Medication Is Scaffolding — But Scaffolding Matters

A tablet can reduce terror, restore sleep or hold a life together. It cannot supply a home, a witness or a reason to get up. Good care begins when we stop asking one part of treatment to impersonate the whole. Medication can create time, reduce symptoms and make other work possible; some people need it briefly, some for years and some gain little or experience serious adverse effects. The article treats medication as one part of care, alongside connection, meaning, material safety and the person’s own account of what helps.