POPULARITY
2 episodes with laura delano
Are mental health diagnoses real? Does anyone really need psychiatric drugs as "treatment"? Is psychiatry a sham? In this episode, I speak with Laura Delano, author of Unshrunk: A Story of Psychiatric Treatment Resistance, about her experience being diagnosed as "bipolar" (among other things) as a teen and how she began to see things differently (and get off of the drugs prescribed to her to "treat" her).The Same Drugs is on X @thesamedrugs_. Meghan Murphy is on X @meghanemurphy and on Instagram @meghanemilymurphy. Find The Same Drugs merch at Fourthwall.
“The more I suffered, the more medical treatments I was convinced I needed, but the more treatments I received, the more I suffered,” writes Laura Delano, author of the memoir UNSHRUNK. At age 14, Laura Delano was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and prescribed mood stabilizers and antidepressants. Despite academic and athletic success, she struggled with rage and despair. Over 14 years, she received multiple diagnoses and 19 medications. But her condition worsened and was deemed “treatment resistant.” Delano chose to stop medications, challenging psychiatric norms and exploring an unmedicated life, and details the results – and her critique of the mental health and pharmaceutical industries – in her memoir Unshrunk, available now at https://amzn.to/3YWgWfg Important: suddenly stopping a psychiatric medication can have harmful side effects. Always consult a trusted health professional before starting or stopping medications. Laura Delano is the author of Unshrunk: A Story of Psychiatric Treatment Resistance, a speaker, and consultant. She founded Inner Compass Initiative, a nonprofit helping people navigate psychiatric diagnoses, drugs, and withdrawal. A leading voice in the movement away from medicalized mental health, she supports individuals and families globally with the withdrawal journey and life post-psychiatry. More at https://x.com/lauradelano and https://lauradelano.com Autumn Smith is the co-founder of Paleovalley, a company focused on nutrient-dense foods. She advocates for rethinking meat consumption and promotes the benefits of bone broth and tallow through Paleovalley's offerings. More at https://x.com/paleovalley and https://drdrew.com/paleovalley 「 SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS 」 Find out more about the brands that make this show possible and get special discounts on Dr. Drew's favorite products at https://drdrew.com/sponsors • ACTIVE SKIN REPAIR - Repair skin faster with more of the molecule your body creates naturally! Hypochlorous (HOCl) is produced by white blood cells to support healing – and no sting. Get 20% off at https://drdrew.com/skinrepair • FATTY15 – The future of essential fatty acids is here! Strengthen your cells against age-related breakdown with Fatty15. Get 15% off a 90-day Starter Kit Subscription at https://drdrew.com/fatty15 • PALEOVALLEY - "Paleovalley has a wide variety of extraordinary products that are both healthful and delicious,” says Dr. Drew. "I am a huge fan of this brand and know you'll love it too!” Get 15% off your first order at https://drdrew.com/paleovalley • THE WELLNESS COMPANY - Counteract harmful spike proteins with TWC's Signature Series Spike Support Formula containing nattokinase and selenium. Learn more about TWC's supplements at https://twc.health/drew 「 MEDICAL NOTE 」 Portions of this program may examine countervailing views on important medical issues. Always consult your physician before making any decisions about your health. 「 ABOUT THE SHOW 」 Ask Dr. Drew is produced by Kaleb Nation (https://kalebnation.com) and Susan Pinsky (https://twitter.com/firstladyoflove). This show is for entertainment and/or informational purposes only, and is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
“This system I had been turning to for help through all of these years, through the most formative years of life, that I had been assuming existed to take care of me ... was actually a system of control. And I just hadn't seen it for what it was, because I had never said no to it before,” says Laura Delano, author of “Unshrunk: A Story of Psychiatric Treatment Resistance.”For 14 years, Delano was a “professional mental patient,” as she puts it, after being diagnosed with bipolar disorder when she was a teenager.Now she wonders whether the dominant, medicalized approach to mental illness is actually making us as a society sicker.“Sixty-five million American adults and 6 million American children are currently on psychiatric drugs, and there are zero off ramps for getting them off these drugs safely within the mental health industry. Zero,” she says. “This is not about being ‘pro' or ‘anti.' This is about using straightforward, honest language to talk about what these drugs are, to talk about our limits of knowledge around what these drugs are and how they actually affect us, and then to let people make their own decisions from there based on their own life circumstances.”In this episode, we dive into Delano's story and discuss the dangers of relying solely on medical treatments to treat mental health issues and of rapidly withdrawing from psychiatric drugs.Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Laura Delano spent fourteen years under psychiatric care, working with a variety of diagnosed mental illnesses and trying every drug and therapy that promised to “fix” her. But eventually she started wondering what if the problem wasn't in her brain, but in the system itself?
Laura Delano spent fourteen years under psychiatric care, working with a variety of diagnosed mental illnesses and trying every drug and therapy that promised to “fix” her. But eventually she started wondering what if the problem wasn't in her brain, but in the system itself?
CNN Michael Smerconish addresses previous White House scandals and questions whether the recent signal group chat controversy will impact Trump's administration in the long run. Then Richard Clarke, the nation's first cyber czar and former White House Counterterrorism Coordinator, warns how foreign adversaries are easily capable of hacking the Signal app. After that, Laura Delano, author of "Unshrunk: A Story of Psychiatric Treatment Resistance" raises her personal concerns with psychiatric drugs and how her life has changed without them. Finally, legendary democratic strategist James Carville discusses his bold prediction on the "massive collapse" unfolding inside the Trump administration and how Democrats should respond. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Laura Delano is a writer, speaker, and consultant, and the founder of Inner Compass Initiative, a nonprofit organization that helps people make more informed choices about psychiatric diagnoses, drugs, and drug withdrawal. She is a leading voice in the international movement of people who've left behind the medicalized, professionalized mental health industry to build something different. Laura works with individuals and families around the world who are seeking guidance and support for the withdrawal journey and life post-psychiatry. She lives in Connecticut with her husband and children.
By David Stephen who looks at AI and Telehealth in this guest post. There is a new book, Unshrunk: A Story of Psychiatric Treatment Resistance, with the summary, "At age fourteen, Laura Delano saw her first psychiatrist, who immediately diagnosed her with bipolar disorder and started her on a mood stabilizer and an antidepressant. Delano's initial diagnosis marked the beginning of a life-altering saga. For the next thirteen years, she sought help from the best psychiatrists and hospitals in the country, accumulating a long list of diagnoses and a prescription cascade of nineteen drugs. After some resistance, Delano accepted her diagnosis and embraced the pharmaceutical regimen that she'd been told was necessary to manage her incurable, lifelong disease. But her symptoms only worsened. Eventually doctors declared her condition so severe as to be "treatment resistant." After years of faithful psychiatric patienthood, Delano realized there was one thing she hadn't tried - leaving behind the drugs and diagnoses. This decision would mean unlearning everything the experts had told her about herself and forging into the terrifying unknown of an unmedicated life." What, in the brain, becomes altered to result in a serious mental illness? Could AI map the mind and its alteration? If mind is assumed to be the same as mental, what is normal for the mind, to result in regular social and occupational functioning and what is abnormal to disrupt those? Theoretical Brain Science In the evidence, since decades of neuroscience research, the closest cells to how the mind works are neurons. However, neurons [for all they are said to do] never function without their signals: electrical and chemical. When neurons are said to fire or be active, electrical signals are involved and chemical signals as well, in general. AI for Telehealth Therapy Without Medications So, if the way the mind [or mental] works is to be understood for normal or otherwise, it is possible to describe it with neurons plus their electrical and chemical signals. Neurons are cells, like several others across the body. Their anatomy is near fixed, so it is unlikely that neurons can by themselves represent the memory of anything. This means that a neuron may not change shape to [re]present an emotion or have another for a feeling. Even in a cluster, it is unlikely that neurons would have shapes for every memory, given the large amount of memory a human may have, through the years - ranging from education, to places, people, objects, and so forth. The time it would take to change shape and the energy would be disruptive. Simply, neurons, either singular or in clusters are unable to represent memory, emotion, feelings or regulation of internal senses, with shapes or by changing shapes. If this were the case, why would electrical signals have the ability to transport the shape of a cluster of neurons to another cluster, and what would the roles of chemical signals be? To develop a concept of how the human mind works, the likeliest candidates [within the evidence in neuroscience] are the electrical and chemical signals. Not an individual electrical signal or a singular chemical signal, but electrical and chemical signals as sets or loops, available in clusters of neurons. So, every function is approximately a particular assemblage, configuration or formation of electrical and chemical signals in a set. This means that to know what a table is, differently from a window or a fan, is to have electrical and chemical signals assembled in a particular way, in interaction. Electrical and chemical signals have to interact. Electrical signals, in a set, strike for the formation available at the set of chemical signals. The instance of the strike is when memory is produced, or emotion, or feelings, or regulation of internal organs, conceptually. Also, sets of electrical signals and sets of chemical signals often have their states while interacting. These states grade or measure the extents to...
Laura Delano is the author of “Unshrunk: A Story of Psychiatric Treatment Resistance”. Her story serves as a powerful lesson, illuminating the all too familiar path toward iatrogenic harm that continues to affect patients within our mental healthcare system. She is the Executive Director of Inner Compass Initiative, a charitable organization that she founded to help people make more informed choices about psychiatric diagnoses, drugs, and drug withdrawal. She is a leading voice in the international movement of people who've left behind the medicalized & professionalized mental health industry to build something different. Laura works with individuals and families around the world seeking guidance and support for psychiatric drug withdrawal and life post-psychiatry.Laura Delano Website Inner Compass Initiative 00:00 The Allure of Simple Explanations02:53 The Awakening of Laura Delano05:51 The Journey into Psychiatry08:47 The Impact of Diagnosis12:04 The Role of Family and Society15:00 The Medicalization of Mental Health18:08 The Influence of Pharmaceutical Industry21:00 The Consequences of Early Diagnosis24:04 The Quest for True Healing35:25 The Ethics of Experimental Drugs36:09 Understanding Perspectives in Psychiatry39:32 The Role of Responsibility in Prescribing43:16 Navigating Personal Identity and Mental Health47:45 Desperation and the Path to Psychiatry52:42 Cultural Reflections on Mental Health56:01 The Value of Pain and Suffering01:09:52 The Confusion of Psychiatric Treatment01:12:45 The Flaws in the Therapy Industry01:17:15 The Challenge of Questioning Authority01:19:46 The Trap of Psychiatric Diagnosis01:22:29 The Power Dynamics in Psychiatry01:26:46 The Disembodiment and Exploitation of Human Nature01:30:37 The Need for Medical Freedom01:34:39 The Importance of Compassion in Psychiatry01:39:30 Reclaiming Embodiment and True Nature01:41:54 Navigating the Path to Recovery RADICALLY GENUINE PODCASTDr. Roger McFillin / Radically Genuine WebsiteYouTube @RadicallyGenuineDr. Roger McFillin (@DrMcFillin) / XSubstack | Radically Genuine | Dr. Roger McFillinInstagram @radicallygenuineContact Radically GenuineConscious Clinician CollectivePLEASE SUPPORT OUR PARTNERS15% Off Pure Spectrum CBD (Code: RadicallyGenuine)10% off Lovetuner click here—-----------FREE DOWNLOAD! DISTRESS TOLERANCE SKILLS
Bret Weinstein speaks with Laura Delano, the author of “Unshrunk: A Story of Psychiatric Treatment Resistance” on the subject of today's mental health treatment and psychotropic medications.Find Laura Delano on X at https://x.com/LauraDelano and her book, “Unshrunk: A Story of Psychiatric Treatment Resistance” at https://unshrunkthebook.com.*****This episode is sponsored by:Jolie: For your best skin & hair guaranteed head to http://jolieskinco.com/DARKHORSE to try it out for yourself with FREE shipping.VanMan: Tallow and honey balm, deodorant, and many other amazing animal based personal care products.Go to http://www.vanmanscompany.com/darkhorse and use code darkhorse10 for 10% off your first order.*****Join DarkHorse on Locals! Get access to our Discord server, exclusive live streams, live chats for all streams, and early access to many podcasts: https://darkhorse.locals.com Check out the DHP store! Epic tabby, digital book burning, saddle up the dire wolves, and more: https://www.darkhorsestore.orgTheme Music: Thank you to Martin Molin of Wintergatan for providing us the rights to use their excellent music.*****Mentioned in this episode:- The Challenge of Going Off Psychiatric Drugs https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/04/08/the-challenge-of-going-off-psychiatric-drugs- A Hunter-Gatherer's Guide to the 21st Century https://amzn.to/3AGANGg (commission earned)Support the show
Can you safely taper off psychiatric medications? And what are the potential harms of long-term psychiatric care?Laura Delano spent years as a professional patient, navigating psychiatric diagnoses, multiple medications, and a life defined by treatment.In this interview, Laura discusses her 13-year experience as a psychiatric patient, the impact of long-term medication use, and how she took control of her health to successfully taper off multiple psychiatric drugs.Now, as the founder of Inner Compass Initiative and author of Unshrunk: A Story of Psychiatric Treatment Resistance (available March 18, 2025), she's dedicated to helping others navigate informed choices about psychiatric medications, diagnoses, and withdrawal.
Kate Wolf and Medaya Ocher are joined by New Yorker staff writer Rachel Aviv to discuss her first book, Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us. The book collects the stories of people whose mental health crises subvert our usual understanding of diagnosis, treatment, and healing. It begins with Aviv herself, who was hospitalized at the age of six for anorexia, before she even knew the term for her illness. Each chapter is then dedicated to a different person: Bapu, an Indian Brahmin woman, who shortly after giving birth dedicates herself to religious asceticism and mysticism; Naomi, a Black woman, who in her psychosis, despairs of the very real racism and generational oppression that surrounds her; and Ray Osheroff and Laura Delano whose chapters both show the ways in which psychiatry is still grappling with medication and biology. Aviv explores how mental illness can defy psychiatric explanation, requiring a broader view of the economic, social and lived realities of the people who experience it. Also, Raquel Gutierrez, author of Brown Neon, returns to recommend Dog Flowers by Danielle Geller.
Kate Wolf and Medaya Ocher are joined by New Yorker staff writer Rachel Aviv to discuss her first book, Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us. The book collects the stories of people whose mental health crises subvert our usual understanding of diagnosis, treatment, and healing. It begins with Aviv herself, who was hospitalized at the age of six for anorexia, before she even knew the term for her illness. Each chapter is then dedicated to a different person: Bapu, an Indian Brahmin woman, who shortly after giving birth dedicates herself to religious asceticism and mysticism; Naomi, a Black woman, who in her psychosis, despairs of the very real racism and generational oppression that surrounds her; and Ray Osheroff and Laura Delano whose chapters both show the ways in which psychiatry is still grappling with medication and biology. Aviv explores how mental illness can defy psychiatric explanation, requiring a broader view of the economic, social and lived realities of the people who experience it. Also, Raquel Gutierrez, author of Brown Neon, returns to recommend Dog Flowers by Danielle Geller.
SCREEN JOCKS OPEN: Memorial Day means a lot of things to a lot of people. Jim gives a veteran’s perspective. 0:07:22 Classics With The Canuck: Mike and Jim discuss the ultimate summer blockbuster: Independence Day0:17:01 Auteurs On The Air: Bob Celli and Laura Delano discuss working together, the pandemic and The Keeper. 0:40:34 Binge Worth: Carlo has a real with Jupiter’s Legacy. 0:59:37 The 3rd Rail: No, remaking a movie doesn’t kill your childhood. If you think it does, seek help. 1:03:12 And. That. Is. A. Wrap: The 2022 festival is going to be a blowout. Submissions are open.
This conversation explores the contentious subject of the mental health system, through the story of patient advocate Laura Delano. Her journey into being institutionalized and recovering sovereignty over her mind and body has larger significance in our society. Her organization, Inner Compass Initiative, supports those who want to wean themselves off medication -- a formidable task not to be taken lightly.
How can people come off psychiatric medications in the safest way? What are the key lessons and vital ingredients for leaving psychiatric care? Is there life after meds? Laura Delano spent 14 years as a psychiatric patient before she left behind her psychiatric diagnoses and reclaimed herself. Today she is Director of the Inner Compass Initiative […]
This week, we interview Laura Delano. Laura is Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Inner Compass Initiative and The Withdrawal Project, which aim to create safe spaces for people to connect and the opportunity to learn about and be guided through the process of getting beyond the mental health system and off psychiatric drugs. The passion she feels for the mission and vision of ICI arises from the fourteen years she spent lost in the mental health system and the journey that she’s been on since 2010, when she chose to leave behind a “mentally ill” identity and the various treatments that came with it, and gradually began to rediscover and reconnect with who she really was and what it means to suffer, struggle, and be human in this world. Since becoming an “ex-patient”, Laura has been writing and speaking about her personal experiences and about the broader social and political issues sitting at the heart of “mental illness” and “mental health”. Since 2011, she has worked both within and beyond the mental health system. In the Boston area, she worked for nearly two years for a large community mental health organization, providing support to and advocating for the rights of individuals in emergency rooms, psychiatric hospitals, and institutional “group home” settings. After leaving the “inside” of the mental health system, she began consulting with individuals and families seeking help during the psychiatric drug withdrawal process. Laura has also given talks and workshops in Europe and across North America, facilitated mutual-aid groups for people in withdrawal, and organized various conferences and public events such as the Mad in America International Film Festival. In this interview, we got time to talk about Laura’s personal experiences of the mental health system and what led her to co-found the Inner Compass Initiative and The Withdrawal Project. In this episode we discuss: Laura’s experiences as a patient in the mental health system, starting treatment aged thirteen and leaving the system behind aged 27. How she spent much of that time as a compliant patient, taking the medications and following the advice of her doctors. That, by 2010, she was on 5 medications (Lithium, Abilify, Lamictal, Effexor and Ativan) and had spent the last decade becoming worse and unable to properly engage with life. How she came to read Anatomy of an Epidemic by Robert Whitaker and that it was a profound moment of realisation. That Laura decided to take control of her life and became determined to get off the drugs as quickly as possible. How traumatic it was to come to the realisation that almost everything she had been told during treatment was overly simplistic or incorrect. That Laura did experience feelings of being a victim of psychiatry, but realised that this increased her emotional dependency on psychiatry and that it was necessary to move beyond that to feel free. That these experiences made Laura passionate about her own process of healing and rediscovering herself and helping others to find their way back to themselves after being psychiatrized. That as she healed she moved into a space of acceptance and gratitude and felt that the period around three years off the drugs was when she came to feel really alive and motivated again. That Laura feels that if we are going to move beyond the mental health system, it is about helping people to realise they don't need the mainstream system and point them to alternatives at a local level and creating physical spaces where people can come together. How Laura came to co-found The Inner Compass Initiative and The Withdrawal Project which aim to create safe spaces for people to connect and the opportunity to learn about and be guided through the process of getting beyond the mental health system and off psychiatric drugs. That The Withdrawal Project was highlighted in a recent New York Times article discussing antidepressant withdrawal. How ICI and TWP present information on many aspects of psychiatric drugs and withdrawal to help guide and inform people who do want to start the journey off their psychiatric drugs and away from the mental health system. That TWP connect is a free peer to peer networking platform that allows people to connect one on one with others who have similar experiences. How a similar peer to peer system is available on ICI to enable conversations about moving beyond the mental health system. That Laura wants to encourage people not to give up because we do heal from psychiatric drugs and that we need to spread that message far and wide. The need to both learn and unlearn when approaching how we take back our power and control of our lives after psychiatric treatment. How important it is to properly prepare before starting to taper from psychiatric drugs and how the Withdrawal Project can enable that preparation. The ‘speed paradox’ when coming off psychiatric drugs. How people can find out more about The Inner Compass Initiative and The Withdrawal Project. That Laura is keen to support local community initiatives to get underway. Relevant links: The Inner Compass Initiative The Withdrawal Project TWP Connect Learn about psychiatric drug withdrawal Inner Compass Initiative’s The Withdrawal Project Gets Mention in The New York Times—Is the Tide Finally Turning? The New York Times - Many People Taking Antidepressants Discover They Cannot Quit Read more about Laura’s journey into and out of the mental health system Laura’s presentation in Alaska, 2015 Anatomy of an epidemic by Robert Whitaker
Ross McKenzie was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, but after 15 years on Lithium, he wasn’t getting any better. He decided to take matters into his own hands, get off the drug, and find out why so many people are being told they have mental illnesses. This week on Making Contact, we bring you an abridged version of the film Bipolarized; Rethinking Mental Illness, chronicling McKenzie’s journey. Featuring: Ross McKenzie, diagnosed with Bipolar disorder Ross McKenzie’s mother and sister Gwen Olsen, former pharmaceutical rep Laura Delano, psychiatry survivor Robert Whitaker, author of Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America Dr. Charles Whitfield, trauma recovery specialist Dr. Peter Levine, founder of Somatic Experiencing
Ross McKenzie was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, but after 15 years on Lithium, he wasn’t getting any better. He decided to take matters into his own hands, get off the drug, and find out why so many people are being told they have mental illnesses. This week on Making Contact, we bring you an abridged version of the film Bipolarized; Rethinking Mental Illness, chronicling McKenzie’s journey. Featuring: Ross McKenzie, diagnosed with Bipolar disorder Ross McKenzie’s mother and sister Gwen Olsen, former pharmaceutical rep Laura Delano, psychiatry survivor Robert Whitaker, author of Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America Dr. Charles Whitfield, trauma recovery specialist Dr. Peter Levine, founder of Somatic Experiencing
Ross McKenzie was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, but after 15 years on Lithium, he wasn't getting any better. He decided to take matters into his own hands, get off the drug, and find out why so many people are being told they have mental illnesses. This week on Making Contact, we bring you an abridged version of the film Bipolarized; Rethinking Mental Illness, chronicling McKenzie's journey. Special thanks to Specialty Studios Featuring: Ross McKenzie, diagnosed with Bipolar disorder; Ross McKenzie's mother and sister; Gwen Olsen, former pharmaceutical rep; Laura Delano, psychiatry survivor; Robert Whitaker, author of Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America; Dr. Charles Whitfield, trauma recovery specialist; Dr. Peter Levine, founder of Somatic Experiencing More information: http://www.bipolarizedthemovie.com/ Gwen Olsen, the Rx Reformer Laura Delano Mad in America Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America American Psychiatric Association DSM-5 Dr. Charles Whitfield Peter Levine-Somatic Experiencing Specialty Studios The post Bipolarized: Rethinking Mental Illness appeared first on KPFA.
What do you do when medications for your emotional problems become worse than the problems themselves? Laura Delano went to a psychiatrist at age 18, and for the next decade was prescribed nineteen different psychiatric drugs. After devastating physical and emotional effects, she began a journey to become medication free — and re-discover who she […]
© 2020-2025 Ivy Podcast Discovery LLC
