A friend of mine has, unfortunately. He was diagnosed bipolar, and some substances he consumed worsened his condition and made him delirious. He became paranoid, thought the gov. and military were spying on him and had bugged his house, he didn't make any sense anymore...It was awful. He had to be sectioned and is now on meds. I don't know if he will ever be able to live a normal life without those meds again..
It must be very uncomfortable to have a close person suffering mental issues like that. I had an uncle who suffered from something similar, I remember one day when I was little and he was screaming because the police was supposedly looking for him... in the case of my uncle, he took his pills until the day of his death.
=( aw man...yeah it's hard, especially for his family, but also for him. He knows he's not his true self on meds, and he hopes that the docs will be able to adjust them so that he can get his old personality back. I truly hope he will, but I doubt it will...the meds make him somewhat depressed and insecure, which is not at all who he was before his episode
Well there are meds who really change the personality of the person, but still are necessary to keep everything stable. Perhaps as you said, with time it will be possible the reduce the doses.