If you look at the long-term outcomes of psychiatric drugs, this data is telling us a very different story than what we've been led to believe that actually, on the whole, there's a strong case to make that these medications when used long-term are making us sicker, more disabled.

And I read that thesis, and there I was on five medications that I'd been on for a decade.

With each passing year my life had fallen more and more apart,

I'd grown more and more disabled in mind, body, and spirit,

thinking it was my treatment-resistant mental illness,

and now suddenly I wondered, what if it's the treatment?

Laura Delano describes herself as having been a, quote, professional psychiatric patient between

the ages of 13 and 27. When doctors said her mental illness was, quote, treatment resistant,

she began to ask herself a question, is the way mental health is currently treated, making us

more mentally unwell. Welcome to the Lizzo

Wellbeing Show, the podcast that focuses on ways of finding how to have a better second half as we

age. I'm Lizelle, and I'm all for discovering how by investing in our health and our well-being

today, we can thrive in our later life. Now, you might

remember the fascinating conversations that I've had with Professor Joanna Moncrief and Dr. Mark Horowitz

on the show. We've talked about how the chemical imbalance theory of depression has largely

been debunked and how to safely taper off antidepressants,

all things I want to keep talking about. Why? Because I continue to be staggered by just how

many of us, especially women in midlife and beyond, are routinely prescribed these drugs.

Too often rarely reviewed, except to maybe increase the dose,

let alone updated on the latest protocols for coming off them safely should we decide to do so.

So today we're going to hear from someone with huge personal experience of all this and more.

Laura Delano is a writer, speaker and consultant and the founder of Inner Compass Initiative,

...