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If I'm in a withdrawal wave right now, the negative thoughts can feel completely real. In this video I talk about what those thoughts actually are, why my brain makes them, and what's true even when I can't feel it.

Blog version: https://lifeaftermeds.com/what-your-brain-is-doing-in-a-withdrawal-wave

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00:57 The Thoughts That Feel True But Aren't, 02:43 Naming What This Actually Is, 03:42 Why Your Brain Writes Dark Stories, 05:21 What Is True About You, 06:17 What a Window Shows You, 07:54 I Couldn't See It Either, 08:58 You Will Re-Emerge

Heads up: this channel offers education, support, and community, not medical or therapy advice or services. Nothing here replaces professional care from a doctor or licensed mental health provider. By engaging with this channel, you accept full responsibility for your own choices and outcomes. No results are guaranteed. Full disclaimer: https://lifeaftermeds.com/disclaimers

💬 Let's keep the comment section an encouraging and kind place. 🙏

💌 Join my email list for a free 1-1 call with me: https://lifeaftermeds.com/meet

In this conversation, we share what we learned through our own healing: that spiritual disconnect is a symptom of the injury, not a sign of failed faith, and that the feeling of connection comes back.

Blog version: https://lifeaftermeds.com/shame-guilt-spiritual-disconnect-during-withdrawal

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• 00:00 A Taboo We Need to Talk About
• 02:31 When Every Relationship Goes Quiet
• 04:00 "When Will the Spiritual Part Grow Back"
• 06:29 Your Brain Is Hunting for Blame
• 09:25 Checkbox Faith, Dark Woods, Real Joy
• 16:28 The Lie That You're Being Punished
• 19:41 Old Wrongs on a Loop
• 24:59 Less Alone in the Aloneness
• 28:43 Withdrawal Has an Expiration Date

Heads up: this channel offers education, support, and community, not medical or therapy advice or services. Nothing here replaces professional care from a doctor or licensed mental health provider. By engaging with this channel, you accept full responsibility for your own choices and outcomes. No results are guaranteed. Full disclaimer: https://lifeaftermeds.com/disclaimers

💬 Let's keep the comment section an encouraging and kind place. 🙏

💌 Join my email list for a free 1-1 call with me: https://lifeaftermeds.com/meet

Before you begin tapering your psychiatric medication, there are a few things worth having in place. I walk through how to build a support system, what coping strategies can help you ride out the hard waves, and how to think through your lifestyle so you have real margin when it gets rough.

Blog version: https://lifeaftermeds.com/before-you-start-tapering-support-coping-and-lifestyle-prep

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00:00 Prep Before You Taper
01:13 Who You Need in Your Corner
03:54 Building Support Mid-Taper
07:39 Groups and Withdrawal Buddies
09:40 Coping When Waves Hit
12:46 Lifestyle and Work Margins
16:21 Resources and What Your Body Can Do

Heads up: this channel offers education, support, and community, not medical or therapy advice or services. Nothing here replaces professional care from a doctor or licensed mental health provider. By engaging with this channel, you accept full responsibility for your own choices and outcomes. No results are guaranteed. Full disclaimer: https://lifeaftermeds.com/disclaimers

💬 Let's keep the comment section an encouraging and kind place. 🙏

💌 Join my email list for a free 1-1 call with me: https://lifeaftermeds.com/meet

Relational disconnect is one of the most common and most painful parts of withdrawal, and one of the least talked about. In this video I share what that disconnect actually is, why it happens, and what it looked like for me on both sides of it.

Blog version: https://lifeaftermeds.com/feeling-disconnected-in-withdrawal

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00:00 When Withdrawal Cuts You Off
01:15 What Relational Disconnect Feels Like
03:46 It Is Not You
05:08 How to Talk to the People Around You
06:55 Your Inner Circle
08:23 Give Yourself Grace
09:24 What Comes Back
10:53 Life on the Other Side
11:58 Take Heart

Heads up: this channel offers education, support, and community, not medical or therapy advice or services. Nothing here replaces professional care from a doctor or licensed mental health provider. By engaging with this channel, you accept full responsibility for your own choices and outcomes. No results are guaranteed. Full disclaimer: https://lifeaftermeds.com/disclaimers

💬 Let's keep the comment section an encouraging and kind place. 🙏

💌 Join my email list for a free 1-1 call with me: https://lifeaftermeds.com/meet

If you had a diagnosis before you started tapering, you may be wondering whether you were ever really okay, or whether you ever will be. I've been there, flat on my back in agony, asking the same question.

Blog version: https://lifeaftermeds.com/the-lie-the-system-told-you-about-your-brain

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00:00 Broken for good?
01:16 When the DSM and psych meds grew up together
02:17 Dependency mistaken for illness
04:27 Two people, same diagnosis, very different outcomes
06:21 "This proves you need meds for life" and why that's wrong
07:22 The belief you can't heal is a symptom
08:46 Flat on my back in agony
09:31 Suffering before the diagnoses came
11:04 What healing from dependency looks like
12:29 What the hard season can give you

Heads up: this channel offers education, support, and community, not medical or therapy advice or services. Nothing here replaces professional care from a doctor or licensed mental health provider. By engaging with this channel, you accept full responsibility for your own choices and outcomes. No results are guaranteed. Full disclaimer: https://lifeaftermeds.com/disclaimers

💬 Let's keep the comment section an encouraging and kind place. 🙏

I sit down with my friend Elissa to hear her full withdrawal healing story: 28 years on psychiatric medications, 47 different drugs, five hospitalizations, and what finally changed. She shares what got her through the worst of it and what life feels like on the other side.

Elissa is now a withdrawal coach at Life After Meds! Book a session with her.

Give her channel a follow: Healing After Psychiatry

Blog version: On 47 Meds Over 28 Years: Here's How She Healed

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0:00 The walk-in clinic, Paxil, and how it all began; 4:28 Lonely with a panic disorder label; 9:54 Postpartum, a family history question, and the bipolar one diagnosis; 17:11 28 years on the medication treadmill; 22:26 47 meds; 28:01 "The only thing I haven't tried is no meds"; 33:36 The taper and what she didn't know; 41:21 Quitting her job and hitting the floor; 47:46 Post-it notes and borrowed thoughts; 55:31 Windows, waves, and Jekyll and Hyde days; 1:02:56 The long dark wave and the windows that followed; 1:11:14 Feeling joy for the first time in forever; 1:18:11 What she knows now about those 28 years

Heads up: this channel offers education, support, and community, not medical or therapy advice or services. Nothing here replaces professional care from a doctor or licensed mental health provider. By engaging with this channel, you accept full responsibility for your own choices and outcomes. No results are guaranteed. Full disclaimer.

Join my email list for a free 1-1 call with me.

💌 Join my email list for a free 1-1 call with me: https://lifeaftermeds.com/meet

I spent 10 years on psychiatric medication not knowing what I was missing emotionally. Then withdrawal stripped everything bare. Here's what the withdrawal brain does to your self-perception, and what emotional healing actually looks and feels like on the other side.

Blog version: https://lifeaftermeds.com/what-the-other-side-actually-feels-like

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If you're having thoughts of self-harm, here are the support hotlines around the world: https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_suicide_crisis_lines#Crisis_line_organizations_by_country

00:00 Will I be okay emotionally without meds?
02:16 Ten years in the medium range
02:48 Dark clouds that wouldn't lift
08:18 The bad taper
11:43 The withdrawal brain
15:47 Reassurance, prayer cards, and DoorDash rides
18:54 Rounding the bend at 18 months
19:29 Life on life's terms
23:48 You are giving yourself a gift

Heads up: this channel offers education, support, and community, not medical or therapy advice or services. Nothing here replaces professional care from a doctor or licensed mental health provider. By engaging with this channel, you accept full responsibility for your own choices and outcomes. No results are guaranteed. Full disclaimer: https://lifeaftermeds.com/disclaimers

💬 Let's keep the comment section an encouraging and kind place. 🙏

💌 Join my email list for a free 1-1 call with me

I parented three kids through protracted psychiatric drug withdrawal. In this video, I share the warped self-view, the grief, the suicidal ideation, and what helped our family survive it. I also share how being honest with my kids changed everything, and what age-appropriate honesty actually looked like for us. Part 2 covers the anxiety and terror side of parenting through withdrawal.

Blog version
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00:00 For parents who are in the trenches of both
00:52 Who Joanna is and what she came through
01:44 The thunderstorm of self-blame withdrawal creates
05:05 "Worst dirtbag or not, I'm staying alive for my kids"
08:39 Grieving the parent you used to be
11:23 Letting go of the cushioned childhood dream
15:39 Naming it to your kids and watching them breathe
18:02 Brownies, small wins, and healing out loud
18:38 Your body will figure out how to heal

Heads up: this channel offers education, support, and community, not medical or therapy advice or services. Nothing here replaces professional care from a doctor or licensed mental health provider. By engaging with this channel, you accept full responsibility for your own choices and outcomes. No results are guaranteed. Full disclaimer

💬 Let's keep the comment section an encouraging and kind place. 🙏