Life After Meds

Joanna

Hi, I’m Joanna, and this is Life After Meds. If you’re here, you’re probably going through psychiatric drug withdrawal… or you’re trying to understand what someone you love is going through. Either way, I’m really glad you found your way here. After 11 years on all sorts of psychiatric meds, I went through withdrawal myself, and it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. It took years. This is where I share what I’ve learned, both from my own recovery and from the people I’ve walked with.

  1. 1d ago

    How I Made it Through the Worst Days

    💌 Join my email list for a free 1-1 call with me: https://lifeaftermeds.com/meet What helps you survive a brutal day in psych med withdrawal? In this video, Joanna shares the surprising key that helped her heal: strategy. She walks through how to rethink your day, redefine success, and make space for hope, even in the hardest moments. Blog version: https://lifeaftermeds.com/a-daily-strategy-for-enduring-withdrawal Timestamps 00:00 Why Strategy Matters in Withdrawal 00:53 What Strategy Looks Like Day to Day 01:40 Adjusting Your Strategy to Match Your Symptoms 03:03 A New Definition of Success 04:08 Building a Daily Healing Plan 06:59 Finding Moments of Strength 08:00 Hope for the Road AheadIf you're having thoughts of self-harm, here are the support hotlines around the world: Suicide crisis lines by country Heads up: this channel offers education, support, and community, not medical or therapy advice or services. Nothing here replaces professional care from a doctor or licensed mental health provider. By engaging with this channel, you accept full responsibility for your own choices and outcomes. No results are guaranteed. Full disclaimer: https://lifeaftermeds.com/disclaimers 💬 Let's keep the comment section an encouraging and kind place. 🙏

  2. 3d ago

    Waiting In Withdrawal (What to do if you're better but not 100%)

    💌 Join my email list for a free 1-1 call with me: https://lifeaftermeds.com/meet Better than you were, but not totally okay yet. The messy middle of withdrawal is its own kind of hard: unpredictable, disorienting, and full of false starts. In this video I share how I learned to read my waves and windows, how to ease back into the things you love without crashing, and what those windows are actually telling you about who you really are. Blog version: https://lifeaftermeds.com/when-youre-better-but-not-100-percent Timestamps 00:00 Better than you were, but not where you want to be 01:02 The waves and windows pattern of healing 03:04 Asking yourself: wave day or window day 05:35 Easing back into the things you love without crashing 07:16 What window days can hold 08:00 A simple toolkit for wave days 09:35 The beach, the bed, and what I learned 10:13 You'll get yourself back, plus someIf you're having thoughts of self-harm, here are the support hotlines around the world: Suicide crisis lines by country Heads up: this channel offers education, support, and community, not medical or therapy advice or services. Nothing here replaces professional care from a doctor or licensed mental health provider. By engaging with this channel, you accept full responsibility for your own choices and outcomes. No results are guaranteed. Full disclaimer: https://lifeaftermeds.com/disclaimers 💬 Let's keep the comment section an encouraging and kind place. 🙏

  3. 5d ago

    Rediscovering Joy After Medication

    💌 Join my email list for a free 1-1 call with me: https://lifeaftermeds.com/meet On medications for ten years, I slowly lost touch with joy, creativity, spontaneity, and real feeling, without even realizing it was happening. In this video I share what emotional blunting actually is, why the medicine can keep you convinced you need it, and what it felt like when joy finally came back. It was like waking up from a nightmare. Blog version: https://lifeaftermeds.com/what-medications-did-to-my-emotions Timestamps 00:00 When joy goes quiet without you noticing 01:03 How the medicine felt like a rescue at first 02:03 What I was told about my brain and why I believed it 03:26 When the medication turns out to be the hidden factor 06:02 The grief of realizing you had it backwards 08:09 What coming through this process can actually build in you 12:10 Transformation inside the suffering; relational, spiritual, real 13:15 Joy in full bloom: what emotional flatness gives way to 14:17 Waking up from a nightmare 15:19 What's waiting on the other sideIf you're having thoughts of self-harm, here are the support hotlines around the world: Suicide crisis lines by country Heads up: this channel offers education, support, and community, not medical or therapy advice or services. Nothing here replaces professional care from a doctor or licensed mental health provider. By engaging with this channel, you accept full responsibility for your own choices and outcomes. No results are guaranteed. Full disclaimer: https://lifeaftermeds.com/disclaimers 💬 Let's keep the comment section an encouraging and kind place. 🙏

  4. Oct 31

    Should I Taper My Meds? Why and How

    💌 Join my email list for a free 1-1 call with me: https://lifeaftermeds.com/meet If you're thinking about coming off psychiatric medication, knowing your why matters more than you might think. Blog version: https://lifeaftermeds.com/before-you-taper-off-psych-meds Timestamps 00:00 Why Even Consider Tapering 00:56 What Withdrawal Actually Does to People 03:03 The Reasons People Decide to Leave Meds Behind 04:44 The Chemical Imbalance Story Was Never Science 06:07 Once You Know Your Why, Then Comes the How 06:38 Why the Taper Has to Be Slow 09:07 The 10% Rule and Watching Your Body 09:55 You Hold When You Need To, You Go When You're Ready 10:44 Where to Find the Tools to Keep GoingIf you're having thoughts of self-harm, here are the support hotlines around the world: Suicide crisis lines by country Heads up: this channel offers education, support, and community, not medical or therapy advice or services. Nothing here replaces professional care from a doctor or licensed mental health provider. By engaging with this channel, you accept full responsibility for your own choices and outcomes. No results are guaranteed. Full disclaimer: https://lifeaftermeds.com/disclaimers 💬 Let's keep the comment section an encouraging and kind place. 🙏

  5. Oct 29

    Feeling worthless or useless?

    💌 Join my email list for a free 1-1 call with me: https://lifeaftermeds.com/meet Blog version: https://lifeaftermeds.com/feeling-worthless-or-useless Timestamps 00:00 Withdrawal Warps Your Lens 02:16 Borrowing a Healthier View 03:30 Worth Without Productivity 06:03 Suddenly Can't Function 08:10 Gentle with the Injury 10:45 The Gutted House 12:57 A Marvelous TransformationIf you're having thoughts of self-harm, here are the support hotlines around the world: Suicide crisis lines by country Heads up: this channel offers education, support, and community, not medical or therapy advice or services. Nothing here replaces professional care from a doctor or licensed mental health provider. By engaging with this channel, you accept full responsibility for your own choices and outcomes. No results are guaranteed. Full disclaimer: https://lifeaftermeds.com/disclaimers 💬 Let's keep the comment section an encouraging and kind place. 🙏

  6. Oct 28

    20 Years Medicated, 19 Months Tapering

    💌 Join my email list for a free 1-1 call with me: https://lifeaftermeds.com/meet✍️ Make a plan to get through withdrawal: https://lifeaftermeds.com/plan I sat down with Celeste, who was first put on psych meds at 16 and spent 20 years medicated. She shares her 3 failed tapers with doctors, the slow liquid taper + the blind taper her husband helped her with at the end, how she overcame insomnia, and the joy coming back into ordinary life. Blog version: https://lifeaftermeds.com/coming-off-lexapro-after-20-years-on-psych-meds 0:00 Three Strikes With Doctors 2:59 Spilled Milk and Brain Zaps 7:28 A Life Sentence at Sixteen 10:40 Dancing Through Panic Attacks 13:05 The Baby Antidepressant 15:53 Warnings in the Delivery Room 24:53 Mama Bear at the Doctor 25:58 Stuck at the Smallest Pill 31:05 Out of Egypt, Through the Sea 35:35 A Band Around My Head 42:47 A Phone Call and a Book 47:45 One Bottle of Liquid Lexapro 51:10 My Husband's Blind Taper 56:01 Done Two Weeks, Never Knew 1:00:20 The Numbness That Lingered 1:04:36 Lie Back and Float 1:22:04 Since When Am I Fine With Laundry? 1:29:29 Joy Kicked Out of HeadquartersHeads up: this channel offers education, support, and community, not medical or therapy advice or services. Nothing here replaces professional care from a doctor or licensed mental health provider. By engaging with this channel, you accept full responsibility for your own choices and outcomes. No results are guaranteed. Full disclaimer: https://lifeaftermeds.com/disclaimers 💬 Let's keep the comment section an encouraging and kind place. 🙏

  7. Oct 27

    A letter to my doctor

    💌 Join my email list for a free 1-1 call with me: https://lifeaftermeds.com/meet For years I would not go back to any doctor, let alone the one who oversaw my medication for a decade and prescribed the reinstatement that nearly ended me. Then the office started calling about a wellness checkup. This is the letter I sent, read in full. Blog version: https://lifeaftermeds.com/what-i-told-my-doctor Timestamps 00:00 The Doctor I Avoided 01:55 After The Third Call 02:43 Patient Feedback 03:58 Please Don't Dismiss This 04:38 A Hamster Wheel Of Diagnosis 08:54 What Informed Consent Means 10:29 Forgiveness And Life UnmedicatedIf you're having thoughts of self-harm, here are the support hotlines around the world: Suicide crisis lines by country Heads up: this channel offers education, support, and community, not medical or therapy advice or services. Nothing here replaces professional care from a doctor or licensed mental health provider. By engaging with this channel, you accept full responsibility for your own choices and outcomes. No results are guaranteed. Full disclaimer: https://lifeaftermeds.com/disclaimers 💬 Let's keep the comment section an encouraging and kind place. 🙏

  8. Oct 25

    What Recovery Looks Like 3 Years After Psychiatric Drugs

    💌 Join my email list for a free 1-1 call with me: https://lifeaftermeds.com/meet I stopped all psychiatric drugs three years ago, cold turkey and a badly botched fast taper, and went through years of protracted withdrawal. In this update I share how I'm doing now: my cognition, my work, my marriage, my kids, my body, and the good that came after. Blog version: https://lifeaftermeds.com/the-third-year-of-healing Timestamps 00:00 Three Years Off Drugs 02:04 A Withdrawal Theme Loosens 03:26 Remembering Where I Parked 05:56 My Work Came Back 07:52 Guilt In Close Relationships 09:51 Marriage After The Storm 10:18 Old And New Friends 11:09 Church And Lifting Weights 14:42 What I See Coming 16:00 Not A Dumpster Fire 17:48 So Much Beyond ThisHeads up: this channel offers education, support, and community, not medical or therapy advice or services. Nothing here replaces professional care from a doctor or licensed mental health provider. By engaging with this channel, you accept full responsibility for your own choices and outcomes. No results are guaranteed. Full disclaimer: https://lifeaftermeds.com/disclaimers 💬 Let's keep the comment section an encouraging and kind place. 🙏

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About

Hi, I’m Joanna, and this is Life After Meds. If you’re here, you’re probably going through psychiatric drug withdrawal… or you’re trying to understand what someone you love is going through. Either way, I’m really glad you found your way here. After 11 years on all sorts of psychiatric meds, I went through withdrawal myself, and it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. It took years. This is where I share what I’ve learned, both from my own recovery and from the people I’ve walked with.

Information

  • Creator
    Joanna
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    73
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Joanna
  • Show Website
    Life After Meds

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