We interview Dr. Stuart Shipko, a psychiatrist and author who has an interest in the side effects and withdrawal effects of SSRI antidepressants and the need for informed consent when prescribing.
How I Became My Own Psychiatrist
157
Today marks the tenth week of working as a clinician at a private psychiatric hospital where five years ago I was a patient. In a different place in my life, I voluntarily admitted myself when thoughts of self-harm became too overwhelming to manage.
Four years before that hospitalization, I had consumed my last drink after spending most of my twenties on an alcohol-fueled spree sustained by long periods of manic energy (a symptom in today’s world but a gift in others). This ostensibly successful propulsion allowed me to secure my first graduate degree and employment in conventionally respectable jobs until alcohol’s incitement ran its course. In that final year of use, I walked out of a corporate position, left my partner, and drove 1,500 miles to my childhood home all in about a week in an act of unconscious self-preservation. Two weeks after arriving home to my unsuspecting family, though, I attempted to end my life and woke up in a psych