“All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.” Schopenhauer said that, and I was recently asked whether it applies to the conversation about psychiatric drugs. My answer: we are deep in stage two. And I say that as someone the establishment can’t easily dismiss, because I came up through every institution defending stage one. Medical school. Specialty training in psychiatry. The pharmaceutical industry. Drug regulator in the Division of Psychiatry at the FDA. I didn’t arrive at my conclusions from outside the system. I arrived at them by working inside every layer of it. And the conclusion I reached is one I don’t say lightly: at a population level, I believe psychiatric drugs are now causing more harm than benefit. If that sounds extreme, look at the scale we’ve reached. 17% of the US population is on antidepressants. For women, 1 in 5. For women over 65, 1 in 3. And 70% of these people have been on the drugs for two years or more, which is beyond the point where we have any long-term trial evidence at all. We have never been more medicated in human history, and by every measure, our mental health has never been worse. At some point, that contradiction stops being ignorable. That’s what stage two feels like: the evidence accumulating, the questions getting louder, and the defenders getting angrier. Stage three is coming. My practice exists to help the people who can’t wait for it. If you’re looking to safely taper off a psychiatric medication, comment TAPER and I’ll send you my free tapering guide. It’s the exact protocol we use with our patients at TaperClinic. Never stop psychiatric medication abruptly. Any taper should be gradual and medically supervised.