Your Drug May Be Your Problem: How and Why to Stop Taking Psychiatric Medications

I am a licensed clinical social worker who supervises other clinical social workers in a well-respected Treatment Foster Care program. I know for a fact that psychiatrists often prescribe Ritalin, anti-psychotic drugs and powerful anti-depressants to seven and eight year old children. Once the prescribing begins, it often escalates and rarely does a child get taken off meds. These are not "occasional" psychiatric practices - they are the rule, not the exception, with this population. Before reviewers claim Breggin and Cohen are "narrow minded" or "extreme," they need to read eight or ten other source books (among them:From Placebo to Panacea, by Fisher and Greenberg; Blaming the Brain, by Valenstein; Talking Back to Prozac, by Breggin and Breggin; The Tripple Helix, by Lewontin). These are writers of substance, with well-documented arguments. They present clear pictures of the gaping holes in the biopsychiatric model and the shoddy, self-serving research that allegedly supports that model. Several of these books present detailed indictments of the degree to which huge financial interests dominate psychiatry and drug research; they present clear and verifiable information (of which most psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers seem unaware) about the questionable effectiveness and all-too-common dangers of these drugs. I don't doubt that a number of people have felt their lives saved by these drugs. But there is much research to support psycho-social interventions which do at least as well as psychiatric meds, without the dangers and side effects. This research is hard to find in the U.S., largely because of the huge amount of money the pharmaceutical companies spend supporting the American Psychiatric Association, NAMI, CHADD, the medical journals, and academic researchers. Studies which don't reinforce drug companies' vested interests are very hard to fund, and harder to publish. The latest figure I've seen: the drug companies in a recent year spent over 13 billion dollars on promotion alone. Dr. Martin Keller, a lead researcher in a major study supporting the use of anti-depressant medication was reported by Glenmullen and the Boston Globe to have received income of over $500,000 dollars from drug companies in a single year. The efficacy of psychiatric drugs is way overstated. Their damage is vastly minimized by the drug companies, the researchers and the FDA. Read Breggin's Talking Back to Prozac, and Glenmullen's Prozac Backlash. See if you can find, anywhere, a point by point refutation of their specific charges about fudged drug studies and naked economic influence on "scientific" research. You won't find the drug companies, the FDA or the psychiatric establishment addressing these issues head on, fact for fact, because they know they have no response. Don't just read this one book by Breggin and Cohen. Keep looking. No psychiatrist, psychologist, social worker or counsellor should consider themselves prepared to engage in ethical

My nursing training (Philadelphia) left me with a bad taste in my mouth for Psychiatry. I was apalled at the number of medications many of my psychiatric patients were taking, and the control these physicians had over those patients lives. Since the day I abandoned my wild, recreational drug-abusing ways, I have always resisted the idea of "medication for stress" with everything I had. Then came 1999, and a series of events that left me shredded. I gave in to the counsel of a medicated friend, and accepted Paxil from my M.D. What (at first) seemed like a miracle has become a nightmare. I have been having severe health problems (including sudden, unexplained obesity). After observing the effects of sudden Paxil withdrawl (behaviors and physical effects) in a dear friend, I started looking into Paxil and other related drugs. My search led me to this book. I am in those pages...so is my friend, my elderly mom, and several others I know. Dr. Breggin and Dr. Cohen's work is sound and extensively documented. Not only do they expose the problem, but they are committed to showing professionals - and their patients - a better way. They are advocates for much needed education and reform in the political and medical arenas. And most importantly, they know that medication is not man's greatest need when he is hurting. If you are a professional that prescribes these meds, a person who takes these meds, or if someone you know is on these meds, READ THIS BOOK! PLEASE DO NOT ATTEMPT TO WITHDRAW THESE DRUGS WITHOUT (INFORMED!) PROFESSIONAL GUIDANCE AND A LOT OF SUPPORT! See also their work relating to the mass-medicating of our nations hurting children (Ritalin, etc.).

I was on Zoloft and then Celexa for a little over a year for Post Traumatic Stress and Panic Attacks. The medicines saved my life. However, around the time I ordered this book I was ready to go off of the Celexa. My life had been calm and positive for a year and I wanted to see if I could handle stress in different ways. My psychiatrist suggested I stay on for another year so that I would have that much more time under my belt. Because of this book I had the courage to say no and that I did want to stop taking the drugs and that I already knew some of the possible side effects I might have by going off of them and how to do it. I've been drug-free for about a month now with no problems. I truly recommend this book. It is good information to have even if you are staying on your medication.

I was presribed Valium for 30 years. It's beneficial effects rarely last more than 4 months. But I trusted my doctors. The effects have been devastating and disastrous for me and my family. I have suffered from severe depression for 30 years and finally turned to alcohol to reduce what is commonly called the "Benzo Blues". Valium has also been referred to as "Blue Death". When I questioned one clinic about this drug, the reply was, "We must deal with the depression first!" So they kept me on this dosage for 3 more years while prescribing Prozac. Obviously, this did not help except to deaden my brain worse. So they doubled the Prozac. That did not work. So they quadrupled the Prozac to it's maximum! In desperation, I called my church, and they said to follow my doctor's orders so that I was even more convinced that what I was doing was right. Finally, the climax came and I started going on alcoholic benders to alleviate the depression. Now, the clinic stated that I must take the Valium and Prozac in order to treat my disease of alcoholism! I finally ended up in a psychiatric hospital for one week. A psychiatrist there told me that what had been going on was insane. That she has been desperately trying to get the elderly off of Xanax and Valium which their doctors had addicted them to. If you are a counselor, or simply a concerned citizen who is definitely concerned about crime in this country, you simply must readthis book and discover what the medical profession and the pharmaceutical companies have been doing in order to make money. I am now under a slow withdrawal program with a qualified psychiatrist and therapist. But I am taking care now of my own medical care in all regards. Readers, please refer to the PDR also ("Physician's Desk Reference") and read all the side effects of all drugs that you are taking. And put this one under the pillow of your bed.

Finally, the debilitating withdrawal effects of psychiatric medications are getting some recognition. I tried to stop taking antidepressants because they gave me insomnia, but the withdrawal effects were so disastrous that I eventually lost a fantastic job. I struggled for a year and a half before I was finally able to get off an antidepressant, against the advice of my psychiatrist. I saw several psychiatrists over this period, but none of them gave me the guidance I needed. If this book had been out, it would have saved me a lot of misery. I would highly recommend this book to anyone taking, or thinking about taking, antidepressants, and it is definitely a MUST READ for anyone thinking of going off an antidepressant.