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Psych meds can change a life, but not always in the direction we intend. We sit down with psychiatrist Christian Monsalve to wrestle with a question most people never hear in a medication appointment: are we aiming for symptom control, or are we helping someone build a life that actually feels worth living? Christian brings a rare blend of psychiatry, ethics, and philosophy to the table, and it reshapes how we think about “successful treatment.”

We get specific about psychiatric medications, especially SSRIs, and the real-world tradeoffs patients report like emotional blunting, feeling numb, and losing connection with a partner or kids. We also talk SSRI withdrawal, tolerance, and why increasing the dose can sometimes delay the day you can safely come off. Christian explains why deprescribing and medication tapering often require slow, individualized plans and why he calls good tapering work a “graduation date” that lets people get back to purpose, relationships, and meaningful work.

We also unpack the uncomfortable systems issue: many clinicians train in acute hospital settings where they learn how to start medications to stabilize a crisis, but they don’t always see the long arc of dependence, withdrawal, and long tapers that happen in outpatient life. We discuss informed consent, when to refer out, practical resources like the Maudsley Deprescribing Guidelines, and research-informed frameworks for well-being including Harvard’s Human Flourishing Program.

If you’ve ever wondered whether your treatment plan is helping you flourish or just helping you cope, this conversation is for you. Subscribe, share this with someone navigating a taper, leave a review, and tell us: what do you wish you had been told before you ever filled that first prescription?

We're recruiting for a first-of-its-kind psychiatric medication withdrawal research study. If you've experienced psychiatric medication withdrawal, you may be eligible to participate. Email DrTeralyn@DrTeralyn.com to learn more.

Savorista Coffee is offering our listeners 25% off their premium craft decaf and half caf blends with bold flavors, ethically sourced beans, and natural decaffeination. Small-batch roasted for exceptional taste. E

Use promo code GASLIT at checkout!

https://savorista.com/discount/GASLIT

💊 Ready to Deprescribe Your Psych Meds?

Psych meds have harmed us—and we’re not just survivors, we’re deeply educated in psychopharmacology, psychology, and nutrition. As hosts of The Gaslit Truth Podcast, we guide people safely off psychiatric medications with strategies grounded in science and brain health

🔥 You’ve been harmed. You’ve been dismissed. It’s time to take your brain back—with guidance from people who’ve been there and know their stuff.

Support the show

Are you tired of being gaslit and want to DEEP THROAT some more truth? We want to hear from you! Message us your gaslit stories at thegaslittruthpodcast@gmail.com

While you are at it, Follow us on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube @thegaslittruthpodcast.
Be sure to Hit that subscribe button and get alerts for more episodes!

Thanks for listening!

Follow Us individually at

Dr. Teralyn:

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• Facebook @DrTeralyn
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Therapist Jenn:

• Instagram @TherapistJen
• TikTok @Jenn.Schmitz

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Something is off in modern mental health, and you can feel it the moment real human pain gets translated into a diagnosis code and a prescription. We sit down with psychologist Roger McFillin to unpack what he saw change during COVID, why so many clients started echoing the same beliefs, and how the medical system can train both patients and clinicians to outsource inner authority to “experts” and protocols. If you’ve ever questioned SSRIs, psychiatric drugs, or the chemical imbalance story, this conversation gives you language for what your gut already suspects.

Roger traces his path from a traditional CBT and DBT background to a sweeping paradigm shift that blends trauma-informed care with spirituality, meditation, and postmaterial views of consciousness. We talk about informed consent, emotional blunting, the real-world harms people report from medication, and why tapering safely matters. Jenn also shares a personal milestone, her first day not being medicated since she was sixteen, and what it means to hope for your own light, creativity, and connection to come back online.

From there, we widen the lens to culture: how fear conditioning shows up in clinician training, how social media can accelerate identity-based self-stories, and why disconnection makes us easier to influence. Roger argues the way out is not more bureaucracy, but mass resistance and parallel systems that put relationship, meaning, agency, and human connection back at the center of healing.

If this sparked something in you, share the episode with a friend, subscribe, and leave a review so more people can find Gaslit Truth. What part of the mental health system do you most want to see rebuilt?

We're recruiting for a first-of-its-kind psychiatric medication withdrawal research study. If you've experienced psychiatric medication withdrawal, you may be eligible to participate. Email DrTeralyn@DrTeralyn.com to learn more.

Savorista Coffee is offering our listeners 25% off their premium craft decaf and half caf blends with bold flavors, ethically sourced beans, and natural decaffeination. Small-batch roasted for exceptional taste. E

Use promo code GASLIT at checkout!

https://savorista.com/discount/GASLIT

💊 Ready to Deprescribe Your Psych Meds?

Psych meds have harmed us—and we’re not just survivors, we’re deeply educated in psychopharmacology, psychology, and nutrition. As hosts of The Gaslit Truth Podcast, we guide people safely off psychiatric medications with strategies grounded in science and brain health

🔥 You’ve been harmed. You’ve been dismissed. It’s time to take your brain back—with guidance from people who’ve been there and know their stuff.

Support the show

Are you tired of being gaslit and want to DEEP THROAT some more truth? We want to hear from you! Message us your gaslit stories at thegaslittruthpodcast@gmail.com

While you are at it, Follow us on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube @thegaslittruthpodcast.
Be sure to Hit that subscribe button and get alerts for more episodes!

Thanks for listening!

Follow Us individually at

Dr. Teralyn:

• Instagram @Dr_Teralyn
• Facebook @DrTeralyn
• Tik Tok @Dr_Teralyn

Therapist Jenn:

• Instagram @TherapistJen
• TikTok @Jenn.Schmitz

Send us Fan Mail

Day one at zero sounds like a finish line, but for Therapist Jenn Schmitz it is also the start of a whole new chapter. After roughly 26 years on SSRIs and 1,139 days of tapering Lexapro, she finally crosses “zero” and tells the unfiltered truth about what it took: the fear, the patience, the symptom tracking, and the moments where withdrawal did not look like “anxiety” so much as a nervous system on overload.

We rewind to how it began: teenage pressure, disordered eating, heartbreak, and a prescribing path that ran through a pediatric provider, then an OB-GYN, then primary care. No psychiatrist. Lots of certainty. Plenty of “chemical imbalance” messaging. Jenn also shares what she found when she pulled her old records, including an earlier SSRI start than she remembered and a switch driven by free samples, which opens up a bigger conversation about pharmaceutical marketing and real-world prescribing habits.

Then we get practical. We break down why Lexapro withdrawal can surge 12 to 14 days after a cut, how reinstating and holding can be the safer move, and what “microtapering” looks like when you are reducing by tiny amounts and adjusting to real life. Jenn explains using liquid dosing, dilution for the last milligrams, and the mindset shift that matters most: you can always slow down and make a new decision.

We also talk about what comes after antidepressant discontinuation, when emotions return and you have to relearn empathy, parenting, and identity without emotional blunting. If you want a grounded, experience-based conversation on SSRI tapering, nervous system regulation, resilience, and fueling your brain with basics like protein and amino acids, this one is for you. Subscribe, share this with someone tapering, and leave a review with your biggest question about coming off SSRIs.

We're recruiting for a first-of-its-kind psychiatric medication withdrawal research study. If you've experienced psychiatric medication withdrawal, you may be eligible to participate. Email DrTeralyn@DrTeralyn.com to learn more.

Savorista Coffee is offering our listeners 25% off their premium craft decaf and half caf blends with bold flavors, ethically sourced beans, and natural decaffeination. Small-batch roasted for exceptional taste. E

Use promo code GASLIT at checkout!

https://savorista.com/discount/GASLIT

💊 Ready to Deprescribe Your Psych Meds?

Psych meds have harmed us—and we’re not just survivors, we’re deeply educated in psychopharmacology, psychology, and nutrition. As hosts of The Gaslit Truth Podcast, we guide people safely off psychiatric medications with strategies grounded in science and brain health

🔥 You’ve been harmed. You’ve been dismissed. It’s time to take your brain back—with guidance from people who’ve been there and know their stuff.

Support the show

Are you tired of being gaslit and want to DEEP THROAT some more truth? We want to hear from you! Message us your gaslit stories at thegaslittruthpodcast@gmail.com

While you are at it, Follow us on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube @thegaslittruthpodcast.
Be sure to Hit that subscribe button and get alerts for more episodes!

Thanks for listening!

Follow Us individually at

Dr. Teralyn:

• Instagram @Dr_Teralyn
• Facebook @DrTeralyn
• Tik Tok @Dr_Teralyn

Therapist Jenn:

• Instagram @TherapistJen
• TikTok @Jenn.Schmitz