In most cases, other approaches have been tried first, but often they just don’t work. It’s well-established that there is strong heritable factor, based on studies of twins and siblings raised apart, and other similar study approaches. There’s a genetic factor, and even if there are also environmental factors (such as chemicals in the diet) that trigger the expression of the genetic problem, that doesn’t mean that changing the environmental factor after the fact will cause the disease to go away or get better.
It’s the same with schizophrenia (I have a schizophrenic half-sister). There’s definitely a genetic component, but strong evidence for a variety of environmental factors too, including prenatal ones. Example: There’s a significant statistical skew in the birth month of schizophrenics in teh Western world (as far as I know, that’s where the bulk of reliable data is from). No one has figured out why, but one theory is that certain common viral infections — maybe even the common cold — are more more prevalent at certain times of year, and that a fetus exposed to one of these infections at a certain point in development will have the genetic factors for schizophrenia triggered. There are people who try to avoid drugs in treating schizophrenia, and the results are ugly — the disease usually progresses faster and further when not treated with drugs, and some unmedicated schizophrenics are prone to sudden bursts of violence, that can result in innocent people get killed or maimed (often by schizophrenics who hadn’t shown violent tendencies before).
What’s so bad about drugs? They should be used when evidence suggests they’ll be helpful. Untreated mental illness is hardly free of ugly side effects, including murder and suicide. Just because drugs don’t always succeed in preventing these things, doesn’t mean they’re dangerous or useless.
My own mom is a perfect case. We could probably sue and perhaps we should just to hold the psychiatric profession accountable for the damage they do. None of us have the stomach to do it but it would probably be best if we did. The drugs robbed my mom of 30 years of her life and thousands and thousands of dollars.
Several months ago we started to wean her off the drugs and everyone who sees her now is shocked that this is the same miserable person they've seen for years.
I also know of a young man who was given every psychotropic drug they could find. He is now in prison and probably about 5 ft tall. These drugs stunt growth and if this youngster didn't have problems before they started on him, he certainly did afterward.
Almost all of these mass killers are on drugs.
Why do they warn about suicide being a side effect of these drugs? Why give them if they're going to cause suicide? It's irresponsible.