Today, I review, link to, and excerpt from Metabolic Mind‘s “How I Overcame “Treatment-Resistant” Mental Illness: Laura Delano’s Journey”.
All that follows is from the above resource.
About the host
Medical Director, Metabolic Mind and Baszucki Group
Bret is the host of the Metabolic Mind YouTube channel and podcast. He is a board-certified cardiologist, lipidologist, and leading expert in therapeutic uses of metabolic therapies, including ketogenic diets. Prior to joining Baszucki Group, Bret was the medical director at DietDoctor.com, an online platform promoting improving metabolic health through low-carb nutrition, where he was a content creator and medical reviewer. Earlier in his career, he worked as a cardiologist in San Diego. Bret has spent most of his 20-year career as a preventive cardiologist, helping people improve their metabolic health and preventing heart disease using low-carb nutrition and lifestyle interventions. His deep passion for educating the public about the benefits of metabolic therapies grew from his experience with the prevailing medical teaching, which frequently misrepresents nutrition science and undervalues metabolic health. Bret received an MD from The Ohio State University College of Medicine and a BS in Biology from Stanford University. He grew up in San Diego and began competing in triathlons at an early age, which helped fuel his love of health and fitness. He continues to enjoy spending time outdoors mountain biking, swimming, hiking, and playing baseball with his two boys.
Learn more about Bret
About the guest
Author, Speaker, and Consultant
Laura is a writer, speaker and consultant, as well as founder of Inner Compass Initiative. As a result of this work, she is a leading voice in the international movement of people who’ve left behind the medicalized, professionalized mental health industry to build something different, working every day with individuals and families around the world who are seeking guidance and support for their withdrawal journey and life post-psychiatry.
Learn more about Laura
- From “professional patient” to paradigm shift: years of escalating diagnoses/polypharmacy and a “treatment-resistant” label, a suicide attempt, then questioning the system after coercive experiences and reading Anatomy of an Epidemic.
- Rapid deprescribing (5 meds in ~6 months) led to severe withdrawal; with time and support she recovered—sleep, cognition, metabolic health, and a renewed sense of embodiment returned.
- Built solutions for others: founded Inner Compass Initiative and a consulting practice to provide taper education, resources, and mutual support—emphasizing informed choice (not anti-medication).
- Tapering lessons: prepare first; understand dependence vs. addiction; use slow, symptom-guided, hyperbolic reductions (go slower at lower doses); secure family/peer/therapist support and collaborate with prescribers mindful of liability concerns.
- Lifestyle as leverage: lowering glycemic load/inflammatory foods (e.g., removing gluten/dairy; some find keto-style helpful), consistent movement, sleep/circadian care, and cleaner environments can ease withdrawal and support recovery.
