is it a cop out to medicate?

[Brittany]

All I can say is that medication never helped me with any of my mental distortions. I think there are a LOT of people taking medications just to dull out their problems when they need to be balancing and healing them. However, there are some people who are seriously ill, who will hurt themselves or others if left to their own devices. In some cases, medications have allowed people to live fairly normal lives when otherwise they would either be in jail or in a mental hospital...or dead. And when it comes to physical problems...if I had some horrible disease and there was a pill that would cure it with no adverse side effects, I would take the pill. God helps those who help themselves, you know? However, I am not going to pop pills every time I get vaguely depressed, or I have excess energy, or my thoughts don't quite follow the mainstream definition of "normal". I have an infinite number of other outlets for those issues that do not involve putting chemicals into my body that will stay there for a a long, long time.