The Future of Psychiatry is Deprescription

How long is too long to remain on psychotropic drugs?

Photo by Fulvio Ciccolo on Unsplash

The problem I have (always had) with adherence to taking psychiatric medication daily and continuously is the effective lack of an end date on when the repeat prescription should complete to acknowledge that one has truly recovered and no longer requires pharmaceutical intervention(s) for what was probably (in all likelihood) just originally a temporary bout of ill-behaviour in the past at a time when one didn’t know any different and got duped, roped in and gas-lit by Psychiatry to believe their own ‘orchestrated craziness’ as some real brain disease.

From hereon I will refer to the misnomer that is psychiatric medication as better named as “psychotropic drugs” since there’s little or nothing medicinal about them in that they don’t treat any real certifiable disease i.e. something you would otherwise die of if left untreated. Keeping them referred to as psychotropics (for short) we can’t mistake their intended use or function in that they ‘treat’ mental disorders (in a toxic way) by forcibly altering one’s state of mind to an anti-something state (as described by the drug action) where a real imbalance then gets created that didn’t necessarily exist before. In other words, that initial bout of ‘whatever it was’ now becomes pathologised and turned into a lifelong (punishable) condition thanks to the insane marketing efforts of big pharma colluding with community mental health services and inevitably down to primary care GP’s who end up ‘just following orders’ to continue your repeat prescription indefinitely until something changes, such as the identification of an iatrogenic issue (or two) to give reason to reduce or discontinue a given psychotropic.

To answer the question of how long is too long to take psychotropics for I would have to say it depends on the individual. Generally speaking, a better aftercare plan once discharged from psychiatric services and back into the community with a repeat prescription is needed. Instead of burdening your incumbent GP there should be a semi-annual review (every 6 months) to evaluate your options until a course of deprescription is made. It can’t just be a lazy and punitive case of “shut up and take your psychotropic drug(s), and er.. shut up” since that’s what they technically do to the unsuspecting and/or vulnerable person who ends up on them.

In conclusion, I would say that the ‘end date’ for a person on prescribed psychotropics should be negotiable for reduction and discontinuation within say a year (but don’t quote me on that because there’s no hard and fast rules on when to begin the cessation process) after being ‘released’ back into the community and indulging in a grace period of disability benefits they become entitled to during their extended return to ‘stability’. They should receive proper support and guidance to deprescribe gradually after that and be allowed to get on with their life (fully recovered) and free of psychotropic drugs if they wish to take that risk. So ultimately only two types of end-user exists, those who question their psychiatric treatment (wanting off the toxic psychotropics) and those who don’t (willing to remain on them either through constant coaxing or ignorance of the iatrogenic damage(s) being caused over time).