Coming Off Psychiatric Medication with Laura Delano – New Madness Radio Interview

Laura Delano is an inspiration. A Mad In America blogger, Laura writes and speaks about her withdrawal from psychiatric drugs with great power, honesty, and clarity. After many thoughtful discussions with Laura, I invited her on Madness Radio for an in-depth interview about her experiences and about the broader challenges of living with and without psych drugs. The interview was timely, as I’ve just finished the second edition of the freeĀ Coming Off Psychiatric Drugs guide I wrote five years ago, and Laura was one of the contributors helping with the revision. As more and more voices like Laura’s come forward — young people drugged in their teens and early twenties waking up to years of harm at the hands of medical deceit — I hope we can head towards a new cultural context around coming off meds. Psychiatric patients are not second class citizens: psychiatric medical decisions include the same rights of choice and informed consent as any medical decision — including the right to a second opinion, to take risks, go against doctor’s opinions, try alternatives, and take charge of our health care. We need to focus the discussion on how best to help people come off medications, not whether or not “coming off meds” is too radical to even discuss.

Ā Madness Radio: Coming Off Psych Meds Laura Delano

What do you when medications for your emotional problems become worse than the problems themselves? Laura Delano went to a psychiatrist at age 18, and for the next decade was prescribed nineteen different psychiatric drugs. After devastating physical and emotional effects, she began a journey to become medication free — and re-discover who she is. What lessons did she learn? Laura blogs regularly about her experiences at Mad in America, works for a mental health agency in Massachusetts, and is an advocate for drug alternatives and safe withdrawal.Ā http://www.madinamerica.com/author/ldelano/Ā (Link to coming off meds guide:http://willhall.net/comingoffmeds/Ā )

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Mad in America hosts blogs by a diverse group of writers. These posts are designed to serve as a public forum for a discussionā€”broadly speakingā€”of psychiatry and its treatments. The opinions expressed are the writers’ own.

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