Antidepressant Withdrawal: Finding an Astronomical Perspective - A Conversation with Safa Askeri
Mad in America: Rethinking Mental Health
Mad in America
4.7 • 212 Ratings
🗓️ 19 November 2025
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Safa Askeri joins us to discuss his experience of antidepressant withdrawal and the gaslighting he was subjected to as he raised concerns with his doctors.
"After this happened to me, I know that I can handle anything in life, no matter how hard it is."
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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. |
| 0:14.4 | Hi there, this is James and welcome to the podcast. Before we get to our interview for today, I just wanted to let you know that Madden |
| 0:21.9 | America founder, Robert Whitaker, will be answering your questions on the podcast this coming |
| 0:26.9 | December. So if you'd like to know more about Mad at America or rethinking psychiatry more |
| 0:32.7 | broadly, now's your chance. Please email questions to info at maddenamerica.com by November 30th, |
| 0:40.1 | 2025, and we'll select a few to feature on the show. All right, and now on to this week's |
| 0:46.3 | interview. Welcome to the Mad in America podcast. My name is Brooks Eam, and I am the author of the |
| 0:53.6 | memoir on antidepressant withdrawal may cause side effects. |
| 0:57.9 | Today I am here with Safa Ascari, who's based in Urmia, Iran. |
| 1:03.6 | And Safa's story is very interesting and it's also interesting how we got connected. |
| 1:14.2 | Safa initially reached out to me on Instagram, |
| 1:21.0 | and I don't typically do a lot of communication over Instagram because it's just a difficult place to counsel people who are in psychiatric drug withdrawal, but something about Safa and his energy and his story |
| 1:30.5 | really spoke to me. And so we started chatting. And that has changed the course of your life, |
| 1:37.1 | it seems, Safa. Can you tell us a little bit more about that? Sure, sure. First of all, |
| 1:42.5 | thanks very much for accepting me and thanks for invitation. |
| 1:47.0 | I'm so excited and grateful to be here and it's such honor and pleasure. Actually, I had a history of |
| 1:54.4 | OCD and in the pandemic, it got worse. I did a lot of compulsion that it led to have severe anxiety and depression, and I decided to go to a psychiatrist. |
| 2:06.6 | So after a five minutes appointment, he prescribed me prozac. |
| 2:11.5 | And in two weeks, instead of making me feel better, it gave me such a severe agitation and suicidal thoughts |
| 2:21.0 | and I couldn't handle and I kind of collapsed and I had the most severe panic attack of my life. |
| 2:28.0 | It was the worst experience of my life. |
| 2:30.7 | And then it led to have several hospitalizations. |
... |
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