As a proud member of the prescribed harm community and a psychiatric survivor, I know better than most the importance of speaking out and not bowing to any bully who comes along who seeks to prevent that. There are plenty of them, look to see who they hang around with, or check their Twitter feed to see if they are just a fake. The profession of psychiatry has caused and continues to cause immense harm, that is why there is a psychiatric survivor movement and so many harmed patients. Psychiatry as a profession has colluded with the pharmaceutical companies and led the general public and patients to believe that a chemical imbalance in the brain is a cause of depression, the result of this has been widespread consumption of antidepressants, a class of drugs which does not perform particularly well in clinical trials. GPs have been taught to believe this and to communicate this information to their patients. Even in the past few months we have seen two GPs on national TV talking about a chemical imbalance and insulin for diabetes. It is not so long ago that we listened to Prof Clare Gerada talking in a similar manner in a podcast for the Royal College of Physicians. She is one of the most influential GPs in the UK and married to the psychiatrist, Prof Sir Simon Wessely. In 2011 she also downplayed protracted benzodiazepine withdrawal when speaking on national radio.
https://www.benzo.org.uk/chaheath.htm
The recent article by Moncrieff et al, published in Molecular Psychiatry, has been one of the most important developments to date, since I first started to campaign about the harms caused by antidepressants.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-022-01661-0
Of course I was already fully aware that there is no scientific evidence to show that low serotonin causes depression. I have known this for some time but the knowledge came far too late for me, as I had already consumed SSRIs for many years. The most galling aspect of the reactions to this article, has been the numerous psychiatrists who yawned at the mention of the article, as they had known for many years there was no evidence. For me personally, this knowledge has been vital, allowing me to free myself from the shackles of antidepressants. For me drugs of dependence, antidepressants and benzodiazepines, have simply been chains around my ankles, preventing me from functioning as a normal human being, suppressing my emotions, causing cognitive impairment and chronic fatigue, not to mention the complete lack of any sexual feelings. Why did I even put up with it? I was not warned of the risks prior to initial prescribing, drug dependence is not easy to throw off, it can take years and for me it was necessary to hold down a job, pay the bills and keep a roof over my head. The other reason was the fact that psychiatrists had firmly planted in my mind that I needed these drugs, I had an illness called “depression”, and any attempt to come off the drugs would be ill-advised as they were keeping me stable. All this was in fact a pile of nonsense. I had no such illness, the drugs were doing nothing positive, only causing harm, and the only factor in keeping me stable was my own determination and bloody-mindedness, that I would never give up trying to make a life for myself despite all the odds against me.
It was only when I retired that I started to question this whole idea of my being depressed. Why would I be depressed, there was no reason to be depressed? It did not make sense. I wanted to travel, enjoy all this free time. Soon after I retired, I changed GP and then everything started to become clear. I came off the benzos on medical advice. As I progressed through protracted withdrawal (brain injury) it was obvious I had been suffering from brain damage and not depression. The antidepressants were the next to be cast aside, slowly tapering off them. I was so very sick mostly bedridden due to withdrawal. I obtained my medical notes and then it was obvious that Prof George Ashcroft had passed me to another psychiatrist because he too had realised I did not have the depressive illness he had thought I might have. Yet despite this I was not advised to come off antidepressants. It wasn’t even explained to me that there was very little likelihood that I had a depressive illness. Yet whenever I hit a difficult patch in my life, the suggestion was always let’s try another drug. The drugs were making me sick, no wonder I could not cope.
One of the worst aspects of this for me, is that every memory I have from the age of 20, is of my struggle to function, always feeling terribly unwell, it got worse as I got older. The amount of effort I had to put into getting a degree, holding down a job, studying for a Masters and PhD on top of full time work was huge, I was battling with brain damage. I only did 2/3 of the Masters, I already worked in research full time and would have gained nothing from doing the last module, primary research. I went to viva for PhD but my health really wasn’t up to it, I was being bullied at work and when advised I would have to rewrite my thesis, I decided enough was enough, much to my grave disappointment. A PhD would not have increased my earnings but I would have gained immense satisfaction from achieving that particular goal.
Psychiatrists are in denial regarding how much harm they cause, they will never accept it. They will accept that harm is caused by other psychiatrists, but will generally think they are the exception, that they are different, that they do not cause harm. I think they are wrong. I can guarantee not one of my psychiatrists was aware they were causing me harm, every single one of them caused me harm. Nothing that they did was right for me. Ah, but people will say you didn’t have a mental illness. Too bloody right I didn’t but my husband did or at least he certainly fitted a certain diagnostic category. And what did he say before he died? He said I don’t think the drugs ever helped me, after decades of agreeing to every drug, every drug switch, every drug increase or drug reduction, agreeing to ECT, always saying he thought it was helping, and what was the end result? His physical health ruined, his cognition ruined, his mental state the same.
I think it is very important to note that we were both compliant patients, accepting the advice of psychiatrists and no doubt they liked both of us for being such nice and grateful people. Indeed, we were really the perfect psych patients. Yet they wrecked our health, they never noticed how sick they were making me, and my husband, well what did they do for him? Not very much at the end of the day. Perhaps he could have been supported without ruining his physical health and cognitive abilities. Perhaps I could have been supported without ruining my physical health and cognitive abilities. Would that not have been preferable?
Don’t try to tell me that things are better now. It is obvious that they are not. I see all the poly-drugging and the widespread iatrogenic harm, the brain injuries from ECT. I see all the desperate patients on social media who cannot get help. I see the suicides in mental health units. I don’t see hordes of patients talking about the excellent care they have had from the mental health system.
nevertrustadoctor 