Medication Withdrawal, Dependence, or Harm?

One evening, when sharing a rough draft on psychiatric medication withdrawal, the person reading it revealed that he didn’t know what withdrawal and dependence really meant.

I guess that because I’ve been immersed in understanding these issues for over twenty years, I just assumed everyone else also understands the knowledge that I’ve accrued.

It’s important that I go back over the basics and explain just what I mean by medication withdrawal, dependence, and harm. For this week, though, I decided to use a short YouTube video to talk about these issues. I hope you’ll enjoy it.

Medication Withdrawal, Dependence, or Harm?

What’s the difference?

When I hear someone’s psychiatric history, I analyze the data and sort them into different categories.

Some of these basic categories include whether their symptoms fall under medication 1) withdrawal, 2) dependence, or 3) harm. Of course, these categories are not mutually exclusive.

For withdrawal difficulties, I listen for an attempt to lower a medication followed by a recurrence of symptoms (opposite of the symptoms the medication alleviated), often many times worse than the initial illness.

For dependence, I hear of a need for higher dosages or an inability to lower medications without some negative symptoms arising. Of course, some medications cause cravings during withdrawal, which clearly indicates a body’s dependence on the substance.

For harm, I listen for an innate difficulty with detoxification followed by difficult, debilitating symptoms, both on and off medications, that don’t resolve easily even when withdrawal issues have been addressed appropriately.

Here’s the YouTube video providing a succinct explanation of these different consequences of medication exposure.

The Holistic Psychiatrist Podcast (Ep. 60):

Critical Insights I Learned from
Medication Withdrawal Challenges

In this discussion, Dr. Lee shares stories of challenges she initially faced as a holistic psychiatrist.

By observing empirical outcomes, facing difficulties, and finding solutions, she came to understand critical information that helped her patients withdraw from their psychiatric medications with greater safety and ease.

Since traditional psychiatry lacked guidance on the nuances of psychiatric medication withdrawal, Dr. Lee had to pioneer and integrate new approaches based on her training as a psychiatrist, functional, and energy medicine clinician.

After this presentation, you will know about five important principles of medication withdrawal that can either make or break a successful withdrawal process. Enjoy!