Thread by @Altostrata

@psychunseen: "...if the goal of anti-psychiatry is to get #psychiatrists to listen...this is better done within a therapeutic relationship, not in a picket line at the American Psychiatric Association annual meeting or on social media" apparently refers to me personally. /1

I thought it stood out as particularly illogical in his most recent screed psychologytoday.com/us/blog/psych-…

Who pickets the APA other than Scientology?

Then I recalled I had attended an APA meeting where there were pickets. I did not do any picketing myself, but I was invited to speak outside:

/3

It was in 2013. I was in my 9th year of post-acute withdrawal syndrome, dating from 2004, when my withdrawal from 10mg paroxetine was botched by @UCSFPsychiatry, which did not recognize my severe withdrawal symptoms. /4

Although I was shaky, I pulled myself together for some meetings with #psychiatrists attending the annual meeting. At this one, I attended a session of the APA Radical Psychiatry Caucus, which wants to hear from patient advocates. radicalcaucus.com /5

I've attended several APA annual meetings in San Francisco. In 2019, I met with @wendyburn, Swapnil Gupta, Tamar Lavy, other Radical Caucusites, and these authors:

Batelaan, et al. “Risk of Relapse after #Antidepressant Discontinuation....” BMJ (2017). doi.org/10.1136/bmj.j3… /6

If you watch the Youtube video, you will hear that I am speaking only about the dangers of too-fast tapering.

Ironically, I was in a long-term "therapeutic relationship" with maybe the best #psychiatrist in the universe at that time. /7

This #psychiatrist never diagnosed me with anything but #antidepressant post-acute withdrawal syndrome #PAWS. He said he had seen it before in his patients.

He was an excellent doctor, kindly there for me through the cardiac procedure I had 5 weeks after that event in 2013. /8

I'll be forever grateful to him.

(Coincidentally, I corresponded with @dawso007 about my cardiac condition. He told me it was incurable. George, see Steven Hao at CPMC. He pronounced me cured.)

medpagetoday.com/resource-cente… /9

I had been referred to my #psychiatrist by Drs. Owen Wolkowitz & Tom Neylan at UCSF. Both of them should be familiar to @psychunseen

ucsf.edu/news/2007/03/3… /10

I had been hunting for a doctor to help me for 4 years. I pretty much went through the #psychiatry faculty roster at UCSF. I probably contacted 30 of them. No one knew anything. psychiatry.ucsf.edu/faculty /11

I had many good talks with my #psychiatrist, who generously provided his insights into neuropsychiatry & supported me in becoming a subject matter expert on #psychiatric drug tapering & withdrawal syndrome. He's too busy with patients to publish.

We're colleagues now. /12

If this gets too anti-science or anti-psychiatry, please let me know.

So, Joe, your insinuation that I, personally, need a "therapeutic relationship" with a #psychiatrist because I "attempt to find meaning in identity as an injured party" based on a 2013 video is not only a classic ad hominem but possibly defamatory. /14 medpagetoday.com/psychiatry/gen…

Strongly recommend you consider writing an article about how the derogation of patients asserting injury from #psychiatric treatment as "anti-psychiatry", "anti-science", or like "anti-vaxxers" may not be appropriate, especially coming from "mental health professionals". /15

Addendum: Deepest apologies for overlooking that at the 2019 APA meeting, I also met the fabulous @sandysteingard. Some months later, I had the pleasure of meeting her partner, G. Scott Waterman at another meeting in Sweden. psychiatrictimes.com/authors/g-scot…