Prescription Pitfall: A Personal Struggle with Psychiatry and Spousal Influence

Unveiling the Hidden Struggles of Deprescription Amidst Professional and Personal Pressure

In this short introspective piece I describe how I found myself in an unexpected struggle, wrestling with the intertwined influences of my psychiatrist and spouse. The battleground was my deprescription plan, challenged by a firm insistence on a 5mg dose of aripiprazole. This psychiatrist-spouse alliance, founded on a professional opinion presented as the undeniable truth, left me feeling entrapped.

Their united front was a stark reminder of the potential power imbalance in psychiatric services, with my personal experiences and beliefs sidelined. The gaslighting I experienced – a subtle undermining of my reality – was a jarring element in both my professional consultations and personal relationship. Despite a previous appointment attended without my spouse where I got approval to go med-free albeit with a crude alternate day taper method which would have been technically irresponsible and dangerous given the lack of hyperbolic tapering doses.

However, I remained resolute, my faith in de…