I had a thought the other day about how a lot of the time sci-fi/fantasy as a genre has vilified the idea of people taking their meds by saying that if someone has powers, then their meds which help them control the symptoms of their mental illness will stop them being able to use their powers.
And I thought - why not have the person who’s on, say, anti-psychotics, or anti-depressives, or pain medication… why not have their powers go wonky when they haven’t been taking their meds?
Not in a dangerous way, although that isn’t out of the question. Just. “I’m a seer and I take meds for my anxiety, but if I don’t take them, then the only things I see are the worst outcomes, which isn’t helpful.”
Or how about “my ability is to talk to animals, but if I’m off my meds then we can’t understand each other because it’s like there’s too much static.”
Or even, “I can control things with my mind, but when I haven’t been taking my pain meds, my mental control isn’t so good either, so everything starts shaking when I need to be precise.”
“I’m able to see and sense ghosts and spirits and other entities, but if I haven’t been taking my meds then I don’t know which entities are real, and which aren’t. Which has caused some communication issues when I started talking to a chair instead of my friend Xianthiape.”
Things like that, you know? Medication is usually there to do specific things to help people to function better. Let that show in science fiction and fantasy.
The… only thing I’d say not to do, or rather, be careful with, is conditions like ADHD, because having ADHD it’s completely up to the person whether they want to have meds or not. Personally, I really don’t like the idea and wouldn’t want them at all, for example.
