To medicate our psychological distress (or not). An Essential Inquiry

Journal title RIVISTA SPERIMENTALE DI FRENIATRIA
Author/s
Publishing Year 2016 Issue 2016/2
Language English Pages 14 P. 65-78 File size 200 KB
DOI 10.3280/RSF2016-002005
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The use of psychotropic medication has tended to be either demonized as a major hindrance to people’s recovery or exalted as being the change agent of people’s lives. Recovery is not marked by whether a person takes medication as prescribed, or not. The personal work required in mastering the impacts of mental illness/distress is active and demands meaning making. The use of psychotropic medication is much more about understanding its role, surfacing shared expectations, noting its limitations and considering it as being only one of many strategies available to assist in the work of overcoming the impacts of mental illness/distress. The following article draws from the poem, "The Advertisement", penned by Wislawa Szymborska, and through the author’s personal reflection, highlights the role that psychotropic medication can play in people’s recovery. It offers a practical inquiry to engage in deeper conversations about how medication can be utilized in a personal recovery process, or not, for both those that prescribe and those that utilize medication.

Keywords: Psychotropic medication utilization, recovery, resilience, personal inquiry.

  1. [1] Szymborska W. Advertisement. Poems New and Selected. Copyright © 1998 by Wislawa Szymborska. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Source: Poems New and Collected (Harcourt Inc., 1998).
  2. [2] Maslow A. Motivation and Personality. New York: Harper; 1954.
  3. [3] McClelland D. Human Motivation. New York: Cambridge University Press; 1988.
  4. [4] Rosenberg M. Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Compassion (8th Printing ed.). California: PuddleDancer Press; 2002.

, To medicate our psychological distress (or not). An Essential Inquiry in "RIVISTA SPERIMENTALE DI FRENIATRIA" 2/2016, pp 65-78, DOI: 10.3280/RSF2016-002005