New Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal Guide

Harm Reduction Guide To Coming Off Psychiatric Drugs & Withdrawal (update newly revised edition)

The Icarus Project and the Freedom Center has come out with a guide called, “Harm Reduction Guide to Coming off Psychiatric Drugs.” It is a 41 page PDF file. I printed it out last night and read it. It’s a good place to start but frankly one must pursue much more information if they want to actually start withdrawing from psychotropics.

The only thing I would add here is the importance of alternative healing methods. Personally I don’t think withdrawal should be undertaken without good alternative care in place. Be that diet and nutrition, a meditation or spiritual practice, therapy, peer support and naturopathic or alternative medicine (preferably a combination of several of the above.)

Update 2016: It’s become clear to me that whenever it’s possible that it’s helpful for folks who’ve not begun withdrawal and have the time to consider a carefully thought out plan to attempt to bring greater well-being to your body before starting the withdrawal. That means learning how to profoundly nourish your body/mind and spirit prior to beginning a withdrawal. For suggestions on how to go about doing that check the drop-down menus on this blog for ideas. Anything that helps you learn how to live well can be part of your plan. That plan will look different for everyone as we learn to follow our hearts and find our own unique paths in the world. Things to begin considering are diet, exercise and movement, meditation/contemplation etc. Paying attention to all these things as you do them helps too. The body will start letting us know what it needs as we learn to pay attention. 

These things are mentioned in the manual. I just want to emphasize the importance of them.

It’s worth printing out and reading if you’re contemplating drug withdrawal. Finding appropriate alternative care will take additional work and research. Some ideas that have worked for me are on my “About” page and certainly there are more sprinkled throughout this blog.