Joey Marino: Trapped in a Living Hell

 

The following is a guest post from author and researcher, Beverley Thomson.

Bev has featured on this blog in the past, here and here.

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I wrote this article for Joey Marino some time ago and Joey and I intended to publish it. It was never the intention it would be following the news of his passing away on January 14th, 2024.

Joey Marino loved life. He always had hope until the doctors so willing to prescribe the drugs had finally given up on their victim. “You have a one percent chance of getting better. There is nothing we can do. It is incurable.” “It” was incurable iatrogenic damage caused by legally prescribed medication. Joey’s hours and hours of voice messages and our conversations convinced me his life must be a lesson to us all; most importantly that one prescription for a psychiatric medication can lead to a life ruined by poly-drugging and entrapment in a mental health system unfit for purpose. In what kind of health system can patients become so vulnerable that every living hour of every day is a constant fight to stay alive? Joey Marino did not want to die and if anyone asks, it was peacefully, in his sleep. What actually killed him should be a lesson to us all.

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March, 2023

At 63, Joey Marino is trapped in a living hell. His body is controlled by Tardive Dyskinesia and Akathisia. Constant involuntary repetitive body movements like jerking, writhing, grimacing, sticking out his tongue and the smacking of his mouth and lips are the result of eight years of poly-drugging with psychiatric medications. “How I am alive I do not know”, he tells me. It started with a prescription for Prozac during a period of situational anxiety. He became suicidal within days, something he had never previously experienced. “I don’t think my body will hold up much longer, but I don’t want to die. To be or not to be that is the question” he told me in a recent voice message.

This resonated for so many reasons and took me back to my school days when I studied Hamlet. "To be or not to be"; is the first line of a famous soliloquy from William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. Prince Hamlet thinks about life, death, and suicide. He wonders whether it might be preferable to commit suicide to end one's suffering and to leave behind the pain and agony associated with living. However, he quickly changes his tune when he considers that nobody knows for sure what happens after death, namely whether there is an afterlife and whether this afterlife might be even worse than life. This realization is what ultimately gives Hamlet (and others, he reasons) "pause" when it comes to action. Hamlet fears the uncertainty dying brings and is tormented by the possibility of ending up in Hell—a place even more miserable than life.

Joey Marino describes his life now as “one in hell” and like Hamlet, his troubles are numerous and unending. For years he was judged to be mentally ill because no professional picked up on the fact it was the medications causing adverse reactions and making him increasingly debilitated. Repeatedly abruptly withdrawn from drugs, reinstated, dosages increased, given cocktails of antidepressants, benzodiazepines, antipsychotics and never any acknowledgement it was iatrogenic harm. He was Gaslit by professionals and family and made to feel guilty for his understandable anger and resolute inability to forgive those who have harmed him.

Joey is an actor and lives in California. He worked for years on the successful TV drama ER. He tells me he was previously obsessed with true emotion. He was a storyteller, communicator, a connector who lived life spontaneously, always taking care of himself mentally and physically.

Many people think these cases are rare…they are not. No one knows how a drug will affect them until they take it. Why do we often not remember life gives us the opportunity to be our true authentic self, unharmed and undamaged by unnecessary drugs. We all have the choice to learn about these drugs and the harm they have the potential to cause. We all have the right to take them if we wish but we should be informed there are no guarantees they will not change the course of our life. The number of suicides caused by akathisia is undoubtedly hidden, often willfully by the powers that be. If suicide prevention organizations truly wish to reduce suicide rates, then prescription drug-induced suicide is an issue they must address. Whether it be because of relentless thoughts of suicide or the intolerable physical adverse effects, in some cases prescription medications are killing us. It is very easy to find many celebrities who have perhaps ended their lives due to akathisia.

“Creatives are sensitive souls” Joey tells me. “This does not need to happen to people, and it is happening every day. Neurologists have nothing to offer when the harm is done.” At this time, I agree, though there appears to be a new generation of professionals who seem to make spurious claims about regeneration of our brains and nervous system. We must wonder if the damage, in some cases is ever repairable. Time will tell.

I like Joey Marino and feel privileged to know him. The nine-hour time difference between us has done nothing to prevent me understanding his true selfless and charming character. I hope we can find someone who can help him…I hope someone is out there. I hope we learn from his courageous suffering.

Few of us will have the opportunity to play Hamlet……every one of us has the chance to become Joey. Don’t let it be you.

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Joey passed away on January 14th, 2024.

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Beverley Thomson is a writer, researcher and speaker with a focus on psychiatric medication including antidepressants, benzodiazepines and ADHD drugs; their history, how the drugs work, adverse effects, dependence, withdrawal and development of patient support services. Her aim is to help inform and empower the patient to make informed choices about medication. She has a particular interest in withdrawal management and prescription drug-induced suicide. In the past 10 years, she has worked with organizations such as the British Medical Association, the Scottish Government (as part of a working group addressing the issue of prescribed drug harm and dependence in Scotland), the UK Council for Evidence-Based Psychiatry (writing evidence-based summaries to be used by professionals and the general public), and the UK All Party Parliamentary Group for Prescribed Drug Dependence. She has contributed to articles in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) and mainstream media including TV and radio.

GUEST POST BY BEVERLEY THOMSON PART 2

 

This is Part II of a guest post by Beverley Thomson. 

Part I, which has gained a lot of interest, can be read here.

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The Psychiatry Redefined website offers a functional medicine paradigm for the treatment of one of psychiatry’s most challenging presentations including the course ‘Functional & Integrative Medicine for Managing Medication Side-Effects’. For $170, ‘This course provides methods for managing medication withdrawal and side-effects (sexual dysfunction, weight gain, suicidality) through a lens of functional and integrative medicine. In particular, we examine nutritional interventions to ameliorate the withdrawal symptoms associated with SSRI antidepressants. We conclude with a general discussion regarding the role of medication in psychiatry.’

The claim is this “serious void” in the psychiatric model and this void created by psychiatry and psychiatric medication can now be filled by an evidence-based practice prioritising nutritional deficiencies. ‘Mental illness should be seen as a reflection of multiple internal imbalances. If we understand the causes of these imbalances, we will understand the cures.’ it would seem the chemical imbalance theory has been revised, updated and in this world of functional medicine it is no longer about serotonin deficiency rather a “reflection of multiple internal imbalances”. It is not the antidepressant which has caused the imbalances but our nutritional deficiencies!

The Alternative to Meds Center 7 in Arizona is just one of many luxurious clinics claiming to be a world authority on the subject of psychiatric medication withdrawal. With 15 years of experience, their program helps individuals with medication withdrawal using alternative mental health, holistic psychiatry, and holistic addiction treatment at a cost of up to $85,000.

According to their website these experts declare, ‘People coming off of psychiatric medication need special considerations not found in a “drug rehab.” You are likely well aware that getting yanked off of medications would be a disaster.

Surprisingly, most health professionals seem to be largely unaware of this. After almost 20 years of focusing on the worst of the worst cases, we have become world experts in safe, comfortable medication withdrawal.’ They use a host of holistic therapies including Intravenous Therapy described as ‘a great way to get a concentrated effect on the physiology, which is highly effective applied to medication withdrawal’. They have crafted their IV’s to be specific for each type of medication withdrawal.

Claiming to have an 87% long-term success rate, they say success is about more than just getting off of medications. ‘The symptoms that got a person on medications generally come back if the underlying causes are not attended to. In MANY cases, the neurotoxic accumulation of poisons based on individual genetics gets overlooked in medication withdrawal. Our program draws on the fundamentals of Environmental Medicine by pulling out heavy metals, hormone-mimicking toxins, and other physiological and neurological stressors. Simultaneously, highly specific neurochemical and hormone precursors and natural forms of top-shelf science support are administered so that getting off of the medications is even possible.’

Jamie, 43, had taken venlafaxine for over 14 years and during that time had suffered serious adverse effects. He was rapidly withdrawn from the drug by his psychiatrist. He was left with severe withdrawal adverse effects including depression, bouts of anxiety and Post SSRI Sexual Dysfunction, (PSSD). He consulted two psychiatrists who offered no option other than to reinstate the original drug. After a desperate search online for help with his Protracted Acute Withdrawal Syndrome (PAWS), he found a ‘Recovery Coach’ offering ‘a ‘Unique-to-You’ Blueprint Summary from a 130+ Check-Up Process, which would highlight all the ‘Dis-Ease’-Sustaining Factors which were contributory factors in his living in his current state-of-being’. He assured Jamie that by using a wide range of indicator and assessment tools, drawn from disciplines such as, Functional Medicine, Nutritional Health, Birth-to-Addiction Spectrum disciplines; Emotional, Mental, Psychological, Behavioural and Physical Health, he would be able to get back to living a healthy life. Jamie was told, ‘we humans are creatures of habit and much of how you are living today, whatever the cause, has become HABIT to your emotions, brain and body’.

Putting his trust in this professional, Jamie invested over £6,000 for the services, there was also an ongoing £250 monthly payment for supplements and nutritional advice. Some of the tests Jamie was subjected to; histamine, thyroid, pyroluria, blood lactate, chemical sensitivities, food sensitivities, food and chemical sensitivities, candida related complex, genetic, ADHD, vitamin and mineral deficiencies, OAT test, Dutch test, zinc / copper balance, heavy metal toxicity, methylation profile, celiac, GARS test and testosterone levels. It was suggested in a subsequent report Jamie was ‘Thinking in the ‘loop’ of being bio-chemically addicted to his emotions resulting in ‘emotional addiction’’, that he was ‘living every day through the Chemistry of Survival', and his body was doing his thinking rather than his mind. He was advised his ‘Post-Abstinence Withdrawal Symptoms’ were high priority for immediate action, and this required the ’Use of Live Life Beyond…. Daily Brain-Re-training and Life-Change Implementation Checklist, due to his general thought processes being negative in nature, more than positive’.

Jamie connected with me online, and I agreed (free of charge) to meet with him and the Recovery Coach. Following specific questions regarding Jamie’s Protracted Acute Withdrawal Syndrome, (PAWS), we realized the Recovery Coach and his organization had absolutely no understanding of antidepressant withdrawal and the effects venlafaxine and subsequent withdrawal had on Jamie’s biological state. The language used in Jamie’s test reports were indeed testimony to this. This is just one example of making a patient count for considerable profit. Thankfully the fees Jamie paid out have now been reimbursed.

We then secured a meeting with the Integrated Care Director of Jamie’s local NELFT NHS Foundation Trust. The trust provides an extensive range of integrated community and Mental Health services. Unfortunately, it does not provide the much- needed service for psychiatric drug withdrawal, however the Director was willing to listen, and he managed to find a psychiatrist to support Jamie in his attempt to find a solution to his post withdrawal symptoms. We had numerous meetings with the Psychiatrist to discuss the limited options and Jamie decided to reinstate a different SSRI at a very low dose. He is receiving weekly clinical monitoring from the psychiatrist, and I am providing ongoing psychological support (without payment). Jamie is an informed patient and decisions were made collaboratively on the understanding there are no guarantees of success. He is acutely aware this is trial and error, experimental and there are no guarantees. The case highlights some key issues; prescribers’ lack of safe tapering / withdrawal knowledge and the need for training, an example of the type of opportunistic services ready to exploit those looking for help and the vulnerable position patients needing help with withdrawal or iatrogenic harm find themselves in due to the lack of specialist services available.

If we are to better understand how to treat withdrawal and post withdrawal symptoms It is imperative, we put patients before profit and establish trusted authoritative services as a priority. There are millions dependent on antidepressants representing an emerging and growing potential future market available to this new wave of functional / integrative psychiatry. Perhaps this warrants the warning; if we choose to take antidepressants whenever possible we should do so at the lowest dose and for the shortest time. Never before has there been a need to become truly informed patients and choose wisely by putting our trust in those who are experts and honest about this complex issue. We have a right to pay for healthcare services if we so choose to and are able, but caution is required.

This current situation also reminds us of the need for responsible prescribing. Less prescribing of these drugs means less harm and dependence and ultimately less demand for the withdrawal and support services. However, while governments, medicine and psychiatry continue to deny patients best possible care and the answers they deserve, are we often sending those dependent on and harmed by psychiatric medication down expensive, experimental rabbit holes full of empty, lack of evidence-based promises? Are we sometimes trying to solve the unsolvable?

Beverley Thomson

7 https://www.alternativetomeds.com/

Beverley Thomson is a writer, researcher and speaker with a focus on psychiatric medication including antidepressants, benzodiazepines and ADHD drugs; their history, how the drugs work, adverse effects, dependence, withdrawal and development of patient support services. Her aim is to help inform and empower the patient to make informed choices about medication. She has a particular interest in withdrawal management and prescription drug-induced suicide. In the past 10 years, she has worked with organizations such as the British Medical Association, the Scottish Government (as part of a working group addressing the issue of prescribed drug harm and dependence in Scotland), the UK Council for Evidence-Based Psychiatry (writing evidence-based summaries to be used by professionals and the general public), and the UK All Party Parliamentary Group for Prescribed Drug Dependence. She has contributed to articles in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) and mainstream media including TV and radio.

GUEST POST BY BEVERLEY THOMSON PART 1

 

This is Part 1 of 2

Beverley Thomson is a writer, researcher and speaker with a focus on psychiatric medication including antidepressants, benzodiazepines and ADHD drugs; their history, how the drugs work, adverse effects, dependence, withdrawal and development of patient support services. Her aim is to help inform and empower the patient to make informed choices about medication. She has a particular interest in withdrawal management and prescription drug-induced suicide. In the past 10 years, she has worked with organizations such as the British Medical Association, the Scottish Government (as part of a working group addressing the issue of prescribed drug harm and dependence in Scotland), the UK Council for Evidence-Based Psychiatry (writing evidence-based summaries to be used by professionals and the general public), and the UK All Party Parliamentary Group for Prescribed Drug Dependence. She has contributed to articles in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) and mainstream media including TV and radio.

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As humans we instinctively act to our advantage. In some cases, this is often done to the detriment of others, known as opportunistic behaviour. Whilst opportunistic behaviour is deemed acceptable or at least inevitable in the commercial world, is opportunistic behaviour ever acceptable when it comes to patients seeking help with or harmed by antidepressants or other drugs used in mental health? When it comes to deprescribing and treating iatrogenic harm caused by conventional medicine, is ‘making every contact count for profit’ something we should question?

With the ongoing call for a shift in how we view and treat our mental health, much progress has been made in the last few years to raise awareness of the potential harm caused by antidepressants and other drugs used to treat our depression and anxiety. Unfortunately, for many, this has all come too late and at a disastrous cost to their health. The paradoxical effects of these drugs have left millions suffering dependence, irrevocable harm and desperately in search of help to restore equilibrium of both mind and body. As the search for freedom from psychiatric drugs has increased, we have seen the appearance of many commercial organisations and professionals offering their services to help people to withdraw from the drugs and post withdrawal.

Notwithstanding the progress being made to establish some well-intentioned, reliable, and affordable services, have patients suffering iatrogenic harm become vulnerable to the exploitation of those marketing themselves as ‘restorers of health’? Often making what seem exploitative, spurious, and unprincipled claims that they have the powers to successfully withdraw people from psychiatric medication, is this emerging, fast growing industry of professionals and services profiting financially from a mass market of desperate patients harmed by prescribed medication?

We are once again being seduced by a new language. There is talk of services for withdrawal being functional, Integrative, alternative, and using holistic assessments including lab testing and diagnostic tools. It is about the natural balancing of neurochemistry. There are claims that by addressing biophysical and psychological factors the balance of the brain can be naturally restored. It can take combinations of supplements, organic diets, dedicated and personalised care management, investigative research into medical contributors, Chinese medicine, licensed counselling, and use of a never-ending list of holistic modalities.  We are now being told our brain and body can heal themselves following exposure to psychiatric drugs, but we are rarely shown the evidence. Taking antidepressants causes the brain and central nervous system to change their structure and functioning, but where is the proof after long-term exposure they can learn to live without the drugs and function normally once the drugs are withdrawn? Just as in the early 1990s when carefully scripted pharmaceutical marketing campaigns such as ‘Defeat Depression’ created the belief it was our chemical imbalances and brain biochemistry at fault, are we once again being duped by marketing which in time will be proved questionable science?

I agree we need a different perspective when it comes to treating our mental health and consideration of our lifestyle choices are important, but it is perhaps in our healthy, homeostatic state, prior to any iatrogenic harm, that functional medicine really has its place. Surely it is a speciality which should be focusing on maintaining health rather than repairing the damage done by iatrogenic harm.  Claims natural methods can be used to restore balance when the imbalance has been caused by taking or withdrawing from powerful psychoactive, psychotropic medication might seem questionable.

The first systemic review on antidepressant withdrawal was not published until 2015.1 In 2019, ‘Withdrawal - the tide is finally turning’2   made the case that withdrawal from antidepressants is often long lasting and severe. The experts in the field have produced much needed guidelines on withdrawal and patients have produced invaluable anecdotal evidence, but reality is theory and practice seem worlds apart when it comes to the practicalities of such a complex individual issue. A recent UK study, ‘‘Stabilise-reduce, stabilise-reduce’ A survey of the common practices of deprescribing services and recommendations for future services’,3   highlights the need for the establishment of services to help people to safely stop prescribed drugs associated with dependence and withdrawal. The global survey identified only thirteen existing deprescribing services, (8 in the UK, 5 from other countries).“The common practices in the services were: gradual tapering of medications often over more than a year, and reductions made in a broadly hyperbolic manner (smaller reductions as total dose became lower). Reductions were individualised so that withdrawal symptoms remained tolerable, with the patient leading this decision-making in most services. Support and reassurance were provided throughout the process, sometimes by means of telephone support lines. Psychosocial support for the management of underlying conditions (e.g., CBT, counselling) were provided by the service or through referral. Lived experience was often embedded in services through founders, hiring criteria, peer support and sources of information to guide tapering.”

The study concludes there is a need for further research to clarify best practice and recognises effective deprescribing is an international issue as more individuals around the world become exposed long-term to drugs associated with dependence. Antidepressant withdrawal is thought to affect 56% of people who attempt to stop these drugs, with up to 25% reporting withdrawal symptoms as severe. 4 It is clear there is a lack of official guidance on withdrawal, tapering and symptoms. There is a need for the involvement of people with lived experience of withdrawal. These services should be separate to addiction clinics. This report details future directions and research recommendations.

The current dilemma is that doctors are being advised to address overprescribing, patients are becoming more aware of the harmful effects of prescription drug dependence, but this lack of free or affordable withdrawal and support services is opening the doors to unregulated commercial opportunities. The marketing and prescribing of psychiatric medication have long been opportunistic ventures and ironically the deprescribing of these drugs now presents another opportunity to put profits before patients. Those prescribing the drugs are the ones who know least about deprescribing and withdrawal. The lack of professional medical support often leaves patients with two options; either they become one of thousands joining internet peer support groups which are providing guidance, or they pay a private clinic thousands of dollars, putting their faith in claims such as “we can do investigative work that can isolate the factors that need to be brought into balance”.

“If I thought that it was possible, I would have opened a string of clinics all over the country to help people off of antidepressants. Unfortunately, the problems that often occur when people try to stop an SSRI antidepressant are much more severe and long-lasting than the medical profession acknowledges, and there is no antidote to these problems” says psychiatrist Dr Stuart Shipko. 5  If there really is no antidote to these problems, are some commercial services exploiting both those wishing to withdraw from antidepressants and those suffering negative effects of withdrawal? 

In his book ‘Functional Medicine for antidepressant withdrawal’, James Greenblatt, MD, tells us ‘There is currently zero field-wide consensus regarding antidepressant discontinuation best practices. In addition to a stunning ethical failure, this represents a serious void in the psychiatric model… a riddle that too many patients and clinicians are being forced to solve alone.’ His book is ‘a comprehensive, evidence-based paradigm for antidepressant discontinuation that prioritizes the repletion of underlying nutritional deficiencies. Bridging concept and application, it provides health professionals with clinically proven tools for mitigating antidepressant withdrawal and guiding patients successfully through taper. It also reveals a path to the standard of care that we all deserve, one illuminated by science and upheld by the mandates of ethical, conscientious, personalized medicine.” 6

1 Fava GA, Gatti A, Belaise C, Guidi J, Offidani E. Withdrawal Symptoms after Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor Discontinuation: A Systematic Review. Psychother Psychosom. 2015;84(2):72-81. doi: 10.1159/000370338. Epub 2015 Feb 21. PMID: 25721705.

2 Hengartner MP, Davies J, Read J. Antidepressant withdrawal - the tide is finally turning. Epidemiol Psychiatr Sci. 2019 Aug 22;29:e52. doi: 10.1017/S2045796019000465. PMID: 31434594; PMCID: PMC8061160.

3 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0282988

4 Davies J, Read J. A systematic review into the incidence, severity, and duration of antidepressant withdrawal effects: Are guidelines evidence-based? Addict Behav. 2019;97: 111–121. pmid:30292574

5 https://www.madinamerica.com/2013/08/ssri-discontinuation-is-even-more-problematic-than-acknowledged

6 https://www.psychiatryredefined.org

PART 2 COMING SOON