Finding the Right Medication: Let's See What Sticks

Borderline Personality disorder, like any other mental illness, is just that, an illness, and as such it requires specialized medical treatment. Unfortunately, that treatment still isn't an exact science, and what patients are left with is often a seemingly unending cycle of new medications to try. Almost a 'see what sticks' approach.

It gets old, fast.

Not only does it leave you feeling more like a guinea pig than an individual seeking treatment, the process can be long and arduous. From the insecurity of not knowing when you'll finally find the right medication, to the side effects each can cause, to the misunderstanding of friends and loved ones, it's a hard road that, unfortunately, psychiatric patients are forced to march down.

First, each patient responds to each medication differently and there is no one pill that cures depression, schizophrenia, or what have you. This means each patient starts with an essentially blank slate, medication wise, and that treatment must be evaluated and individually tailored to suite the patient. Also, treatment seldom involves just one medication, meaning that many combinations of multiple drugs must be tried and ruled out until the right one is found, seemingly more through trail and error and educated guesses than anything else.These medications often take a period of multiple weeks to begin to show effects, prolonging the process even further.

Then, there are the side effects each of these medications carries. Everything from blurred vision to seizures, or even the Black Labeled drugs, which can increase the symptoms of depression and suicidality. These side effects require the patient to be ever mindful of any changes in themselves and, if found, the patient must then evaluate whether given side effect is tolerable or not.

Even the most vigilant and compliant patient can get stuck in this cycle, as I myself am still going through, and it can take a tole both on the patient and those who cae about them. Often times, friends and family members don't truly understand the often lengthy process of finding the right medications or the nature of the difficulties involved, leading them to blame the patient themselves for not responding to the prescribed medications. Other times, it can lead a patient to become so frustrated that they give up on treatment entirely.

It is my hope in writing this that people will begin to understand that psychiatric treatment is, at best, a long process. There is still not much known about the nature or causality of these disorders and many advancements still needed in the way we treat the mentally ill. It's a slow process, much like treatment itself, but it is a process worth persevering through. Each step, each advancement, however small it may seem, brings of closer to the goal of better health and better treatment.