''.
* This is one of ''[[House]]'' reasons to stop taking the Methadone, which cured his pain in the leg better than Vicodine, but he also felt that the lack of pain affected his deducting abilities. He uses the same argument in the first episodes of Season Six when Dr. Nolan insists
** In the episode "No More Mr. Nice Guy" occurs a little variation of this trope: House employees test a sample of his blood without his consent and discover that he has neurosyphilis. They assume that the effect of the disease in his brain is the reason House is such a huge jerk. They prescribe him with a medication. Suddenly he starts acting a little nicer. All the employees then start asking themselves whether they did the right thing or if he is going to lose what makes him so unique. {{spoiler|In the end of the episode it was all a prank of House, of course}}
{{quote|'''Kutner:''' We gave Van Gogh chelation therapy. Turned him into a house painter.
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== [[Theatre]] ==
* Diana from ''[[Next to Normal]]'' insists on this multiple times, most notably in "Didn't I See This Movie?", after her doctor recommends
* Rebecca and Sara in ''[[Code 21]]'' feel this way, with good reason.
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== [[Web Comics]] ==
* In ''[[A Miracle of Science]]'', Manny underdoses his anti-[[Science-Related Memetic Disorder]] medication due to it making thinking harder
* Tragically subverted in [[Goblin Hollow]] [https://web.archive.org/web/20120522002539/http://www.rhjunior.com/GH/00352.html here]
* In ''[[The Last Days of Foxhound]]'', Ocelot throws away his medication for [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder]] just before finally beginning the series of betrayals he's been plotting for years.
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== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''[[The Simpsons]]'' had one where Bart takes "Focusyn" to combat ADHD, and it makes him wicked paranoid. Major League Baseball is out to get us! Turns out...Major League Baseball ''was'' out to get us. Not quite a [[Broken Aesop]], not quite a [[Rule-Abiding Rebel]], [[Rule of Funny|just another Simpsons plot with no actual point.]]
* In ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'', Flash villain The Trickster isn't actually a bad sort, but only taking his medication "when he's down" means he's also open to the delusions that make him go out and commit crimes. At the time Flash confronts him, both over the medication and to find out information, he isn't even aware he's in costume until it's pointed out to him. Said scene was an in-joke of sorts to the dramatic difference between the short-lived live
* In one episode of ''[[King of the Hill]]'', Bobby is (apparently mis-) diagnosed with ADD, and abandoning the medication is seen as good. In another, however, Kahn goes off his manic-depression meds and despite his mania practically being a [[Disability Superpower]], it's soon apparent that he ''really needed'' those pills.
== [[Real Life]] ==
* Check out ''The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat'' by Oliver Sacks for a few good examples, particularly the chapter on "Witty Ticcy Ray". A Tourette's-syndrome patient, Ray needs medication to function in society, but when he takes it he loses all his coordination and artistic skill—which is lethal to his hobbies of painting and jazz drumming. Eventually, he compromised and took it only during the week. (There was also kind of an inverted example, where after a night of heavy drug use, a man awoke with a greatly heightened sense of smell.)
* Some psychiatrists will only prescribe medication as a last resort if nothing else is having any success or doing its full job because meds, as awesome as they can be for restoring full cognitive function, also have great potential for causing permanent brain damage as well as having other negative side effects, as detailed many times before on this page. Even without the numerous side effects, many people really hate being dependent on pills for control of their own bodies and minds.
* It's actually not uncommon for people with ADHD to forgo medication, instead opting to learn coping skills. The main reason, however, is not the lack of creativity but the lack of energy- some ADHD medications put people into "zombie mode" where they're almost constantly fatigued and lethargic. Even worse is that when kids' grades start slipping again, ''they're put on higher doses.''
** People with Tourette Syndrome also have
* In regard to some mental illnesses, maintenance psychiatric medication actually can or even should be a secondary option considered after others have failed.
** Some cases of depression, especially mild to moderate depression, and even some major cases. Talk therapy and lifestyle modifications have a better
** Mild ADD/ADHD especially in very young children and in adults. In this case, the issue is a risk of harm versus the risk of reward. In very young children, ADD/ADHD can be easily misdiagnosed and one side effect is stunted growth. In adults,
** PTSD and complicated grief are the saddest cases of this. Due to their origin as traumatic life experiences as opposed to being from brain chemistry, they are incredibly difficult conditions to deal with using existing medications - with some sufferers, even ''self-medication'' is more effective than existing psychiatric medications (because neither, unless depression is comorbid, have much to do with serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine - the neurotransmitters existing meds work with the most). In fact, some medications may provide a temptation for abuse much as self-medication would, or a quick and available means of suicide. Survivors often do better, [[Earn Your Happy Ending|if they do]], with time, talk therapy, supportive environments, and learning coping strategies to deal with [[Trigger/Analysis|triggers]] and painful memories. One of the few effective drugs trialed for PTSD to date is a psychedelic used to enhance talk therapy sessions or make environments feel more supportive than they are.
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