With many midlife women being routinely prescribed mental health medications, speaker and writer Laura Delano joins Liz to help us make more informed decisions about these treatments.

Laura talks Liz through her childhood and being diagnosed with bipolar disorder as a teen, plus the many mental health medications she was prescribed that had little effect.

Laura also discusses the impact of being told she was 'treatment resistant', shares her advice on how to come off psychiatric drugs safely, and why, despite her experience, she is not anti-medication or anti-psychiatry.

Content warning: this episode contains frank conversation about suicide, which some listeners may find distressing.

In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email [email protected]. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org.

Links mentioned in the episode:

• Inner Compass Initiative
• Unshrunk by Laura Delano
• Follow Laura Delano on Instagram
• Debunking the chemical imbalance theory of depression, with Professor Joanna Moncrieff
• The truth about coming off antidepressants, with Dr Mark Horowitz
• Are women depressed or oppressed? – with Dr Linda Gask
• What chronic illness taught me, with Lily Earle
• A Better Second Half by Liz Earle
• Have a question for Liz? Send a WhatsApp message or voicenote to 07518 471846, or email us at [email protected] for the chance to be featured on the show

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