Summary:

This week we talk to James Moore about the difficulties users face when they want to stop taking psychoactive drugs. James encourages and supports conversations between users, mental health professionals and policy-makers around this issue.

Find more about James Moore here: https://www.change.org/p/make-pharmaceutical-firms-help-users-who-want-to-stop-taking-anxiety-depression-drugs

Sign James' petition here: www.jfmoore.co.uk

James Moore on BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04sp58d

Links:

Retreats page: https://timjpcollins.leadpages.co/retreat/

To get my Toolkit to Overcome Anxiety go to - http://timjpcollins.com/free

In the USA text "LEANIN" to 44222

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Join the Less Anxiety More Life community - https://www.facebook.com/groups/lessanxietymorelife/

In this episode you will learn:

• James' struggle with emetophobia (fear of vomiting)
• How James was prescribed medication to manage anxiety
• How medication did not cure the anxiety
• How James experienced anti-depressant withdrawals
• Evidence shows that anti-depressants don't always work, especially for anxiety
• The risk of dependency on anti-depressants
• The epidemic of over-prescription
• The importance of a healthy diet
• Liquid form of medication
• The myth of the "chemical imbalance"
• There is no "short cut" to getting better
• How getting a diagnosis can be disempowering
• 6 Point Plan for improving the prescribing of psychoactive drugs
• GPs and pharmacists can play a huge part in
• How pharmaceutical companies can help
• Lowering your baseline anxiety
• James' petition calling on manufacturers to create tablets in smaller dosages

Quotes:

"I took a tablet which actually intensified my anxiety… it just masked the areas in my life that I wanted to change."

"In the U.S.A. 13% of the adult population are taking anti-depressants" **according to the American Medical Association**

"Your anxiety is there to tell you, you need to take a fundamentally hard look on your life and make a significant change."

"People want the responsibility to be fixed to be given to someone else."

"We've medicalized distress. We've taken the trauma of lives and said that it's a medical problem."

"It's meditation, not medication."

"The answers to a lot of these problems are within you, not from something external."