I was forced to take haloperidol and procyclidine for bipolar. I stopped taking them after 6 weeks. (cold turkey – I never told the doctor). I have not taken any medication for bipolar or other psychiatric condition for 15 years.
One side effect of haloperidol is known to be stroke which I duly experienced one year after taking the drug – and that was only 6 weeks’ worth! (They missed the diagnosis of stroke and put it down to “hallucinations”. I eventually succeeded in persuading an optician to confirm my diplopia (double vision).

My brain scan results were mislaid by the hospital team. I returned to work once the eyesight returned to normal 6 weeks later. I didn’t get confirmation that I’d even had a stroke until I arrived in Aberdeen, 9 years later!
I refused to take statins, despite my raised cholesterol level. I refused to take pain-killers for my frozen shoulder, eventually managing to loosen it up via regular visits to the gym..
When I had a seizure in 2012, I was immediately put on beta-blockers. I believe the seizure may have been triggered by an antibiotic (erythromycin). The effect of the beta-blockers was to nullify my fight or flight response. When a fire alarm sounded in my hotel, I was not concerned at all. It was my wife who persuaded me to evacuate the building.
After various tests inclusing MRI showed nothing up, the “specialist” diagnosed epilepsy and was about to prescribe carbamazepine (coincidentally? used in the treatment of bipolar). She added sagely to my wife, “and the beauty of this drug is, it’s also a mood stabiliser!”

My wife indicated quite clearly that she was not prepared to let me take this drug. So the specialist tried to bamboozle us by prescribing “tegretol”. We later checked: it’s just another brand name for carbamazepine ! Needless to say. I never took the drug. No further signs of epilepsy to date.

I phased out the beta-blockers too, much to the consternation of my G.P. I am now medication-free.

“L’art de la médecine consiste à distraire le malade pendant que la nature le guérit.”

“The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.” (Voltaire)

“Was mich nicht umbringt macht mich staerker” (Nietzsche)

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. [i.e. NHS treatment]