The webinar takes place from 3:30-6:00 AM on Saturday 18th of October 2025 NZ time. If you don’t want to do the early morning wake to be there live, you can register and receive a recording to watch later.

More info and tickets here:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/antipsychotic-withdrawal-a-spotlight-on-research-tickets-1529883114579

I want to take a moment just to send a huge congratulations and an even bigger thank you to all the LGBTQI+ advocates, activists and allies who have worked in so many ways, big and small, to get this safeguard underway. The Green Party’s Rainbow Spokesperson, Elizabeth Kerekere, quite rightly describes conversion ‘therapy’ as “torture for our rainbow community”.

If you would like some insider knowledge on what it is like to receive conversion ‘therapy’ and what it can actually look like in practice in New Zealand, check out Sherry Zhang’s article in the Spinoff and Trinity Thompson Brown’s first person account about surviving conversion therapy over at Re:News.

To be clear, conversion ‘therapy’ is not really a therapy at all. A therapy should be therapeutic, meaning it should have a net benefit effect on the person participating in it. Torture is never therapy. A therapy should resolve problems not invent them. Finding problems where there are none is not therapy. Discrimination, shaming, rejection, and ostracism are never therapy. These are forms of social control and coercion.

Zhang sums up what conversion ‘therapy’ really is for us when she writes, “Conversion therapy is a pseudoscientific technique that attempts to change or suppress someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity through shaming, emotional manipulation and/or physical trauma. The practice is primarily used within religious communities and has been linked to severe mental health issues, including depression and suicidal ideation.” Altogether now: this. is. not. what. therapy. looks. like. Full stop.

Here’s looking forward to 2022 when people subjected to this traumatising experience will have recourse in the law.

For me, these experiences really highlight the importance of accurate diagnosis and access to appropriate accommodations within our education settings. If you are autistic or experience other forms of neurodiversity like ADHD, and you are studying or preparing to study, it is vital that you know you can find support for your learning from your university’s disability office. All educational settings are required to have some form of support in place and you have a human right to ‘reasonable accommodations’ to ensure you can take part to the best of your ability.

Cameron didn’t have a diagnosis at the time he was studying, and describes just how distressing the process of misdiagnosis ultimately was for him. You could argue that it was the stress of misdiagnosis that prevented him from completing the degree he had initially planned for himself, rather than the challenges of autism itself. Because of course, if we don’t know what it is really happening to us, it’s incredibly difficult to know what we need and what is going to help. And there are plenty of things that can help. It is possible to plan a reduced course load, more time to get course-work done, reader-writers for note-taking, exams and tests, assistance in labs, support to educate your teachers, and all sorts of other things to help make it easier to manage the challenges you face and successfully pursue further education without placing yourself under undue levels of stress and distress. Sometimes it takes an advocate or two to access these accommodations and Kirsten gives us an inspiring example of the difference it can make when people have someone to stand beside them in this way.

Follow Cameron and Kirsten at Help My Husband Has Asperger’s and read their latest post here My Train Finally Arrived at Alumni Station!

Please take a moment to check out the Abuse in Care website to find out more how to get involved. www.abuseincare.org.nz/survivors/how-to-get-involved/

Another good reason to visit the Abuse in Care website is for the short films where survivor advocates share their stories and their hopes for justice and change. Each video is just a few minutes long but you will meet some remarkable people with a lot of wisdom. If you are a survivor of abuse in NZ institutions, you might find a bit of hope in seeing these stories being given voice and being heard – do think about getting involved if it feels right for you. You can do this in person or in writing, in private or as part of a public commission hearing. Nonetheless, these are difficult experiences to revisit and retell. There are lots of ways to support this kaupapa if it doesn’t feel right for you to participate yourself: it is also a big help to spread the word and help raise awareness. This is something we can all do, whether we are survivors of abuse in care ourselves or want to be an ally to those who are. You never know who is carrying a story that is ready to be told.

The commission is interested in hearing about experiences of “physical, sexual, and emotional or psychological abuse, and neglect” including “inadequate or improper treatment or care” and abuse “by a person involved in the provision of State care or care by a faith-based institution.” The commission recognises that “a person may be ‘involved in’ the provision of care in various ways. They may be, for example, representatives, members, staff, associates, contractors, volunteers, service providers, or others. The inquiry may also consider abuse by another care recipient.” While the inquiry is specifically focused on historic experiences of abuse that took place from 1950 to 1999, they may consider experiences of abuse that took place before or after this period.

The commission defines state care as follows: “State care means the State assumed responsibility, whether directly or indirectly, for the care of the individual concerned”. This can be as a result of “a decision or action by a State official, a court order, or a voluntary or consent-based process including, for example, the acceptance of self-referrals or the referral of an individual into care by a parent, guardian, or other person” and “the State may have assumed responsibility ‘indirectly’ when it passed on its authority or care functions to another individual, entity, or service provider, whether by delegation, contract, licence, or in any other way.”

The inquiry can consider abuse “by entities and service providers, including private entities and service providers, whether they are formally incorporated or not and however they are described.” These may be residential or non-residential settings and may provide voluntary or non-voluntary care. For the purpose of the inquiry, ‘State Care’ includes the following settings:

• Social welfare settings, including: (A) care and protection residences and youth justice residences: (B) child welfare and youth justice placements, including foster care and adoptions placements: (C) children’s homes, borstals, or similar facilities.
• Health and disability settings, including: (A) psychiatric hospitals or facilities (including all places within these facilities): (B) residential or non-residential disability facilities (including all places within these facilities): (C) non-residential psychiatric or disability care: (D) health camps.
• Educational settings, including: (A) early childhood educational facilities: (B) primary, intermediate, and secondary State schools, including boarding schools: (C) residential special schools and regional health schools: (D) teen parent units.
• Transitional and law enforcement settings, including: (A) police cells: (B) police custody: (C) court cells: (D) abuse that occurs on the way to, between, or out of State care facilities or settings.

The inquiry may consider abuse occurring in any place within the above facilities or settings and in the context of care but outside a particular facility. For example, abuse of a person in care, which occurred outside the premises, by a person who was involved in the provision of care, another person, or another care recipient.

Here is that link again:
www.abuseincare.org.nz/survivors/how-to-get-involved/

Adele Framer is the founder of an online peer support network called SurvivingAntidepressants.org. She’s gone through antidepressant withdrawal herself and has born witness to many other journeys through these experiences since the late 1990s. In this review, she shares what she has learned about antidepressant withdrawal from this vast online community.

Abstract: Although psychiatric drug withdrawal syndromes have been recognized since the 1950s – recent studies confirm antidepressant withdrawal syndrome incidence upwards of 40% – medical information about how to safely go off the drugs has been lacking. To fill this gap, over the last 25 years, patients have developed a robust Internet-based subculture of peer support for tapering off psychiatric drugs and recovering from withdrawal syndrome. This account from the founder of such an online community covers lessons learned from thousands of patients regarding common experiences with medical providers, identification of adverse drug reactions, risk factors for withdrawal, tapering techniques, withdrawal symptoms, protracted withdrawal syndrome, and strategies to cope with symptoms, in the context of the existing scientific literature.

Explaining more about Surviving Antidepressants, Framer writes, “The name SurvivingAntidepressants.org came about because I had read that, of all those taking psychiatric drugs (one in six United States (US) adults) 95% were taking antidepressants. However, drug combinations being so common among site members, we offer support for tapering all psychiatric drugs, including benzodiazepines. The staff is all volunteers, usually experienced community members who have demonstrated interest and ability. We are careful to make it clear we provide only peer support and do not diagnose, prescribe, or provide medical advice or psychotherapy. We encourage members to “pay it forward” and support other members. We do not proselytize for going off psychiatric drugs; we offer tapering information only to those who request it. Our suggestions, which are intended to be discussed with prescribers, are based on publicly available information, such as drug package inserts, governmental agency data, and journal articles.”

Describing the community members, Framer notes, “About 6000 pseudonymous members have self-reported longitudinal case histories, including drug and tapering history, symptom patterns, and reflections on emotional state, some extending over years. Many sought help beyond primary care and emergency rooms, seeing multiple psychiatrists, elite clinics, and specialists such as neurologists and endocrinologists. Given the self-selection factors, these narratives likely tend towards more severe cases. Although their lives may be complicated by drug withdrawal difficulties, the vast majority are average people who received average treatment from primary care providers, psychiatrists, and other specialists. So widely dispersed geographically, yet so remarkably consistent in theme, the experiences of these individuals are a powerful indicator of the gaps in clinical practice regarding the prescription of psychiatric drugs.”

Regarding the withdrawal syndrome itself, Framer explains, “Withdrawal symptoms are not inconsequential […] withdrawal symptoms are the unwinding of drug-induced neurophysiological adaptation. Symptomatic experience of adaptation, dependence, tolerance, or withdrawal is individual. […] Across psychotropics, physiological dependence is developed in 1–8weeks; following discontinuation, immediate or acute withdrawal similarly lasts 1–8weeks. Physiological dependence on SSRIs has been found to occur in about 4weeks, risk of antidepressant withdrawal syndrome increasing after the same period. Antidepressant withdrawal symptoms have long been held to last a few weeks, which may represent only acute withdrawal while the drug’s target receptor at least partially re-adapts. However, across psychotropics, subsequent postacute withdrawal symptoms (PAWS, also known as protracted withdrawal syndrome or PWS), differing qualitatively from acute withdrawal, may last much longer, even years, indicating that further neurobiological re-adaptation occurs at individual rates, sometimes very slowly. PWS can be as debilitating and disabling as acute withdrawal symptoms. Our longitudinal case histories reveal that the arc of recovery from PWS is frustratingly halting and very gradual, with many setbacks, on a scale of 6months to years, much as
described in addiction medicine. […] After physiological dependence is established, withdrawal symptoms may occur following any reduction in dosage, during a taper, or after a drug switch, as well as discontinuation of the drug. The rate of drug tapering seems to influence the development of withdrawal symptoms throughout the taper and afterward, slower tapers probably allowing some neurological re-adaptation during the tapering process. We have found even mild withdrawal symptoms, which may indicate a lag in re-adaptation, may be compounded by subsequent reductions and become more difficult to reverse.”

Framer argues that close monitoring of the consequences of each reduction is important and notes that while it can be helpful to use mnemonics like “FINISH [flu-like symptoms, insomnia, nausea, imbalance, sensory disturbances, and hyperarousal (anxiety/agitation)]” it is important to keep in mind that these aids do not “capture the universe of PWS symptoms”. Because individual responses differ, it is important to pay attention to each individual’s specific experiences.

All of this seems remarkably consistent with the evidence on antipsychotic withdrawal. If you are wanting to learn more about the mechanisms of withdrawal, the experiences involved in antidepressant withdrawal, and the strategies that appear to help, definitely check this paper out.

Read the full text here (it’s free): What I have learnt from helping thousands of people taper off antidepressants and other psychotropic medications. Adele Framer, 2021, Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology, 11, DOI: 10.1177/2045125321991274

• West Auckland Group
  Mondays 7:30 – 9:30 pm
• Pacifica Group
  Wednesday 7:00pm – 9:00pm
• Mt Roskill Group
  Mondays 7:30 – 9:30 pm
• Northshore Group
  Thursdays 7:30pm – 9:30pm
• South Auckland Group
  Mondays 4:00pm – 6:00pm
• Epsom Group
  Wednesdays 10am – 12:00am

Visit the Better Blokes website to find out more about their services and how to contact them: https://betterblokes.org.nz/

That’s 13 sections you can easily browse online now and only 4 left to go.

The team at Changing Minds continues to deliver the Whakatau Mai Wellbeing Sessions. If you are 18+ and need a bit of extra support or me-time over the next week you can check them out here: www.wellbeingsessions.nz. If you are under 18, TheLowdown.co.nz and ThrivingAdolescent.com have a bunch of useful online resources you might like to explore. There are several websites and apps full of helpful ways of coping with stressful times such as these in the Engage Online Resources Pack too.

You can find the latest government announcements about alert levels here: https://covid19.govt.nz/ They’ve put together a host of wellbeing resources that are worth a browse.

Update: Auckland returned to Alert Level 1 at midday on Friday the 12th of March. I have returned to seeing people in person as usual at my offices in Henderson and Mount Eden.

You can read the full text free here: Service-user efforts to maintain their wellbeing during and after successful withdrawal from antipsychotic medication (Larsen-Barr and Seymour, 2021).

Abstract

Background: It is well-known that attempting antipsychotic withdrawal can be a fraught process, with a high risk of relapse that often leads people to resume the medication. Nonetheless, there is a group of people who appear to be able to discontinue successfully. Relatively little is known about how people do this.

Methods: A convenience sample of adults who had stopped taking antipsychotic medication for more than a year were recruited to participate in semi-structured interviews through an anonymous online survey that investigated antipsychotic medication experiences in New Zealand. Thematic analysis explored participant descriptions of their efforts to maintain their wellbeing during and after the withdrawal process.

Results: Of the seven women who volunteered to participate, six reported bipolar disorder diagnoses and one reported diagnoses of obsessive compulsive disorder and depression. The women reported successfully discontinuing antipsychotics for 1.25–25 years; six followed a gradual withdrawal method and had support to prepare for and manage this. Participants defined wellbeing in terms of their ability to manage the impact of any difficulties faced rather than their ability to prevent them entirely, and saw this as something that evolved over time. They described managing the process and maintaining their wellbeing afterwards by ‘understanding myself and my needs’, ‘finding what works for me’ and ‘connecting with support’. Sub-themes expand on the way in which they did this. For example, ‘finding what works for me’ included using a tool-box of strategies to flexibly meet their needs, practicing acceptance, drawing on persistence and curiosity and creating positive life experiences.

Conclusion: This is a small, qualitative study and results should be interpreted with caution. This sample shows it is possible for people who experience mania and psychosis to successfully discontinue antipsychotics and safely manage the impact of any symptoms that emerge as a result of the withdrawal process or other life stressors that arise afterwards. Findings suggest internal resources and systemic factors play a role in the outcomes observed among people who attempt to stop taking antipsychotics and a preoccupation with avoiding relapse may be counterproductive to these efforts. Professionals can play a valuable role in facilitating change.

This is an intense but powerful story that takes you on Lindah’s journey through growing up trans in NZ and Samoa, navigating stigma and discrimination, surviving physical and sexual violence, dealing with suicidal urges, and discovering her identity and personal power.

Lindah opens her story with an acknowledgement to ‘Le Va’. I love this concept. It’s like an ancient, indigenous predecessor to social constructionism and family systems thinking.

Jemaima Tiatia-Seath defines Le Va as “the relational space that connects people, things and elements. The sacred space between, the space that binds independent entities together, the space that is context, the space that gives meaning to things. A space not solely observed by the individual but also executed at wider institutional and societal levels. Pacific peoples inhabit multiple social spaces, hold various roles, responsibilities and standing within their families, villages, churches and communities, occupy a range of experiences, by age, socioeconomic position, gender identity, sexual preference, birthplace, ethnicity, disability, and religious/spiritual affiliation. Genuine Pacific cultural competency embraces and values all diversity.” (See: Tiatia-Seath, 2018, The importance of Pacific cultural competency in healthcare, Pacific Health Dialog; 21/1: 8-9.) That can start to sound a bit academic sometimes, but when you read a story like Lindah’s, or any recovery story really, the many intersections come to life.

Lindah writes, “Ona muamua Le VA. Blah blah blah blah blah… Soso‘o mai loa AITU. Blah blah blah blah blah… GAFA Sāmoa and Pālagi lineage. A family of multidimensional artists. Blah blah blah blah blah… Solo Sāmoan mother and absent Pālagi father. Blah blah blah blah blah… I was born in Wellington, New Zealand (1973). Blah blah blah blah blah… Transgender. I was an effeminate child named ‘Aaron Lepou’. Blah blah blah blah blah…”

Later, she continues, “Blah blah blah blah blah… I create ‘Lindah Lepou’ with all the courage and qualities I urgently need. I wanted to kill myself. Blah blah blah blah blah… Performing Artist. I started dancing to express myself and build self-confidence. Janet Jackson and En Vogue were my obsession. Blah blah blah blah blah…”

Read the rest of Lindah Lepou’s story on Pantograph Punch here.

There are hundreds of events and heaps of them are free. You’ll find things like a Spoken Word Showcase on Feb 17th and 25th, the ICON exhibition from Same Same but Black from Feb 3rd – 28th, a workshop on Accessing Trans Healthcare on Feb 10th, lunchtime yoga at Ellen Mellville Centre on Wednesdays, and the Pride March from Mt Albert Park on Feb 27th.

I will continue to see people online and from Changing Minds in Mount Eden, but will move to Wednesdays and Thursdays so Fridays can become a day for groups. I have found a most excellent peer support worker with a background in poetry and performance like me, and we are getting ready to run some groups together later this year. More info soon.

I have truly loved my first six months of part-time private practice at Changing Minds. There is something different about working from a service-user led space with such a long history of systemic advocacy in New Zealand. As someone who once participated in Changing Minds’ monthly Consumer Forums, and later served as a trustee on the board, for me it feels rather a lot like coming home each time I walk through the door. I like the way we have a lounge room instead of a waiting room, and the way the walls are covered in framed stories of recovery from real people who have been there before.

Back in my days as a full-time activist, when I was working with Taimi Allan on the Like Minds Like Mine team at Mind and Body Consultants, we often used to weave fantasies about a fictional ‘service-user led clinical service’ and when I left that job for my clinical training, we promised ourselves ‘one day…’ Our little partnership at Changing Minds feels rather a lot like the first step in our own tiny little revolution in that way.

I have searched long and hard for a similar service-user led space to partner with in West Auckland, but it turns out there is nowhere else quite like Changing Minds. I was very excited to discover the peer-led space Te Ata in Henderson (if you haven’t been yet, do go check it out, it’s pretty awesome). Unfortunately, they didn’t yet have a room that was suitable for therapy and it was a bit far from public transport options. So I have opted to use the therapy rooms at WEST Community Hub for the time-being. It’s not a service-user led space or quite as homey, even though it’s also in a repurposed house. But it is a community-led space, so it’s similar enough to my kaupapa to fit. Plus it is super close to bus-stops, the train station and lots of parking – and just down the road from Te Ata.

Here’s to the next chapter.

Take care out there everyone,

Miriam

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/learning-to-cope-and-thrive-through-psychiatric-medication-withdrawal-tickets-135165097445

Will Hall is a counselor and advocate whose work and learning arose from his experiences of recovery from madness. He holds a Diploma and Masters Degree in Process Work from the Process Work Institute, and studies over the years have included training with Jaakko Seikkula and colleagues in Open Dialogue at the Institute for Dialogic Practice, and the WRAP facilitators’ training. He was a co-author of the Harm Reduction Guide to Coming of Psychiatric Drugs with the Icarus Project and is currently a PhD candidate at Maastricht University Medical Center – School for Mental Health and Neuroscience, supervised by Dr. Jim van Os doing research into alternatives to psychiatric medications.

Alyssa and Lachlan’s article on Reframing Autism gives us a real life example that totally busts the common myth that people on the autism spectrum aren’t interested in friendship and shines the light on the barriers that get in the way. All humans need friendship including people on the autism spectrum.

Alyssa and Lachlan write, “My name is Alyssa, and my younger brother is called Lachlan. We are both proud autistic teenagers and we are writing this post together (with a little help from our autistic parents), because we want everyone to know how important friendship is to us, as we know there are Neurotypicals out there who think autistic people don’t care about having friends.”

They go on to explain, “Lachlan and I have learned that making friends is all about having something in common. That’s why we started our Lego club called BrickTime a few years ago. It’s a safe place that’s seen lots of friendships, because of a common love of Lego. Some of the Lego builds have been amazing! We were even going to organise an exhibition to show off these builds, but COVID-19 put a stop to that. Hopefully, we’ll get to do it one day.

Along with BrickTime, the other thing we do as the AAA Project is travel to schools to talk to kids about autism. We started doing this because of a message that I received while I was the Telethon kid back in 2015. A young autistic girl (who was so happy to discover that she wasn’t the only autistic girl through seeing me on TV) sent a message to ask if I would be her friend. She said she didn’t have any friends in her small country town, because nobody ‘got her’. I would have loved to have been her friend but, unfortunately, I had no contact details for her (and I didn’t even know her name). So, we set off travelling around WA, in the hope that we might find her. We talked to kids from schools as far south as Albany and as far north as Kununurra. Lachlan and Dad did all the behind-the-scenes tech stuff, and Mum and I did the presentation.”

Read the full story here: Building Friendships Brick by Brick, by Alyssa and Lachlan Bolger on the Reframing Autism website.

The first event in the series was aired on the 15th of January (GMT) and if you didn’t get a chance to tune into the live stream you can find the video on Youtube at the link below.

Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal Town Hall 1 – Introducing the Series
https://youtu.be/Pj-mLG7tYi4