{"product_id":"2940012896162","title":"Harm Reduction Guide to Coming Off Psychiatric Drugs","description":"Product Description\u003cbr\u003eThis 40-page guide gathers the best information we've come across and the most valuable lessons we've learned about reducing and coming off psychiatric medication. Includes information on mood stabilizers, anti-psychotics, anti-depressants, anti-anxiety drugs, risks, benefits, wellness tools, withdrawal, support for people staying on their medications, a detailed Resource section, and much more.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe guide is published by The Icarus Project and Freedom Center, two mental health peer support communities that bring together people diagnosed with bipolar, schizophrenia, depression, borderline, anxiety and other psychiatric labels seeking options beyond mainstream dominance by doctors and pharmaceutical companies. It emphasizes years of direct personal experience with medications and the experiences of madness they are prescribed to treat, as well as extensive, state-of-the-art research that goes far beyond the usual pharmaceutical and mainstream medical perspectives.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe guide was written by Freedom Center co-founder and Icarus Project staff Will Hall, with a 14-member health professional Advisory Board comprised of medical doctors, nurses, psychologists and acupuncturists providing research guidance. More than 20 other collaborators from the survivor movement in several countries were involved in developing and editing, and key research sources include the UK charity MIND and the British Psychological Society. There are photographs and art throughout, and a beautiful original cover painting by Ashley McNamara.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBased in harm reduction philosophy, the guide emphasizes personal choice and weighing risks and benefits for each individual. It offers non-judgmental support to people continuing to take medication or lowering their dosage, as well as people exploring coming off. The risks associated with psychiatric medication are discussed along with risks of emotional distress and mental health crisis, and the role of economic privilege in access to treatment options is challenged. Years of advocacy at the Freedom Center and Icarus Project have proven the effectiveness of this approach, which is neither pro-medication nor anti-medication, but instead provides accurate information and promotes choices and alternatives.\u003cbr\u003eFrom the Author\u003cbr\u003eWe wanted -- and I think succeeded in creating -- a guide that would accurately represent psych drug risks and benefits fairly, without falling into simplistic pro- or anti- camps. We wanted to give essential lessons about how the coming off process works, without acting like we could predict what people would go through or provide any kind of definite blueprint for action. We wanted to counter pharmaceutical propaganda and psychiatric myths, but also avoid just putting out our own counter-propaganda. We had to distill years of experience, testimony, stories, insights, lessons, and crucial wisdom gained from hundreds of individual peer counseling connections Icarus and Freedom Center have made. We wanted to explore the helpfulness of meds for some people in the same discussion as we explored the harm of meds for others. We needed to cover complicated issues like biology and genetics accurately, and gather the most state-of-the-art research in a very politicized and confusing area of science. We had to ensure the factual information was all backed up and air-tight (thanks to the British survivor movement for their help in this), and fearlesslessly swim against the brain-disorder mainstream belief system, while also not making any claims we couldn't support with solid sources. We had to truly create new language for things rarely discusssed before, including new ideas like \"diverse-ability\" and \"mad maps.\" We needed to include reference to the key works that have come before this guide, works that were our stepping stones. And we needed it all to look beautiful, consistent with the message that creativity is at the heart of so much of \"madness.\"","brand":"The Icarus Project \/ Freedom Center","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47081938190576,"sku":"2940012896162","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940012896162_p0.jpg?v=1763573638","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012896162","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}