Nineteen Meds Later: Rethinking Mental Healthcare | Laura Delano - E448

Laura Delano was a high-achieving student—straight-A's, national squash ranking, class president—whose private suffering led to an early bipolar diagnosis and a lifetime prognosis of medication. After initially resisting, she spent the next decade immersed in elite psychiatric care, accumulating multiple diagnoses and nineteen medications, only to worsen and be labeled "treatment resistant." Following a suicide attempt at twenty-seven, Laura began asking a forbidden question: what if the treatment itself was the problem? Choosing to leave behind drugs and diagnoses, she became an outspoken ex-patient, writer, and advocate—working with individuals, families, and clinicians to address psychiatric drug withdrawal, patient rights, and the deeper social forces shaping modern mental health.

In this episode, Dr. Brian, Dr. Tro, and Laura talk about…

• (00:00) Intro

• (02:06) Laura's bipolar diagnosis and how it impacted her life as a young person

• (14:20) Psychiatric drugs and the polypharmacological approach to addressing mental health issues

• (23:04) The metabolic, spiritual, and emotional issues underlying psychiatric disorder

• (31:08) How Laura finally realized that the answer to her psychiatric problems was not more meds and traditional psychiatric care

• (34:10) Major issues in the psychiatric health care system

• (36:47) Anti-psychotic drugs, food addiction, and alcoholism

• (40:41) Finally coming off of all the psychiatric drugs that Laura had been on for half her life

• (48:17) Gut health, lifestyle factors, and mental health

• (50:49) Why it is so hard to find your way out of the psychiatric care system

• (55:13) Safe de-prescription and informed consent in psychiatric care

• (01:03:03) Fake empathy, moral corruption, and systemic issues in medical care that are perpetuating these major problems

• (01:09:10) Outro

For more information, please see the links below. Thank you for listening!

Links:

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Resources Mentioned in this Episode:

• Laura's recent appearance on RFK's podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUOJ3lTfDF0

Laura Delano:

• Unshrunk: A Story of Psychiatric Treatment Resistance (book): https://www.lauradelano.com/book/unshrunk

• Website: https://www.lauradelano.com

• Inner Compass Initiative: https://www.theinnercompass.org

• X: https://x.com/LauraDelano

• IG: https://www.instagram.comlauradelano/

• FB: https://www.facebook.com/laurafdelano

Dr. Brian Lenzkes:

• Website: https://arizonametabolichealth.com/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrianLenzkes?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^author

Dr. Tro Kalayjian:

• Website: https://toward.health

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/DoctorTro

• IG: https://www.instagram.com/doctortro/

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