Inner Compass Initiative

Helping you make informed choices about all things mental health: diagnoses, drugs, and drug withdrawal | Latest links:

[Inner Compass Initiative @_innercompass]

Yesterday, ICI founder @lauradelano traveled to Washington D.C. and testified before a House Oversight subcommittee 🧵

[Inner Compass Initiative @_innercompass]

We’ve already started with free resources created specifically for family members and friends (see link ⬇️) but we want to build on this, so let us know your thoughts in the comments. 2/2
https://t.co/3CazfunLCm

[Inner Compass Initiative @_innercompass]

🧵 If you’ve been supporting a loved one through psychiatric drug tapering and watching its effects ripple through your entire family, we want to hear from you.

As a spouse, partner, parent, child, or friend, what surprises you most about the process and how it touches everyone who cares?

What have you discovered about tapering, and how has your own understanding of the mental health system changed as a result?

We’re asking because so many of you are left carrying the pieces when the system fails those you love and want to explore this topic more in our work. 1/2

[Inner Compass Initiative @_innercompass]

Article here (paywall) ⬇️. 2/2
https://t.co/S87ge8pTqp

[Inner Compass Initiative @_innercompass]

🧵One of Australia’s most read newspapers, the Sydney Morning Herald (@smh), published an opinion piece over the weekend exploring an issue that remains underrecognized despite affecting millions of people: psychiatric drug dependence and withdrawal.

In the piece (linked below), writer Brendan Shanahan describes his own experience attempting to stop venlafaxine after taking it for more than a decade.

His first attempt left him unable to type coherent sentences and fearing he was having a stroke.

Of his more recent second attempt, he writes that “the withdrawals have been horrendous, arguably worse than the original symptoms for which they were prescribed.”

What Shanahan describes reflects something we hear every day from people navigating decisions about psychiatric drugs: withdrawal can be far more significant, prolonged, and disruptive than many people are led to expect.

The article looks beyond the individual experience to ask broader questions about why so many people remain on these medications long term and what support exists for those who wish to reduce or stop them.

He observes how these mood-altering drugs often represent “capitalism’s mechanistic and dispassionate response to a deeply human pain,” becoming a symptom of the very problems they claim to cure.

As a layperson-led organization, we know that people come to these conversations with different political beliefs, worldviews, and opinions.

What unites us and matters the most, however, is a shared commitment to ensuring that people have access to accurate information, informed choice, and shared support—whether or not they decide to take psychiatric drugs or to taper off them.

Articles like this show we’re not alone in this view—and it’s spreading across the planet. 1/2

[Inner Compass Initiative @_innercompass]

And if this community feels like it might be the right fit for you, we’d be glad to welcome you into it. You can start your free trial here ⬇️ 4/4.
https://t.co/GTdhB6B8Wf

[Inner Compass Initiative @_innercompass]

🧵 If you're tapering a psychiatric drug or even just considering it, you don't have to go it alone.

Our peer support platform, Inner Compass Exchange, is run by and for people who are finding their own path beyond the mental health industry.

We offer a free 2-week trial for members of this community, and beyond that your subscription helps support our work as a nonprofit.

If you've used social media, the Exchange interface may feel familiar, with simple ways to browse, search, post, and connect. But that’s where the resemblance ends. There are no algorithms deciding what you see, no pressure to perform, and no rush to judge.

To put it another way: it's a thoughtful community of people using a digital platform to walk alongside one another, share what they've learned, and offer understanding on the harder days.

One recent example of this is the poem in the photo here...1/4

[Inner Compass Initiative @_innercompass]

This beautiful writing, we hope, captures the heart of what we’re always trying to create together in the Exchange community—”you may not find all the answers, but you find understanding.” 3/4

[Laura Delano @LauraDelano]

Nearly a quarter of the U.S. adult population now takes psychiatric drugs.

CDC data from 2022 showed more than 23% were taking at least one psychiatric medication, and the numbers have likely only risen since then.

That means more than 61 million American adults may currently take at least one psychiatric drug.

@mikhailafuller

[Nick Taber @NickTaber]

Thank you @_innercompass for the chance to speak about youth mental health in America.

You can find my full talk here:

https://t.co/pbYezskAal

[Inner Compass Initiative @_innercompass]

“I had zero sexual function.”

“Zero creativity.”

“I was so disembodied.”

Nobody told Laura Delano how hard it could be to disentangle herself from psychiatric drugs.

Her story might change your entire view of the “mental health care” system.

Nobody told her that the safety trial that the FDA used to approve these drugs only lasted 6 to 12 weeks.

“Yet most of us take these medications for years.”

“I was on 5 of them at a time.”

Every side effect that arose from these drugs—disabling her emotional and sexual function, suicidal thoughts, physical health problems—was dismissed as symptoms of her alleged mental health problems and evidence that she needed even more drugs.

“In retrospect that I’ve been off of these medications for 16 years, I see how much of it was actually this over-medication.”

Now, she’s convinced that over-prescription of psychiatric drugs is a “big piece” of the mental health crisis we’re in.

“It’s so easy to get on these medications.”

“And there’s so few checkpoints for people to pause and reflect, ‘Is this still helping me?’”

“‘Is this actually maybe causing me some adverse effects?’”

“There aren’t these checkpoints built in.”

“People just stay on these medications for years.”

“Oftentimes feeling progressively worse.”

“Not realizing the medications might be a piece of that story.”

Sadly, Laura’s story is not unique.

Millions of young people are prescribed psychiatric drugs from a young age.

Few realize that these drugs can cause immense physical, emotional, sexual, and spiritual harm.

Because nobody told them.

If you have your own experience dealing with this crisis, we want to hear your story.

Share your story in a reply below, or post a video and tag us @_innercompass.

@LauraDelano @SecKennedy

[Inner Compass Initiative @_innercompass]

The people in the above images are...

Top image, top section, clockwise from far left:
- Morgan Stewart of ACE (@ACE_CoalitionEd)
- Danielle Gansky (@daniellegansky)
- Lauren Friedman (@lololizzle)
- Cam LaBar
- Nick Taber (@nicktaber)
- Javeed Sukhera (@javeedsukhera)
- Bryan Shapiro
- Mark Horowitz (@markhoro)

Top image, bottom section, left to right:
- Cam LaBar
- Danielle Gansky
- Kim Witczak (@woodymatters)

Bottom left image, clockwise from top left:
- Laura Delano (@LauraDelano)
- Nick Taber
- Lauren Friedman
- Kim Witczak
- Danielle Gansky
- Cam LaBar

Bottom right image, clockwise from top left:
- Charay Gadd-Spencer
- Cooper Davis (right) (@Cooperdavis) 2/2

[Inner Compass Initiative @_innercompass]

🧵 As an organization founded by and run for people with firsthand experience of psychiatric diagnoses and drugs, one of our goals since day one has been to ensure such people get a seat at the table.

And through years of working toward that goal, that's how we came to join the recent MAHA event on overmedicalization.

From our founder Laura Delano (@LauraDelano) making a profound speech, to convening a panel of people who have experienced severe withdrawal, PSSD, and other serious harms from psychiatric drugs — that’s why we were there, standing with equal footing alongside professionals, some of whom are in these photos.

We would love nothing more than to continue this work alongside professionals, leaders and institutions across the political spectrum.

The same people who’ve been impacted by the mental health industry should be sharing the same essential insights into its limitations and harms.

And most of all, we hope we can all work together to make change happen— change that truly serves all of whom have experience, themselves or otherwise, within the mental health industry.

So that’s what we’ll keep doing—with you, the patients, and professionals who support our work or those who are simply curious and still figuring things out.

And we’ll keep doing that today, tomorrow, and long into the future. 1/2

[Mikhaila Peterson @MikhailaFuller]

.@LauraDelano was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at 14 and spent the next 13 years on psychiatric medications including lithium, Lamictal, Abilify, Effexor, and Ativan.

After being labeled “treatment resistant” and nearly ending her life, she started questioning whether the medications themselves were part of the problem.

In this conversation, Laura walks through what happened when she came off five psychiatric drugs, the years-long withdrawal process that followed, and how she rebuilt her health afterward. She also explains why she founded Intercompass Initiative, a nonprofit helping people taper off psychiatric medications safely.

We discuss:
• Psychiatric drug dependence and withdrawal
• Withdrawal vs. relapse
• Hyperbolic tapering
• The chemical imbalance theory
• Akathisia and neurological symptoms
• Diet and recovery
• Birth control and psychiatric medication
• RFK Jr. and psychiatric drug policy
• TikTok censorship
• Why 1 in 4 Americans are now on psych meds

[Nicolas Badre @BadreNicolas]

Make it make sense.

• You stop a benzodiazepine and get anxiety: we call it benzodiazepine withdrawal.
• You stop an opioid and get pain: we call it opioid withdrawal.

But you stop an antidepressant and get depressed: it’s always depression, never withdrawal.

I get the desire to separate relapse from withdrawal. The problem is the line drawn feels arbitrary and tautological. I think that this explains much of the public frustration on this topic: the science seems convenient rather than factual.

[Inner Compass Initiative @_innercompass]

@markhoro Watch the exclusive video here ⬇️ 3/3
https://t.co/deJ4i7WVio

[Inner Compass Initiative @_innercompass]

🧵 Because psychiatric drugs are prescribed to so many people, it’s inevitable that those taking them include mental health professionals.

For Mark Horowitz (@MarkHoro), taking psychiatric drugs while studying to become a psychiatrist and studying their pharmacology proved transformative.

Mark was still in training when he first tried to taper. What followed was not the mild discomfort he'd read about in textbooks, as he explains in this video interview with our Executive Director, Cooper Davis (@CooperDavis).

“I'd wake up… in full blown panic…” he said. “My heart beating, palms sweaty, feeling like I was being chased by a wild animal or on the edge of a cliff. And I would feel that level of terror and panic for 10 or 11 hours of the day…”

At a very low dose, his life imploded; he took leave from work and eventually reinstated the drug he'd been tapering.

The experience forced him to question everything he had been taught about these drugs and withdrawal. 1/

[Inner Compass Initiative @_innercompass]

@markhoro In our exclusive interview (link below), he discusses this in depth and also reflects on what led to his original prescription—and how he now views those very real, very difficult experiences he had earlier in life with the understanding he has today. 2/

[Inner Compass Initiative @_innercompass]

Nobody told Nick Taber he would feel like a “shell of himself” after taking SSRIs.

He revealed that his entire sense of self was “dismantled and colonized by mental health authorities.”

And he’s not alone.

“I can’t tell you how many people I know who had these mental health services done to them as kids and end up feeling like shells of themselves.”

“This gets to the core of how we’re shaped by this kind of medicalization.”

“We end up with a dense conditioning of not having ourselves.”

“We have lost our internal signals that tell us where to go and what to do.”

“That tell us who and what is safe and not safe.”

“What we value in life.”

“What matters.”

“And very often, mental health services for kids are about actively disconnecting you from those signals.”

“All of that isn’t easy to navigate as a young person.”

“It is a lot more precarious when you have 40 feet of excrement piled on you in the form of this clinical harassment.”
Sadly, Nick’s story is not unique.

Nobody is telling young people that psychiatric drugs can sometimes carry serious or long-term risks.

We want to hear your story.

If you had a similar experience to Nick with psychiatric drugs, please tell us your story below, or share a video and tag us @_innercompass.

You are not alone.

@MAHA_Institute @NickTaber