Step 6- Communicating with Prescribers

Why this step is important

Embarking on the psychiatric drug withdrawal journey in collaboration with a prescriber who is supportive of you and your wishes, informed about the safest available tapering protocols, and willing to let you stay in the driver’s seat each step of the way can often make for a smoother taper journey.

Getting oriented

When you’re considering tapering or trying to taper off a psychiatric drug, there’s no question that having the complete and active support of a well-informed prescriber and pharmacist is absolutely ideal. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, that’s not always possible. Consequently, in the lay withdrawal community we’ve heard of people reducing or coming off psychiatric drugs while they are in many different kinds of relationships with their prescribers and pharmacists – sometimes highly collaborative relationships, and sometimes not. The prompting questions in this exercise are aimed at helping you gain a clearer understanding of the nature of your relationship with your prescriber and, if necessary, will hopefully help lay the foundations for improving the situation.

Image courtesy of David and Flickr Creative Commons.