How I Developed a Critical Perspective on Psychiatry

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Editor’s Note: This article is being simultaneously published on Mad in America and on our affiliate site, Mad in the UK.

Following my recent experience of antidepressant withdrawal and having worked in psychiatry for nearly 20 years as a registered mental health nurse, I now have a very critical view on what good mental health treatment and recovery should look like. I believe we need a big reform in offering more access to psychological therapies as well as compassionate and recovery focused interventions. I believe we need to move away from the dominant biological model of psychiatric treatment.

I can think of many examples throughout my early career where I saw many people admitted to psychiatric wards having suffered an adverse life event, recent or past trauma, only to leave with prescriptions for multiple drugs to treat their new presumed diagnoses.  They also seemed to leave with an increasing sense of hopelessness and possible additional trauma from their inpatient stay. The person is told they have a broken brain which would result in most people feeling very hopeless.

A female nurse helping another woman

It was common practice for a patient to be prescribed benzodiazepines, which we now know are highly addictive, only to be later discharged after several weeks (sometimes months) of use without a longer-term prescription. It was not surprising to see such a patient re-admitted not long after, probably because they were in desperate need of the drug they had become dependent on to relieve their suffering. It’s tragic that these people may then be wrongly labelled as personality disordered, bipolar, or psychotic.

A person may come into hospital on no drugs at all, only to leave with several psychiatric drugs, often causing adverse side effects which leads to more prescriptions to counteract the side effects. I am not anti-medication by any means, and I will not be put in the conspiracy theory box. It’s very easy to brand someone a conspiracy theorist or anti-psychiatry or an outlier when traditional practice is challenged. I have seen this happen when others question the status quo or the science, but to me having a critical perspective is what good medicine and science should be about. How else can we progress, develop, or advance for the good of the people we are meant to be helping?

In a lot of cases a person suffering from life stress may benefit from a psychological model of ‘treatment’, with compassion, understanding and simple validation that what they are feeling is indeed normal. Instead, we see people with a normal emotional response, being put onto ‘antidepressants’ and other psychotropic drugs which I believe are hugely overprescribed. Some people experience severe adverse reactions to ‘antidepressants’, including a manic presentation; this in turn leads to the prescription of a ‘mood stabiliser’ and the polypharmacy begins. Another person prescribed ‘antidepressants’ may suffer from suicidal thoughts and akathisia and if this is not correctly recognised by the treating clinician, it can result in the dose of the offending drug being increased and in the most extreme cases it can result in suicide.

I do think there is a role for ‘antidepressants’ because I am pro good mental health care, but we need to talk about the risks versus the benefits of these drugs. Parents needs to be told when their children are prescribed psychiatric drugs, so they know what to look out for and when to get help. Prescribers need to have open conversations about possible risks and adverse reactions. I want to make it clear that I do not doubt or wish to take away the reality of people’s suffering.  I have seen how debilitating this can be, and this is where I think there is perhaps a role for short-term prescriptions of drugs to relieve intense suffering.

Should we still be calling it emotionally unstable personality disorder?

Over time I have also become more critical in my thinking around the diagnosis of ‘emotionally unstable personality disorder’ (‘borderline personality disorder’) and realise just how unhelpful this is. It often comes with a certain amount of stigma, barriers to accessing other services and potential negative attitudes from healthcare professionals. I believe we need to re-think this label and recognise that many individuals have experienced complex trauma during their lives, potentially further worsened by becoming embroiled in the psychiatric system.

Another pattern I have noticed is a person may be admitted with low mood following a stressful life event. This emotional response may seem to me to be very normal and I question whether we should really be ‘treating’ it with drugs. We risk increasing this person’s depressed mood which in some cases can result in the person self-harming and then the EUPD diagnosis follows shortly after. I have seen this merry-go-round all too often. I don’t claim to have the answers, and I am mindful I am just a small drop in the ocean, when it comes to the voices now speaking out about withdrawal and risks of ‘antidepressants’. I do however believe that every voice helps toward the reform of what good mental health ‘treatment’ should look like.

I certainly think we need a shift in our attitudes, one which encompasses compassion and validation of normal human emotion which is often medicalised at the hands of psychiatry. I don’t believe we should be telling people they have a damaged or broken brain, or that they are missing certain chemicals in their brain. The evidence that mental illness arises from distinct pathology is severely lacking.  I know from my own experience when I went on my ‘antidepressant’ for mild work-related stress, I should have changed jobs. Instead, I have become physically dependent on this drug and now have depressive symptoms anytime I miss a couple of doses or try to come off it. However, with the work and resources we now have by researchers such as Mark Horowitz and peer support and patient advocates, I am more confident that I will be able to safely wean off the antidepressant.

We still have a long way to go but I am hopeful that many healthcare professionals are now recognising antidepressant withdrawal and how severe and debilitating this can be. People should not be abruptly taken off their psychotropic medication, or be swapped to a different drug, often too quickly without planning, later to be diagnosed with EUPD when they suffer from suicidal thoughts, akathisia, or self-harm because of extreme drug-induced discomfort.

Thoughts on the care of young and older adults

I am especially concerned for children and young people, often without a voice or whose parents have not been fully informed of the potential risks and side effects of the drugs they have been prescribed. Its sad to see the young person get swallowed up by the system, something I have witnessed all too frequently over the years. I have also become increasingly aware that some of our older-generation people who are admitted to hospital, perhaps with an infection, are abruptly taken off their ‘antidepressant’ or the sleeping tablet which they have taken for years and now come to rely on. I believe in these cases it would be kinder and less harmful to leave the person’s drugs alone unless it is medically essential to change them. It is better to let them enjoy their last years, rather than risk withdrawal which often looks like an agitated depression or psychosis, and may result in admission to a care home where they spend the rest of their days, rather than a discharge back to their own home.

Final thoughts

I am not sure what the future holds for mental healthcare, or what the answers are. What I do know is that it seems to be getting worse while more and more people are struggling to get the support they need. I believe one of the biggest problems and wrongs is the medicalisation of normal human emotion. I also believe that we are now living in an increasingly sick society, one in which we were not evolved to live and cope in. We used to be part of big communities and children would spend their days outdoors. Instead, most find themselves inside, glued to a device or social media account, waiting for the next dopamine hit. I do strongly believe though that the more critical voices speak out, the closer we move towards a change for the good and for that I remain hopeful.

The importance of positivity within the withdrawal community

One thing I have learnt from my own withdrawal experience is the importance of spreading hope and positivity to anyone going through a taper or a protracted withdrawal. I believe the brain is highly adaptable and I am a strong believer in neuroplasticity and therefore believe in the brain’s innate ability to adapt to its previous state over time. I am not underestimating or undermining anyone’s experience with withdrawal as I know first hand how hard this can be. But I refuse to believe in anything other than healing and our body’s natural ability to navigate itself back to its original baseline. In the meantime, I am a big believer on the mind-body relationship to healing, surrounding one-self with positivity and stories of hope and healing and avoiding any naysayers or doom.

There is no doubt that some people may find online forums helpful, but to me it must be centred around a positive, respectful and individual led approach.  We are already dealing with many people who are suffering and the primary job of a withdrawal coach, taper service should be one of hope. I don’t believe there is room for anything less in this community. As in medicine we must ‘first do no harm’.

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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 discussion—broadly speaking—of psychiatry and its treatments. The opinions expressed are the writers’ own.

69 COMMENTS

  1. I think we need to deepen our critical perspective much more then this. Unfortunately the overwhelming majority of critics of psychiatry just have not fully measured the issues at hand, have not fully acquainted themselves with the state of research and even have no idea what, if any, of our Western mental health interventions are the best. I don’t know how you get all your critics up to speed on these issues but most articles like this and the one about the ’emporers new clothes’ recently are just worthless, even destructive, because they haven’t measured the problem completely and are not nearly critical enough. What to do about this people? Perhaps Mad in America could consider this as another project because I’m sure you lot will know what I mean. Few have even absorbed the implications and findings of what Robert Whittaker has uncovered from which this website started in the first place. It’s like climate change. All the talking heads like to spout their opinions but a criminally low proportion have even measured the problem with the research even though 15,000 scientists contribute to the UN IPCC climate report which compiles the full state of research on a regular basis. Unless and until this problem is addressed then the quality of the critiques are not nearly adequate and in a way continue the propaganda of psychiatry by giving it way to much credit based on a false understanding of the actual state of the research. And that’s before we even begin to recognize that no Western mental health intervention including therapy can compete with the natural form of healing which is an atmosphere of affection, support, security and non-judgement that used to be provided by a healthy social community, and of which therapy is a pale and impoverished imitation. Very few critics understanding has even come upon this insight – I’ve only seen one and that’s the previous MIA article ‘dismantling the psychiatric manopoly’, although the Open Dialogue treatment modality pioneered in Finland which produces world beating results for schizophrenia are at least half way to this realization. As Birdsong says the problem and the solution is certainly not something ossified academics, intellectuals or mental health professionals should imagine they have any kind of superior qualification to produce solutions into the problems. Indeed their heavily prejudiced and socially conditioned brains are generally nothing but a hindrance if you ask me. Academics could as easily become clear and lucid on the issue as any non-academic but they need that quality of really caring passionately about the issue and seeing things from an unremittingly human perspective rather then a perverse, socially conditioned, abstract and totally non-factual academic or psychiatric perspective.

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    • I don’t think any past community or society has ever been open and helpful enough for children and even adults who suffer from abuse. I see so many people who never truly had anybody to talk to and help them with their problems. I was born in 1966 and grew up completely alone without anyone validating me and helping me. They looked the other way. I think invalidation is a severe problem and the harm can last a lifetime. Hunters and Gatherers and small agricultural communities were close-knit but they also didn’t have all the problems that we have now by any means.

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    • I’ve seen 1st hand how our mental health system doesn’t work, first when my already naturally high strung step mother was prescribed Zoloft by her family doctor at the request of her son (my step brother who was taking it for bipolar) & it triggered a manic bipolar response. Then again when my great nephew, whose father was a diagnosed schizophrenic, began experiencing the same symptoms, but they were unable to make him get help as he was over 21. And again when my 88 year mother with a Hoarding Disorder began making poor decisions based on her fear of losing control of all the items she hoarded in her home, garage & basement. It’s impossible to get help for above conditions unless they threaten to harm themselves or others, despite the fact that they’re able to hide symptoms & are experiencing Anosognosia. After years of unsuccessfully trying to reason with my mother I’m now in the process of filing for Conservatorship, which, with Anosognosia, she will contest at which she’ll be assigned a public defender & it’ll drag out while she continues living in her unsafe decapitated house. In my opinion our system is what’s INSANE

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    • I like this website because it’s a step in the right direction for getting people off of Pharmaceuticals that are just reducing their quality of life. We need everyone to get past their protracted withdrawal, get back to work, get back to socializing with each other/hobbies/buying stuff, and pretend this didn’t happen. We need people to not even turn to these Pharmaceuticals in outdated non-evidence based chemical imbalance hypothesis to begin with.

      I understand the criticisms of this website. But at least it’s exposure/algorithm. It, along with a lot of stuff on IG and YT, helped me undiagnose myself and fully understand these Pharmaceuticals more and understand what had been done to me, not out of malice, but because Psychiatry post-secondary is outdated information. I’ve lost a lot of years (since 2012 and especially since 2021), but there aren’t any consequences, so I have nothing more to say. At least I can make new friends in the withdrawal community. Friends are the best anti-depressant instead of the Prescriptions advertised on TV, etc.

      Also, thank you for your eloquent post. It makes sense what you’re saying. I went to Post-Secondary, but hopefully someone with a grade 6 education can make sense of what you’re saying, too.

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    • I, too, believe what has been done to me and hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of people online is unethical and medical malpractice, since these SSRI’s, anti-convulsants, etc are NOT evidence-based.

      The trials only go up to 12 weeks. And none of us ever gave informed consent.

      I’m not getting involved publicly. These drug companies can destroy me. They tried to poison the Psychiatrist Dr Peter Breggins, who eloquently shows that there is NO chemical imbalance, etc.

      There are zero consequences, but there’s nothing I can do about that. People have lost thousands of dollars, housing, jobs, reputation, and put off pregnancy for years and years.

      Men are furious that they can no longer feel their penis while on these legal Psychotropics or once off of them (even with a hyperbolic taper, which isn’t mainstream in Psychiatry…yet but check out Dr Peter Breggins and Dr Mark Horowitz and Dr Joana Moncrieff and Dr Josef Witt-Doerring).

      Lots of women turn to these Pharmaceuticals because of trauma from men. And men act out because they were raised inadequately. I totally get it. It’s the exact same shit show across the world. & lots of men turn to these Pharmaceuticals because they’re more on the sensitive/neurotic side/don’t fit in with sports, and these Pharmaceuticals make it even more difficult to date (numb penis, can’t orgasm, too tired from these legal Psychotropics).

      It’s just such a shit show, and it’s the exact same story each and every single time. & there is a VERY clear difference between bizarre BiPolar #2 diagnosis when the “anti-depressant” gets raised because it stops being effective vs. someone who tries an SSRI, has zero side-effects (miscarriages, lowered sperm count, safe pregnancy, etc) keeps the edge on life away/blunting while on the SSRI, and can stay on it for the rest of their life, and not need to raise the dosage because it became ineffective.

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      • You clearly get it: psychiatry is a shit-show like no other: no informed consent with zero consequences for ruining people’s lives. And all this talk about “evidence based” is a joke when all it has to do is stop turning a deaf ear to people’s complaints about the drugs. No other branch of medicine gets away with prescribing powerful drugs without having established CLEAR-CUT PROOF OF PATHOLOGY; doctors are just prescribing anesthetics as the “medicines” don’t heal any biologically-rooted cause, they just mask “symptoms” that would resolve if given enough time. It’s a thoroughly disgusting practice.

        Psychotherapy by design is set up so that the therapist is the one with the power, which is a set up for unhealthy relationships, something I’ve often seen play out in my own and others’ experiences. Having a competent therapist doesn’t change this dynamic, and in fact can lead to even bigger problems later on because a therapist’s competency often makes people have too much faith in their therapist. I believe there’s a tendency for clients to want to please the therapist as it’s a reenactment of the parent-child relationship, something that makes people reluctant to trust their own judgment or challenge the therapist.

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  3. “I believe we need to move away from the dominant biological model of psychiatric treatment.” I agree, as do some of my retired nurse friends, who are largely embarrassed by mainstream medicine at this point in time.

    “The person is told they have a broken brain which would result in most people feeling very hopeless.” Yes, when a non-medically trained psychologist lies to a client and her husband, fraudulently claiming the wife has a “lifelong, incurable, genetic mental illness,” with zero genetic proof of this, it is intended to take away hope, and does destroy marriages.

    “In a lot of cases a person suffering from life stress may benefit from a psychological model of ‘treatment’, with compassion, understanding and simple validation that what they are feeling is indeed normal.” If only the psychological industry hadn’t been largely corrupted by the lies of the DSM creators, but sadly most psychologists are DSM “bible” billers and believers today.

    “Parents need to be told when their children are prescribed psychiatric drugs, so they know what to look out for and when to get help.” And the adults shouldn’t be lied to either. The “antidepressants” are not actually “safe smoking cessation meds.”

    “I believe one of the biggest problems and wrongs is the medicalisation of normal human emotion. I also believe that we are now living in an increasingly sick society, one in which we were not evolved to live and cope in.” I agree, we have bad systems.

    ” … I am a strong believer in neuroplasticity and therefore believe in the brain’s innate ability to adapt to its previous state over time.” Me, too. Reminding a loved one who had been made terribly sick, via malpractice and bad personal behavior, about neuroplasticity, was what helped my loved one maintain hope and heal.

    God bless in your drug withdrawal journey, Laura. I can’t claim it will be easy, but I do believe withdrawing from the antidepressants will be easier, and more successful, now that people know to hyperbolically wean off the anticholinergic drugs. And I will say, keep the faith … it is possible to heal from the iatrogenic illnesses created with the psychiatric neurotoxins.

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    • I agree that using Wellbutrin off-label for smoking cessation made me laugh when I saw it back in 2015. Wellbutrin gave my physiology too many side-effects to use.

      I’m pretty sure all of us are allergic to anticholinergic Pharmaceuticals, hence the side-effects. Our bodies have not evolved alongside these legal Psychotropics long enough.

      I agree that I’m not interested in being a Psychiatric RN, unless specializing in hyperbolic tapering, because it’s just a complete shit show that I want nothing to do with. It’s just too unethical, and they practice with outdated information (chemical imbalance hypothesis). Dr Peter Breggins (Psychiatrist) has been talking against Psychiatrist since the 90’s when all of those SSRI’s came on the market. He probably had something to say about Pristiq when it came out in 2009.

      Although we’ve all lost a lot due to these Pharmaceuticals and are currently in a chemical imbalance on these legal Psychotropics (until our hyperbolic taper will eventually end), at least we’ve made friends with each other. That’s the best anti-depressant: socializing with other people.

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  4. Doctors nearly killed me
    I was put on an SNRI for grieving, yes a normal feeling. When I started having side effects my doctor lied to me saying they had nothing to do with the antidepressant. I started seeing specialists for my symptoms to no avail. When I missed taking 1 dose I was severely ill and unable to walk without hanging onto walls and furniture. When I looked up the side effects, ALL of my side effects were listed that my doctor said had nothing to do with the antidepressant.

    I was tapered off over 2 weeks cutting my dose in half each week. The first day of my first taper I was experiencing; hallucinations, non-stop brain zaps, jerking uncontrollably, severe nausea, sweating profusely, etc. and my doctor treated me like I was exaggerating and told me to continue tapering. I had no idea what was happening to me and my doctor didn’t mention anything about withdrawals. Instead she told me to go to the ER and check in for outpatient treatment and if I didn’t go she wouldn’t write me a note for FMLA to save my job. It was the ER doctor who told me I was going through withdrawals and refused to check me in for outpatient treatment. The ER doctor called my psychiatrist (who was a psych doctor of over 25 yrs.) to let her know and 2 days later I received a letter stating I was no longer a patient of hers leaving me in severe withdrawals and no doctor.

    Desperate, I found another psych doctor who put me on 5-6 psych drugs at a time and tried a total of 18 psych drugs over 3-4 mos. to the point I could barely walk, think or feed myself. On my last appt. with this doctor he told me he only showed that I was only taking 1 drug (alprazolam). I said NO, you have me taking, and I rattled off the multiple drugs and doses he had me on. He grabbed his pen and started writing them down in my chart. I WAS IN SHOCK!!! This doctor had no idea what he prescribed me.

    I called my GP and asked him to refer me to a psych doctor that knows the difference from their ass and a hole in the ground. After learning what these doctors did to me I told the 3rd doctor what I would take, how I was going to taper off once I stabilized, etc. and he was okay with that but he added several diagnoses to my chart that were false and didn’t acknowledge or add that I was experincing akathisia, protracted withdrawals, etc. and recommended eletrical shock treatment. I said “NO”!

    I was raised to trust your doctor and these quacks nearly killed me. I lost everything and was bedridden for 5 yrs. with a mile long list of severe symptoms. Once I stabilized somewhat from a damaged nervous system, wasn’t suicidal but still unable to function. I tapered myself SLOWLY off the remaining drugs (took 4 yrs.) and now I’m finally psych drug free going on 3 yrs.

    I NEVER should’ve been put on an SNRI for grieving, I NEVER should’ve been tapered off over 2 weeks, nor poly drugged with multiple drugs all the while doctors dismissed and ignored my symptoms. I will NEVER trust another doctor again!

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    • Wow! What a horrible nightmare. I’m so sorry you went through that insanity. You should be very proud of yourself for getting out of all of that. Psychiatrists will always prescribe medications no matter what their patients say. Therapy is secondary if they do any therapy at all (most don’t). I wish all of us were informed about this.

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    • It’s the exact same story each and every single time.

      Life stress/anxiety/a bit of a neurotic personality –> legal Psychotropic –> bad reaction/eventually dosage becomes ineffective –> raised dosage OR stopping it cold-turkey or linear taper –> aggressive/annoyed/irritable/hypomanic –> psych ward –> tied down, tranquilizers, BiPolar #2 or Schizophrenia Dx –> poly-drugged, etc.

      Word for word. It’s almost comical if it wasn’t so disturbing.

      Psychiatry: dumb, dangerous, and disturbing.

      There is a difference between someone whose body can stay on an SNRI/SSRI life-long with no iatrogenic injuries (bizarre pains, bizarre fatigue, miscarriages, lowered sperm count, etc) and doesn’t need to raise the dosage because their physiology develops a tolerance.

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  5. Thank you for your input.

    I think the mental health system is dangerous and often sinister. This is my opinion based on my experiences and reading on the subject and also my observations of the system at work in other people’s lives.

    I hope your tapering journey goes well. Truth be told a journey out of the mental health system is a personal journey and I think that’s a big reason why antipsychiatry etc are often dominated by people with credentials and not the people who walked away.

    I know it sounds cliche but thank you for sharing your experiences. One gets hopeful reading this essay and hope is sorely lacking for many people dealing with mental health, inc.

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  7. Thank you for writing this, but it has been nine years since our anxious, autistic child suffered at the hands of psychiatry, and nothing has changed. Just about every therapist he sees recommends antidepressants, even after we tell them he became suicidal on Zoloft at the age of eight years old. “There are other drugs” they say. Too much money is being made; I have given up on seeing change in my lifetime. I just try to protect my family by keeping them out of the clutches of today’s mental health practitioners, because they all seem to end up pushing the drugs. With all the mental health campaigns in schools now, it doesn’t take much to fall into their clutches. So many people do need help, but they are getting the wrong kind of help.

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    • Nothing will change until the Prime Minister/President’s child gets iatrogenic injuries from Psychotropic Pharmaceuticals. There’s too much money involved. Even with the new Health person in Donald Trump’s team, at least he’s speaking out against these Pharmaceuticals and against canola oil/sugar/wheat concoctions. In Canada, maybe someone else will speak out against this as well.

      I was never comfortable with the fact that there are more than 1 “anti-depressant” brands/generics. And I wasn’t comfortable that they were advertised on TV. And if they increased serotonin (chemical imbalance hypothesis), why weren’t they OTC near the vitamins? If they’re so serious that they require an Rx, something doesn’t make any sense.

      ie: none of us gave informed consent. We were never sure how these pharmaceuticals knew where to go in your physiology, what about withdrawal like with alcohol and party/street/hard drugs? etc.

      Quite literally, right now, there are probably at least 100,000 people in your state/province in acute withdrawal (can’t take the drug anymore because of iatrogenic injuries/reduced quality of life/can’t feel penis or orgasm anymore/or their life is going better again so don’t need it anymore), don’t know wtf is going on, and go back up because they have no choice. Multiple times.

      It’s literally the exact same story each and every time.

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  8. I don’t know if it will ever change. It’s just too easy to make money off of blaming the brain and it allows many parents, schools and society off the hook for taking responsibility for the harm that they cause. I have also met many people who feel a sense of relief when they are told that it is their brain that is the problem because they were told or made to feel like their emotional and psychology “problems” were failures in their personality or that their way of thinking is wrong and different from the people around them. People don’t want to look weak, bad, stupid or crazy whether it’s parents, other family members, the school system, the “mentally ill” or society. People try to save face for self-protection from judgments and from being mistreated. For the most part, I see it as an ego thing and a big money-maker for mental health professionals. The system is rigged to protect certain people. People who are labelled with a “mental illness” usually still have to deal with judgements and stigma anyway but many people would still rather be seen as it being a medical problem rather than an emotional or psychological one in the hopes of not being seen as being weak. BPD is a really bad label. It’s to the point where it’s not worth trying to get help from most mental health professionals because of the really negative assumptions and stigma that goes along with it. I have chronic and debilitating insomnia. I just want meds to help me sleep so that I can function better and not feel suicidal. I am sleeping better which helps. Otherwise, I avoid the mental health field in general.

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    • I agree. Pretty sure the brain is perfectly fine. You’re just isolated because you don’t fit in with sports and pop music. Or your parents were bellends. Hence the neuroticism/borderline whatever it’s called.

      You probably can’t sleep/partial insomnia because your circadian rhythm/sleep-wake cycle/etc ot are being tampered with with the SNRI/SSRI. These pharmaceuticals are very powerful antihistamines, it seems like, from what hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of people are saying online anonymously. They don’t really do much of anything. They’re like side-effect pills. Whenever I’d say something like “it feels like my body is being given something it doesn’t require to be well”, people get all coy. Or when you mention the term ‘withdrawal’, their body language changes dramatically because they know that what they Rx’ed you is doing the opposite intention of medicine: “do no harm”. It’s so painfully obvious when they shy away or get antagonistic/flustered.

      As for magnesium, lots of us are stuck in a chemical dependence to a lot of pills. It’d probably be easier to just have a handful of almonds, if your body is okay with them right now. From what a lot of people are saying, they have fluctuating adverse effects to different foods while having acute withdrawal symptoms and protracted withdrawal syndrome.

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  9. In my mid-40s, due to live events and past trauma, I suffered a depressive episode. Unfortunately, I sought help from a psychologist practicing very solidly in the medical model. He referred me to a psych nurse practitioner who led me into a polypharmacy nightmare. I had never taken a psychoactive substance of any kind. I went from depressed to suicidal with multiple diagnoses. Instead of addressing my trauma, life circumstances, and hormonal changes, I was labeled mentally ill and unstable. My brain was reeling from the drugs, but I didn’t know what was happening. I lost a decade of my life and my children lost their mom for that time. Only in recent years have I learned about trauma-focused care and therapeutic approaches that help people heal from trauma and experience personal growth. I have been weaning myself off of my medications for the past two years with no help from anyone except books. The medical model of mental health is destroying lives not saving them. If I had not done my own research I would still be lost in the fog of psych drugs and diagnosis stigmatization.

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    • It’s literally the exact same story each and every single time. You can look at my other posts. There are so many people on IG, YT, blogs, forums, etc that are painting the picture of what we all knew the whole entire time: it’s not us. It’s the Psychotropic Pharmaceuticals.

      Dr Josef Witt-Doerring is great, as is Dr Mark Horowitz, Dr Joana Moncrieff, Dr Peter Breggins, Will Hall, survivingantidepressants, BeyondMeds, Inner Compass, Laura Delano, etc. They all have books on safe hyperbolic tapering and just general support.

      It’s shocking and disturbing how it’s the exact same story each and every single time. I can relate to a lot of what you wrote, OP.

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  10. The author perplexingly claims that “there is a role for ‘antidepressants’ because (they are) pro good ‘mental health’ care”. However, how can this position be justified when the chemical imbalance theory of ‘depression’ has been thoroughly discredited by respected researchers such as Breggin, Whitaker, and Burstow, who argue there is no substantial evidence to support this assertion? Furthermore, a meta-analysis indicates that the statistical difference between antidepressants and placebo is not clinically significant (mindfreedom.org/empirically-derived-criteria-antidepressant). How is the neurotoxic drugging of millions of people “good ‘mental health’ care”?

    This individual presents themselves as an authority on what constitutes effective ‘mental health treatment’. However, it is imperative to recognise that what is truly required is not mere reform, but rather the complete abolition of existing practices.

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  11. My mind races very much and my nervous system is always in high gear and it causes chronic insomnia which then interferes with my daily life. I don’t like taking any psych medications but if I just take one or two at night it can help me to sleep and then function better. I stay away from psych diagnoses and the chemical imbalance theory. I just say it helps some people like me to calm the brain and nervous system down (in some ways) enough to sleep. However, I’ve had some side effects but I outweigh the good and the bad. Hardly sleeping for months or years at a time had taken such a toll on me in every way. I’ve had bad experiences with mental health professionals so I just see a psych nurse practitioner for these meds every 3 months (on zoom) and that’s it.

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    • When you “outweigh the good and the bad”, please remember that psychiatric drugs cause “a host of debilitating physical, emotional and cognitive side effects” (Whitaker, R., 2007, Affidavit, Psychrights.org). They contribute “to progressive shrinkage and/or loss of brain tissue”, causing atrophy in the brain that is “consistent with dementia” which contributes “to the induction or worsening of ‘psychiatric’ symptoms and the acceleration of cognitive and neurobehavioural decline” (Jackson, G., 2008, Psychrights.org).

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  12. “In the meantime, I am a big believer on the mind-body relationship to healing, surrounding oneself with positivity and stories of hope and healing and avoiding any naysayers or doom.”

    Oh, really? What about this:

    “Optimism can and very often does impair critical thinking ability. Critical thinking is about analyzing information to make a sound judgment or decision. Critical thinking requires you to be able to question, evaluate and interpret information in a rational and unbiased way. It allows you to identify and understand issues including the hidden ones. It enables you to make sound judgments, challenge assumptions, discern, seek feedback, adjust to new information and change your mind as well as actions in a way to bring about positive results. You cannot do this if you are wearing rosy colored sunglasses and have a positive bias. Positivity bias prevents critical thinking and clouds sound judgment and thus undermines your success. And positivity bias is a huge issue when it comes to optimism. Optimism can cause you to assess risks poorly. When people are too optimistic, they become blind and minimize the potential risks involved in decisions and actions. They underestimate the likelihood that something bad’s going to happen and overestimate the likelihood that something good is going to happen.” ~ Teal Swan, from “Optimism Can Oppose Your Success!”

    The only thing I would add to this is the importance of knowing the difference between negativity and critical thinking, because if you don’t, you’ll likely end up becoming just one more grossly insensitive, gratitude-preachy, and wholly self-righteous ASSHOLE —

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    • I think you touched on a good point. On reddit, they call it toxic positivity.

      I’ve always liked the expression: “proceed with optimistic caution”. Cautiously optimistic: anticipate/plan for the worst, hope for the best.

      Critical thinking is really really important; especially with Pharmaceuticals that change your physiology so badly that your quality of life reduces. In Missisippi, they started taking early childhood education seriously, and they’re having good results. No surprise there. It’s really important that kids learn how to read by a certain age, and then they start reading to learn (and start thinking critically.)

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  13. Thank you for all your comments. I really don’t claim to be an expert I just share my story of antidepressant withdrawal and some of my observations. I completely agree validation is so important in helping people through mental health difficulties. Much more focus should be on validating someone’s feelings and emotions rather than simply supressing them. I think its all so individual isn’t it and I guess what helps ones person wont help another. I personally found some of the forums(not all) unhelpful to me but that is just my opinion. They may well be very helpful to others. I feel it is sensible to follow available evidence based guidance and I certainly will be doing a much slower taper next time. In my experience I feel if I was to wait for the day everything would become ok and good again I would be waiting for a very long time. Life in general is tough full of up’s and downs and I would be concerned I would prolong my suffering if I became too heavily involved in forums and some negative stories. Again this is just what I find helpful and unhelpful and it is by no means undermining anyone’s experience or criticizing them. People have to do what they find helpful which is my stance.

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    • I will always automatically 100% believe 100% of what they’re telling me is going on IN THEIR OWN BODY. It’s never Psychosomatic. They may be a bit reactive, sure, because it’s dangerous and devastating and disturbing and they get angry that Drs/Psychiatrists are practicing with a debunked hypothesis (chemical imbalance.) But the symptoms are still actually happening. & if the hyperbolic taper attempt goes wrong, you need to go back up and not tough it out/take yourself to the Psych Ward, return to homeostasis, and try again another time while living with the side-effects from the Pharmaceuticals in the mean time.

      And you can just turn to Nicole from Inner Compass to see how long it can last and how very real it is.

      It’s less effort to automatically believe someone, too.

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    • It’s a really good article that you wrote. I’m hopeful that people can get off these medications safely too. I think almost everyone does when it’s done the right way. There are more individuals become aware of the issues you mentioned in your article and that’s great.

      However, like I said in a previous post, I don’t think there is hope for the mental health profession in general. Too many psychiatrists, families (especially parents), schools and society are invested in blaming the brain in order to avoid taking responsibility for the harm they cause, especially to children. Unfortunately, I believe that childhood trauma or chronic stress can harm our brains, especially a child’s developing brain and cause cognitive, emotional and personality difficulties and God forbid you should talk about learned behaviors as also potential causes rather than genetics all the time. That implies that someone is responsible other than the brain just becoming magically biologically disordered on its own.

      Psychiatrists want to be looked at as true medical doctors like all other fields of medicine (which it isn’t because there are not x-rays or tests you can take for these “disorders”). Also, most people look up to medical professionals as the ones with all the answers and I don’t think that will change. Most people who sue doctors are unsuccessful in winning lawsuits because most jurors don’t want to believe that doctor’s can do so much harm.

      NAMI is all about supporting families when, in fact, lots of times it’s the family that’s causing the problems or at least part of the problems. They think you are crazy if you’re not on psych meds because they have been told that these diagnoses are actual medical problems like diabetes.

      Schools want to medicate kids because it’s easier than confronting families or themselves. Many teachers just want kids to behave. Many parents get upset if you try to discipline them.

      Adults have gotten angry with me if I mention any of the above. They also get angry if I say that we should clean up society, especially the media because who am I to tell them we should greatly curb violence in the media or social media, etc. They tell me that I’m on a soap box and they resent it if I say that we should stop or diminish this or that for the sake of children’s well-being.

      Also, most people are looking for a quick fix to their problems too and so most people want to take medications for anything that ails them. It’s also a way to justify being on disability (although some people really need disability but not everyone on it). I have a friend who believes she has BPD like she was told. She doesn’t want to deal with the childhood abuse she went through and she’s on disability because she had trouble working in the past and is afraid to go back to work. She has worked part-time sometimes and she did well. In general, a diagnosis of a mental illness gives her more justification and less judgments from others around her.

      The backlash I’ve gotten from speaking up about these issues has been overwhelming and surprising but then not surprising when I consider that most people are out to protect themselves and want the freedom to do what they want to do even if it’s not healthy in general. Most people are very individual-minded and not group-minded.

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      • Please clarify your thoughts, Sabrina Batikh, on how people “justify being on disability (although some people really need disability but not everyone on it).” What insights do you have about those who depend on disability pensions for survival? Are you implying that individuals receiving this minimal financial support—often after enduring lengthy application processes and repeated rejections—do not deserve an income?

        Additionally, could you enlighten us on your knowledge of childhood sexual abuse? Is it fair that you discuss your friend, who “doesn’t want to deal with the childhood abuse they went through” and shame them for not being able to maintain employment?

        I urge you to be mindful of others when expressing your opinions.

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        • What? My friend was never sexually abused. I don’t know where you read that. I can’t judge people who are on disability because I don’t know them. I myself tried to get on disability because of my own deep trauma and lupus.

          I’ve known my friend for over 10 years now. She used to talk about some of her trauma with her parents and brother but after she got the BPD diagnosis she changed her story and told me that all of her problems are due to BPD and that she had a good childhood.

          She would get very upset if anyone told her that she made mistakes at work and would quit or get fired. She said that the business world chewed her up and spit her out and that she doesn’t want to work anymore. This is why I think she is able to work but doesn’t want to deal with her trauma. Work triggers her trauma. It’s the same thing for me. I deal with many of the same issues and I also feel like the business world chews me up and spits me out because of my own instability. We both had to deal with hostility in the workplace and lots of unstable people have to.

          Nevertheless, I get the feeling that if she didn’t hide behind the BPD diagnosis and practice cognitive-behavioral skills and got back to being honest about her trauma and how it triggers her and dealt with it that she would be able to work again possibly in a lower stress environment. I could be wrong though. I just know that she feels like a failure and sits at home much of the time and I don’t think that’s good for her mental health. Although she makes sure she has a pretty active life with friends and socializes.

          Many of these people feel like a failure and that they can’t work or do much of anything productive because of their diagnosed mental illnesses. I know that quite a few people blame all of their problems on their diagnosed mental illnesses and feel helpless. They believe they need to me on medications for life. I think some people are truly in this situation but I don’t think all of them are. They were led to believe this.

          However, there are people who want to blame it all on their mental diagnoses in the hopes of not being seen as being too weak in character or personality to work. There is so much pressure to be strong and you’re looked down upon for struggling with past problems. Like what’s wrong with you? Why aren’t you over that already? It’s a way to save face. I know that feeling very well. I’ve been seen as being weak since I was born (abused since birth) and I’ve been an easy target as a result and so have many others so I can see why they feel this way.

          I wish that we all were less judgmental towards people who struggle with instability and that we weren’t easy targets as a result. Many of us have been bullied, used and abused and being laughed at is no fun at all. I know all of this personally and I can see how it has affected me and how it affects others. I think I’m very insightful but I know I’m wrong at times simply because I never lived anybody else’s life but my own.

          It bothers me a lot that people who suffer from childhood trauma and instability as a result are treated badly both inside and outside of the mental health business. What we need is to seen and heard and validated. What we need is to be told that our problems, our emotions, our struggles are normal reactions under the circumstances in our lives. We need compassion and to tell our story and for it to make sense to others. After that, it’s good to learn coping skills that we can use on a daily basis in order to live a more productive life but also to take a good look at ourselves and see how we treat others due to our traumas but with gentle insights and encouragement. For example, a person who yells at their spouse or kids. What’s really going on? Where does this anger really come from? Does the anger make sense when you put the person’s trauma or other experiences into perspective and into context? Yes.

          We can heal and change if we can tell our stories and be seen, heard and validated and told that how we are is understandable under the circumstances. We can heal and change when we are gently told that even though we didn’t cause our anger or pain that we still need to take responsibility for how we may be hurting others because of it and work on changing that by learning better coping skills and apologizing to the ones we hurt and to do better. By learning how to do this at home and outside of the home. We need encouragement. However, this is much easier said than done. For example, I have yet to meet an abusive parent who takes responsibility for harming their children.

          The mental health field, especially psychiatry, doesn’t do these things. Dialectical Behavioral Therapy teaches coping skills to people (mainly who have been diagnosed with BPD) but their attitude towards people with BPD is ugly overall. And, again, the medical model of mental illness does appeal to many people because it’s an easy way out in blaming their brain and not doing the work that’s often necessary to have a better life.

          I will always believe that some people really do need to be on disability permanently or temporarily but that some are on disability but really don’t need to be. They just need to be believed in and encouraged to do better because they are capable of it.

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          • Sabrina, I think your friend has every right to see herself and live her life the way she chooses.

            Yes, childhood trauma is responsible for a lot of the difficulties people experience in adulthood. But facing childhood mistreatment is too much for some people to grapple with.

            I think the most compassionate thing is to like and respect people the way they are, not as you think they should be. As the saying goes, never judge someone until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes, even if you’re wearing the same shoes.

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      • Yes. My friends doesn’t want to deal with her trauma or want to work on herself. That’s her decision but I will always believe that people should be encouraged rather than settle for less but it’s up to them and it’s ok. Some people on disability for a mental illness just sit at home thinking that they can’t do better because they have a brain disorder, and I think this way of thinking hurts them more than helps them.

        Also, it’s quite telling that nobody responds to many of the other things that I have written about in several of my lengthy responses. However, I know that this website is mainly about talking about the downside of psychiatry and psychiatric medications.

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        • Dear Sabrina,

          I feel it is essential to discuss some troubling comments you’ve made that reflect a lack of understanding and compassion toward individuals receiving a disability pension. Phrases like “Some people really need disability but not everyone on it” and “It’s also a way to justify being on disability” suggest a dismissive attitude, even as you express that you “can’t judge people who are on disability.”

          Additionally, your unfounded claims regarding your ‘friend’s’ approach to managing her trauma are concerning. Comments such as “If she didn’t hide behind the BPD diagnosis… she would be able to work again” and “ My friends doesn’t want to deal with her trauma or want to work on herself” overlook the complexities of trauma and perpetuate stigma rather than promote understanding.

          I previously raised these issues with you, and I urge you to reconsider your statements. They can cause real harm and do not reflect the empathy we should extend to all individuals facing these challenges.

          Kind regards,

          Cat

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          • I disagree. I think more positively about her than anyone else including herself. I’m concerned for people who believe they have a brain disorder when they really don’t. She’s convinced she has a personality disorder and I don’t believe in personality disorders. She and many others attribute all of their problems to their “diagnosis.” I look beyond that and I don’t think they are hopeless or helpless like they were led to believe. I think people should be encouraged to face themselves and to face life. I’ve had tons of trauma in my childhood and several psychiatric diagnoses and I won’t allow these labels to become a big part of my identity and I won’t identify people by these labels. I’ve been highly unstable in my life and have felt suicidal, had a few close attempts, and struggled with debilitating insomnia and on and on. I think I should have been on disability at times. I have a lot more empathy and understanding than you think. She even admitted several years ago that the mental health industry made her worse but that’s changed now.

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          • I never talked to her about her being on disability. I never told her that she shouldn’t be on it or that she should get off of it or anything like that. I just told her that I think it’s trauma (from how her parents and brother treated her) and that her struggles are understandable. She attributes her struggles to herself and her brain and I think it’s the environment. She doesn’t agree so we just talk about other things. I’ve never confronted anyone about them being on disability. I think at times that I should have been on disability myself. My previous posts will be modified which I agree with.

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  14. “I believe one of the biggest problems and wrongs is the medicalization of normal human emotion. I also believe that we are now living in an increasingly sick society, one in which we were not evolved to live and cope in. We used to be a part of big communities and children would spend their days outdoors. Instead, most find themselves inside, glued to a device or social media account, waiting for the next dopamine hit. I do strongly believe though that the more critical voices speak out, the closer we move towards a change for the good and for that I remain hopeful.”

    Agree 100%, as do some other folks at the Sudbury School.

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  15. I totally agree with Laura in her article, I t happened to me labeled with diagnosis that are not true, it’s on my medical file and I’m fighting to get it off my medical file. I went theough a health diagnosis, that was very upsetting 12 years ago put on antidepressants and a benzo, tried to get off both and had problems, put on a different one well you know the outcome still on them to this day and want off badly. I’m scared to come off because of withdrawl in the past. A normal reaction to a health diagnosis, cried in my doctors office and told I had depression and anxiety, in hind sight I would of never ever taken these drugs if I had more info on what they do to you being on them long term and had good support from everyone I would of been better off. My story is to long to put on here. But going through health diagnosis,grief of my mom, and a traumatic event to. And no real support, is unreal, I have a lot more to say but won’t because it’s a shit show, let’s just say polydrugged. Off two of the meds but one I just stopped didn’t know was suppose to taper, it was a benzo, and a sleeping pill was sort of tapered but the wrong way. And still to this day my sleep is not good because of this. When you have a health issue you need your sleep. I am exhausted and exhausted from the health care system of not believing me about coming off a benzo and know that’s why I can’t sleep like I use to. I am mad that this is going on in the health care system, but mainly in psychiatry.

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    • More and more psychiatrists are not prescribing benzos anymore. I really think psychiatrists know about the side effects and withdrawal symptoms of psychiatric medications but they don’t talk about it because they don’t want to scare their patients off. Medical doctors, in general, don’t talk about medications either. They leave it up to pharmacists to do that but pharmacists usually will just give you a print out of all the information along with the medications. The more people are informed the less people will try medications and the less money the medical and drug industries will make overall. They don’t want that. Also, everyone is so different in how they react to medications in both side effects and withdrawal symptoms so they would have to use a lot of words like “maybe” or “possibly”. The denial from some of them is the worst though when you are struggling with side effects or withdrawal symptoms. I think they just want to protect themselves from lawsuits or any disciplinary action.

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      • Yes I have heard of him and watched his videos, I didn’t care for them it scared me to much. He’s in the US and I heard he charges to much money to get people off there medications, I don’t live in the US. I’ve watched a lot of these types of videos and Mad in America on YouTube, and the Benzo Coalition all scared me so bad it caused more distress. I know they are trying to get it out there the harm these medications can do, but just not for me. I don’t think anyone can afford to get help from these people, there’s others to they call themselves coaches, I think that’s a gamble to because everyone is so different on coming off these medications and doing this through online is not ideal anything could go wrong for the person coming off, and no one to get help if you run into a problem, people online doing this are not trained in this either. I don’t trust it. If you were in horrible withdraw, they can’t come to your house and help you through it.
        Dr. joseph Witt Doerring does his videos like it’s funny, there’s nothing fun about going through what all those people have been through.

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        • Sandy, I understand how you feel. It’s disconcerting to say the least to hear someone speak so diametrically opposed to what psychiatrists say generally. I think Dr. Josef does a good job providing the latest information with realistic hope for people who desperately need it. It’s just a difficult situation for any doctor to take on any way you look at it.

          I’m sorry his services are too expensive for you, but I’m sure you’re far from alone in that regard. The truth is it’s very expensive to run a private medical practice in the United States these days as reimbursements can be hard to authorize and then often aren’t enough to pay the expenses of running a practice (rent, staff, malpractice insurance, plus the burden of having to fund your own private health insurance premiums).

          I think you are smart to be careful about random people online. It’s gamble I’d be afraid to take.

          Have you looked into survivingantidepressants.org or The Withdrawal Project at withdrawal.innercompass.org put together by Laura Delano? These are people I would trust.

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    • Doctors and pharmacists don’t want to talk to you about side effects or withdrawal symptoms. What happens is that pharmacies will put print outs of all that information along with your medications and leave it up to you to read it and educate yourself on the drugs that way.

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  17. It’s common practice that most medical doctors (including psychiatrists) won’t talk about the side effects or withdrawal symptoms of medications. They leave that up to the pharmacist to talk about with you but most of the time they don’t. They print out all that information and give it to you along with your medications and they leave it up to you to read the information yourself and decide on your own if you want to take the medication. Most people don’t read the information and then get surprised (under stably so) when they struggle with side effects or withdrawal symptoms. We can also read about all of this information by googling it. Doctors and pharmacists don’t want to spend the extra time explaining these things to us and I think they are afraid of scaring us away from taking the medications and let’s be honest, that’s how they make their money.

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