Marion Brown is Psychotherapist who works with the Human Givens approach to supporting people in emotional or psychological distress. Through her work, Marion has become increasingly concerned about the effects of psychotropic medications on patients and on their ability to engage with therapy. In this informative interview we talk about Marion’s background, how Human Givens works as a therapeutic approach and also the effects of psychiatric drugs. We also discuss medically unexplained symptoms, sometimes given as an explanation for psychiatric drug adverse or withdrawal effects.
In this episode we discuss:
- How Marion came to train as a Psychotherapist
- How she became concerned about her patients experiences with Psychiatric medications
- How, in supporting a client called Ann, Marion came to learn a great deal about psychiatric drug adverse effects and withdrawal difficulties
- That Marion came to realise that her patients experiences of strange thoughts, depersonalisation and physical difficulties were related to the medications used for anxiety and depression
- How Marion set up a self help group to try and help local people who were struggling with medications
- That GPs generally were not interested in this approach to self help
- How Marion came to realise that psychiatric drugs were affecting the interpersonal relationships of her clients and their empathy and ability to engage with therapy
- How useful Facebook and other communities have been in helping people feel less alone with their struggles
- That Marion’s experience with GPs is that they find it difficult to accept that the medicines they prescribe are causing so much harm
- That we really need better guidelines to work from so Doctors can better support people experiencing protracted and severe withdrawal from psychotropic drugs
- How the drugs can lead to intense suicidal thoughts and how difficult it is for a therapist to try and support people in this state
- How Human Givens works as a therapeutic intervention
- How psychiatric drugs can interfere with a persons ‘sense of self’
- The wide ranging effects of these drugs on the human nervous system
- The worrying tendency now for people suffering withdrawal or adverse effects to be labelled as having Medically Unexplained Symptoms
