Psychiatrists rarely think about the impact of medication on anything other than brain chemicals

David Karp in his book Is it me or my meds?: Living with antidepressants talks about how one's view of oneself is at stake in taking antidepressants. In an earlier paper, he described the initial resistance to drug taking; negotiating the terms of treatment; adopting new rhetorics about the cause of depression, such as "chemical imbalance"; experiencing a conversion to medical realities; and becoming disenchanted with the value of medication for solving personal problems. Adopting the view that one suffers from a biochemically based emotional illness can be an identity-altering view of reality.