Posts Tagged ‘antidepressant withdrawal’
Why I Quit Social Media to Save My Mental Health
The following was originally published in my newsletter, Happiness Is A Skill, Issue #01. — The past few months have gifted us with an opportunity for deep reflection. While the world changes at a breakneck pace, we’ve all been stuck inside, left with nothing but the life we’ve created for ourselves and the emotions that…
Read MoreHappiness is a skill.
It’s hard to celebrate anything right now. Yesterday, after a much needed few days entirely off the grid, I came back to a digital shitstorm. The specifics are irrelevant, but what was important was that in the middle of getting real mad and doing a whole hell of a lot of ugly crying, I realized…
Read MoreWhat Came First, the Suicidal Chicken or the Effexor Egg? Iatrogenic Comorbidity Explained.
“Iatrogenic comorbidity” is one of those jargon phrases that makes me want to run far far away from research. To me, it’s code for this is an article for those who have letters after their name and if you don’t you’re too plebian to understand. For regular folk, it’s a term that’s difficult to…
Read MoreFangirling over Michael P. Hengartner and Prophylactic Effects
I was scrolling through Twitter when I came across a tweet by Michael P. Hengartner, PhD that read, “In my new open access paper, I critically discuss whether long-term antidepressant use has prophylactic effects, ie., whether long-term use effectively protects against depression relapses and why we must consider withdrawal reactions…” Hengartner is one of…
Read MoreWhat exactly is a “peer reviewed” article?
When people describe legitimate research, they tend to preface it with the term “peer review.” Because peer review is a critical part of scholarly publishing, it’s worth taking a few hundred words and diving into its meaning. What is peer review? Peer review is exactly what it sounds like: academic peers review an individual’s work…
Read MoreWhere to Find Scientific Research Papers (And How to Tell if They’re Legit), Part I
A note from Brooke: This post is taking longer than anticipated, so I’m splitting it into two parts. This post will focus on where to find relevant research papers, while Part II will focus on the quality and legitimacy of those articles. For most of my life, I struggled with the assumption that people…
Read MoreHow to Read a Scientific Journal Part 2: What is “n”?
Part of the reason why I’m able to learn what I’m learning is that my partner, Justin, is an academic. He’s built his career on reading, writing, and analyzing journal articles, which means he’s my first stop on the understanding research train. This is both great and terrible for me. On the one hand, I…
Read MoreHow to Read a Scientific Paper, Part 1: Systematic Review vs. Research vs. Meta-Analysis
When I first began speaking openly about long term antidepressant use and antidepressant withdrawal, it didn’t take long for me to be faced with a wall of academic journals and research papers. At first, my instinct was to read the abstract, get the gist of what I was trying to understand and move on. But…
Read MoreWe need to learn how to be our own advocate.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I am not a doctor. I am also not a researcher, pharmacist, or psychologist. I don’t have a PhD. Or a Masters. My Bachelor’s degree is in history. Not a specific part of history, but of all time. I’ve also got a culinary degree that ultimately…
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