1. Introduction / Main Video / Pamphlet Version
Something to start with . . .
I’ve created this substack to expand upon my YouTube channel and my first video, A Mindbody Approach to (Protracted) Withdrawal Syndrome.
If you prefer an essay/pamphlet version of the video, you can download that below.
Why expand into a blog?
I’ve created a Substack because the YouTube video prompted a number of public questions and private messages across various platforms. I’d like to consolidate my answers on both YouTube and here to provide more detailed information on how a mindbody approach can successfully apply to withdrawal.
What is this all about anyway?
Protracted withdrawal syndrome from psychiatric drugs can be ghastly. Current withdrawal management strategies may be insufficient because they almost exclusively approach protracted withdrawal as a physical disorder of the central nervous system. Alternatively, a mindbody approach understands ongoing withdrawal experiences not as a physical disorder but as a learned brain state. What drives the learning of withdrawal are powerful and mostly unconscious emotions about something personally upsetting (outside the withdrawal experience itself). In this case the reason withdrawal experiences are learned is to distract one’s attention from the emotional upset. The way to resolve or unlearn withdrawal is by rejecting the idea that one has a physical disorder and acknowledging its emotional basis. Such an approach is largely adapted from John Sarno’s non-pathologizing concept The Mindbody Syndrome (TMS) and later developments on his ideas.
Who am I?
Hi I’m Gustav f., a formerly psychiatrized person, and if what I’ve said above sounds hard to believe, well, I originally thought so too. But I’m forced to believe it because I, myself, “unlearned” five years of withdrawal sensations with the mindbody approach discussed here. And I promised myself that if I ever healed from psychiatric drugs I’d share how I did it. The YouTube video I made is the fulfillment of that promise, and any future videos and blog posts are just an expansion of that.
Why subscribe?
If you wish to subscribe (it’s free) you will receive an email or “newsletter” whenever I publish here. At this point I anticipate that will be infrequent, whenever I feel so inclined or something comes up—the main video contains most of the information I wish to share.