Anniversary posts: first 8 years off psych drugs documented

Anniversary posts: first 8 years off psych drugs documented: This will be posted in the navigation drop-down menu section for easy access

Below this introduction are a list of the anniversary posts I’ve written each year since I came off. They are pieces that consider the entire process and what it’s meant to me.

After about two decades on psych meds I came off a six drug cocktail in about six years. This proved to be a gargantuan task.

I see in retrospect that some core, vital part of me was always there during the drugged years, learning and remembering much that would help me in these years of coming off meds and now being med free. I no longer believe that I lost my life to drugs, though the life I had to lead has been unecessarily agonizing due to the drugs. It’s tragic that those of us drugged in these ways cannot be more conscious and thus learn to help ourselves in ways that are not so detrimental to the body/mind/soul. During the drugged years my body became toxic, polluted and chronically, painfully ill; and this is why I help others learn to avoid what happened to me.

All my experience was not lost; in fact it was stored in my body to be processed when I got free of drugs.

This is one of the many ways that psych drugs are agents of trauma. Part of the healing process, for me, and clearly many others who’ve been on psych meds and come off, is one of working through layers and layers of trauma — that which was incurred prior to psych drug use as well as that which is incurred as a result of psych drug use and exposure to the dehumanizing psychiatric system. I have done this mostly through meditation and yoga, diet and by deeply paying attention to my body.

Trauma becomes embodied. The body holds the secrets to wellness. The body knows the score, as Bessel Van Der Kolk says.

When we learn to listen to the body once again we find that we can come into alignment with all of life in ways I hadn’t even conceived of as possible until I was forced to start paying attention (once I was bedridden and so sick I couldn’t move or speak…that all proved to be a powerful motivator for me. I was not going to give up)

Once we listen we learn that the body/mind/spirit has wisdom that far exceeds anything we learn intellectually. Incredible healing wisdom. Learning to listen is key. The sooner we learn to do that the better.

The end of 2017 brought a shocking setback, though all I’ve learned still applies I simply had to start over in some regards. This time I knew what I was doing in some ways.

These are posts from 2018 in regard to that setback:

• Coming home (by Paul Woodward and Monica)
• Learning to live again…
• “How did this happen? You’re the most resourced person I know.
• Mourning, loss and vision

Below are the yearly posts from the first 7 years

• Blog anniversary today and drug freedom — on the road to recovery (musings upon coming off, 2010)
• Living well while being sick: an anniversary post (1st anniversary 2011)
• Trying to reverse 2 years of hell with a shot in the neck (take note, those interested in PTSD and/or withdrawal syndromes) (2nd anniversary, 2012)
• 3 year anniversary of withdrawal from large psych drug cocktail: drug freedom continues (2013)
• 4 year anniversary of withdrawal from psych drug cocktail: healing continues (2014)
• Today: 5 years free from the psych drug cocktail (2015)
• My 6 year anniversary off psych drugs: How I made it through the darkest times (2016)
• 7 yrs off psych drugs: a message to those labeled by psychiatry (video included) 2017

And for those of you experiencing protracted psychiatric drug withdrawal syndrome see the IT GETS BETTER series.

Also see: HEALING DOCUMENTED (the personal journey)

Psychiatric drug withdrawal and protracted withdrawal syndrome round-up

***

For a multitude of ideas about how to create a life filled with safe alternatives to psychiatric drugs visit the drop-down menus at the top of this page or scroll down the homepage for more recent postings. 

Support Everything Matters: Beyond Meds. Make a donation with PayPal or Enter Amazon via a link from this blog and do the shopping you’d be doing anyway. No need to purchase the book the link takes you to. Thank you!