Why do so many people resisit being medicated for mental health issues?

That was the question from Qoura. Answered by Nina Pitts, Pharm D Pharmacy University of Florida(2004) "People, in general, do not want to take "maintenance" medications. "Maintenance" medications have to be monitored at regular intervals and taken everyday for the rest of one's life. Most people are comfortable with taking an aspirin or acetominophen for an occasional headache or muscle ache either on a one-time basis or for a couple of days until the pain is gone or taking a course of antibiotics for an infection for 10-14 days. They see a beginning and an end. Medications for things like high blood pressure, diabetes or blood thinners, etc. aren't one-time things. They have to be taken everyday (or whatever the interval) and monitored regularly. There is no end. The same with drugs needed for mental health issues. Once a working regimen is found, the medications still have to be taken and monitored on a regular basis to see if it 's doing what it is supposed to do. A lot of patients with mental health issues will be doing great on their medication regimen, think that they are "cured" and then stop taking the medication. A lot of mental health medications also have some serious side-effects. For some, the medication(because of the side-effects) are worse than the disease.