You don’t know me at all, but I’ve been a reader of your blog (EverythingMatters and then AllSignal) for a couple of months in my search for comprehensive and holistic resources for someone withdrawing from psych meds (in my case I spent all my teenage years on various antipsychotics and sliding deeper into the mental ‘illness’ system, receiving ECT 17x). The resources that you have provided are simply invaluable and the breadth of your work that is as much a work of mysticism as it is a work on the means and meaning of healing cannot be matched anywhere else. I cannot tell you how many nights I’ve lilted into despair only to find reason for real hope by pulling up a couple entries on your blog — if not because of your wisdom and know-how offered, then the strange poetry of the fact that you had taken your pain and loss and transfigured it as in any great work, yours spanning years and deeply moving the lives of many others, I am sure, as it has moved mine.

Beyond Meds is the single most valuable source for both firsthand and research information about coming off psychiatric drugs. It’s my top referral for people looking for information on the Internet.

I want to take a moment to say how much my life has been changed by having access to beyondmeds.com. Beyond Meds has become a constant in my life that I look forward to on a daily basis.  I can count on the information being current, addressing concerns regarding mental health, especially regarding alternative care. I have a masters degree in social work and find that the subjects that are addressed on Beyond Meds, especially the ones that might be considered controversial, are not readily available from other sources, or I have not been made aware of them.

Monica Cassani’s comments on what she presents are always sensitive, articulate and presented in an open-minded way. She is willing to share from her own experience. She includes an endless number of contributors and I have been re-introduced to authors I treasure as well as a host of new ones. Many of the articles presented speak to the body, mind, and soul, and nurture one’s heart.

Beyondmeds.com is an invaluable resource which I depend on regularly in order to gain inspiration and move forward in both my professional and personal experience.  I highly recommend it to persons in all walks of life!

This blog – Beyond Meds – has been a lifeline to me since I found it. For the longest time I’d thought I was the only one who had experienced “waking up” from, well, a 15 year walking coma. I’ve found the information here to be extremely validating not only of my experience with psychiatry and the numerous labels I’d been marked with but also in the process of withdrawals and residual effects from the drugs. Until I found Monica Cassani’s blog I was sure I was the only person in the world who had suffered what I’d suffered at the hand of psychiatry. I no longer feel alone and I’ve come to realize that those of us on this particular journey have much in common. Beyond Meds is not only my first resource for information relating to psychiatry, drug withdrawals and the healing path but is my first reference source as I now support others who are considering making these changes themselves. Monica Cassani and Beyond Meds – are truly a world class resource for anyone wishing to have a better understanding of their experience in the mental health system, their life experiences and of themselves as Monica continues to share the knowledge that truly is empowering.

I would like to thank you for your amazing and generous effort in having and keeping up this blog. This is easily the most comprehensive critical blog available on the state of mental health in the United States and not a few other countries. Its critique of the way in which mental health is approached in mainstream medicine and psychiatry is invaluable and so is the wealth of alternative views and resources you offer to your readers. I know that you are terribly sick because of the brain injury caused by bad and excessive medicating by unscrupulous psychiatrists, and while this truly validates your presence on the net and what you report, it also gives me cause to admire you for your perseverance in your effort to bring justice and sanity to the truly insane world of mainstream mental health. I regularly use your blog in my classes on mental illness and psychiatry and my students have learned much because of you. Again, thank you, and good luck.

From the time he was 19 until 21, having swallowed over 5,000 pills of these psych-drugs, at some 650 mg/day, completely drugged, my son was in a shape worse than before his admission to hospital. Then, via your website, we learned about OPEN DIALOGUE, we traveled to Lapland in Finland to meet the innovators. Today, our son has “healed” from his psychosis, he worked his way out of psych-drugs, and he is happy again and back in college. Had his psych-treatment been going on, say until his 75, then he would have swallowed over 250,000 pills and paid some 165.000 Euros (over US$ 200,000) to psychiatrists and pharmacists, not reimbursed by our health insurance. – That is the average price of a two bedroom apartment of 95 m2 in Belgium…

The pharmaceutico-psychiatry business is very lucrative indeed.

Healed and drug-free thanks to you, Monica, our son can now work and save that to invest into his own apartment.

With our gratitude comes our encouragement:

KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!

Beyond Meds is an excellent resource because it helps the reader to gain awareness of the natural and peer supports out there for recovery from mental health challenges.  I have learned so much from reading Monica’s blog throughout the years.  I have been able to connect with others and reduce a portion of my medication and lead a more meaningful and productive life.  Monica is very prolific in her postings and has a lot of great knowledge and insight to assist her readers.  She also has email updates of her latest blog postings which I really enjoy because it alerts me to what is going on and what I need to pay attention to.

I am struck every time I read a Beyond Meds page, how much information is here. Such openness and honesty, Monica. The deep attention to easy access and organisation is stunning and I feel beyond grateful for what you continue to offer to the world. Your words have helped me to allow my fear of fear to drop away and to become independent of the drugs I was told I would need the rest of my life. Thank you from the bottom of my heart! …  With outrageous courage and tenacity, you are expressing a new paradigm that some people all across the planet are resonating with and easily able to access.

Some lovely tweets that were shared with me:

OK, thx. Btw, I’m grateful beyond words for your blog! Could not have freed myself from 15 yrs of dx, drugs, shock w/o it.

In 2009 I mentally quit bipolar during an awful pdoc appt. Went home, googled “undiagnosing myself” and found your work.

For me withdrawal has been awful but so so worth the struggle. Your blog has been my best online resource.

 I don’t mean to gush I’m just so grateful  🙂

— Sonia K Weaver  October 4, 2012