First of all, people, please stay on your medication. If you are having side effects, talk to your doctor about them. Don’t ever just go off your meds. You will survive, live, and prosper on your meds, not off them. However bad the side effects may be from the meds you are on, just know that psychosis, severe depression, and suicide are infinitely worse! So please stay on your meds and carry on a dialogue with your doctor. Ok, now you can read what I write about below.

There is a post on psychcentral.com called “Is Your Depression And Bipolar Medication Harming You?” (link: http://blogs.psychcentral.com/humor/2015/05/is-your-depression-and-bipolar-medication-is-harming-you/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook) In that post they say: “There are many valid reasons for not taking medication. There are many valid personal reasons that could be as simple as “I don’t want to take medication period!” All valid, it’s your personal choice to choose to be medicated or to use some other venue to maintain remission or balance without going delirious.  HOW YOU CHOOSE to stay well should be up to you/us.  We should have a say in what we believe our treatment should be… EVEN if that means not taking medication.”

Ummm, this is on psychcentral, where people go to get information about their mental illness. It is categorized under “Mental Health Humor.” Sorry, I don’t find this article in the least bit humorous, and along with the sick looking cartoons, one below, this article should never have been written or posted on psychcentral.com

Mental Health Humor and psychological disorder humor and cartoons by Chato Stewart

I felt it was just wrong that this was posted there so I left the following comment: “This is ridiculous! To give a person with bipolar disorder the advice to stop taking their medications, even if it is supposed to be humor, is absolutely criminal! A lot of bipolar patients don’t stay on their meds and get so sick that they have to be hospitalized. They go off their meds and have symptoms ranging from depression, mania, suicidal ideation, psychosis and even suicide. It is highly irresponsible to post this on a site such as Psychcentral.com, a site which is supposed to advocate fro the mentally ill and give them good information on mental illnesses. Shame on you.”