Thank you for addressing this. Due to mental health and sleep issues I was eventually prescribed Seroquel since nothing else seemed to work. If ever there was a drug I would choose to love (at the time), it would be Seroquel. I slept. It was wonderful, for a time. Then I had to increase, and increase, and increase. Like just about any other drug I have been on, it didn't work anymore. My body adapts very quickly but my brain keeps saying it's at least doing something for me. It's got to be or the doctor wouldn't have prescribed it. Right? After several years of taking it, and eventually getting to a dose that would probably kill an elephant, I came across Dr Breggins work (I read his book) and realized I had to get off of it. I had wanted to for a long time but no one would help me. I read and understood the danger of cutting back too quickly. I didn't plan on it but I took a year of slowly reducing how much I took by cutting the pills into smaller and smaller doses then skipping one day, two days, etc., until I was off of them. There's no way, that I know of, to prove it but I'm sure some of my current health issues come from the damage done to my system from the years of Seroquel use. I will be forever grateful to Dr Breggin for his work. I no longer let medical providers dictate what goes in my body and I try to educate, or at least enlighten, those that try to. Thank you!
Seroquel (quetiapine) is associated with the depletion of several key nutrients, most notably CoQ10, Vitamin A, C, D, B1, B12, K, Biotin, Melatonin, Calcium, Magnesium, Folate and Inositol. These deficiencies may lead to the very mood disorder for which a pharmaceutical is prescribed.
As a result of many mistakes, made during a standard surgical procedure..blood pressure went down 90/30, 70/20..in 6 hours.. Me being in the Recovery room after surgery, in 2002, I needed a Total Bloodtransfusion ASAP. It saved my life, but changed it forever... Leaving me in a coma, multiorgan failure, heart stopped.. Had an intensivist at my bed..
I survived, God Wonder.. went through rehabilitation for almost 3 years.. 100% on Disability from TopJob. Still felt so tired, as I was left with a lot of oxigen shortage causing brain(stem) damage, affecting almost everything.
I fell in the hands of an Endocrinologist. He diagnosed me with Addisons and started to give me Cortison. A year later I was 25 kilos overweight, developed Cushings and was given 5 times the normal dose of Cortison!! I demanded a Second Opinion.. He refused but I fought through. Result?
I never had Addisons!!
I was beyond furious! Nobody helped, Never an apology!! Was dismissed everywhere.. The end damage was devastating, from severe Osteoporoses, losing 4 gums, infections all over and in my body.. missed diabetes etc.
The "health inspection" said, once again.. "it was miscommunication" .. 🤬
Long story Short, I got off the Cortison myself, in 6 months.. It was pure Hell!
I since developed severe Peripheral Polyneuropathy (as a result of the missed diabetis) . Blind at one eye, one ear.. Walk with canes. Totally left BigPharmafia.. found my own way, sometimes helped by a good knowledgeable naturopath, who provides me with knowledge, DMSO, CDS, MYTHELINE BLUE, LUGOLS IODINE... You actually have to become your own doctor but first leave this BigPharmafia system!! Question every treatment, even "alternatives"!
Do your own research and start trusting your body/brain again!!
A good book about the medical Mafia is from Ghislaine Lanctot, who quit the medical mill in Canada. It states how we get betuttled by doctors, lose our self-confidence, and become fearful of trusting our own body and judgement.
I have been on psycho meds 3 times in my life, and all 3 times stopped taking them after a few months, the last time with knowledge of the doctor (who after that wanted me on blood pressure meds - which I quit after 3 weeks also). These meds should be treated like all other - with great care, and for short periods. How can you know you are healed if you do not stop the meds? (I think honestly this goes for all meds - even natural ones like herbs and homeopathics)
There are psychiatrists that assist people in weaning off psychiatric medications. I have seen videos of them on various websites. I stopped taking a statin cold turkey. I threw them in the trash. Never experienced any withdrawal symptoms. My husband got off Xanax himself by gradually decreasing the amount he was taking. Some psychiatrists claim that there are permanent effects from benzodiazepines. My husband was on Xanax for 30 years. The doctors prescribing Xanax to him for that amount of time should lose their medical license
Indeed. "A person on psychiatric drugs — antidepressants, antipsychotics, benzodiazepines, mood stabilisers — faces a problem that is not comparable. Their brain has been physically restructured by the medication. Stopping it is not a decision. It is an ordeal that can last months or years, that can produce symptoms worse than anything that brought them to psychiatry in the first place, and that the entire medical system is designed to interpret as proof that the drugs were needed all along." Though brain neuroplasticity is possible. As someone who has followed these issues closely, I find this quote hits hard and is unfortunately very accurate. When people are on psychiatric drugs — antidepressants, antipsychotics, benzodiazepines, or mood stabilizers — their brain physically adapts and restructures around the medication. Stopping isn't just a simple choice; it can become a long, brutal ordeal lasting months or even years, often producing symptoms far worse than what originally led them to seek help.What makes it even more frustrating is how the medical system is set up to interpret those withdrawal symptoms as proof that the person 'needs' the drugs forever, leading to more prescriptions instead of proper support for tapering.That said, I do believe recovery through neuroplasticity is possible, especially for people with high cognitive reserve — like a brilliant mind such as Sakharov. A strong, well-exercised brain may have a better chance of rewiring itself successfully after the drugs are gone. Still, it's not easy or guaranteed, and it demands enormous patience and the right approach.This is a serious reality that more people need to understand before starting these medications.
The fact that most of these clown doctors know NOTHING about the drugs they prescribe is a gigantic warning sign. Medical experts? You have to be joking. The same holds true for allopathic medicine. 240 years later, Voltaire is still 100% correct.
Holy moly…. I was put on SEVERAL psychiatric drugs over 30 years ago. I eventually… me, myself and I all on my own, tapered, weaned all of that.
I never realized until this article there was a depletion taking place with every medication I was prescribed.
The only drug I truly experience withdrawal symptoms with was ms contin. It took my over 6 months to wean off of 15mg 2 times a day fir 8 years. I wasn’t on them as long as I was on seriquel, resperidone, neurontin, antidepressants, mood stabilizers, you name it. The ms contin was prescribed for chronic pain around when I was 52 in 2008. 2015 I tried my first attempt at weaning. After 3 days, I realized I was not mentally prepared to get off this drug. My last drug to wean off of. I thought it would be easier than ambien. Hah!
For the next year I studied herbs, homeopathy, essential oils to find products that would support me as I experienced the most gosh awful side effects I had ever experience.
I told my primary care physician that i planned to wean off the morphine. She just smirked and shrugged her shoulders.
I did it without her help. Then brought her two full to the brim bottles of unused morphine and said I will no longer be taking them. I can not imagine if I followed her instructions yo take up to 6 15mg a day! One time i took 3 in one day because of a serious pain flair…. No thank you. I held to two a day and after 5 years I realized the meds only created more issues for me.
Now, for the last nearly 10 years I have been dealing with issues I now realize may be caused by all those meds I was prescribed. I am fixin to turn 70 inna few weeks and mentally I am stronger than i ever have been.
I was at a funeral last week, 40 yo female in psych ward. She had been there a month. They let her out for a walk and she did herself in. She was a close friend of my friend. I attended to support. The Dr and staff were thanked for their care. The reason for her death? Her medicine temporarily stopped working for her chronic depression.
I have another friend. We were supposed to have coffee and catch up, 3 weeks ago. Her health hasn't been good. She had a bi polar diagnosis. She also took all the shots and at least one booster. She now has epilepic fits, which has no known cause. But instead of having coffee with me, she went to the psych ward. Haven't seen her yet. Hoping to listen to her... and help. Thank you for this....
Psychiatric care is a sick field of medicine that destroys people lives.
In a happily note, my neighbor successfully got himself off Prozac after 25 years. He realized that the circumstances that led to the prescription were temporary.
I got put on Seroquel as part of detox while in a treatment center for alcoholism. It was an amazing drug at the time to help me sleep with no alcohol. The nurse at the center had a good protocol for weaning us off the detox drugs over a week period. But I did love that Seroquel and talked my doctor into prescribing it after I got home from treatment snd newly sober. I finally just kept reducing the dose nightly until i could sleep without it. It’s ridiculous that theres no help for people trying to get off prescription meds. The addiction treatment centers seem to be the only people that know what they are doing! So blessed to have been treated so successfully!
Kelly Brogan. She has tapered many people off SSRIs and wrote a scientific paper of her case studies and what her clients did to support - supplements, dietary changes, breath work and other yogic strategies.
Thank you for writing this, and for the good resources you have listed. I wanted to mention another resource that people should be aware of, Inner Fire in Vermont. This is a residential program designed for those interested in slowly and carefully tapering off psych meds while rebuilding themselves, body, mind and soul. Here is a link: https://innerfire.us/.
Got it. I stopped taking Seroquel and Cymbalta in just three days back in 2017, and ended up with only three days of insomnia. I felt much better right away. I’ve never really understood why my GPs pushed me into such awful medications. My theory? Doctors are basically just resellers for whatever new drugs Big Pharma is promoting.
I would have thought Kelly Brogan would have been at the top of your list!
Also surprised you didn;t mention Dr James Greenblatt, a functional psychiatrist who specialises in nutritional deficiencies - https://www.psychiatryredefined.org. He has some excellent free articles and ebooks, and runs online courses.
Thank you for addressing this. Due to mental health and sleep issues I was eventually prescribed Seroquel since nothing else seemed to work. If ever there was a drug I would choose to love (at the time), it would be Seroquel. I slept. It was wonderful, for a time. Then I had to increase, and increase, and increase. Like just about any other drug I have been on, it didn't work anymore. My body adapts very quickly but my brain keeps saying it's at least doing something for me. It's got to be or the doctor wouldn't have prescribed it. Right? After several years of taking it, and eventually getting to a dose that would probably kill an elephant, I came across Dr Breggins work (I read his book) and realized I had to get off of it. I had wanted to for a long time but no one would help me. I read and understood the danger of cutting back too quickly. I didn't plan on it but I took a year of slowly reducing how much I took by cutting the pills into smaller and smaller doses then skipping one day, two days, etc., until I was off of them. There's no way, that I know of, to prove it but I'm sure some of my current health issues come from the damage done to my system from the years of Seroquel use. I will be forever grateful to Dr Breggin for his work. I no longer let medical providers dictate what goes in my body and I try to educate, or at least enlighten, those that try to. Thank you!
tamara, I am so glad you made it. That sounds really difficult....but you did it. Yay.
Look up Seroquel tapering on the alternatives to meds centre website they also have youtube https://www.alternativetomeds.com/blog/seroquel-tapering/
Seroquel (quetiapine) is associated with the depletion of several key nutrients, most notably CoQ10, Vitamin A, C, D, B1, B12, K, Biotin, Melatonin, Calcium, Magnesium, Folate and Inositol. These deficiencies may lead to the very mood disorder for which a pharmaceutical is prescribed.
Seroquel can cause disturbances in histamine tolerance too. Add a little (250 - 500 mg) quercetin to the above mix while tapering off seroquel.
Quercetin is part of my daily routine.
As a result of many mistakes, made during a standard surgical procedure..blood pressure went down 90/30, 70/20..in 6 hours.. Me being in the Recovery room after surgery, in 2002, I needed a Total Bloodtransfusion ASAP. It saved my life, but changed it forever... Leaving me in a coma, multiorgan failure, heart stopped.. Had an intensivist at my bed..
I survived, God Wonder.. went through rehabilitation for almost 3 years.. 100% on Disability from TopJob. Still felt so tired, as I was left with a lot of oxigen shortage causing brain(stem) damage, affecting almost everything.
I fell in the hands of an Endocrinologist. He diagnosed me with Addisons and started to give me Cortison. A year later I was 25 kilos overweight, developed Cushings and was given 5 times the normal dose of Cortison!! I demanded a Second Opinion.. He refused but I fought through. Result?
I never had Addisons!!
I was beyond furious! Nobody helped, Never an apology!! Was dismissed everywhere.. The end damage was devastating, from severe Osteoporoses, losing 4 gums, infections all over and in my body.. missed diabetes etc.
The "health inspection" said, once again.. "it was miscommunication" .. 🤬
Long story Short, I got off the Cortison myself, in 6 months.. It was pure Hell!
I since developed severe Peripheral Polyneuropathy (as a result of the missed diabetis) . Blind at one eye, one ear.. Walk with canes. Totally left BigPharmafia.. found my own way, sometimes helped by a good knowledgeable naturopath, who provides me with knowledge, DMSO, CDS, MYTHELINE BLUE, LUGOLS IODINE... You actually have to become your own doctor but first leave this BigPharmafia system!! Question every treatment, even "alternatives"!
Do your own research and start trusting your body/brain again!!
A good book about the medical Mafia is from Ghislaine Lanctot, who quit the medical mill in Canada. It states how we get betuttled by doctors, lose our self-confidence, and become fearful of trusting our own body and judgement.
I have been on psycho meds 3 times in my life, and all 3 times stopped taking them after a few months, the last time with knowledge of the doctor (who after that wanted me on blood pressure meds - which I quit after 3 weeks also). These meds should be treated like all other - with great care, and for short periods. How can you know you are healed if you do not stop the meds? (I think honestly this goes for all meds - even natural ones like herbs and homeopathics)
There are psychiatrists that assist people in weaning off psychiatric medications. I have seen videos of them on various websites. I stopped taking a statin cold turkey. I threw them in the trash. Never experienced any withdrawal symptoms. My husband got off Xanax himself by gradually decreasing the amount he was taking. Some psychiatrists claim that there are permanent effects from benzodiazepines. My husband was on Xanax for 30 years. The doctors prescribing Xanax to him for that amount of time should lose their medical license
Indeed. "A person on psychiatric drugs — antidepressants, antipsychotics, benzodiazepines, mood stabilisers — faces a problem that is not comparable. Their brain has been physically restructured by the medication. Stopping it is not a decision. It is an ordeal that can last months or years, that can produce symptoms worse than anything that brought them to psychiatry in the first place, and that the entire medical system is designed to interpret as proof that the drugs were needed all along." Though brain neuroplasticity is possible. As someone who has followed these issues closely, I find this quote hits hard and is unfortunately very accurate. When people are on psychiatric drugs — antidepressants, antipsychotics, benzodiazepines, or mood stabilizers — their brain physically adapts and restructures around the medication. Stopping isn't just a simple choice; it can become a long, brutal ordeal lasting months or even years, often producing symptoms far worse than what originally led them to seek help.What makes it even more frustrating is how the medical system is set up to interpret those withdrawal symptoms as proof that the person 'needs' the drugs forever, leading to more prescriptions instead of proper support for tapering.That said, I do believe recovery through neuroplasticity is possible, especially for people with high cognitive reserve — like a brilliant mind such as Sakharov. A strong, well-exercised brain may have a better chance of rewiring itself successfully after the drugs are gone. Still, it's not easy or guaranteed, and it demands enormous patience and the right approach.This is a serious reality that more people need to understand before starting these medications.
There's a woman who I followed on some other platform that I cannot recall who had her GABA system messed up by benzos.
She found that low dose amanita muscaria mushrooms helped her get off of benzos as it also works on the GABA system.
https://sacredbysam.co.uk/amanita-muscaria-and-benzodiazepine-withdrawal-a-natural-ally/
https://awake.net/amanita-muscaria-to-treat-benzodiazepine-dependency/
The fact that most of these clown doctors know NOTHING about the drugs they prescribe is a gigantic warning sign. Medical experts? You have to be joking. The same holds true for allopathic medicine. 240 years later, Voltaire is still 100% correct.
nor know nothing about curing their desease and the patient
Lithium may help repair the brain.
Not the form or huge doses that are used for bipolar but lithium orotate.
Michael Nehls PhD recommends around 1 mg per day.
https://michaelnehls.substack.com/p/lithium-the-essential-trace-element
He has a presentation here that explains the dosages.
https://michaelnehls.substack.com/p/essential-lithium-could-save-billions
Also low dose amanita muscaria can help with the GABA system, which is impacted by benzos and perhaps these other drugs.
https://sacredbysam.co.uk/amanita-muscaria-and-benzodiazepine-withdrawal-a-natural-ally/
https://awake.net/amanita-muscaria-to-treat-benzodiazepine-dependency/
He probably trained with Dr James Greenblatt, who has been researching and using lithium in microdoses for decades in his functional psychiatry clinic
Holy moly…. I was put on SEVERAL psychiatric drugs over 30 years ago. I eventually… me, myself and I all on my own, tapered, weaned all of that.
I never realized until this article there was a depletion taking place with every medication I was prescribed.
The only drug I truly experience withdrawal symptoms with was ms contin. It took my over 6 months to wean off of 15mg 2 times a day fir 8 years. I wasn’t on them as long as I was on seriquel, resperidone, neurontin, antidepressants, mood stabilizers, you name it. The ms contin was prescribed for chronic pain around when I was 52 in 2008. 2015 I tried my first attempt at weaning. After 3 days, I realized I was not mentally prepared to get off this drug. My last drug to wean off of. I thought it would be easier than ambien. Hah!
For the next year I studied herbs, homeopathy, essential oils to find products that would support me as I experienced the most gosh awful side effects I had ever experience.
I told my primary care physician that i planned to wean off the morphine. She just smirked and shrugged her shoulders.
I did it without her help. Then brought her two full to the brim bottles of unused morphine and said I will no longer be taking them. I can not imagine if I followed her instructions yo take up to 6 15mg a day! One time i took 3 in one day because of a serious pain flair…. No thank you. I held to two a day and after 5 years I realized the meds only created more issues for me.
Now, for the last nearly 10 years I have been dealing with issues I now realize may be caused by all those meds I was prescribed. I am fixin to turn 70 inna few weeks and mentally I am stronger than i ever have been.
I was at a funeral last week, 40 yo female in psych ward. She had been there a month. They let her out for a walk and she did herself in. She was a close friend of my friend. I attended to support. The Dr and staff were thanked for their care. The reason for her death? Her medicine temporarily stopped working for her chronic depression.
I have another friend. We were supposed to have coffee and catch up, 3 weeks ago. Her health hasn't been good. She had a bi polar diagnosis. She also took all the shots and at least one booster. She now has epilepic fits, which has no known cause. But instead of having coffee with me, she went to the psych ward. Haven't seen her yet. Hoping to listen to her... and help. Thank you for this....
Psychiatric care is a sick field of medicine that destroys people lives.
In a happily note, my neighbor successfully got himself off Prozac after 25 years. He realized that the circumstances that led to the prescription were temporary.
The person who dies by someone's intention, vs. the person who dies by someone's ignorance is still quite dead, either way.
The common-sense, non-medical comment is surely, "The remedy is worse than the illness..."
I got put on Seroquel as part of detox while in a treatment center for alcoholism. It was an amazing drug at the time to help me sleep with no alcohol. The nurse at the center had a good protocol for weaning us off the detox drugs over a week period. But I did love that Seroquel and talked my doctor into prescribing it after I got home from treatment snd newly sober. I finally just kept reducing the dose nightly until i could sleep without it. It’s ridiculous that theres no help for people trying to get off prescription meds. The addiction treatment centers seem to be the only people that know what they are doing! So blessed to have been treated so successfully!
Kelly Brogan. She has tapered many people off SSRIs and wrote a scientific paper of her case studies and what her clients did to support - supplements, dietary changes, breath work and other yogic strategies.
Thank you for writing this, and for the good resources you have listed. I wanted to mention another resource that people should be aware of, Inner Fire in Vermont. This is a residential program designed for those interested in slowly and carefully tapering off psych meds while rebuilding themselves, body, mind and soul. Here is a link: https://innerfire.us/.
Got it. I stopped taking Seroquel and Cymbalta in just three days back in 2017, and ended up with only three days of insomnia. I felt much better right away. I’ve never really understood why my GPs pushed me into such awful medications. My theory? Doctors are basically just resellers for whatever new drugs Big Pharma is promoting.
They're actually glorified drug dealers that have fancy offices instead of street corners.
Just delving into the work of this recommended group since yesterday. Have you heard of them? https://www.theinnercompass.org/team
I would have thought Kelly Brogan would have been at the top of your list!
Also surprised you didn;t mention Dr James Greenblatt, a functional psychiatrist who specialises in nutritional deficiencies - https://www.psychiatryredefined.org. He has some excellent free articles and ebooks, and runs online courses.