We’ve all heard of them, or at least some of them: Paxil, Zoloft, Effexor. And the most suspect culprit of them all: Prozac. Like a roll call of lieutenants on a starship, they file into our minds carrying a string of preconceived, and often inaccurate, ideas of what antidepressant means.

When I was first diagnosed with bipolar disorder and generalized anxiety disorder, medication was the last thing I wanted to take. The major reason was the stigma that accompanied (and still accompanies) it. Choosing not to take psychiatric medication for me, and a lot of other people, was based on misunderstandings that never got explored or corrected. Not until very late in the game. Once those erroneous ideas were addressed, I was willing to try them.

A doctor glibly explained when I was refusing (bad patient!) to take my prescribed antidepressant that "It’s just like taking insulin for diabetes." Uh. No, it’s not. We don’t think insulin is a crutch for diabetes. But we think medication for a psychiatric condition is.

Psychiatrist Ron Remick, medical director at the Mood Disorders Association of BC, describes what’s called "pharmacological Calvinism": the disapproving attitude that taking medication is a moral issue, not a medical one. “Some people,” he explains, “incorrectly believe psychiatric medications are an easy way out. Instead of pills, they believe people should get to the root of the problem. Meaning uprooting a personality problem or weak temperament.”

I’d never heard of pharmacological Calvinism, but I was a classic example of its impact. For five years, I didn’t take meds. Why? I believed I needed to work harder, do better. I needed to do more........

© Psychology Today