Do you think I should stop taking my meds a few days before the tribunal, so that I come across how I am unmedicated? Or will it be enough to just say how bad things can be and the side effects of my meds?
That's a tough call. I don't think anyone could responsibly advise you to discontinue meds, especially if you know that doing so is likely to affect you significantly (which it sounds as if you think it would, given the reason for doing so!).
Talking to clients of mine who have had to go through the assessment process, I would say that one of the biggest problems claimants face isn't so much being ill enough, as being willing to tell it how it is, rather than putting a brave face on things.
One of the most cynical aspects, I think, of the testing regime, is the way in which it penalises people for doing what most of us always do, which is to try and make the best of things despite whatever is troubling us. From what I read, the assessments themselves are often quite carefully designed to trap people into doing that "well, at my best, I can..." thing which is how we tend to cope with long-term conditions. I think it is terribly sad that people are effectively being coerced into taking a negative mindset towards their illnesses and conditions in order to jump through the benefits hoops, and I do wonder just how much effect that potentially has on their wellbeing, both physical and mental, in the longer term.
Talking of which, these problems are true in spades when it comes to mental health issues, where the way we think about what's going on in our heads is a huge part of the issue: obliging people to enumerate how bad it makes them feel doesn't seem to me like anything other than gratuitously abusive, especially when it is clear that very few of those asking the questions are suitably trained or qualified in mental health in the first place (probably because no competent or ethical MH practitioner would touch the assessment process as-is with a bargepole).
