Stephen died 29.7.16 after a catastrophic reaction to Sertraline. We are not anti-medication, we want to raise awareness. Informed choice & transparency 💜
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Stephen dedicated his life to helping others. He will continue to help others through his story. We are not anti-medication, we are pro-informed choice and transparency . If only we knew then what we know now. Read Stephen’s story here:
facebook.com/107370804128296…
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Stephen died following a catastrophic reaction to the antidepressant sertraline. He developed akathisia - a severe and distressing side effect that ultimately led to his death by medication-induced suicide.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of Stephen’s passing. In his memory, we want to do something meaningful to celebrate his life, raise awareness, and help protect others.
On Saturday 25th July, in the lead-up to Stephen’s anniversary on the 29th, we will be taking on the “Stairway to Heaven” walk to honour his life and raise funds for @antideprisks
This year, we are especially honoured to be joined by other families who have also lost loved ones to medication-induced suicide.
Together, we will walk in remembrance of those who should still be with us today, sharing their stories, honouring their lives, and standing united in our determination to raise awareness.
As we make our way along the Stairway to Heaven, we will be remembering not only Stephen, but all those precious sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, and friends whose lives were cut short after suffering devastating adverse reactions to medications that had been prescribed to them and taken exactly as directed. Their memories will walk beside us every step.
The 29th July marks not only Stephen’s anniversary, but also the day we launched #PrescribedHarm Awareness Day six years ago, which has since grown into a recognised annual event raising awareness around medication-related harm.
This walk is a way to remember Stephen and all who have lost their lives to medication-induced suicide. To show support to their families and stand in solidarity with all those affected by iatrogenic illness worldwide.
AntidepressantRisks is a non-profit organisation made up of a team of experts dedicated to helping people make informed decisions before taking antidepressants.
While these medications can help some, they can also cause serious and life-changing side effects for others.
AntidepressantRisks works to ensure people are fully informed about these risks and provides support to those who have been harmed.
By supporting this fundraiser, you are helping to raise awareness, promote informed choice, and support those affected.
Thank you for helping us remember Stephen, honour all those we have lost, and make a difference in their names.
#StephensVoice
gofund.me/84fb8651b
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Stephen’s Voice - Suicide Prevention retweeted
Jun 8
People experiencing akathisia are often told they're anxious, depressed, "relapsing," or imagining symptoms.
Commercials for products associated w/ akathisia rarely mention akathisia.
Recognition is the 1st step toward prevention. Let's Call It What It Is: Akathisia
youtube.com/watch?v=8LZNmIZL…
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There is a scientific law called the Law of Conservation of Mass, discovered by Antoine Lavoisier in 1785. In its most compact form, it states:
“matter is neither created nor destroyed”
In 1842, Julius Robert Mayer discovered the Law of Conservation of Energy. In its most compact form, it it now called the First Law of Thermodynamics:
“energy is neither created nor destroyed”
Around 1907 (I think), Albert Einstein announced his discovery of the equation E = mc2 and, as a consequence, the two laws above were merged into the Law of Conservation of Mass-Energy:
“the total amount of mass and energy in the universe is constant”
chemteam.info/Thermochem/Law…
💜Credit: LonerWolf
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Since Stephen passed I’ve lost count of how many people have said comments something along the lines of:
If only he knew the pain and hurt he has caused to his family he wouldn’t have done it.
Now I know people mean well but my response is always the same:
Stephen didn’t choose to do this. Stephen died by medication-induced suicide. Stephen had no choice.
People need to understand that when a person dies by medication-induced suicide they do not CHOSE to have their lives ended like this. Same as when someone dies in a road traffic accident or by any other illness.
Prescribed medications can cause agitation, restlessness, akathisia, insomnia, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, suicidal behaviours, suicide……you don’t need to look at all the studies and data showing this……you just need to look at the side effects listed on the label.
When we are taking about #MentalHealthAwareness we really need to start opening up the conversations around #PrescribedHarm and realise that sometimes prescribed meds can be causing more harm than good when it comes to our mental health.
#ItsGoodToTalk #CouldItBeMyMeds? #StephensVoice #YourVoice
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Stephen’s Voice - Suicide Prevention retweeted
Jun 3
youtu.be/bJAbInTBURU?si=qpSy…
I run a YouTube channel where I routinely discuss these harms with patients, their families, and medical professionals. The channel has been featured in or received shoutouts from GQ, Daily Mail, the New York Post, Elucid, and various other outlets. No one is making money from this. The goal is awareness, not profit. I'm sorry if that bother you.
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Stephen’s Voice - Suicide Prevention retweeted
In 2013, I wrote about Sally K. Laden — the ghostwriter GSK paid big money to turn their failed Paxil study on children into a big fat “safe and effective” lie.
Part I shows exactly who Laden is. She’s got pharmacy degrees but worked as a hired pen for drug companies.
GSK only gave her a watered-down summary of the study and not the full scary details. Yet in December 1998 she happily wrote the first draft saying: “Paroxetine [Paxil] is a safe and effective treatment of depression in the adolescent patient.”
The study had actually failed. GSK insiders were privately panicking about the bad results and how to spin them so it didn’t hurt sales. But when lawyers questioned her years later, Laden suddenly couldn’t remember much. “I don’t recall” was her favourite answer.
Read Part I here:
fiddaman.blogspot.com/2013/1…
Part II is the really nasty bit. Kids on Paxil were having suicide attempts, but they hid it by calling it “emotional lability” — basically a fancy medical way of saying the kids were getting dangerously unstable. Laden used that phrase in her draft without any problem.
When lawyers showed her the real numbers (way more kids on Paxil tried to kill themselves than on placebo), she just shrugged and said “I’m not an expert.”
Not an expert? She had pharmacy degrees. She's a mum. She helped write the paper that doctors read.
What if it had been her own child they were giving this drug to?
Read Part II here:
fiddaman.blogspot.com/2013/1…
Bottom line: This was straight-up dirty ghostwriting. GSK and people like Sally Laden helped push a dangerous drug onto depressed kids while burying the suicide risks. The fake positive paper is still out there today.
Nobody’s retracted it.
Complicit. Plain and simple.
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Stephen’s Voice - Suicide Prevention retweeted
“You probably won't be surprised to know that almost all federal regulators around the world acknowledge this side effect, but our FDA does not, of course. And it's quite scandalous.”
David Wayne (@DescribeHealth) mentions the @US_FDA still doesn't require any warnings for PSSD.
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From @DrDavidHealy : We have to make a difference in the case of a death like Stephen’s.
Everyone involved in Stephen’s case and later inquest seemed to be decent people. The decent medical people, perhaps on the advice of their lawyers, shucked off responsibility – as medical people, maybe always advised by lawyers, regularly do.
An inquest is one of the few times a doctor can make the medicines we take safer – by telling a coroner that its likely a drug did kill the person. Unless a doctor opens up this possibility, it is impossible for a coroner to do anything. Even with the option opened up, its difficult for a coroner. At best s/he can draw the attention of the powers that be to the case – who will then ignore what has happened.
It was unfortunate that Stephen’s doctor failed to rise to the challenge, because this was an occasion where a family was waiting to try and bring good out of a situation rather than seek retribution and with the resources to do so.
How the system dealt with Stephen is almost certainly how it will deal with you whether you die from drug induced agitation, a heart attack, or stroke – unless the failings of the system are so gross that they cannot be ignored in which case they get passed off as a rotten apple issue and throwing the apple out means the system stays the same.
Most passers-by if forced to read this post would likely figure antidepressant induced suicide is unlikely to happen to them. Most are likely also pretty annoyed at the Vaccine Hesitant who are putting us all at risk.
Doctors who fail to stand up for their patients or the patient’s family at inquests do a great deal to create vaccine hesitancy. They kill the trust that those who have been harmed by treatments originally had – or they would never have taken the treatment in the first place.
This trust is not just in sertraline or a vaccine, its trust in the doctor recommending it and in the institutions that s/he trusts.
Anyone who figures our institutions cannot be trusted:
▪️to be transparent about the data,
▪️and transparent about how fake the medical literature is,
▪️and transparent about how our doctors and others will respond when treatments kill or maim us – after we’ve taken them to benefit ourselves or ordered to take them by our doctors (who get paid more if we do) or to benefit our community in the case of vaccines...
is on pretty solid grounds. These grounds offer a good basis for hesitancy.
This has nothing to do with fear of vaccines and everything to do a horrible awareness that we cannot depend on people we thought we could trust. For your doctor or politicians or Brenda Hale, or NICE, or Medical Associations or Medical Journals or anyone else to blame anyone who is vaccine hesitant for these reasons is contemptible.
This is a problem that is not going to go away until we either have a complete surveillance state or doctors and others regain our trust.
Read in full here 👉🏼 davidhealy.org/from-stephen-…
#StephensVoice #TimeForTruth #TimeForTransparency #TimeForChange
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Stephen’s Voice - Suicide Prevention retweeted
May 21
This was a three minute video submission as part of my application for a TEDx event in Butler County, Pennsylvania, January 2025. Unfortunately, the event was ultimately canceled due to a lack of support and assistance needed to organize and manage the event.
#Polypharmacy
#Deprescribing
#Akathisia
#InformedConsent
#AdverseDrugReactions
#PatientAdvocay
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Stephen’s Voice - Suicide Prevention retweeted
May 22
It’s fascinating that people and the media frame this as a MAHA issue, misinformation, or conspiracy theory when many of these concerns have existed for decades and were being raised long before MAHA ever existed.
Back in 2013, I co-organized a conference in Washington, DC called Selling Sickness: People Before Profits focused on overmedicalization, industry influence, and drug harms. At the time, many of these conversations were happening more openly outside the United States than within it.
In many ways, we are finally catching up!!
sellingsickness.com/
Check out the topics. Old website but I still pay to have it up for history sake.
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Stephen’s Voice - Suicide Prevention retweeted
May 17
These are real lives who are being impacted.
Charay lost her 12 year old beautiful daughter to the psychiatric system. It failed them on every level and it’s why she is out on a mission to change it. It won’t bring her daughter back but hopefully will prevent another family from experiencing what no family ever should.
I have been listening to these heartbreaking stories for over 2 decades.
💜🦋💜🦋
This is Charay Gadd-Spencer, holding a framed photo of her daughter, London.
London was a bright, artistic, soccer-loving 12-year-old who dreamed of becoming an Air Force pilot. She deeply sensed the world we live in and all the pain it can bring. When her family sought help, the mental health industry responded with rushed prescriptions instead of real support.
After a crisis admission, London was started on Prozac without discussion of non-drug options or the FDA black box warning for suicidal ideation in children. Just weeks later, on July 30, 2024, she died from an overdose. The system failed her at every turn.
While London became a direct patient of the mental health industry, Charay was not. Yet she has lived through every parent’s worst nightmare—the sudden, preventable loss of her child.
She is now channeling her grief into advocating for vital change. As the founder of The London Effect, her nonprofit is championing informed choice, pharmacogenetic testing, and London’s Law to prioritize non-drug interventions first.
As an organization run by and for patients who have left or are leaving the mental health industry, much of what we talk about is from the perspective of patients.
But we want to highlight the impact the mental health industry can have on the families and loved ones of patients—people who never directly received the diagnoses and drugs that so many of us have. People like Charay.
At this point, Charay and London may be new faces to you all, but Charay’s voice is only going to carry further. So we’d love for you to join her in saying hello in the comments to welcome her into this community. You can say hello here or to her directly via our corresponding Instagram post.
And given all that’s happened to Charay, we’d especially love to hear from those of you who are loved ones of patients and former patients. Thank you. 💛
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Stephen’s Voice - Suicide Prevention retweeted
May 12
This was the same argument made years ago when many of us were fighting to get FDA blackbox suicide warnings added to antidepressants. People said the warnings would scare patients away from taking the medication. That logic never made sense to me.
Informed consent is not fear mongering. It’s information that helps patients and families make educated decisions and know what to watch for.
Like our family, there are countless others who later said, “We wish we had known.”
There does seem to be a lot of resistance to informed consent around psychiatric drugs. The major argument raised is that people wouldn't take these drugs if they knew all the downsides.
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A little too late for a lot of people and those who have lost loved ones……
⚠️ The MHRA has strengthened safety warnings for finasteride and added precautionary advice for a similar product, dutasteride.
Updated advice aims to help patients better understand the potential risks of 𝐩𝐬𝐲𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐜 𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐬 and 𝐬𝐞𝐱𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐝𝐲𝐬𝐟𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 linked to these medicines.
If you are taking finasteride 1mg and experience 𝐝𝐞𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 or 𝐬𝐮𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬, stop treatment and seek medical advice. Any concerns about sexual side effects should also be discussed with a healthcare professional. A precautionary warning has been added to the product information for dutasteride to note that mood alterations have been reported with a medicine in the same class, finasteride.
UK patient alert cards for finasteride remain in place to help patients recognise possible side effects and know what action to take.
Suspected side effects can be reported through the Yellow Card scheme.
To read the full guidance, visit: brnw.ch/21x2ofT
#StephensVoice #SuicidePrevention #CouldItBeMyMeds #PrescribedHarm
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Stephen’s Voice - Suicide Prevention retweeted
May 2
My book review is now published in @IndJMedEthics: Chemically imbalanced: When marketing masquerades as science.
In it, I review Chemically Imbalanced by @joannamoncrieff and explore how the “chemical imbalance” theory was not just science but a narrative shaped and sold through marketing.
Drawing from my own experience in advertising and two decades in drug safety advocacy, I’ve seen how often the story told to the public differs from what the data actually shows.
This is about more than a theory. It is about how marketing can shape medicine and why truth and transparency matter.
Read it and decide for yourself.
ijme.in/articles/chemically-…
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This post contains content relating to suicide which some readers may find distressing
****
Stephen was my uncle but he was much more than that. He was like a big brother, the best big brother you could imagine. I grew up in the same house as Stephen, I used to wait at the front gate on him everyday coming home from work.....I always knew he’s have a milky bar for me in his pocket.
When we moved out, when I was about 8, he may as well moved with us as he calling in nearly every day anyway lol. Even Christmas mornings you knew he was waiting outside with the video camera...waiting on us to get up and see what Santy brought.
As I grew older we became great friends, sharing music, movies, life dreams and worries. I could talk to Stephen about anything.
In 2013 I moved to Melbourne, Australia. Stephen set up WhatsApp shortly after that and we were able to send video messages and phone each other. He would phone me during my morning work break as he was going to bed. I came home for a visit in December 2014 and that would be the last time I seen him, hugged him.
Around June 2016 I noticed he had went quiet on WhatsApp and few days later my mummy rang me as I was walking to work. She told me something was wrong with Stephen, he was having some sort of breakdown, he was sick. I remember her telling me that he kept saying it was some tablets he was put on recently and me dismissively saying “how could it be the tablets”.......(how stupid were we).
Instead of listening to Stephen I began searching for other answers.....could he have bipolar etc He fitted most of the criteria....he was acting so so out of character.
A couple of weeks had passed. 29th July 2016 was shaping up to be one of the happiest days of my life. I had just left the office.....I was off work in Melbourne for 2 weeks, we were coming home to get married, we had leaving parties planned and I’d just got a nice lump sum of tax back but most importantly I was going to see my family again, spend time with Stephen, get him better.....I remember almost skipping down Collins Street with the sun beaming off my face.
My fiancé Patrick and I went to Cole’s, we were planning on making Salted Chilli Chicken that night for dinner....my basket was almost full and the I got a phone call.......Mummy. I knew instantly, it was too early for her to be ringing me.....fear swept through me as I answered the phone to her screaming, crying, howling.....”Stephen’s done it”
I dropped my basket, I don’t remember much more except Patrick escorting me out of the shop and through the car park.
We got back to Ireland within two days, never to return. We left everything in Melbourne except what we needed. I cried the whole plane journey (I feel sorry for the lady next to me who kept handing me tissues, I couldn’t even look at her to explain) but the car trip from Dublin airport to Coalisland felt even longer than Melbourne to Dublin.
I pulled up to the house, it was another sunny day......I remember mummy guiding me in to see Stephen.....I remember almost collapsing as I went to go into the front room where he lay.....then I remember sobbing in disbelief telling everybody that I could hear him....”shush, I can hear him talking, he’s in the other room”
As the initial state of shock eased and I came round a bit I started to talk to mummy and my Aunty Jacqueline they kept saying “it was the tablets, it was the tablets”.....I was almost feeling sorry for them, I thought they were lashing out, looking for something to blame.
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It wasn’t until a few days after Stephen’s funeral, because the more I heard mummy talking about it, I decided to research. I found the name of the tablet he was started on and googled “Can Sertraline cause suicide”. I was absolutely horrified at the information I found so easily.....it even had a black box warning in America. Then I came across Woody’s story (woodymatters.com) @woodymatters which was Identical to what happened to Stephen, same tablet, same timeframe, same cruel death.
How could we have been so stupid? Why did we not listen to Stephen? Why did the crisis team keep saying he wouldn’t act on his thoughts? How did we not know this type of medication can CAUSE suicidal thoughts? Why were we told Stephen was low risk?! Why was Stephen not just taken off the meds he had only began?! So many questions.
From that moment on I made it my mission to ensure Stephen got justice and to try and help others. In my mission I have realised that our family is not alone and Stephen’s story is not unique. I have made friends with mothers and fathers who have lost sons, spoke with mothers who have lost daughters, people who have lost their parents and women who have lost their husbands, their best friends to adverse reactions to medications. Warriors ❤️
***********************************************Stephen dedicated his life to helping others. He will continue to help others through his story. We are not anti-medication, we are pro-informed choice and transparency. If only we knew then what we know now.
If you think you or your loved one is having difficulty with medication.....you are probably right. Tablets are so commonly used these days, they form part of many of our everyday lives.....that is why it is so important to spot any warning signs early when a person is starting, stopping, changing dose and/or type of medication.
You can find lots of useful information and help from this website
rxisk.org @RxISK
Speak with your GP, be firm with your feelings.
If this page can help at least one family from avoiding the absolute carnage that our family has suffered then we can take some comfort in knowing Stephen’s Voice lives on
#stephensvoice
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Stephen’s Voice - Suicide Prevention retweeted
Apr 23
👇👇👇👇👇
Apr 23
Akathisia is often hidden in plain sight.
Drug labels use euphemisms like “restlessness,” minimizing this neuropsychiatric disorder linked to profound distress and, in some cases, self-harm, violence, and suicide.
Some akathisia-inducing drugs, such as SSRIs, warn of an “increase” in suicidal thinking—but the reality is that akathisia can CREATE suicidal thoughts and behaviors.
Clinicians attending our recent akathisia presentation at the Psychotherapy Networker Symposium left with increased knowledge to improve patient safety.
youtube.com/watch?v=5yhubTwn…
@MikhailaFuller @MaryanneDemasi @_innercompass
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Stephen’s Voice - Suicide Prevention retweeted
Apr 17
Prescribed-harm.com if you want to share your story.
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Stephen’s Voice - Suicide Prevention retweeted
Romain's story is in the comic!! 📢📗 Ils nous ruinent la santé: Big pharma, lobbys, finance amzn.eu/d/0aqYnt8y
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Stephen’s Voice - Suicide Prevention retweeted
Apr 9
youtu.be/_NZC7cJ1LUw?si=mdkU…
We interview people regularly on our channel, Moral Medicine, who have had their lives devastated by Finasteride.
Here’s an interview we conducted recently with a mother who lost her son to suicide after he developed debilitating symptoms following the start of Finasteride. He had no prior health issues.
This isn’t fear mongering. This is the truth.
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