The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness

What’s it like to start on psychiatric medication? For me, it was akin to playing this board game.

It’s a game of trial and error

Perspective by
Lily contributor
September 22, 2019 at 9:30 a.m. EDT
(Gemma Correll/For The Washington Post)

When I was making this piece, I was switching from one medication to another. It was and still is an unpleasant few days full of uncertainty, random panic attacks and ill-advised Googling. It irritates me when people call antidepressants “happy pills” or infer that taking medication makes you weak, because starting on psychiatric medication is terrifying and full of unknowns. Instead, starting on medication is actually brave. It feels like playing an extremely unpredictable game with your own brain and the prize isn’t unnatural happiness but simply a feeling of normalcy.