My relationship with psychiatry and psych meds began when I was 12. I was diagnosed with OCD and given a high dose SSRI. I remained on this dose until the age of 19 when I decided I wanted to discover who I was without medication, as I felt I truly didn't know myself. I was taken off of 80 mg of prozac cold turkey and told that SSRI withdrawal doesn't exist, I diagnosed as being manic and "bipolar" and given 8 different medications which I was told I needed to be on for life. I was told because I was now bipolar I probably should not have kids or ever have a high stress job as that could "trigger my mental health condition", I gained forty pounds in 3 months and became a medicated zombie with no joy for life.
I soon realized that I was not bipolar and that I had been experiencing antidepressant withdrawal, and now I had to come off of all of these other medications as well. The hardest one for my was coming off of the benzodiazepine I had been prescribed at 3 mg a day for the last 5 years. I suffered horrific tolerance withdrawal and ultimately dealt with protracted withdrawal for almost 3 years. Needless to say it was hell on earth.
I promised myself while in the darkest days of my withdrawal that if I were to ever heal from these meds (and I highly doubted that given how sick I was), I would spend the rest of my life fighting for informed consent and to help prevent more suffering at the hands of negligent prescribing doctors.
I know that the best way to do this and ideally raise massive awareness is to harness the power of social media so I began helping others through the tapering process and pretty much became their withdrawal cheerleader.
My @healwithharriet Instagram page ( has become more popular than I could have ever imagined and I am contacted by at least 5-10 people a day who have been harmed by taking psych meds as prescribed.
I also decided to start my podcast Heal with Harriet and am hoping to use it as a vehicle to create massive awareness for this epidemic.
I am going to be releasing a course next month that covers everything from making the decision to come off of your psych meds, tapering, and healing from the damage these meds have caused your Central Nervous System. I also will be covering how to work from home to support yourself during the withdrawal process, what to eat to support your body through its healing journey, guided meditations and at home yoga you can practice, tips for coping with symptoms, how to talk to family and friends about withdrawal, and how to get through the day when it feels like you can't go through another day of withdrawal.
I will also be offering daily e-mails of support for people in this course! If you want to receive a week of these e-mails for FREE sign up here and get a taste for what this course is all about 👇🏻👇🏻
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