Russell B will be a guest on an upcoming Inner Compass Conversations livestream hosted by Laura Delano. Please watch the video for details on the topic. It’ll be a casual 1-hour affair in which we’ll talk about something very important to not only people who are struggling through psychiatric drug withdrawal and beyond, but also to people who are still taking psych drugs, happily or otherwise, and plan to continue doing so for the foreseeable future. Hope everyone is doing well and I hope to see you at the stream!
Here's the link to the Inner Compass Conversation’s Facebook group (It’s a closed group, understandably, so you’ll have to join - but it’s worth it! Just answer the three questions and you’re in.):
/ innercompassconversations
This is taken directly from the “Description” portion of the group’s Facebook page and will let you know what the group is about:
"The aim of Inner Compass Conversations is to provide a space where we can talk about the immediate and longer-term concerns, challenges, and questions facing our community when it comes to psychiatric drugs and associated diagnoses. On an ongoing basis, we’ll also bring in the voices of guests to share a wide range of additional experiences and insights as well. Inner Compass Conversations Facebook group is a closed online space where our community can support each other - engaging together in discussion and dialogue about questions we’re facing, along with topics explored in our weekly video conversations and online posts.
To read about who should and shouldn't join, along with our Guiding Principles & Values and our Group Pledge, visit our website here: www.theinnercompass.org/conversations"
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Inner Compass Initiative’s Facebook page:
/ innercompassinitiative
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Other Links:
Inner Compass Initiative Website:
www.theinnerco...
The Withdrawal Project:
withdrawal.the...
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About Russell B:
I was 11-years-old when I was first taken to a psychiatrist. Like so many children, I was struggling to deal with a stressful home environment. Rather than embarking on the complicated, difficult, and delicate task of thoroughly exploring all of that and attempting to solve the problems at their origins, the psychiatrist instead gave me a diagnosis of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and promptly prescribed the antidepressant Luvox to treat its “symptoms.”
This sequence of events kickstarted nearly two decades of wandering through psychiatry’s labyrinth of symptom management and prescribing cascades. By the time I was 25, I had received a half-dozen diagnoses, taken countless psychiatric drugs - including ten straight years on antipsychotics - and had more side effects than I could keep up with or manage. I weighed 400 lbs (181 kg), had out-of-control Type 2 diabetes, and felt like I was dying. And honestly, I had felt so bad for so long, I sometimes welcomed it.
I didn’t know where the DSM labels and all the treatments for my supposed “disorders” stopped and I began. I was sad, broken, and worst of all, someone I’d never had the chance to know.
But then I experienced a spark of hope. A light bulb-over-the-brain moment. Maybe I didn’t have to live that way. Even though the belief had been drilled into me for so many of my developing years that coming off the meds would surely seal my doom, something deep inside told me to take a chance and bet big on Russell B. Using this internal guidance, I began a psych drug taper and slowly started coming off every single one of the drugs in a psych drug cocktail: Lexapro, Concerta, Ritalin, Geodon, Klonopin, and Rozerem. None of them were safe. All were on the chopping block.
It took 5 god-awful years to complete the taper and with almost no help from the docs who’d put me on them. But I succeeded.
I’ve been off all meds for 10 years now (as of August 2023) and haven’t seen a psychiatrist since way back in 2009. It’s been a brutally long journey down a nightmarish path. One that was often too dark to see in front of me and littered with steep drops and soul-testing trials. But you know what? I survived. And my life has been improving, slowly but surely, ever since I escaped the house that psychiatry built.
If you’re wandering down the same path, please know you’re not alone. You’re not fated to lose your way - or yourself. You can succeed. We all can.
28 сен 2024
