Psychiatric Withdrawal Town Hall 1 - Introducing the Series

[Shep]

The town hall video has just been uploaded to Mad in America's YouTube channel.

 

Psychiatric Withdrawal Town Hall 1 - Introducing the Series video (1 hour, 30 minutes)

 

More information and links to papers can be found here: Town Hall Resources

 

This first panel is comprised of Altostrata, founder of Surviving Antidepressants; Swapnil Gupta, a Board Member of the International Institute for Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal and a psychiatrist with a special interest in deprescribing; John Read, Professor of Psychology and Chair of the International Institute for Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal and Luke Montagu, co-founder of the Council for Evidence-based Psychiatry and member of the NICE guideline committee for safe prescribing and withdrawal (Luke has also experienced withdrawal).

[Shep]

15 hours ago, bunchesofoats said:

I'm not sure if this is the best place for this post (I looked for a more directly relevant thread), but I wanted to thank @Altostrataonce again. I'm currently watching the webinar "Introducing the Withdrawal Series and Setting the Scene." It's the second time I've seen you speak on a panel, and once again I am wildly impressed with your clear-mindedness and eloquence. It feels incredibly therapeutic for me to hear you speak so directly and completely about this topic that I usually feel like I am dealing with alone. I wish I would've encountered even just one medical professional in the last few years who was at all familiar with this.

 

Luke's description of experience with CBT also completely resonated with me. It took me two years to realize that I wasn't making progress because the issues were stemming from the medication.

 

I also appreciated Swapnil pointing out that there is an extra social risk for some people - for example young black men who may be going through symptoms  may face disproportionate consequences in our society.

 

Since going through my own withdrawal experience (discontinuation, whatever the best word for it is), I look around at others differently. I can't help but wonder how much of our current societal issues stem directly from people having adverse experiences with SSRIs or similar classes of medications.

 

Wishing everyone good health, courage, hope, and tenacity.

 

@bunchesofoatsThanks for your comment on the Town Hall. I've copied this from the thread "Mad in America - Surviving Antidepressants: An Interview with Alto" and placed it here.