Did I Find Psych Drugs Helpful? (After 19 Years on Them)

Plenty of folks find psych drugs to be a valuable addition to their lives. And there's a sizable percentage of people who've never felt helped by them at all. In fact, quite the opposite. And of course there's everyone in between. In this video, I share my thoughts and experiences and answer the question of whether or not I personally ever found them to be of any use after 19 years of taking them and having been off them for about 8 years now.

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About Russell B:

I was 11-years-old when I was first taken to a psychiatrist. Like so many children, I was struggling to deal with a stressful home environment. Rather than embarking on the complicated, difficult, and delicate task of thoroughly exploring all of that and attempting to solve the problems at their origins, the psychiatrist instead gave me a diagnosis of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and promptly prescribed the antidepressant Luvox to treat its “symptoms.”

This sequence of events kickstarted nearly two decades of wandering through psychiatry’s labyrinth of symptom management and prescribing cascades. By the time I was 25, I had received a half-dozen diagnoses, taken countless psychiatric drugs — including ten straight years on antipsychotics — and had more side effects than I could keep up with or manage. I weighed 400 lbs (181 kg), had out-of-control Type 2 diabetes, and felt like I was dying. And honestly, I had felt so bad for so long, I sometimes welcomed it.

I didn’t know where the DSM labels and all the treatments for my supposed “disorders” stopped and I began. I was sad, broken, and worst of all, someone I’d never had the chance to know.

But then I experienced a spark of hope. A light bulb-over-the-brain moment. Maybe I didn’t have to live that way. Even though the belief had been drilled into me for so many of my developing years that coming off the meds would surely seal my doom, something deep inside told me to take a chance and bet big on Russell B. Using this internal guidance, I began a psych drug taper and slowly started coming off every single one of the drugs in a psych drug cocktail: Lexapro, Concerta, Ritalin, Geodon, Klonopin, and Rozerem. None of them were safe. All were on the chopping block.

It took 5 god-awful years to complete the taper and with almost no help from the docs who’d put me on them. But I succeeded.

I’ve been off all meds for 10 years now (as of August 2023) and haven’t seen a psychiatrist since way back in 2009. It’s been a brutally long journey down a nightmarish path. One that was often too dark to see in front of me and littered with steep drops and soul-testing trials. But you know what? I survived. And my life has been improving, slowly but surely, ever since I escaped the house that psychiatry built.

If you’re wandering down the same path, please know you’re not alone. You’re not fated to lose your way – or yourself. You can succeed. We all can.

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Disclaimer:

Any advice given on this channel is not a substitute for medical advice. Please consult with a licensed medical professional before coming off psych drugs. Never—EVER—discontinue your medication cold turkey. It's too dangerous. Please be safe.

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Please note:

This is a judgment-free space as far as whether or not you take psychiatric drugs, or receive any kind of mental health services. Above all, we at this channel encourage each person to figure out and do what’s right for them. Life’s too short for anything else.

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Russell B’s videos are made using the following software: Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe Audition