April 17, 2025 • Brooke Siem
Every medical test I used to heal my body after 15 years of antidepressants: Actual medicine, unlike what’s going on in psychiatry
Inevitably, when you write a book about a growing global concern like antidepressant withdrawal, people reach out with questions. And even though I’ve received hundreds of inquiries in the year and a half since MAY CAUSE SIDE EFFECTS came out, I haven’t bothered to create an FAQ. As much as general themes repeat, people’s stories are unique, and canned answers rarely come in handy.
Instead, I try to answer each person individually and at the very least, ensure that they feel heard for a moment. In most cases—80%—this is all that’s needed. When people have been gaslit by doctors or have spent the majority of their lives under the influence of powerful psychiatric drugs, sometimes the difference maker is nothing more than someone validating their experience. That little bit of encouragement is enough to keep them on course and usually, I never hear from them again.
The remaining 20%, like all 80/20 relationships, take up most of my correspondence time. Typically these are the more complicated cases, usually from folks whose friends likely describe them as “a little neurotic.” These are the overachievers, the philosophers, the Type-As control freaks who did not schedule antidepressant withdrawal into their five-year plan.
This phenotype wants to do everything in their power to make withdrawal go away as fast as possible and can be found furiously googling and going down unhelpful rabbit holes on withdrawal forums. They also usually have money—depression is a privilege as it turns out—and are willing to spend it if they only knew what tests to get.
Of course, their doctor doesn’t have a clue, so when a basic blood panel comes out clean, the prescriber dismisses the idea of running more tests. The patient, though, knows something is amiss. Inn googling, these people find me and fill my DMs, which leads me the meandering point of this issue: every medical test I’ve been through to heal myself after fifteen years of antidepressants.
I took my last antidepressant in 2016, considered myself fully through antidepressant withdrawal in 2018, and spent the better part of 2021 – 2023 healing my body from the ordeal. I spent 2019 and 2020 tinkering with my diet in hopes of figuring out what was causing my gut issues and general I-feel-like-shit issues. I cut gluten or dairy or coffee. I ate less protein. I ate more protein. I juiced celery and drank fennel tea. I went to gastroenterologists who looked at me over a clipboard and said, “We can schedule a colonoscopy?”
Finally, in 2021, I called Andy Galpin, PhD., an old friend who, along with nutrition savant Dan Garner, was working with professional athletes to heal their lingering issues and improve their physical performance. Dan & Andy let me go through their program, which kicked off a two years of lab work and serious dietary changes that have finally allowed my body to heal and perform its best.
(I’ll cover my diet and the results of these tests in another issue. I’m on the road doing press for the paperback release of MAY CAUSE SIDE EFFECTS.)
Over a two year period, I’ve spent well over $10,000 out of pocket on lab tests. It is no small amount of money, especially given my super-lucrative career as a freelance writer and chef. (I recently received a royalty check for the amount of thirteen cents!)
Insurance hasn’t covered a dime, and still, it’s the best money I’ve ever spent on myself because I actually feel better. The key is to get all the testing done in a 1-2 week time period so you have a full picture of your health, all at once. This allows for the Dan Garners of the world to connect the dots between the body’s different systems, rather than isolating the endocrine/gut/blood labs in a vacuum and assuming nothing is connected, like allopathic medicine likes to do.
So, have at it folks. Go forth and figure out your shit. Literally.
Food Sensitivity:
Hormones:
Gut/GI:
Heavy Metals:
Doctor’s Data Toxic & Essential Elements: Hair
Genetic:
Blood:
Complete metabolic blood panel
HNK1 (CD57) panel
Microscopic examination
Urinalysis, complete
C-Reactive Protein, Cardiac
Ferritin
Fibrinogen Activity
GGT
Hemoglobin A1C
Homocyst(e)I’ve
LDH
Lipid Panel with Chol/HDL Ratio
Magnesium
Phosphorus
Reverse T3, serum
Thyrogobulin Antibody
Thyroid Peroxidase TPO Ab
Thyroid Profile II
Thyroxine (T4) Free, Direct
Triiodothyronine (T3), Free
Uric Acid
Vitamin D, 25-Hydroxy
More articles from the blog
see all articles
July 9, 2025
How World War II, cigarette companies, and an obscure 1937 law determine what you put in your mouth today: A Short History of the Sad, Modern American Diet.
read the article
July 2, 2025
“What do all fat, sick, unhealthy people have in common? At least this: they all eat.: An introduction to a new series about diet, psychiatric drug withdrawal, and performance.
read the article
June 25, 2025
Bad Medicine, Antidepressant Withdrawal, and the Incalculable Costs of Medicating Normal: My full talk at the University of Nevada, Reno Medical School
read the article
June 18, 2025