Prescription Medications,
The Mental Health Industrial Complex,
and You
Things you should read and watch to educate yourself about how Big Pharma, the American Psychiatric Association, Big Media, and paid Academic “Influencers” all profit by prescribing you medications that only blunt symptoms and make your mental health worse.
Is EVERYTHING a Disorder Now? — Dr. Roger McFillin (50:27)
The Radically Genuine Podcast, by Dr. Roger McFillin, was the first podcast I listened to as I began exploring the views of individuals I considered to be “ethical psychiatrists.” I read Dr. McFillin’s Substack article before I watched this video podcast. The Substack article had a slightly different title: Is Everything a Psychiatric Disorder Now? Can’t someone just be an asshole? undisciplined? self-centered? That title made me laugh. I’d never seen such a direct and frank piece of writing about the field of psychiatry in my life — I had to read it, and I loved it. FINALLY, SOMEONE WITH A BRAIN WHO WASN’T AFRAID TO SPEAK THE TRUTH!
This article, and the video podcast I subsequently watched, took me on an intellectual journey that has introduced me to every video podcast and book you see on this page. You see, I had come to the same conclusions on my own. As a leader, I had watched people struggle with trauma and commit suicide for the last twenty years. Our national approach, and the approach I saw applied to U.S. Marines, of medications and forever therapy simply did not work. Dr. Roger McFillin was the first mental health professional I ever heard say, “It’s not working.”
What I enjoyed most about Dr. McFillin’s manner in these discussions was the spoke the truth! He called “bullshit” on things that were bullshit! And then came the part where he discussed the fact that the psychiatric profession had “medicalized the everyday rigors of life” — rigors that human beings had been overcoming for thousands of years! However, now, since they were “mental health diagnoses,” we numbed these cues for human growth with prescription medications! And he called BULLSHIT on that, and I was hooked! Because that was exactly what I’d seen with my own eyes as a leader, public speaker, trauma coach — EXACTLY!
I hope you enjoy Dr. Roger McFillin as much as I have. His YouTube Podcast introduced me to Robert Whitaker, Dr. Josef Witt-Doerring, Joanna Moncrief, Dr. David Healy, and loads of other bright, conscientious people who believe there IS a better way to treat people who are struggling with the challenges of life as human beings.
FROM THE VIDEO DESCRIPTION: Has modern culture turned everyday human struggles into psychiatric disorders? Dr. Roger McFillin explores the rise of diagnoses like ADHD, anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorder, and asks whether we’ve gone too far in medicalizing normal human behavior.
Dr. Roger McFillin is a Clinical Psychologist with over two decades of experience. This show challenges mainstream mental health narratives with unfiltered insights and evidence-based strategies. It’s not just another self-help podcast, it’s a direct exploration of what it takes to overcome life’s toughest challenges without the limitations of traditional therapy-speak.
CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO WATCH THE YOUTUBE VIDEO
YOUTUBE VIDEO: The case for a radical paradigm shift in the psychiatric care — Robert Whitaker (1:02:08)
On May 9, 2023, Robert Whitaker, the renowned author of “Mad In America” and “Anatomy of an Epidemic,” gave a presentation in Iceland to the Landssamtökin Geðhjálp, which sponsored a symposium entitled Social Change: A New Way of Thinking About Mental Health. In the presentation, Whitaker (as he often does) takes the viewer on a journey from “what we were led to believe about the prescription medications used in the treatment of mental health patients,” through “what the evidence now shows us,” to a vision for a new way of looking at mental health and what is possible if we truly follow “evidence-based” methodology.
Whitaker’s vision is a serious one; it is both “evidence-based” and historically rooted in treatments and approaches that create positive outcomes for the patient — outcomes that return patients to functioning lives as students and workers. It is an approach that any organization should consider implementing if that organization desires to reverse the decades-long rise in suicide and disability that has gone on in the United States and in every nation around the world that has adopted the American model.
FROM THE VIDEO: In 1980, when the American Psychiatric Association published the third edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, it adopted a “disease” model for categorizing and treating mental disorders. That model was then promoted around the world. Today, the results from that model are in. The model has proven to be scientifically bankrupt and it has produced a public health disaster. We need a new narrative to govern psychiatric care, and a review of the past provides a key for creating that future: Think of those who suffer as “brethren,” and humanistic care that has been shown to help people get well will follow.
SHORTCUT: If you want to jump to the part of the video where Whitaker talks about his vision of the future, begin watching at the 29:00 mark of the video. The first words he will say are: “That’s a story of failure.”
CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO WATCH THE YOUTUBE VIDEO
YOUTUBE VIDEO: How Big Pharma Poisoned America — Gerald Posner (41.21)
Pulitzer Prize finalist (Investigative History), Gerald Posner presented one of the best talks I’ve seen about the evolution of the pharmaceutical industry from a small, unregulated endeavor in the 1860s to “Big Pharma” as we know it today.
In this video, Posner takes us on the following journey:
- Its origin: the American Civil War and the need for morphine
- Through its unregulated period, when cocaine and opium are regular ingredients of “medications”
- The creation of the Food and Drug Administration
- The advent of the pharmaceutical marketing machine run by three brothers, Arthur, Mortimer, and Raymond Sackler, that would launch pharmaceutical revenues through the roof and make them the darlings of Wall Street
- The events that led to the OxyContin disaster. How does an “end-of-life” drug get mainstreamed?
Posner believes serious reforms are needed in how large pharmaceutical corporations operate in the United States. On planet Earth, only the United States and New Zealand allow direct marketing of prescription drugs to the public, and only the United States allows pharmaceutical corporations to set their own drug prices.
Gerald Posner delivered this presentation on March 7, 2023, at Hillsdale College in Michigan during a Hillsdale College seminar on “Big Pharma.”
CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO WATCH THE YOUTUBE VIDEO
YOUTUBE VIDEO: Why We Now Take So Many Psychiatric Medications — Dr. Josef Witt-Doerring (22:52)
Dr. Josef Witt-Doerring is a psychiatrist and former FDA researcher who has practiced privately and also conducted research for a major pharmaceutical company. He now runs an organization (Taper Clinic) that helps people get off antidepressant and antipsychotic medications.
This is how Dr. Josef explains this video: Americans are taking more psychiatric medications than ever, yet depression, disability, and suicide keep rising. In this video, I walk through the data behind today’s prescribing trends, explain why these drugs often stop working over time, and how tolerance and drug stacking make many people worse. I also take a hard look at psychotherapy and the limits of our insurance-driven mental health system. Finally, I lay out four evidence-based areas that actually improve mental health—and why real change requires more than another prescription.
Powerful Quote from the video: “Do you honestly think our brains are supposed to be on these powerful medications for years?”
Chapters:
- The Rise of Psychiatric Medication Use
- The Ineffectiveness of Current Treatments
- Cultural and Economic Factors Impacting Mental Health
- The Role of Medications and Therapy
- The Need for a New Approach to Mental Health
- Practical Solutions for Mental Well-being
This is a GREAT video!
CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO WATCH THE YOUTUBE VIDEO!
YOUTUBE VIDEO: 95% Of People Should Not Be Taking Psychiatric Medication — Dr. Josef Witt-Doerring (24:26)
Dr. Josef Witt-Doerring is a psychiatrist and former FDA researcher who has practiced privately and also conducted research for a major pharmaceutical company. He now runs an organization (Taper Clinic) that helps people get off antidepressant and antipsychotic medications.
This is how Dr Josef explains this video: Right now, 1 in 5 Americans is taking a psychiatric medication—but should they be? In this video, I break down what’s really driving the overuse; pharmaceutical industry, biased research, and media manipulation have shaped public perception, making these drugs seem far safer and more effective than they actually are. The American healthcare system plays a major role too, with doctors pressured to see more patients in less time. But that doesn’t mean these medications are always bad—there are people who truly benefit from them, but they should be used sparingly, only after a proper medical workup, dietary changes, and targeted therapy have been explored.
Chapters:
- The Overprescription of Psychiatric Medications
- The Dangers of Long-Term Medication Use
- Corruption in Psychiatry and Drug Marketing
- The Impact of the Healthcare System on Prescriptions
- Identifying Who Should Use Psychiatric Medications
- Alternative Approaches to Mental Health Treatment
This is a GREAT video!
CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO WATCH THE YOUTUBE VIDEO!
BOOK: Anatomy of An Epidemic
Anatomy of an Epidemic is the single best book I have ever read when it comes to understanding the forces that have shaped America’s current approach to mental health, which has resulted in record suicide numbers and record disability numbers. Pulitzer Prize finalist Robert Whitaker introduces you to the forces that have brought us to where we are today:
- Big Pharma and the billions of dollars they reap globally from the drugs they sell.
- The American Psychiatric Association, which threw in with Big Pharma in 1980.
- The biggest names among American research universities, whose buildings are built by and whose research is funded by Big Pharma.
- The “thought leaders” (who get paid for their opinions by Big Pharma) who lead chemical research efforts and run the clinical trials that are run at those universities.
- The American media, whose largest accounts are with Big Pharma.
- The FDA, whose researchers and administrators move between academic research (funded by Big Pharma), the FDA (which approves Big Pharma’s work), and Big Pharma itself. You’ll learn that the FDA isn’t a “watchdog,” but is the “handmaiden” of Big Pharma.
Whitaker calls for a new approach in the treatment of those who are looking for help with “mental health” issues. He wants us to understand that human beings are emotional creatures and that anxiety, stress, grief, and anger are all human cues that we need to grow as people — that numbing those signals is not conducive to long-term mental health. He offers a stunning fact:
Every nation that has embraced this American “pharmacological” model has more people in therapy; more people with a mental health diagnosis, more people on prescription medications, which has resulted in more people on disability rolls and more suicide. Every single nation has the same results.
As he concludes this wonderful book, Whitaker makes the case for a new treatment model. He argues that history teaches us that “depression” is overwhelmingly linked to life events and is overcome by 80% of people within a year. He shows us that schizophrenia patients have similar numbers IF we do not medicate those individuals and IF we embrace them as brothers and sister and treat the root causes and not merely their behavior. He argues that we should be slow to medicate; quicker to embrace human struggles as brothers and sisters in that struggle, that we should look for physical issues that might be exacerbating mental health issues; and all of that should be done before we medicate. AND, when we do medicate, that should be done for brief periods of time with low doses of medications with an eye towards tapering everyone who goes down this “medicated” path off those medications so they can live quality lives with their families and friends.
Whitaker is a wonderful writer, and his writing reads like a novel. Anatomy of an Epidemic is available everywhere.
BOOK: Mad in America
Mad In America is the history of how people who have struggled with serious mental illnesses have been treated in the United States from the 1700s to today. Pulitzer Prize finalist Robert Whitaker takes you on a fascinating, in-depth look that encompasses America’s attempts at treatment. From the Quakers in York, PA in the 1700s, to the creation of state asylums, to the clearing of state asylums by putting residents on powerful antipsychotic medications and releasing them into communities — the journey Whitaker takes us on is fascinating to read. He also takes the reader through the different treatment protocols that patients endured in those institutions — principally designed to force physical compliance — from bloodletting to forced castration to electroshock treatment to frontal lobotomies.
The book is sobering and will lead you to question the validity and efficacy of any current approach to dealing with a mental health issue because each of the treatments listed above was funded by the leading foundations in the United States, with names like Carnegie, Morgan, and Rockefeller on them. Additionally, each of these treatments was heralded as a “major breakthrough” by newspapers such as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post. As an example of how delusional ideas are given life — the inventor of the frontal lobotomy, a Portuguese neurologist named Antonio Moniz, was awarded the 1949 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine! I wish I was kidding… I’m not.
The most tragic realization one arrives at upon reading Mad in America is the human carnage that has been left in the mental health industry’s wake as it has groped its way through history.
Whitaker is a wonderful writer, and his writing reads like a novel. Mad in America is available everywhere.
“SSRIs Are the Scam of the Century” — Dr. Josef Witt-Doerring Reacts to Matt Walsh (1:01:56)
Produced by Josef Witt-Doerring for his “Dr. Josef” YouTube Podcast, Feb 21, 2025, YouTube.
Dr. Josef is a Board-Certified Psychiatrist, Former FDA Medical Officer, and founder of the world’s largest psychiatric drug tapering clinic – TaperClinic.
In this episode of his podcast, he reviews a podcast that conservative commentator Matt Walsh did, entitled “Big Pharma Is PANICKING Over This” — in which Walsh details the unethical practices by which drug companies created the “chemical imbalance” narrative around depression, and then sold medications to solve that imbalance — except the research was manipulated and the medication didn’t solve the “chemical imbalance.”
Click on the image to watch the YouTube video.
Uncovering the Greatest Mental Health Fraud in American History with Pulitzer Prize Finalist Robert Whitaker — Dr. Roger McFillin (1:39:16)
Radically Genuine Podcast with Dr. Roger McFillin, Feb 25, 2026, YouTube.
Dr. Roger McFillin is a Clinical Psychologist with over two decades of experience. This show challenges mainstream mental health narratives with unfiltered insights and evidence-based strategies. It’s not just another self-help podcast; it’s a direct exploration of what it takes to overcome life’s toughest challenges without the limitations of traditional therapy-speak.
In this explosive episode, award-winning journalist Robert Whitaker and Dr. Roger McFillin blow the lid off one of the biggest medical scandals of our time. Whitaker reveals shocking evidence of widespread fraud, corruption, scientific misconduct and deliberate misinformation that has shaped mental health care for decades. From manipulated drug trials to buried research and conflicts of interest reaching the highest levels of the medical establishment, this conversation exposes a web of deception that has potentially harmed millions. A must listen and one of the most important Radically Genuine Podcast episodes for the millions of people experimenting on psychiatric drugs and those who are prescribing them under the pretense of “safe and effective”.
Robert Whitaker is an American journalist and author who has won numerous awards as a journalist covering medicine and science, including the George Polk Award for Medical Writing and a National Association for Science Writers’ Award for best magazine article. In 1998, he co-wrote a series on psychiatric research for the Boston Globe that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. His first book, Mad in America, was named by Discover magazine as one of the best science books of 2002. Anatomy of an Epidemic won the 2010 Investigative Reporters and Editors book award for best investigative journalism. He is the publisher of madinamerica.com.
Click on the image to watch the YouTube video.
Why I Lost Faith in Antidepressants After Working at the FDA — Dr. Josef Witt-Doerring (32:38)
Produced by Josef Witt-Doerring for his “Dr. Josef” YouTube Podcast, Feb 21, 2025, YouTube.
Dr. Josef is a Board-Certified Psychiatrist, Former FDA Medical Officer, and founder of the world’s largest psychiatric drug tapering clinic – TaperClinic.
For decades, antidepressants have been promoted as effective treatments for managing depression, backed by scientific research. But what if the reality is more complex than we’ve been led to believe? In this video, Dr. Josef Witt-Doerring, a board-certified psychiatrist and former FDA medical officer, dives deep into how antidepressant trials are conducted and exposes the hidden flaws in the research. He shares his journey from medical school to questioning the mainstream narrative, exploring why antidepressants may not be as effective as commonly thought. We’ll cover the design of short-term and long-term antidepressant studies, the placebo effect, tolerance issues, and the critical gaps in what these studies reveal. By the end, you’ll have a clearer understanding of why the ‘effectiveness’ of antidepressants might not be what it seems.
Click on the image to watch the YouTube video.
Contact us
(714) 910-4419
info@fromtraumatojoy.com
mac@fromtraumatojoy.com
we do windows
We’re here to help…
Don’t hesitate to contact us
We’ll be mad if you don’t!
OUR HEADQUARTERS
Menifee, CA
In beautiful Southern California!