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Monday. I'm Michael Kovnat, host of

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The Next Big Idea's sister podcast,

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The Next Big Idea Daily. Every

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weekday, we deliver quick masterclasses from

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the best nonfiction books written and read

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to you by the authors themselves. You're

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about to hear the episode we published

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this morning. To get the rest of this

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week's episodes, follow The Next Big Idea

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Daily wherever you get your podcasts. Good

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morning, everyone. I'm Michael Kovnat,

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and this is the Next Big

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Idea Daily, where we serve up

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powerful insights from the best new

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nonfiction books, no prescription required. Now,

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today's episode may stir up

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some strong opinions, especially if you've

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ever struggled with your mental

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health or questioned the medical system

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that's supposed to help. Laura

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Delano spent 14 years under

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psychiatric care working with a

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variety of diagnosed mental illnesses

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and trying every drug and

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therapy that promised to fix her.

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But eventually she started wondering what

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if the problem wasn't in her

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brain but in the system itself. In

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her searing new memoir, Unshrunk,

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a story of psychiatric treatment

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resistance, Laura recounts how

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she reclaimed her life, not by

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following doctors' orders, but by

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learning to trust herself again. She

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joins us now to share some of her

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most hard -won insights, right after this quick

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break. Hi,

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I'm Jonathan Fields. Tune in to

1:48

my podcast for conversations about the

1:50

sweet spot between work, meaning, and

1:52

joy, and also listen to other

1:54

people's questions about how to get the most out

1:57

of that thing we call work. Check

1:59

out SPART wherever you enjoy podcasts.

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From LinkedIn News, I'm Jesse

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Hempel, host of the Hello Monday

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podcast. Start your week with

2:10

the Hello Monday podcast. We'll navigate

2:12

career pivots. We'll learn where

2:14

happiness fits in. Listen to Hello

2:16

Monday with me, Jesse Hempel, on

2:18

the LinkedIn Podcast Network, or wherever

2:20

you get your podcasts. Hi,

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my name is Laura Delano. I'm

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an author, speaker, and consultant. Today,

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I'm going to share five of the key

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insights from my book, Unshrunk.

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a story of psychiatric treatment

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resistance. Insight number

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one. Personal struggle doesn't

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necessarily mean there's anything wrong

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with you. In fact, it

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may well be the very opposite. The

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words we use to make sense

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of our inner experiences shape the way

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we understand ourselves, who

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we are, what our thoughts and

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emotions mean, how we fit

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or don't fit into the world

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around us. I spent the

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most formative years of my

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life thinking about myself through the

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medicalized framework of mental illness

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and mental health. I

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translated my intense anger

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and despair and angst

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and loneliness and paranoia

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and self -doubt into the language

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of symptom, disease, and

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psychopathology, and grew convinced

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that my biochemistry needed fixing.

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I eventually learned that the very

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opposite was true. that my

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struggle was a sign of my aliveness, my

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sensitivity, my attunement to

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the world. My book invites

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the question, what if

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your struggles are not indicative

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of personal illness or malfunction, but

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of the fact that something is

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out of alignment in your relationship to

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society around you, or perhaps

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out of alignment in society itself?

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Emotional pain does not have to

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mean proof of pathology. It

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can also mean that we are

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fully here and in touch with

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what's happening to and around us. No

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one knows you better than you know yourself.

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During my time in the mental health system, I

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came to believe that I couldn't trust

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my mind, that my thoughts and

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emotions were something to be scared

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of and managed rather than tuned

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into for guidance. My

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faithful identification with doctor

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-imposed diagnostic categories arrested

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my own process

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of individual meaning -making. What

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was the sense in cultivating curiosity about

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why I felt the way I did

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when it was simply the result of

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biological malfunction? I believed

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that my doctors, with all their

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qualifications and years of training, were

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experts on my suffering. Having

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lost faith in the soundness of my

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own opinions, I accepted their

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delineation of my limits and what

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I would be able to quote

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unquote manage as a quote unquote

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sick person. I learned

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to quell the voice

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inside me that voiced confusion

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or discomfort or protest

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because as a faithful patient, I had

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internalized the belief that this was all

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for my own good. When

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I left the mental health system, I

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had to undergo a process of

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recovery. Not in the sense

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of becoming mentally healthy, so to speak, but

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in the sense of retrieval, of

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finding what I'd lost. That

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lost thing was trust in

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myself, faith in

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my ability to navigate and interpret the

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world on my terms, knowing that

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I had all the answers I needed

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within me. Expertise

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doesn't always come from having

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letters after your name. We're

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trained to believe that expertise

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comes from formal education, from

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accreditations and positions of

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prestige in respected institutions. But

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the word expertise actually

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comes from the Latin experitus,

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meaning tried, proved,

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known through experience. When

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I decided to come off psychiatric

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drugs in 2010, I

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did so with minimal help from my

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prescriber. Neither of us knew

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how to safely taper off medications, and

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I ended up discontinuing five drugs

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in the space of about six

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months, which is essentially

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going cold turkey and very

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dangerous. At the

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time, online communities of people

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withdrawing from psychiatric drugs were

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still in their infancy, and

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so I muddled through withdrawal

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without knowing what was happening. Since

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then, Online withdrawal

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communities have increased exponentially,

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a telling indicator about the lack

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of understanding and support from

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medical professionals about psychiatric drug withdrawal.

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It's been laypeople, not

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scientists, not clinicians, who

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have developed extensive knowledge

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about safe tapering methods, all

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based on their failed and successful

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attempts to come off their medications. However,

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Since this type of knowledge doesn't

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come from those with letters after

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their names or from academic institutions, layperson

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expertise is often

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considered invalid. And

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yet, in the case of psychiatric

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drug tapering, the science is

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finally catching up with what laypeople

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have known and been supporting each other

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with all along. This

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is just one example of a service

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that we regularly outsource to professionals. that's

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actually freely available in our

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own communities. Don't

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wait until you heal to start

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living. I spent

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my 20s in active pursuit

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of mental health recovery. I

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felt sure I couldn't focus on

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living until I made it to

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this endpoint where I'd feel emotional

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balance, put togetherness, and personal arrival.

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Achieving this state became my North

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Star. Eventually, in

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the wake of coming off my meds far

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too quickly, and in the throes

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of psychiatric drug withdrawal, I

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realized I had to stop sitting in

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the waiting room of my life. It

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was only by showing up with my

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mind on fire that I would heal. It

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was by insisting on putting myself

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out there in the world, and opening

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up to all the possible moments

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of feeling connected that I would recover.

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And not despite feeling unready, but

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because of it. The

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objective to living isn't

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happiness and balance. It's

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meaning and authenticity. I

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grew up in a wealthy

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New England town where the air

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itself seemed infused with happiness

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and perfection. This, in

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turn, created an alienating,

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suffocating illusion that everyone

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else, save you, had their

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act together. The

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underlying assumption that I was the only

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one who hadn't cracked the happiness

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code was a large part of what

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drove me to surrender myself to

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mental health professionals through my teens and

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twenties. Since I'd failed

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at feeling good, I concluded, I

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must need help getting there. The

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right meds, the right therapist, the

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right behavior modification technique. It

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wasn't until after I'd come

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off my meds and abandoned my

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diagnoses that I began to

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understand how backwards this thinking was.

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Books like Victor Frankl's Man's

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Search for Meaning, and

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the writings and poems of

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Jiddu Krishnamurti, David White,

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and Mary Oliver ignited a

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profound revelation in me. Life

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isn't about happiness. It's

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about how connected you feel to yourself

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and to the world around you. It's

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about moving through the world with a

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sense of meaning and purpose. The

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consumerist, hyper -individualist nature

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of our society teaches

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us otherwise. If

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one feels discomfort, be

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it boredom, sadness, self

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-doubt, anger, loneliness,

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grief, fear, the

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list goes on, there's a

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prescription available, a product

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or service or drug we can call

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on to help alleviate our symptoms. But

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what if the prison isn't pain itself

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but the belief that we need to be

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free of it? Being human

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is about living in shadows

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and light. It took me a

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long time to learn that and I

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came out stronger as a result. Thank

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you, Laura. Okay everyone,

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you can get a copy of Un

10:44

wherever Get Your Books. That's

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our show for the day. If you

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got something out of it, please leave

10:50

a rating or review in your podcast

10:52

player so others can find it too.

10:54

Stay tuned to the next big Idea

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Daily because this week we'll be sharing

10:58

big ideas about leadership, privacy, and how

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to access the wild courage you need

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to get what you want out of

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life. I'm Michael Kovnat. See you

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tomorrow.