The Gaslit Truth Podcast

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The hormone conversation got loud for a reason and it wasn’t just “a trend.” We sit down with ER physician and menopause clinician Heather Hammerstead to unpack how women’s hormonal health got dismissed for decades, why so many midlife symptoms get mislabeled as anxiety or depression, and what the science actually says about modern menopause hormone therapy.

We dig into the ripple effects of the early-2000s WHI fallout, including how a misunderstood headline can change medical practice overnight. Heather breaks down risk in plain language, explains why today’s patient...

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A four-question screener can follow your kid for years. A “better” PHQ-9 score can convince you treatment worked even while your relationships, energy, and daily life quietly fall apart. We get into why that gap matters, and why the mental health system keeps treating a pencil-and-paper symptom count like the full truth about a human being.

We talk through how depression and anxiety screeners are actually used in primary care, pediatrics, OB visits, and even entire school districts. We unpack the two-week window problem, how teens are expected to self-assess with vagu...

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Psych meds can change a life, but not always in the direction we intend. We sit down with psychiatrist Christian Monsalve to wrestle with a question most people never hear in a medication appointment: are we aiming for symptom control, or are we helping someone build a life that actually feels worth living? Christian brings a rare blend of psychiatry, ethics, and philosophy to the table, and it reshapes how we think about “successful treatment.”

We get specific about psychiatric medications, especially SSRIs, and the real-world tradeoffs patients report like emotional blun...

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Something is off in modern mental health, and you can feel it the moment real human pain gets translated into a diagnosis code and a prescription. We sit down with psychologist Roger McFillin to unpack what he saw change during COVID, why so many clients started echoing the same beliefs, and how the medical system can train both patients and clinicians to outsource inner authority to “experts” and protocols. If you’ve ever questioned SSRIs, psychiatric drugs, or the chemical imbalance story, this conversation gives you language for what your gut already suspects. 

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Day one at zero sounds like a finish line, but for Therapist Jenn Schmitz it is also the start of a whole new chapter. After roughly 26 years on SSRIs and 1,139 days of tapering Lexapro, she finally crosses “zero” and tells the unfiltered truth about what it took: the fear, the patience, the symptom tracking, and the moments where withdrawal did not look like “anxiety” so much as a nervous system on overload.

We rewind to how it began: teenage pressure, disordered eating, heartbreak, and a prescribing path that ran through a pediatri...

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A psychiatrist with 37 years in the field and more than 30,000 patients sits down with us and says something most professionals won’t say out loud: he knew from day one that parts of what he was taught were wrong. Dr. Fred Moss joins the Gaslit Truth Podcast to unpack how the mental health system can turn normal human struggle into pathology, why DSM diagnosis often becomes “alphabet soup,” and how quickly a label can shift from helpful language to a lifelong identity. If you’ve ever felt reduced to ADHD, bipolar, ODD, or any othe...

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A brutal headache sounds simple until it becomes the doorway to years of antidepressants, benzodiazepines, opioids, and a procedure that can erase memories. We’re joined by writer and poetry therapist Ann Bracken, whose life mirrors a painful family pattern: she watches her mother get treated for depression and anxiety through heavy medication and dozens of ECT treatments, vows it won’t happen to her, then finds herself pulled into the same current. 

We talk through how emotional distress can show up as physical pain, how the chemical imbalance narrative can shut...

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One medication switch shouldn’t be able to rewrite your whole life, but that’s exactly what a prescribing cascade can do. We sit down with Senthil, who traces a startling path from long-term blood pressure treatment to an ER visit, an “anxiety” label, and a rapid pileup of prescriptions that includes benzodiazepines, SSRIs, sleep meds, and an antipsychotic. The most chilling part is how quickly the experience changes his mind and body: insomnia, racing thoughts, GI distress, and suicidal intrusive thoughts that feel alien to who he’s always been. 

We talk can...

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You keep hearing that longevity is about pricey supplements, constant lab tests, and the latest biohacking gadget. We don’t buy it, and neither does our guest, Ron Russell, author of Longevity Visa and founder of LongevityVisa.com. Ron is also a longtime vegan chef who has cooked for clinical cardiology patients and taught hundreds of plant-based cooking classes, so he lives at the intersection of real-world food and longevity science.

We start with a question most of us are quietly asking: if you want to eat for the health you wa...

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“Bone on bone.” “You’re just getting older.” “PT didn’t work.” Those phrases can trap people in fear, passivity, and expensive next steps. We sit down with Dr. Clayton Durr, PT, DPT, host of Heal Without Harm, to break down what effective physical therapy should look like when the goal is real recovery, not cookie-cutter visits and endless appointments.

We talk about why strength training is one of the most underprescribed tools in healthcare, and how building muscle over time can change pain, mobility, and quality of life. We also get specific abo...

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Dr. Peter Breggin has spent more than 50 years challenging psychiatry. But this is the story behind the man who challenged it.

In this rare and deeply personal conversation, Dr. Peter Breggin and Ginger Breggin take us beyond psychiatric drugs, diagnoses, and controversy—and into the experiences that shaped his life.

Peter shares stories he says he has never publicly told before.

He talks about growing up without the love he needed from his mother and the 16-year-old Black girl who cared for him and showed hi...

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Normal labs. Normal CT scan. Abnormal suffering. That gap is where millions of people live with chronic nausea, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, and pain, then get brushed off as “just anxiety.” We sit down with Dr. Rick, an ER doctor and founder of Belly MD, to unpack why “mystery belly pain” has become a huge slice of emergency medicine and why the old hardware-only mindset fails people when the real problem is nervous system signaling. 

We dig into the gut-brain connection and the enteric nervous system, including how the vagus nerve acts like a tw...

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A case like this doesn’t just raise questions about one family, it forces us to confront what happens when postpartum mental health care becomes a series of disconnected appointments and escalating prescriptions. We dig into the civil lawsuit tied to the Lindsay Clancy case and lay out the documented timeline: worsening insomnia, severe anxiety, dissociation, emotional numbing, intrusive thoughts, and ultimately command hallucinations, all while medications are started, stopped, increased, and switched across multiple classes.

We talk plainly about psychiatric polypharmacy, adverse drug reactions, and how quickly “side effects” can be ref...

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“Once a cheater, always a cheater” is one of the stickiest relationship clichés on the internet, and it shapes how people judge themselves and their partners after betrayal. We sit down with psychologist Dr. Kathy Nickerson to put real data next to the hot takes, including findings from her large infidelity survey and her work alongside Dr. John Gottman. What emerges is a more complex, more human picture of cheating, regret, and why many couples choose reconciliation after infidelity.

We talk about the myths that do the most damage: that cheat...

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Feeling “better” on an SSRI is real and so is the moment it stops feeling like you. We talk with Mark, known as The Health Files, about his citalopram (Celexa) experience: a first year of relief followed by a slow slide into emotional blunting, lost sleep, memory problems, irritability, and sexual side effects that shook his identity and his relationship. As he tells it, the most destabilizing part wasn’t only the symptoms, it was being repeatedly dismissed by clinicians and told the medication couldn’t possibly be involved. If you’ve searched for SSRI s...

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A single hospital IV can change the next 27 years of your life, especially when the system decides your body’s alarm is “just anxiety.” We sit down with Kathy Toll, a relentless advocate whose TikTok accounts get shut down again and again, and she tells the story behind the bans: akathisia, medication injury, and the kind of medical gaslighting that turns a clear adverse drug reaction into a lifelong psychiatric label.

Kathy walks us through the moment it started, how an anti-nausea medication (Stemetil/Compazine) triggered that terrifying “jumping out of my skin”...

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“Safe and effective” sounds like a promise, but what if it’s just a marketing stamp pasted over weak benefit and loud safety signals? We sit down with psych nurse David Wayne (Describe Health on X) to dissect the Strawn et al. clinical trial that helped push Lexapro (escitalopram) for pediatric anxiety and to ask the question parents deserve answered: what does “works” mean if the child doesn’t actually feel better?

We dig into how anxiety outcomes are measured using tools like the Pediatric Anxiety Rating Scale (PARS), why conflicts of interest...

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Schools are getting sued, teachers are burning out, and parents keep hearing the same slippery phrases: “reasonable accommodations,” “board policy,” and “trust the process.” We’re not buying it. We sit down with family law attorney Jason Wright to explain why special education support so often turns into delay, confusion, and conflict, especially when districts treat every request like a threat to their limited resources.

We get specific about how the system works in real life: why parents are labeled as “biased” the moment they push back, why having an advocate can change the ton...

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Nobody tells you that one “helpful” prescription can echo for decades, but that’s exactly what Martin Cranford lived. After 9-11, with aviation layoffs looming and a first baby on the way, anxiety shows up fast and an SSRI seems like the obvious answer. Years later, a new problem appears: Restless Leg Syndrome. What follows is a real-world look at how SSRI side effects, dopamine agonists like pramipexole, and the nightmare of augmentation can collide with a too-fast taper and turn a treatable symptom into a full-body crisis.

We walk through what r...

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The recovery world loves simple rules, but real people are complicated. We’re joined by Michael Gonzales, a veteran interventionist known for challenging the one size fits all approach to addiction treatment. Michael gets brutally honest about the years he spent presenting an abstinence-only story while privately using cannabis to manage PTSD, function in daily life, and keep moving forward. We talk about the hidden shame that comes with “purity tests” in recovery culture, and what it costs when professionals and communities punish honesty instead of supporting stability.

We also get practi...

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Medications can change symptoms, but they can also drain the nutrients your brain depends on to function. We get blunt about the trade-offs people rarely hear when they start psychiatric meds, and we connect the dots between nutrient depletion and the exact complaints that get labeled as “depression,” “anxiety,” or “brain fog” in the first place. If you’ve ever wondered why you feel worse over time or why tapering feels impossible, this conversation gives you a clearer, more grounded framework.

We talk through the nutrients that commonly get depleted by psychiatric me...

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The rehab world sells hope, but what happens when the business model rewards volume over care? We sit down with Ronnie Costa, a recovery coach and chemical dependency counselor whose life began in Providence’s crime-heavy mob culture, where money, status, and violence looked like a plan. Ronnie shares how that environment shaped his choices, how opioid addiction with OxyContin and later heroin nearly ended everything, and what finally made sobriety stick after years of chaos, arrests, and close calls.

Then we go where most conversations stop: the treatment industry itself. Ro...

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A federal plan says it wants to curb psychiatric overprescribing and elevate informed consent. That sounds like progress until you remember informed consent was always supposed to be the standard, and most people never received it.

We unpack the HHS MAHA action plan and the “dear colleague” guidance that urges shared decision making, regular risk-benefit reviews, and more non-medication approaches like psychotherapy, nutrition, and movement. We also cut through the noise about the messenger and keep the focus where it belongs: patient autonomy, psych med injury, withdrawal-aware care, and what safe depr...

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Rehab can make millions and still send people home sicker, more medicated, and more likely to relapse. That’s the uncomfortable starting point for our conversation with Dr. Cali Estes, a global leader in addiction recovery who’s trained tens of thousands of professionals and also paid the personal price of loving someone who couldn’t stop using.

We dig into the addiction treatment industry from the inside: rushed assessments during detox, questionable diagnosing, and the quiet incentives that reward “attendance” more than healing. Dr. Cali Estes breaks down body brokering and kickba...

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You can walk into family court feeling certain you’re the “good parent” and your ex is the “toxic one,” then walk out stunned that the judge didn’t seem to care. That shock is exactly what we’re tackling with award-winning Austin family law attorney Jason Wright, a straight-talking divorce and custody lawyer who reminds clients that family law is about what’s legal, not what feels fair.

We dig into the myths that spread online and quietly sabotage cases: the idea that labels like narcissist or gaslighting automatically matter, that “moms alway...

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GLP-1 drugs are being sold like a clean shortcut, but the body is not a simple math problem. We sit down with returning guest Dr. Josh Hellman, MD (Harvard-trained physician and lifestyle medicine expert), to get painfully honest about peptides, GLP-1 agonists, and what patients often do not hear before starting semaglutide (Ozempic/Wegovy) or tirzepatide.

We break down what peptides actually are, why dose and delivery can change everything, and how GLP-1 medications can push signaling to extreme levels compared to normal physiology. Then we get into the stuff that...

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Chronic pain gets treated like a character flaw far too often, and that’s the first injury. When you’re told “the scans look fine” or “it must be anxiety,” you’re left holding pain that is real while also being made to feel crazy for having it. We wanted a smarter, more honest conversation about what chronic pain is, how the brain and nervous system can keep the signal alive, and what “pain recovery” looks like when the goal is function, meaning, and getting your life back.

We’re joined by Dr. Mel Pohl, MD...

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Gum recession. Tooth loss. Bone density dropping fast. When those problems hit, most people get handed a brush-up-your-hygiene lecture or a “that’s just aging” shrug. We wanted a deeper answer, especially because we keep seeing oral health fall apart in people taking psychiatric medications and other prescriptions, and in people carrying a heavy toxic exposure history.

We bring on Stephen Hewer, trained in nutrition and known for clinical work focused on structural health, jawbone integrity, gum health, and restoring bone density. He breaks down a key idea many supplement labels ignore...

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Your doctor says withdrawal should be short because the drug “leaves your body.” Then you stop an SSRI and months later your sleep collapses, anxiety spikes, your body hurts, and you’re told it must be your “condition” coming back. That gap between what you were promised and what you’re living is exactly where protracted withdrawal hides. 

We walk through what protracted withdrawal and PAWS can look like after antidepressant tapering and other psychiatric medication tapering, including delayed symptoms that hit long after the final dose. We get into the why: neuroada...

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One bad assumption can burn down a life: “It’s just stress” or “you’re just falling out of love.” We sit down with Sabrina Lane from Loving Through the Storm to talk about what happens when antidepressants and antidepressant withdrawal collide with marriage, grief, and trust. Her story starts the way so many do, with a therapist recommending Lexapro at a specific dose to “take the edge off,” and it escalates into a chain of medication changes, emotional blunting, and a home that stops feeling like home. 

We dig into the hard parts pa...

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What if the kindest thing a therapist can do is hold the line? We dig into the boundary problem hiding in plain sight: missed sessions waved off, late cancellations uncharged, and vague money talk that quietly devalues the work. With guest Aron Gilbert, a social work psychotherapist and founder of Boston Evening Therapy Associates, we unpack how a flimsy frame sends mixed messages to people who came to change their lives—and how a clear, consistent structure actually makes therapy safer, deeper, and more effective.

We start by challenging the false di...

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Forget the “born an addict” script. We dig into why the broken-brain narrative persists, where the DSM and twin-study talking points get overextended, and how neuroadaptation—not destiny—explains the very real deficits measured after substance use. From dopamine to GABA and glutamate, we unpack what’s actually happening in the brain, why SSRIs often miss the mark, and how a smarter plan uses testing, targeted nutrition, and careful deprescribing to reduce cravings and restore balance.

We share what we see in practice with high-functioning drinkers and people who’ve cycled through reha...

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Trusted care should never start with a wink and end without a chart. Naomi Moore joins us to share how her husband John, a pediatric nurse and devoted dad, went from seasonal life stress to a devastating, rapid unraveling after an off-the-books antipsychotic prescribed by his own brother. Over five months, a cascade of medications—long-term Lexapro, new olanzapine, sleep aids, and later duloxetine—collided with missed warning signs, superficial check-ins, and zero meaningful informed consent. The result was a medication-induced suicide that shattered a family and exposed the cracks in a system that...

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What happens when a crisis call for help becomes evidence of a crime—and the pill meant to steady your mind may have helped set the fire? We sit down with Ben Bathan, a former senior technical artist, to unpack a nightmarish chain of events: a therapist who directed specific SSRIs and dosages, years of escalating side effects, and a conviction for criminal threats after calling a “confidential” emergency line while in a psychotic state. The story presses on a raw nerve—how medication that can alter judgment, aggression, and impulse control is treated...

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The Gaslit Truth Podcast is hosted by Dr. Teralyn Sell and Therapist Jenn Schmitz, exploring mental health, psychiatric medication withdrawal, therapy culture, and informed consent.

In this episode, Dr. Teralyn Sell and Therapist Jenn Schmitz talk about the problems diagnosing bipolar disorder

A Wall Street Journal apology letter, a new album on deck, and a claim that top doctors say “not bipolar”—the Kanye headlines practically beg for hot takes. We wanted to do something different: slow it down, map the timelines, and ask what happens when a possible trauma...

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The Gaslit Truth Podcast is hosted by Dr. Teralyn Sell and Therapist Jenn Schmitz, exploring mental health, psychiatric medication withdrawal, therapy culture, and informed consent.

In this episode, Dr. Teralyn Sell and Therapist Jenn Schmitz talk about the problems when a spouse diagnoses the other with a mental health disorder. 

What if the story you’ve been told about mental health—diagnose fast, medicate faster—misses the point of why you’re suffering? We sit with psychiatrist Dr. Josef Whitt Doerring, a specialist in deprescribing and withdrawal management, to unpack ho...

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A lot of partners arrive with a plan: diagnose the other, prescribe a podcast, and force “the work” through an ultimatum. We blow the whistle on that dynamic and unpack why pressure backfires, how pop-psychology labels fuel contempt, and what ethical therapy actually looks like when one spouse is sent in to be “fixed.” Along the way, we explore the emotional mismatch many couples face—one person wants depth and naming, the other wants specifics and steps—and why checklists, chores, and box-ticking rarely create intimacy.

We go deep on the medication m...

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The Gaslit Truth Podcast is hosted by Dr. Teralyn Sell and Therapist Jenn Schmitz, exploring mental health, psychiatric medication withdrawal, therapy culture, and informed consent.

In this episode, Dr. Teralyn Sell and Therapist Jenn Schmitz discuss the martyrdom that exists in therapy practice and the dismissal of client violence. 

A therapist in Orlando was murdered by a former client—and our profession’s first reaction was to ask why she didn’t protect herself better. We refuse that narrative. We dig into the uncomfortable truth that mental health culture quietly...

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The Gaslit Truth Podcast is hosted by Dr. Teralyn Sell and Therapist Jenn Schmitz, exploring mental health, psychiatric medication withdrawal, therapy culture, and informed consent.

In this episode, Dr. Teralyn Sell and Therapist Jenn Schmitz talk with Medical Journalist Rob Wipond author of Your Consent is Not Required. 

The stories we tell about “care” rarely match what happens behind locked doors. We sit down with journalist Rob Wipond, author of Your Consent Is Not Required, to unpack how ordinary people are swept into psychiatric detention through vague laws, crisis-line escal...

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The Gaslit Truth Podcast is hosted by Dr. Teralyn Sell and Therapist Jenn Schmitz, exploring mental health, psychiatric medication withdrawal, therapy culture, and informed consent.

In this episode, Dr. Teralyn Sell and Therapist Jenn Schmitz talk with Chana Studley, trauma survivor to hollywood award winner. 

 You’ve been told you’re broken. Chana Studley arrived with police reports, X-rays, and years of panic to prove it. Three assaults in her twenties spiraled into PTSD and decades of chronic pain, yet the most life-changing shift didn’t come from retelling the wors...