Is Mental Illness Really a Chemical Imbalance—or a Metabolic Crisis? 🧠🔥

In this eye-opening episode of The Gaslit Truth Podcast, board-certified psychiatrist Dr. Ruth Dottin challenges everything we’ve been told about mental health.

After years in traditional psychiatry, Dr. Dottin noticed a disturbing pattern: patients weren’t getting better, and some were even getting worse on medication. Her search for real answers led her to metabolic psychiatry—a groundbreaking approach that looks at how the body’s ability to produce energy affects the brain.

💥 From poor diet and nutrient deficiencies to chronic stress and environmental toxins, Dr. Dottin explains how mitochondrial dysfunction could be fueling depression, anxiety, and more. She also drops a bombshell: despite finishing psychiatric training just four years ago, she was still taught the outdated "chemical imbalance" myth—a narrative shaped more by pharma than by science.

This episode is a must-watch for anyone who feels failed by the system and wants to understand the real root causes of mental distress.

What If Bipolar Disorder Isn’t a Life Sentence? 💥

On this powerful episode of The Gaslit Truth Podcast, Michelle Reittinger shares the story psychiatry said was impossible: full recovery from bipolar disorder.

After her diagnosis in 1998, Michelle spent over a decade navigating med failures, 4 hospitalizations, 12 rounds of ECT, and multiple suicide attempts — all while being told she'd be medicated for life.

But everything changed the day she saw her young daughter playing — and realized her life had to mean more.

Now off seven psychiatric medications, Michelle shares how she reclaimed her life using tools she built herself, including her Mood Cycle Survival Guide — a practical system for managing symptoms without shame and returning to stability.

What if the very system meant to protect our kids is actually harming them?

Minister Fred Shaw Jr. — former sheriff’s deputy, NAACP president, and fierce child advocate — exposes psychiatry’s shocking grip on minority communities. It all started when his son was labeled with dyslexia and pushed toward psychiatric meds. Shaw said no — and his son thrived without them.

Now, he’s calling out a system that puts 6.1 million American kids on psychiatric drugs, many chemically similar to cocaine and meth. In foster care and juvenile justice, he reveals, medication is often used as chemical control, not care.

“They’re not treating trauma. They’re sedating it.”

Through raw stories and decades of frontline experience, Shaw demands a rethink: kids don’t need more pills — they need support, belief, and real solutions.

Katinka Blackford Newman took one antidepressant — and woke up in a nightmare. Within hours, she was hallucinating, suicidal, and later diagnosed with "psychotic depression" and bipolar disorder. But the real cause? A violent reaction to the very medication meant to help her.

Instead of recognizing the drug-induced akathisia and psychosis, doctors doubled down — piling on more meds and ignoring her pleas. For a year, she was a shell of herself, unable to care for her kids, her life slipping away under the weight of prescriptions.

The twist? When her insurance ran out and the drugs were forcibly stopped, she woke up — completely sane. The diagnosis? Wrong. The drugs? Nearly fatal.

Her story exposes a terrifying truth: psychiatry often mislabels drug reactions as mental illness — and then treats the side effects with more drugs. How many lives are being lost to treatments that were never needed in the first place?

Freedom of speech is a cornerstone of democracy — but what happens when expressing your views gets you vilified, even in death?

The tragic passing of Charlie Kirk has exposed a chilling crisis in the mental health profession: therapists publicly celebrating his death simply for his political beliefs. Your Whistle-Blowing Shrinks Dr. Teralyn and Therapist Jenn are former prison therapists who treated violent offenders with neutrality and compassion. When clinicians can sit with murderers without judgment but mock someone for their ideology, something is deeply broken.

Kirk wasn’t a violent extremist — he was a young man committed to civil discourse. Whether you agreed with him or not, his death deserves dignity. This moment transcends politics: it’s a test of our values, our ethics, and our humanity.

Psychiatry’s darkest patterns know no borders — and Safa Asgari’s harrowing experience in Iran proves it. What began as a simple OCD diagnosis spiraled into a chemical nightmare: ten psychiatric drugs, each prescribed to treat side effects misread as new disorders.

After severe reactions to Prozac, doctors piled on labels — bipolar, ADHD, schizoaffective — instead of acknowledging harm. When Safa questioned the treatment, his resistance was pathologized. Refuse the meds? They threatened electroshock.

His story reveals psychiatry’s global gaslighting — where drug-induced suffering is spun into lifelong illness, and withdrawal is denied by the very system that caused it.

Mental health is increasingly weaponized in divorce and custody battles—often turning private struggles into legal liabilities. In this powerful conversation with family law attorney McKenna Zimmerman, we explore how diagnoses, therapy records, and even casual accusations can reshape family court outcomes. Zimmerman sheds light on the often misunderstood role of guardians ad litem and how their access to personal mental health information can dramatically influence custody decisions.

This episode dives into critical issues like domestic violence, the risks of submitting therapy records, and the pitfalls of court-ordered treatment. Most importantly, it reframes the narrative: mental health challenges don’t make someone an unfit parent—how those challenges are addressed does.

In this powerful episode of The Gaslit Truth Podcast, veteran critical care nurse Luanne Wall shares her shocking journey into benzodiazepine dependency after being prescribed Ativan in 2021. Despite taking it exactly as directed, Luanne faced severe withdrawal, misdiagnosis, and lasting health damage—while doctors insisted she couldn’t be addicted.

Her story exposes the dangerous myths surrounding prescribed psychiatric drugs and challenges the belief that following medical advice ensures safety. After a grueling seven-month taper, Luanne is benzo-free but lives with permanent side effects—and a mission to break the silence.

The turning point of Sheila Matthews' story—and the heart of her mission—is her discovery that many ADHD diagnoses are driven not by science, but by pharmaceutical marketing and pressure from schools that lack medical authority. After refusing an ADHD diagnosis for her own child, Matthews co-founded AbleChild.org to advocate for informed consent and expose how subjective checklists have replaced real medical evaluations. Her work highlights the troubling reality that creative, gifted children are often mislabeled and medicated unnecessarily, and she pushes for transparency around the potential role of psychiatric drugs in acts of violence.

To hear the full story and dive deeper into these critical issues, tune into the latest episode of The Gaslit Truth Podcast, where Sheila Matthews shares her eye-opening journey, the origins of ADHD labeling, and why parents must fight for the right to make truly informed choices about their children’s mental health.

Many people are told that their brain chemistry is permanently broken, making the idea of coming off psychiatric medication feel overwhelming or unsafe. But psychologist Anders Sorensen challenges this narrative, offering a fresh, evidence-based perspective on how these drugs actually work—and how to taper off them safely. In this eye-opening conversation, Sorensen breaks down the flawed assumptions behind the chemical imbalance theory and introduces his “hyperbolic tapering” method, which aligns with how antidepressants truly affect brain chemistry through SERT occupancy. Even low doses, he explains, can have powerful effects, which is why standard tapering methods often lead to withdrawal symptoms mistaken for relapse.

Sorensen’s new book, Crossing Zero: The Art and Science of Coming Off and Staying Off Psychiatric Drugs, blends clinical science with emotional insight to help people reframe their mental health journey. Rather than seeing medication as a lifelong necessity, he encourages a shift toward understanding these drugs as tools for emotional regulation—not permanent treatments. Therapists, too, have a vital role to play in this process, supporting clients through a tapering journey that has long been considered beyond their scope. This episode invites listeners to rethink long-held beliefs and explore new paths to healing.

When Willy Millard came out at age 12, he hoped for freedom — but instead faced judgment, starting with the painful moment he overheard his parents asking school officials, “What did we do wrong?” On The Gaslit Truth Podcast, Willy opens up about how that early experience shaped his journey and how, years later, he discovered that even within the LGBTQ+ community, acceptance often comes with strings attached. From being pressured to adopt labels like “twink” or “bear” to navigating unspoken rules and expectations, Willy found himself trading one set of boxes for another.

Now a successful stylist and salon owner, Willy continues to challenge the way both the world and his own community define him. He pushes back against being labeled “the gay stylist,” insisting that his work should speak louder than his identity. Through raw honesty and lived experience, he invites listeners to question how we define authenticity — and reminds allies that true support doesn’t require understanding everything, just showing up and listening. This episode is a powerful call to let people be seen for who they are, not just who they’re expected to be.

When Kim Witczak’s husband Woody died by suicide just five weeks after being prescribed Zoloft for sleep issues—not depression—she began a relentless fight to expose the hidden dangers of prescription drugs.

Through her wrongful death lawsuit and advocacy work, Kim uncovered how pharmaceutical companies manipulate clinical trials, hide serious side effects like akathisia (linked to suicide), and prioritize profits over patient safety. Shockingly, drug companies—not the FDA—control much of the approval process, from trial design to data analysis.

Once drugs hit the market, they're often pushed for long-term and off-label use, despite being tested only briefly. Meanwhile, patients harmed by side effects are frequently dismissed or blamed.

Kim’s story reveals a broken system where trust in "safe and effective" meds may be dangerously misplaced—and why patients must start asking tougher questions.

Told your pain is forever? That surgery or meds are your only options? On The Gaslit Truth Podcast, performance physical therapist Dr. Clayton Dir reveals why that’s often not true.

Drawing from his work with elite athletes, Dr. Dir explains how pain can persist in the brain even after the body has healed—and how simple validation and movement can offer lasting relief. He exposes the broken pain-care cycle: imaging, opioids, injections, surgery—with little real improvement.

The episode also spotlights dry needling, a powerful, underused technique that helps jumpstart true healing.

Dr. Dir’s message is clear: “The pain may not be your fault, but it is your responsibility.” Ready to rethink your pain story?

Have you ever thought nutrition was just about managing weight? Think again. In this episode of The Gaslit Truth Podcast, mental health nutritionist Dr. David Wiss exposes how the food industry has misled us into obsessing over calories while ignoring the quality of what we eat—and its impact on mental health. Drawing from his experience as a dietitian turned whistleblower, Dr. Wiss reveals industry-funded misinformation and how ultra-processed foods contribute to emotional struggles like anxiety, depression, and addiction. He champions a functional medicine approach that connects nutrition to mental, physical, and even spiritual well-being by looking at the full picture of a person’s life. His message is clear: “Sanity before vanity.” Instead of focusing on appearance, he urges us to use food to support emotional resilience and brain health. For a deeper dive, his “Wise Mind Nutrition” app offers a holistic, non-diet-based path to true nourishment—because your mental health deserves more than calorie math.

Over 65 million Americans are on medication—and a staggering 17% of them are college students. Behind the scenes, many young adults are crumbling under the pressure to perform, fit in, and “succeed.” The result? A growing number are turning to medication as a quick fix for anxiety, stress, and burnout.

On The Gaslit Truth Podcast, Dr. Teralyn and Therapist Jenn are joined by young adult expert Joanna Lilley to unpack the emotional toll of helicopter parenting, academic perfectionism, and societal pressure.

College students may be academically ready—but emotionally, many are drowning. It's time to look beyond GPAs and start preparing them for real-life resilience.

In this episode of The Gaslit Truth, we explore the seductive promise of AI therapy and its darker undercurrents. While tools like ChatGPT can mimic the language of empathy with striking eloquence, they may be offering an illusion of support—a comforting façade that lacks the human connection essential to real healing. We tested ChatGPT as a Freudian therapist and found that, though convincing, it risks validating harmful self-diagnoses and promoting a culture of quick fixes over meaningful mental health work.

This episode urges therapists and clients alike to recognize that healing isn’t found in instant answers or slick algorithms, but in the messy, relational process of authentic connection. AI may be a powerful mirror, but it can’t walk the path with you.

What if the medications meant to heal are actually harming? In this episode of The Gaslit Truth Podcast, award-winning psychiatric nurse David Wayne shares how reading Anatomy of an Epidemic in 2017 led him to question everything he knew about psychiatric drugs—especially SSRIs.

From being silenced for raising awareness about Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD) to exposing the emotional numbing and disconnection these meds can cause, David offers a rare, behind-the-scenes look at a system built on compliance, not consent.

He doesn’t just criticize—he offers hope. David explores holistic, metabolic approaches to mental health that prioritize nutrition, sleep, movement, and purpose over quick-fix pharmaceuticals.

In a revealing and emotional interview on The Gaslit Truth Podcast, retired trauma nurse and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) survivor Deborah Schwartzkopff shares the often-hidden dangers of ECT. Founder of ECT Justice, Deborah recounts her experience of being overmedicated and ultimately receiving ECT—a treatment she believes caused her lasting traumatic brain injury.

With the insight of both a patient and medical professional, she exposes the long-term physical and neurological harm ECT can inflict—harm that is frequently ignored or dismissed by psychiatric professionals. Deborah contrasts the supportive care given to victims of accidental electrical injuries with the lack of recognition and treatment for those harmed by ECT.

The conversation also raises critical concerns about gender bias, as women make up the majority of ECT recipients.

This eye-opening discussion is essential for anyone considering ECT or seeking to understand the broader issues surrounding psychiatric treatment. It’s a powerful call for informed consent, medical accountability, and greater support for survivors.

What happens when the system designed to heal becomes the source of harm? At just 39, Sarah Trueb suffered a stroke after years of medical dismissal and overmedication—33 prescriptions later, her life was forever changed. Misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder instead of receiving trauma-informed care, Sarah’s worsening neurological symptoms were repeatedly dismissed as psychiatric. Even her stroke warning signs were ignored.

Now living with Functional Neurological Disorder (FND), Sarah shares her powerful story of survival, systemic failure, and advocacy. In this eye-opening episode, Dr. Teralyn and Therapist Jenn expose the dark side of siloed medicine and the deadly impact of medical gaslighting. Don’t miss this urgent call for change—and the truth behind the TRUBE Act.