0:00 – Introduction to Laura Delano and deprescribing medications. Laura’s powerful story.
10:31 – What was Laura’s mindset when she was told her mental illness was “treatment-resistant?” What could have been done differently with Laura’s treatment in her youth to improve her outcomes at the time?
16:30 – What was Laura’s experience with treatment? How did Laura Delano change her treatment to improve her mental illness? How did deprescribing affect her mental health?
31:10 – What is Laura Delano doing to spread awareness of her journey to help others? What has she learned from doing this work? How should people taper psychiatric medication?
39:23 – What advice does she have for people working with care team to deprescribe?
44:33 – Can a ketogenic diet and other metabolic interventions make it easier to come off psychiatric medications?
50:24 – Where can people find more from Laura Delano, her book and Inner Compass Initiative?
Can you safely taper off psychiatric medications? And what are the potential harms of long-term psychiatric care?
Laura Delano spent years as a professional patient, navigating psychiatric diagnoses, multiple medications, and a life defined by treatment.
In this interview, Laura discusses her 13-year experience as a psychiatric patient, the impact of long-term medication use, and how she took back control of her health to successfully taper off multiple psychiatric drugs.
After receiving unsafe advice to taper too quickly, Laura suffered terrible withdrawal. Ultimately, she learned about safe tapering protocols, which she now shares with others. Through her nonprofit, Inner Compass Initiative, she’s empowering people to make informed choices about psychiatric medications and de-prescription.
💡 In this episode, we cover:
✅ Laura’s personal story of polypharmacy and its effects
✅ The impact of long-term psychiatric medication
✅ The challenges of tapering and withdrawal
✅ How Laura has rebuilt her life beyond medications
✅ How Laura built a nonprofit to support others on the same path
✅ The role of diet, lifestyle, and community in mental health recovery
✅ Why informed consent is crucial for psychiatric treatment decisions
✅ The mission of Inner Compass Initiative: A new path for many hoping to ease the burden of tapering off meds could be ketogenic therapy, which many are using to safely reduce or even eliminate psychiatric medications. More research is needed, but many anecdotal reports offer hope.
Laura’s new book Unshrunk: A Story of Psychiatric Treatment Resistance is available March 18, 2025.
⚠️ Trigger Warning: This conversation includes discussion of suicidality and a suicide attempt. Please take care when watching.
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.
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.
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.
