Medication is often necessary, especially at the start of a mental illness but its important to realise that medication is not a cure just support and you should be prepared to stop taking it as soon as you feel able. Some medications are addictive and can be extremely difficult to come off and sometimes the side effects can seem worse than the illness. A further problem is that there is a large range of drugs available for each illness but every body is different and not suited to some drugs, so its a bit of a lottery. Added to which it takes a couple of weeks to get into your system and if you don't get on with it, another 2 weeks to get it out of your system before you can try something else. In the meantime you are probably going through hell. Inform your GP if you are on a prescibed drug but want to come off it as there could be bad withdrawal effects.

Its important to know as much as you can about what your prescribed drugs are and what affects they can have on you. If you click on the following website address you should be able to get all the information you require.

              http://health.yahoo.com/drug

Always read the leaflet that you get with the medication and take it as prescribed.

Alchohol should be avoided when taking most medications as it can interfere with the effectiveness of the medication and even cause further problems. In any case after a couple of drinks alcohol becomes a depressant.

Its also important to keep your GP informed on all the medications that you are taking as some drugs don't mix and can cause problems .