Anthropology, Arctic Iceland and Antidepressant Withdrawal: A Conversation With Fiona Frenzen

Mad in America: Rethinking Mental Health

Mad in America

Mental Health, Medicine, Health & Fitness

4.7 • 212 Ratings

🗓️ 3 June 2026

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Born in Germany and raised in Denmark, Fiona Frenzen is a qualified teacher with a master's degree in anthropology. For years, she had a dream about living in Iceland, seeking the grounding and healing effect of nature. But due to her health challenges and severe withdrawal syndrome, this dream seemed unrealistic. However, this past fall, she moved to a rural part of Iceland where she began teaching at the local elementary and high school.

She dreams about putting her degree in anthropology to use by working in research and contributing to the awareness of the risks of antidepressants and the difficulties of withdrawal.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Madden America Podcast, your source for science, psychiatry, and social justice.
0:14.8	Welcome to the Madden America podcast. My name is Brooks Seam, and I am the author of the award-winning memoir on antidepressant
0:21.4	withdrawal may cause side effects. This series is a little different as I am interviewing
0:26.5	folks who have been through psychiatric drug withdrawal and have come out on the other side
0:32.2	in either an interesting or inspiring or both way. And I am here today with Fiona Frenzen. And I'm so excited to talk to her
0:43.0	about this because she and I have been communicating over Instagram for a number of years now.
0:48.5	And I have been very interested in not only her journey in the world, physically where she is and how she ended up there,
0:57.2	but also there has been an awareness and an intellectual approach to your withdrawal that I've found to be very refreshing and interesting.
1:09.4	And so I'm hoping to talk a little bit about that as well as where you are
1:13.0	in your journey now. I will start with a little bit of a biography, which is super interesting.
1:20.1	So, born in Germany and raised in Denmark, Fiona is a qualified teacher with a master's degree
1:25.7	at anthropology. For years, she had a dream about living in Iceland.
1:30.8	The raw nature had a grounding and healing effect on her.
1:34.4	But due to her mental health challenges and severe withdrawal syndrome, this dream seemed very
1:39.7	unrealistic.
1:41.4	However, this past fall, she moved to a very rural part of Iceland, where she began
1:46.0	teaching at the local elementary in high school. She is happy to be there and very proud that she
1:51.1	made it through the dark winter far away in the Arctic. But she thinks this is hopefully a stepping
1:56.5	stone to another field. She dreams about putting her degree in anthropology to use by working in research
2:02.4	and also contributing more to the awareness and risks of antidepressants and the difficulties of
2:07.5	withdrawal. Fiona, thank you so much for joining us today. Yeah, thank you so much. I'm really,
2:13.5	really excited. You mentioned before we started recording that your journey and this whole experience
	...

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