This week on Letâs Talk Withdrawal, we interview Dede Moore who shares her own powerful story of antidepressant treatment and withdrawal. Dede turned her experiences into a force for good and now uses the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) to assist those in withdrawal from antidepressants or benzodiazepines. Dede tells us about EFT, how it helps in withdrawal and even gives a sample EFT session that you can join in with to experience how it works.
In this episode we discuss:
- How Dede came to be taking antidepressant medications
- That she had no information from doctors on adverse effects or withdrawal potential
- That she was told by her doctor that her antidepressant was like insulin for a diabetic
- That adverse effects were just part of her illness and in response doctors increased her dosage and added a benzodiazepine
- How, when doctors wanted her youngest son to take an antidepressant, Dede decided that it wasn’t right and that she wanted to stop taking them too
- That doctors told Dede it was too risky to stop taking the drugs and they âdidn’t know what would happenâ
- How Dede, with the lack of any official guidance or support, withdrew too quickly giving her many symptoms
- How she then tried the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) and found that it helped with physical symptoms and the emotional distress of withdrawal
- How Dede went on to become certified as an EFT practitioner to help and support others in psychiatric drug withdrawal
- Dede tells us more about EFT and how it works to help antidepressant withdrawal
- How EFT is being trialled by the UK NHS for anxiety with encouraging results
- How Dede feels both still being in withdrawal herself from a Benzodiazepine but also in supporting others in her private practice
- That sometimes focussing on symptoms can exaggerate or amplify them
- That EFT can help change the limiting belief that there is nothing that anyone can do to help themselves in withdrawal
