@psydoc1970 @dsowens17 In my experience working with people deprescribing, many HAVE successfully come off once or twice with no or minimal withdrawal. The third time, not so lucky. Kindling effect?
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Angie Peacock, MSW, CPC
7.6K posts
Angie Peacock, MSW, CPC
@angpeacock1111
Psych Drug Withdrawal, Combat Veteran, Vanlifer, in the movie @medicatingnorm1
#vanlife Katılım Mayıs 2009
3.4K Takip Edilen5K Takipçiler
@dsowens17 I believe the variability in withdrawal response correlates fairly well with the variability in the "therapeutic effect" response. Some people withdraw without a problem, some experience withdrawal symptoms right away, and some take a longer time.
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Angie Peacock, MSW, CPC retweetledi
Can someone explain to me how it takes 4 weeks on SSRIs to achieve full therapeutic effect but we are supposed to believe that if someone misses a couple of doses and rapidly deteriorates this is evidence of ‘relapse’.
If the therapeutic benefit depends on slow downstream neuroadaptations rather than simply drug presence in the bloodstream, why would the protective effect vanish almost instantly upon cessation?
This makes absolutely no sense.
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This comment on @EllenBarryNYT 's recent NYTimes article is worthy of entire essays explaining the irony and absurdity.
Lisa starts out by claiming "SSRIs have saved my life" and her friends, and in the very next sentence, she demeans "negative anecdotes". So her personal statement is a truth we must accept and validate while any other-than-positive experiences are "negative anecdotes."
She goes on to claim harmed patients are all a coordinated campaign of the CCHR and we are the same as anti-vaxxers. This is quite a far-fetched conspiracy theory. Pro-psychiatry people would rather accuse other experiences of being organized Scientologist campaigns, than simply acknowledge psychiatry has failed people.
We often hear of anti-psychiatry as a pseudoscience conspiracy theory but the same applies for pro-psychiatry. Accusing other experiences of conspiracies requires cognitive dissonance and separation of basic logic.
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@bright_har6612 I don’t like mixing addiction language in, because it’s quite different. But yes, we call that “neuro-emotion” and it’s terrible. Can be seen as “bipolar” or “borderline” because we can be all over the place while our system is re-oragnizing off meds.
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What does psychiatric drug withdrawal look like?
“When I was coming off my meds I was like an addict coming off a bad high. Every emotion imaginable! Hyper angry, hyper sad, hyper horny (sorry tmi) hyper depressed, all mixed up. It was awful.”
This isn’t uncommon.
I experienced this.🧠
Please share your experiences to bring awareness.
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@DoctorPerin Meh. One marginally good one. 13 terrible ones. But I was trained as one and do coaching work so I am still trying to find someone I feel safe enough with who has enough skill to call me on my shit too.
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How many therapists did you meet with before you found a good one?
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All are welcome: sufferers, clinicians, prescribers and therapists, family members and friends.
To register: angiepeacock.com/workshop
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This workshop explores “iatrogenic madness,” a term we coined that helps explain states of distress caused by medical (psychiatric) treatment.
Register here: angiepeacock.com/workshop
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There will be an art and writing experiential portion, Q&A and open community sharing. No experience necessary and no pressure to share.
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We will also examine the ways in which the dominant model treats these states, possible alternatives, and ways to support someone experiencing “iatrogenic madness.”
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Jessica, a survivor and multi-disciplinary artist will show you her experiences through her art and how she has used performance art as activism and advocacy in bringing awareness to iatrogenic madness and related topics.
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We will explore distress in many forms (tardive dyskinesia, akathisia, neuroemotion, dystonia, altered states, PSSD, spiritual experiences, etc)
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Go beyond the loudest voices and there are hundreds of thousands screaming underwater. We have a lot wrong about mental health. Who will be brave enough to lead us into new models of understanding? New ways of being with people who are suffering?
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…but many are lumping us all there.
The Mental health system doesn’t seem too open to criticism and reform. I wonder why?
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The average mental health patient has no power in any of the discourse happening. We have one side accusing another of being "fascist-adjacent," and another screaming "am not." Anyone who doesn't want to take meds or went through withdrawal is not automatically anti-psychiatry…
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I'm losing hope that any of this will ever change. Most in the mental health field, have lost their humanity and do not have the ability to listen or be empathetic to suffering they have caused-- let alone do anything about it.
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@_Eric_Reinhart There’s a lot of forces causing people to lose trust in medicine but you can’t blame patients or “critics” for that. One not need look far to find some of them.
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@xoKaylaNicole @RobSchneider Just because someone says the meds are not safe does not automatically mean they want women to off themselves. Come on with the catastrophic word salad.
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@RobSchneider Cool cool, so you want women to unalive themselves?? Because anti-depression meds have HELPED SO many women and MEN! Many of us would not be here without them!
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THESE
DANGEROUS
ANTI-DEPRESSION
DRUGS
ARE
NOT
SAFE
AND
THERE
IS
ZERO
SCIENCE
BEHIND
THEM!
Yet, 26% of American women now take at least one SSRI drug.
Laura Delano@LauraDelano
For decades, those of us speaking about the harms caused by taking and coming off psychiatric drugs have been ignored, denied or dismissed. I’ve been labeled everything from “antipsychiatry,” “anti-science,” and “Scientologist,” to “right-wing fascist” and “anti-vax,” to simply “too mentally ill” to understand what was happening to me. Now the APA’s own annual meeting is full of panels on deprescribing, overmedication, withdrawal, and psychiatrists openly admitting they regret not helping patients come off these drugs sooner. The hundreds of thousands of personal stories of psychiatric iatrogenesis have become impossible to keep waving away as meaningless anecdotes. I have deep compassion for how hard it must be to face the possibility that you’ve been inadvertently causing harm to patients you’ve been trying to help. But fear is the master distorter of truth, and the only way out is through. We are eager to build a big-tent coalition to begin work on these changes we all know are necessary. I hope you’ll join us.
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@ibdgirl76 @EllenBarryNYT @Theo_TJ_Jordan I support a lot of women who are deprescribing antipsychotics they were given for menopause and/or sleep. They are furious.
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@EllenBarryNYT @Theo_TJ_Jordan Yet I still don’t hear anyone acknowledging the (prob millions) of mostly women w/o any mental health issues who are out on multiple anti-psychotics at one time just to force them off of opioids for pain they’re stable on. Anyone?
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“He just doesn’t like S.S.R.I.s."
Psychiatry has been shaken up by Robert F. Kennedy's push to curb Americans' use of antidepressants. I eavesdropped at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association. Comments are open.
nytimes.com/2026/05/24/sci…
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@tylerblack32 Because I’m questioning a study that I glanced at at 11pm, I’m automatically anti-psych. Okay Tyler.
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@angpeacock1111 its 15 months there Angie (3 months blinded RCT and 12 months open RCT). you're doing it, i thought you might. you are reflexively antipsyching and you are making me feel like i'm wasting my time.
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FDA approval doesn't require longer trials, it's true. But FDA approval is the floor, not the ceiling.
There have been more than 30 RCTs of SSRIs past 52 months, and across all conditions more than 50 when including more designs.
There is also ongoing pharmacovigilance.
Laura Delano@LauraDelano
The average psychiatric drug trial submitted to the FDA lasts just 6 to 8 weeks. Yet many people remain on these medications for months, years, and sometimes decades. Most patients never hear this, and many assume that long-term prescribing means long-term safety and effectiveness have been established. I assumed that too for many years– until I realized how wrong I was. @smerconish
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@connection6556 @Anon9ine I am not your abuser and my comments section isn’t meant for you to get healing from your traumas. This fewls eeally yucky to me so im going to disengage now.
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@connection6556 @Anon9ine Perhaps I don’t need a talking to like you think I do and don’t need comments on me being paid.
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The average mental health patient has no power in any of the discourse happening. We have one side accusing another of being "fascist-adjacent," and another screaming "am not." Anyone who doesn't want to take meds or went through SSRI withdrawal is not "anti-psychiatry."
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