History Main / MedicateTheMedium

* ''Film/ShallWePlay'': [[TheCassandra No one believes Stacy is [[ISeeDeadPeople actually seeing spirits]]. It results in her receiving medication for this, while having been held in a psychiatric ward. However, her being [[DemonicPossession possessed by spirits]] that make her act in erratic, violent ways also led to this (but of course that just gets seen as another symptom).

* In a more mundane variation of this, the history of insanity as a whole trends towards medicalizing what was once thought to be some kind of "sacred madness". For more details see Michel Foucault's highly influential (if controversial) [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madness_and_Civilization Madness and Civilization]], a complete study on how "the madman" was once part of society and slowly went from often being seen as a herald of incomprehensible, divine wisdom to someone that should be medicated.

* In a more mundane variation of this, the history of insanity as a whole trends towards medicalizing what was once thought to be some kind of "sacred madness". For more details see Michel Foucault's highly influential (if controversial) [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madness_and_Civilization Madness and Civilization]], a complete study on how "the madman" was once part of society and slowly went from often being seen as a herald of incomprehensible, divine wisdom to someone that shoud be medicated.

!!Examples

* It doesn't deal directly with spirits, but Fujino Asagami of ''Literature/TheGardenOfSinners'' was medicated since she was a small child to seal her psychic power to bend things, which had the side effect of making her [[FeelNoPain unable to feel pain]]. When she starts getting her sense of pain back in fits it also unlocks her powers and then you understand ''why'' they were sealed in the first place when she goes after a gang that sexually abused her and bloodily rips them apart.

* ''ComicBook/AndersonPsiDivision'': On what would later become Deadworld, having dreams was derided, because to become an adult one must learn to crush their dreams. Children with psi-abilities were locked up and sedated.

* In ''Film/DarkShadows'', the little boy, David, sees his mother's ghost, has a personal psychiatrist living in the house, and could be on meds. These measures help none. Victoria had it worse: she sees [[spoiler: her earlier incarnation]] and was abandoned by her parents on the grounds of being too embarrassing to keep, and thrown into a barbaric mental asylum with featureless, padded rooms, habitual straitjacketing and nasty treatments. And they helped none.
* ''Film/TheSixthSense'': Malcolm is a child psychologist who takes it upon himself to treat Cole, who's thought to suffer from hallucinations. As it turns out, ghosts are real and Cole has the ability to see them. Malcolm realizes this and advises Cole to help the ghosts solve their [[UnfinishedBusiness problems]].

* Implied in ''Film/Malevolent2018'', as Jackson is seen popping pills during the film, before he's shown to sometimes see the same ghosts as Angela.

* Discussed in C.S. Lewis's ''Literature/ThatHideousStrength'', as Jane has PsychicPowers, giving her DreamSpying and some degree of DreamingOfThingsToCome. When she's first told that she has these powers by doctor Grace Ironwood, Jane replies that she doesn't believe in that kind of thing, and that she thinks her dreams belie a troubled subconscious. Along those lines of thought, she suggests she should go to a plain old psychiatrist, but Dr. Ironwood warns her that the psychiatrist might give her strong medications with severe side effects, and that those meds wouldn't get rid of her dreams in any case.

* Played with in ''VideoGame/GuiltyGearXX''. Zappa seeks out the help of the miracle doctor Faust, believing himself to be suffering from a mysterious illness. However, his condition is actually the result of [[ManySpiritsInsideOfOne being possessed by seven different ghosts]] and that he just doesn't remember his possessions. Faust informs him that he cannot be cured as his condition is not physical in nature.

* It doesn't deal directly with spirits, but Fujino Asagami of ''LightNovel/TheGardenOfSinners'' was medicated since she was a small child to seal her psychic power to bend things, which had the side effect of making her [[FeelNoPain unable to feel pain]]. When she starts getting her sense of pain back in fits it also unlocks her powers and then you understand ''why'' they were sealed in the first place when she goes after a gang that sexually abused her and bloodily rips them apart.

%%* The setup of ''Film/TheSixthSense''.%%Administrivia/ZeroContextExample

In RealLife, when somebody keeps seeing ghosts or other apparitions against their will, it is generally a symptom of psychosis or a neurological disorder, and best dealt with by identifying which it is and treating them for it.[[note]]If you say so, muggle.[[/note]]

In fictional media involving the supernatural, however, this may run into the snag that the patient may just be [[ISeeDeadPeople seeing real ghosts and spirits]]. In this case, antipsychotic medication isn't likely to help. Mix in a generous helping of the {{Masquerade}}, and the most likely result is that, in absence of an actual medical condition, the patient will be put on increasingly stronger medication. If they are lucky, the drugs will dull their sensitivity. If they are not, they will be institutionalized, to be tormented by the side effects of their medication and the apparitions. Worst case scenario: the therapists are completely aware of the supernatural and either believe TheWorldIsNotReady or are part of a conspiracy opposed by (or to) psychics.

A possible fate of {{Psychic Children}} under the care of MuggleFosterParents, and a consequence of the fact that AllTherapistsAreMuggles.

[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]
* ''Film/{{Constantine}}'': The title character and Isabel and Angela Dodson all first displayed their psychic abilities as children. Unfortunately, these abilities helped them to see the half-demons infesting the Earth, resulting in one of them being forced to undergo psychiatric treatment and later committing suicide.

* The setup of ''Film/{{The Sixth Sense}}''.

* On ''Series/{{Millennium}}'' Frank takes part in a drug trial that he thinks may suppress visions like his own. Not for himself, but for his daughter Jordan. It doesn't work out, but the trouble he gets into does [[MinorCrimeRevealsMajorPlot bring some things to light]].

In RealLife, when somebody keeps seeing ghosts or other apparitions against their will, it is generally a symptom of psychosis or a neurological disorder, and best dealt by identifying which it is and treating them for it.[[note]]If you say so, muggle.[[/note]]

* Invoked by Klaus in ''Series/TheUmbrellaAcademy''. Sir Reginald locked Klaus for hours in a crypt as a child in an effort to train his power to commune with the dead, traumatizing him. To cope, Klaus began getting high to suppress his powers, and apparently hadn't been sober since he was a teenager. Once he was forcibly separated from his supply [[spoiler:due to being kidnapped by Hazel and Cha Cha]], he was finally able to see ghosts again and develop his powers further.

In RealLife, when somebody keeps seeing ghosts or other apparitions against their will, it is generally a symptom of psychosis or a neurological disorder, and best dealt by identifying which it is and treating them for it.

** In the episode "Normal, Again" Buffy is almost convinced that the entire Slayer world she is living in is actually her delusion. The episode leaves open the possibility that this is actually true (and, by extension, ''{{Series/Angel}}'' as well).

In TV-land or in other media involving the supernatural, however, this may run into the snag that the patient may just be [[ISeeDeadPeople seeing real ghosts and spirits]]. In this case, antipsychotic medication isn't likely to help. Mix in a generous helping of the {{Masquerade}}, and the most likely result is that, in absence of an actual medical condition, the patient will be put on increasingly stronger medication. If they are lucky, the drugs will dull their sensitivity. If they are not, they will be institutionalized, to be tormented by the side effects of their medication and the apparitions. Worst case scenario: the therapists are completely aware of the supernatural and either believe TheWorldIsNotReady or are part of a conspiracy opposed by (or to) psychics.

* It doesn't deal directly with spirits, but Fujino Asagami of ''LightNovel/KaraNoKyoukai'' was medicated since she was a small child to seal her psychic power to bend things, which had the side effect of making her [[FeelNoPain unable to feel pain]]. When she starts getting her sense of pain back in fits it also unlocks her powers and then you understand ''why'' they were sealed in the first place when she goes after a gang that sexually abused her and bloodily rips them apart.

* ''FanFic/{{Bird}}'': Many patients at Alchemilla are not actually insane, and are medicated to deal with dangerous, indiscriminate, or uncontrolled powers. It's repeatedly lampshaded that one of the reasons some parahumans are difficult to control is because their brain chemistry can differ from baseline humans, thus reducing the effectiveness of medication.

* ''Franchise/{{Touhou}}'''s supplementary material has the case of Maribel Hearn, a character from side stories set TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture who has the ability to see the boundaries between worlds, and eventually cross them. When she visits a hospital to treat an injury sustained while exploring an abandoned space station with her friend, Merry is diagnosed with delirium caused by some previously-unknown illness, and sent off to an isolated sanitarium for a time to try to cure her "symptoms."

* Slayer, Interrupted is all about this in this ''ComicBook/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' comic installment set between the Buffy movie and the TV show.

* ''FanFic/{{Bird}}'': Many patients at Alchemilla are not actually insane, and are medicated to deal with dangerous, indiscriminate, or uncontrolled powers. It's repeatedly lampshaded that one of the reasons some parahumans are difficult to control is because thier brain chemistry can differ from baseline humans, thus reducing the effectiveness of medication.

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[[folder: Literature ]]

* In ''Literature/ShardsOfHonor'', Cordelia got a rare non-supernatural version of this, since she couldn't tell the whole story about her involvement in the Barrayar-Escobar war and the part she could tell was dismissed as obvious Barrayaran brainwashing.
* Zhegorz in the Literature/CircleOfMagic series spontaneously developed at a very young age the ability to scry the winds, hearing and seeing events that the winds had touched earlier in their travel. Unfortunately, this ability not only tends to drive people crazy on its own, but it's so rare that nobody realized he had it, so he wound up getting put in a lunatic asylum and drugged to within an inch of really going mad. Luckily, he eventually bumped into someone who had taught herself the same ability, and teaches him to use and control it.
* Katie in the Literature/EnchantedInc series can temporarily lose her magical immunity when dosed with anti-depressants.
* In Creator/AmyTan's ''The Hundred Secret Senses'', this happens to Kwan, Olivia's half-sister. She's confessed to Olivia that ISeeDeadPeople with her "yin eyes". At night, she talks to them for hours and tells Olivia long stories of her PastLifeMemories. Olivia is terrified, so tells her parents. They promptly have Kwan incarcerated in a nuthouse and given countless shock treatments. Instead of stopping the ghosts, this lets evil ones in and makes her unable to stop talking about them. She never blames Olivia.

* In ''Literature/LivesOfTheMayfairWitches'', Carlotta has this done with Deidre to prevent her from invoking the spirit Lasher. It fails to have the desired effect however, as Lasher is, if anything, able to materialize more often because Deidre has no conscious control over her summoning of him.

[[folder: Live Action Television ]]
* In ''Series/TwinPeaks'', taking the medium off his medication was part of the process of solving the murder of Laura Palmer.
* ''Series/{{Buffy The Vampire Slayer}}'' spent some time in an asylum after she saw her first vampires and made the mistake of telling her parents about it.

* In ''Series/{{Bedlam}}'', Jeb spends time in a mental hospital due to seeing ghosts, and his family think he's crazy. In the second season, Ellie refuses to take meds or get help with what her fiance thinks is a mental issue.*

* In the first season of ''Series/IronFist2017'', Danny Rand is thrown in a BedlamHouse by the heirs to his parents' company -- who are enjoying his money too much to admit his identity. Once he wakes up strapped to a bed, the first thing he realizes is that the drugs interfere with his KiManipulation abilities. After a few days he's able to convince one of the therapists he actually is a disenfranchised heir, but because false belief in superpowers is a known phenomenon and he can't demonstrate them is still considered delusional... and kept on the drugs. Danny eventually [[FightOffTheKryptonite focuses hard enough]] to purge the drugs from his system and punches his way to freedom -- through a two-foot steel door.

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[[folder: Web Comics ]]

* The heroines of ''Webcomic/CheshireCrossing'' have spent most of their childhood hopping from asylum to asylum and initially believe the institute is just another one.

[[folder: Web Original ]]
* An important point in ''Literature/TheSalvationWar''.

[[folder: Miscellaneous ]]
* A [[RussianHumour Russian joke]]: ''Beware of haloperidol, it doesn't cure anything! It blocks chakras and blinds the third eye!''
** Unfortunately, the Russian joke isn't that funny once you know that haloperidol is often given to people with dementia who experience hallucinations. In some cases it helps, in others, not so much. In at least one type of dementia, the hallucinations have a different cause and the haloperidol makes the hallucinations ''worse'' instead of better. There has been at least one real life case in which a doctor failed to recognize this.
* A little known fact about modern psychiatry is that much of it began in the SpookySeance room as medical doctors and scholars tried to ascertain if spirits and spirit communication could be real, and how to distinguish between mediumship and mental illness. [[http://www.survivalafterdeath.info/ These doctors]] were some of the first to research how hypnosis could be used to benefit clients, and the first to describe and name dissociation and multiple personalities in their modern context as psychological conditions.
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In TV-land or in other media involving the supernatural, however, this may run into the snag that the patient may just be [[ISeeDeadPeople seeing real ghosts and spirits]]. In this case, antipsychotic medication isn't likely to help. Mix in a generous helping of the {{Masquerade}}, and the most likely result is that, in absence of an actual medical condition, the patient will be put on increasingly stronger medication. If they are lucky, the drugs will dull their sensitivity. If they are not, they will be institutionalized, to be tormented by the side effects of their medication and the apparitions. Worst case scenario: the therapists are completely aware of the supernatural and either believe TheWorldIsNotReady or are part of a conspiracy opposed by psychics.