Symptoms: Emotional blunting, sexual dysfunction, cognitive impairment, depersonalization/derealization, suicidal ideation, GI disturbances
I am a Specialist Health Coach with a worldwide practice supporting people to safely stop taking psychiatric drugs. Twenty one years ago, in 2005, I took my very last antidepressant. I had been on them daily for ten years. The side effects had become unbearable: depression, weight gain, sexual dysfunction, emotional numbness, constant fatigue, memory instability. My psychiatrist doubled the dose… split it morning and night… then offered a second drug for the side effects of the first.
I tried to come off thrice before. All three attempts were disasters — withdrawal so severe I had to reinstate higher than ever. Fourth time, I used everything those failures taught me and developed a withdrawal protocol myself, as the prescribing psychiatrist not only refused to help, but threatened me with death should I come off the drug. This hit hard as my sister had died 5 years before going cold turkey off antidepressants. Yet somehow my core Self self was still intact and I persevered. It took me 56 careful weeks, but I reached zero using only lifestyle and nutrition — no replacement drugs.
It took me another 10 years to reverse every side effect, which only stopped when I adopted a keto diet. I’ve now been completely medication-free for over twenty years.
But here’s the thing — I have vastly modernised that old roadmap that saved me, with all the latest information available over a decade. However the experience of battling to free myself, that is invaluable, as it enables me to understand my clients’ struggles.
Since 2005 I’ve gone back to university, completed a psychology degree, qualified as a Nutritionist, then as a Health Coach and studied further at Master’s level in the UK as an Executive Coach. I have followed the research in this field every single day.
The method I use now is dramatically better — safer, smoother, and more predictable. For the last 11 years I’ve applied this upgraded Polymath Protocol with one-on-one clients worldwide, and every single one who completed the programme has successfully reduced or eliminated their medication and reclaimed their authentic self.
This is my life’s purpose: to be the guide I needed back then — only with twenty years more knowledge.
If you’re done with side effects and failed tapers, let’s talk. I’ve got you.