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I'd like to tell you a story I sometimes tell older children, the ones who are grown up enough to resist their parents, even though they're only trying to help. Of course, this scenario applies to adults too.

Imagine that you're floating in a warm, slow-moving river beneath a clear blue sky. You're having a lovely time. Your parents and teachers are on the bank, your friends are all around and everybody's happy. You're drifting gently downstream towards a bend in the river but it's very calm and nobody's worried. After all, you can always walk back if you go too far.

Then on the bank you see a little old woman (me) waving her arms and shouting. You can't quite make out what she's saying but it seems to be something about coming out of the water because it's dangerous.

You look at your friends and see that they're all laughing. You laugh too. There's no need to worry, it's just a crazy old woman. What does she know? You're all having fun, she's probably just jealous.

You float a little more and have a laugh and a joke with your friends who have started a new splashing game. It's great. Then you notice that you've gone quite a way downstream. You left your clothes under a tree but you can't even see the tree now. You tell your friends but they just carry on laughing and splashing each other.

You see that the little old lady is still there on the bank. She must have followed you and she's shouting again. You still can't quite hear her but now she's waving a rope and you think you hear something that sounds like,

"Look out! There's a waterfall!"

You ask your friends if there's a waterfall but they just splash you and say you must be mad to listen to a crazy old woman.

Suddenly you reach the bend in the river and feel the current speeding up. Then you hear a rumble in the distance. Oh no! It couldn't be a waterfall, could it?

You look to the bank and see the old woman beckon. What will you do? You're comfortable

where you are. It might be hard to swim to the bank and all your friends still think there's no problem. Should you just relax and float over the waterfall?

At this point most of my young people opt to swim for the riverbank but it's up to each individual to decide. You can stay in your comfort zone or swim for the bank. It's your decision.

You can choose to continue with your medication and accept the consequences or you can struggle for a while and free yourself from its shackles. You can settle for a life as an invalid or work for a future of being able to breathe for yourself.

It's up to you.