ON MEDICALIZATION 🧵🧵🧵

1/ When you turn commonsense, logical, natural responses to the trials and tribulations of modern, industrialized life into medical problems to be addressed with medical solutions you will inevitably worsen suffering. 2/ Ivan Illich called this cultural iatrogenesis: what happens when the medical system-- including the mental health industry-- destroys "the potential of people to deal with their human weakness, vulnerability, and uniqueness in a personal and autonomous way."

1/ A damning WSJ investigation reveals we're conducting a mass experiment on children's developing brains with little understanding of long-term consequences. The fact that mainstream media is finally covering this signals a major cultural shift. 2/ "The best scientific evidence suggests that it is very rare for two or more medications in kids to be helpful and there are concerns about safety, because there can be additive adverse effects of different types of medications," says psychiatrist Javeed Sukhera.

I had my first orgasm at age 27, after stopping #SSRIs I'd taken since childhood. This timing is not a coincidence.

I am lucky to have regained this sacred part of my humanity, and have made peace with all that was lost, interfered with, or otherwise disrupted along the way.🧵 What the NYT just reported should shake every parent, prescriber, and policymaker awake.

“Although there have been clinical trials among the adolescent population… I haven’t seen sexual questions being asked… I don’t hear my colleagues talking about it," said one researcher.

65M Americans take psychiatric drugs.
1 in 4 adults. Nearly 1 in 10 kids.
Millions are medicated, numbed, and stuck with no safe way out.

If this affects you—or someone you love—this thread matters 🧵 America is running the largest uncontrolled psychological experiment in history.

CDC data:
• 23.1% of U.S. adults (~60 million people ) take ≥1 psychiatric drug
• 8.2% of U.S. children (~4.5 million kids) do too

Almost 1 in 4 adults, nearly 1 in 10 kids—medicated long-term with no clear exit strategy.

Why does this matter?

A quick 🧵 on 3 basic facts about psychiatric drugs that you've likely not been told-- facts I wish my parents and I had learned prior to starting a 14-year old me on a long-term regimen that would eventually grow to include #SSRIs, benzos, mood stabilizers, and antipsychotics.

https://twitter.com/APApsychiatric/status/1961116732984078347

There are currently ~65 mill Americans taking psych drugs (according to 2022 @CDCgov numbers)-- many of them for years. Since our trusted psychiatric guild authorities like the APA don't seem to be sharing these basic facts, it's up to us to inform ourselves.

Let's dive in 👇

1/ Currently, people who are thinking about coming off SSRIs or other psych meds are faced with a serious dilemma: there are ZERO SAFE OFF-RAMPS from psychiatric drugs available within the conventional mental health system. 🧵🧵🧵 2/ In the rare instances that tapering-- euphemistically called "discontinuation"-- is discussed by official authorities, recommendations are FAR TOO FAST, leading many people to experience debilitating, prolonged withdrawal symptoms that are often mistaken for a "relapse."

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.