Thread by @LauraDelano

So many people rely on painful memories of past catastrophes from the last time they stopped their psychiatric meds as justification for why they need to be on them, or proof of how #mentallyill they are. For years, I was one of these people.

What most if not all of us aren't told prior to starting these meds is that the human brain will compensate for the ongoing presence of a psychoactive chemical (which all psychiatric drugs are), changing its structure and functioning in order to maintain a state of homeostasis.

Depending on which neurotransmitters a particular drug interferes with, the brain (along with other systems in the human body, which are all interdependent upon each other) will shut parts of itself down, ramp parts of itself up, or otherwise disable itself, to put it crudely.

These medication-induced changes to the brain are fundamental. They are not to be taken lightly. They have consequences for the entirety of our being: physical, emotional, hormonal, digestive, cognitive, sexual, reproductive, social. I would argue, spiritual.

Abruptly stopping your meds (and by abrupt, I don't just mean cold turkey; I mean over a few weeks, months, or even a year or more, depending on how long you've been on them) can lead to total chaos in your brain. This chaos is not a relapse. It is psychiatric drug withdrawal.

What's unfortunate for us (but very fortunate for Pharma) is that the symptoms of psych drug withdrawal often mimic those of the diagnoses for which said drugs were prescribed. Which makes sense: these drugs interfere with the brain, which shapes how we think, feel, + behave.

No wonder so many of us are quickly humbled when we stop our psych meds: "Jeez," we think, "if this hellscape of untreated mental illness I'm in right now is all that's in store for me as long as I'm off my meds, I've gotta get back on them and never make this mistake again."

Not one psychiatrist during the 1.5 decades I spent believing I was #bipolar + needing lifelong meds informed me these drugs would disable my brain function + make it so that I'd have a hell of a time coming off. (Why would they? My operating assumption was that I never would.)

If you've had horrible experiences after stopping psychiatric drugs + you think this means you need them for life + that what you felt off them was your "baseline," all you need is an inkling of openness to the possibility that there's another story for you. Because there is.

The new, more hopeful story beyond "incurable mental illness requiring lifelong medication use" begins with self-education. A great place to start is @_innercompass 's Withdrawal Project, which you can learn more about here: withdrawal.theinnercompass.org/page/about-wit…

You are so far from alone. ❤️