History Main / NoMedicationForMe

* {{Deconstructed|Trope}} in the ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Unlimited'' episode "Flash and Substance". The Trickster isn't actually a bad sort, but only taking his medication when he's "feeling down" means he's also open to the delusions that make him go out and commit crimes. At the time Flash confronts him, both over the medication and to find out information, he isn't even aware he's in costume until it's pointed out to him. Said scene was an in-joke of sorts to the dramatic difference between the short-lived live-action ''Series/TheFlash1990'' series, which portrayed Trickster as an insane Joker-rip off and the comic version of Trickster, who is more or less a villainous conman, who by the late 1990s had fallen into AntiHero territory as far as aiding the Flash against his former villainous allies. The fact that cartoon Trickster was voiced by Creator/MarkHamill, who played the live-action version of Trickster (as well as voicing the Joker in the Franchise/DCAnimatedUniverse) added to the wink-wink to the audience.

* ''Series/TheUmbrellaAcademy2019':' Vanya stops taking her meds after she unexpectedly runs out [[spoiler: and Leonard steals her backup]]. She finds her life much more vibrant and fulfilling now that she isn't bogged down by them, and indeed starts to display much more emotional range. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, she starts displaying ''too much'', and the reason behind her meds soon becomes clear: she's a PersonOfMassDestruction and her meds kept her under control. Going cold turkey eventually has consequences of [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt literally apocalyptic]] proportions.]]

Go ask [[Literature/AlicesAdventuresInWonderland Alice]], when she's ten feet tall.''
-->-- '''Music/JeffersonAirplane''', "White Rabbit"

* In ''Manga/{{Beastars}}'', large bears are legally required to take a drug that causes their muscles to atrophy, but Riz started to think that his friendship with Tem would allow him to handle his un-medicated strength. [[spoiler: Instead he kills Tem by accident and starts eating him before he comes to his senses.]]

* ''Series/TheUmbrellaAcademy:'' Vanya stops taking her meds after she unexpectedly runs out [[spoiler: and Leonard steals her backup]]. She finds her life much more vibrant and fulfilling now that she isn't bogged down by them, and indeed starts to display much more emotional range. [[spoiler: Unfortunately, she starts displaying ''too much'', and the reason behind her meds soon becomes clear: she's a PersonOfMassDestruction and her meds kept her under control. Going cold turkey eventually has consequences of [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt literally apocalyptic]] proportions.]]

* The Music/JeffersonAirplane song "White Rabbit" is less of a critique of medicine and more of a condemnation of a society that uses meds to enforce StayInTheKitchen and other conformities.

* ''FanFic/HowTheLightGetsIn'': Laurel suffers from depression and an anxiety disorder. She went off medication when she was pregnant (which you ''are'' supposed to do); and since she abused her prescriptions with her addiction, went off it again once she got sober. She's smart enough to know that the medication helps more than anything else does, and has considered going back on it (and talked it over with her doctor, family, sponsor, etc.), but she thinks her sobriety is too weak to risk it.

* In ''Fanfic/LayingWasteToHalloween, Annabeth tries GoingColdTurkey to try stop her addiction to her anxiety medications. This makes her sick, however, so she needs to slowly wean them off.

[[folder:Film]]

* {{Deconstructed}} in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Unlimited'', Flash villain The Trickster isn't actually a bad sort, but only taking his medication when he's "feeling down" means he's also open to the delusions that make him go out and commit crimes. At the time Flash confronts him, both over the medication and to find out information, he isn't even aware he's in costume until it's pointed out to him. Said scene was an in-joke of sorts to the dramatic difference between the short-lived live-action ''Series/TheFlash1990'' series, which portrayed Trickster as an insane Joker-rip off and the comic version of Trickster, who is more or less a villainous conman, who by the late 1990s had fallen into AntiHero territory as far as aiding the Flash against his former villainous allies. The fact that cartoon Trickster was voiced by Creator/MarkHamill, who played the live-action version of Trickster (as well as voicing the Joker in the Franchise/DCAnimatedUniverse) added to the wink-wink to the audience.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' had one where Bart takes "Focusyn" to combat ADHD, and it makes him wicked paranoid. Major League Baseball is out to get us! Turns out... Major League Baseball ''was'' out to get Springfield. Not quite a BrokenAesop, not quite a RuleAbidingRebel, [[RuleOfFunny just another Simpsons plot with no actual point.]]
** The doctors that gave him the medicine ''do'' say he shouldn't suddenly cease dosage -- instead recommending a variety of other meds to "ease him off" first. However, this wasn't portrayed as the standard procedure with any medication, but rather as another sign that particular drug was so dangerous no one should be using it in the first place and that all the doctors' ideas involve more drugs.
** In another episode, Lisa, having a depressive outburst after reading a web article to help write an article on how she thinks the future will end up (the article implying that the world would fall apart and any attempts to save it would be AllForNothing), is given antidepressants that just make her dopey. Marge is appalled by the side effects (Lisa is ''so'' loopy on them that she's barely coherent even in the classroom, and her loopiness reaches a climax when she nearly ''kisses a running electric fan'') so she dumps all of the pills in the garbage. (This being ''The Simpsons'', it's never brought up again.)
* ''WesternAnimation/UltimateAvengers:'' In the first film, Bruce Banner is meant to be taking medicines to stop him hulking out. At the climax, Betty Ross discovers Bruce has stopped taking the meds some time ago, but Bruce is convinced ''this time'' he can control it. [[spoiler:He can't.]]

* Has happened to both Craig and Eli in ''Series/{{Degrassi}}''.

* {{Deconstructed}} in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Unlimited'', Flash villain The Trickster isn't actually a bad sort, but only taking his medication when he's "feeling down" means he's also open to the delusions that make him go out and commit crimes. At the time Flash confronts him, both over the medication and to find out information, he isn't even aware he's in costume until it's pointed out to him. Said scene was an in-joke of sorts to the dramatic difference between the short-lived live-action ''Series/TheFlash1990'' series, which portrayed Trickster as an insane Joker-rip off and the comic version of Trickster, who is more or less a villainous conman, who by the late 1990s had fallen into AntiHero territory as far as aiding the Flash against his former villainous allies. The fact that cartoon Trickster was voiced by Creator/MarkHamill, who played the live-action version of Trickster (as well as voicing the Joker in the Franchise/{{DCAU}}) added to the wink-wink to the audience.

* This trope is zigzagged in the series ''Series/{{Yellowjackets}}'' episode [[Recap/YellowjacketsS2E4OldWounds Old Wounds]]":

* Any and all ''Series/{{Monk}}'' episodes where they try to cure Monk's OCD. He becomes really annoying and can't solve mysteries very well.

* ''Series/{{Haven}}'' inverts the trope. Jennifer is introduced in season four, a former reporter who was diagnosed with schizophrenia after HearingVoices, and placed on anti-psychotic medication. Her first scene is amazement that Duke is ''real,'' because it means she is InsaneNoMore. It turns out the voices she was hearing were Duke and Audrey's, and she has a connection with the supernatural Barn that took Audrey at the end of last season. Jennifer is actually ''reluctant'' to give her medication, even after finding out that she isn't schizophrenic, because the medication quiets the voices. However, when she sees how destructive the Troubles are, she agrees to go off her medication so she can hear the Barn, in the hopes it will bring Audrey back and end them forever. The show avoids some of the UnfortunateImplications that would usually be present in an inversion like this by making it abundantly clear that Jennifer was misdiagnosed, and the medication's only function was to quiet the voices and does not regulate her mood or inhibit her behavior.

* Rebecca and Sara in ''Theatre/CodeTwentyOne'' feel this way, with good reason.

* ''Series/{{Haven}}'' inverts the trope. Jennifer is introduced in season four, a former reporter who was diagnosed with schizophrenia after HearingVoices, and placed on anti-psychotic medication. Her first scene is amazement that Duke is ''real,'' because it means she is InsaneNoMore. It turns out the voices she was hearing were Duke and Audrey's, and she has a connection with the supernatural Barn that took Audrey at the end of last season. Jennifer is actually ''reluctant'' to give her medication, even after finding out that she isn't schizophrenic, because the medication quiets the voices. However, when she sees how destructive the Troubles are, she agrees to go off her medication so she can hear the Barn, in the hopes it will bring Audrey back and end them forever.

* ''Series/{{Haven}}'' has a supernatural twist. Jennifer is introduced in season four, a former reporter who has been on antipsychotic medication for six months due to HearingVoices. Her first scene is amazement that Duke is ''real,'' because she has been hearing his voice and Audrey's for the last six months, leading to a diagnosis of schizophrenia. It turns out the voices she's hearing are the ones in the supernatural Barn that took Audrey away at the end of the previous season. Jennifer is reluctant to give up her medication, despite knowing she doesn't have schizophrenia, because the medication quiets the voices. However, when goes with Duke to Haven, and sees the destruction and havoc caused by the Troubles, she gives up her medication so she can help bring Audrey back and end them forever.

* Alvie from ''Literature/WhenMyHeartJoinsTheMany'' was misdiagnosed with schizophrenia at age ten and forced to take pills that dulled her thoughts and feelings and made her feel like she was living in a bubble that made everything blurry and wobbly. She tried hiding them under her tongue and spitting them out, and later vomiting them up in the bathroom, but Mama caught her and started checking under her tongue and banning her from going into the bathroom for two hours after she took the pills. Eventually Alvie figured out a solution - she bought some vitamin pills that looked like her medication and swapped the pills while Mama was sleeping. Mama never noticed the difference.

* Beautifully inverted in ''Literature/ToKillAMockingbird''. When Mrs. Dubose, an elderly neighbor, calls Atticus a "nigger-lover," Jem destroys some of her flowers as a result, and as punishment, Atticus makes the boy read aloud to her every day for a month. After the punishment ends and Mrs. Dubose passes away, Atticus reveals that not only was Mrs. Dubose dying of a terminal illness, but she had become addicted to morphine to relieve the pain. She was so determined to [[DyingAsYourself die as herself]] that she stopped taking the medicine; the horrible withdrawal symptoms were only eased by Jem reading to and distracting her. Atticus says that to deny the morphine and die painfully but clear of mind, is the bravest thing he has ever known.

* ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman'': In Season 6, Diane says she used to take anti-depressants but stopped partly because she gained weight, but mostly because she thought it made her lose interest in her hobbies. She starts taking them again midway through the season and seems much happier, until she struggles with writing her memoir. Diane attributes this to her meds stopping her from reaching a "dark place" to recount her trauma and stops cold turkey. Not only does this not fix her writer's block (she couldn't write the memoir even ''before'' she took medicine), but it makes it worse by causing her to lose time and she eventually breaks down from the physical and mental effects of withdrawal. She's coaxed back onto her medication and accepts that she really ''doesn't'' want to write about her trauma, instead focusing on stories that make her happy, like kids' fiction.