*You are listening to a two part episode. 

 

Episode 8 is Part I of my conversation with Angie Peacock, MSW. This conversation first aired on Angie’s platform in September 2023. 

 

This podcast includes the complete details of how I was psychiatrized for 16 years on a multi-med cocktail that I was prescribed in 2002 for generalized anxiety disorder and postpartum depression when my youngest child was 3 months old. 

 

Angie facilitates this conversation as a recovery coach that I worked with for almost a year. 

Angie played an instrumental part in my come-back journey after suffering profoundly from a protracted withdrawal syndrome I sustained from getting misaligned medical advice from a holistic psychiatrist that was more interested in pushing her agenda than honoring her hippocratic oath to first do no harm. 

 

I suffered from and survived a protracted withdrawal syndrome for four (4) agonizing years with a long list of disabling symptoms I never had before taking psychotropic medications or while on the medications. The injuries I endured included physical, neurological, psychological, and cognitive symptoms that were equivalent to a chemically induced traumatic brain injury and assault to my central nervous system. 

 

I am 90% recovered from a debilitating iatrogenic injury and rebuilding my whole life in every sense of the word. This is a tough conversation to say the least AND I will not shy away from the harm being done to me and millions of people, including innocent children that are not able to give their true informed consent to psychotropic medications that are causing neuro-adaptations.

 

Please note that I am not anti-medication. 

 

I am fiercely pro-informed consent and I am committed to self-determination, harm reduction and advancing mental health care that is anti-oppressive, culturally sensitive and aims to help people resolve their problems with living–not simply numb and drug their pain and suffering.

 

About Angie Peacock, MSW

 

Angie served in the U.S. Army for seven years as a communications specialist with one deployment to Iraq. After a series of traumas, she was prescribed over 40 medications for the treatment of her “disorders.” She eventually discontinued all medications, let go of her identity as a patient, but is still recovering from the long-term effects of psychiatric drugs and the pathologization of her distress. 

 

Her story appears in the film Medicating Normal (2020) where she engaged over 180 audiences during community screenings and/or panel discussions that encouraged dialogue about our mental health industry, informed consent, psychiatric drug use and withdrawal. Angie now serves as a psychiatric drug withdrawal consultant and healing coach. She provides education and support to individuals, families and organizations interested in harm reduction, and the healing from and deprescribing of psychiatric drugs. 

 

Thank you for being here with us. Thank you for being brave. 

 

To learn more about Angie Peacock, MSW, visit www.apeacockconsulting.com. To connect with the host of Courage Unlocked visit www.michelewaterman.com.