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Rebekah Beddoe attributes years of severe side effects and bipolar diagnosis to sertraline and subsequent psychiatric medications
Beddoe developed insomnia, akathisia and suicidal thoughts shortly after starting sertraline for post-natal exhaustion, leading to multiple additional prescriptions, a bipolar diagnosis and repeated psychiatric admissions. She later tapered off all drugs and regained her mental health.
May 9, 5:30 AM·3m read1 source
The Sydney Morning HeraldAudio version
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Rebekah Beddoe lived in what she described as literally hell on earth for three years in her 20s after being prescribed sertraline, brand name Zoloft. A general practitioner gave her the antidepressant following support at a mother-baby unit for post-natal exhaustion with a highly unsettled newborn who cried constantly and struggled to feed.
Beddoe had no psychiatric history before taking sertraline.
Insomnia, panic attacks, unbearable agitation, pacing and extreme restlessness known as akathisia developed shortly after she started the medication, while she was still in hospital. Self-harm suicidal thoughts also emerged. As her symptoms worsened her psychiatrist added more medications, beginning a cycle of prescriptions that included lithium, antipsychotics, tranquillisers and multiple antidepressants.
Beddoe was diagnosed with bipolar disorder after developing bouts of mania while on the medications. She was in and out of psychiatric units, spent periods separated from her baby, and was threatened with involuntary hospitalisation. She gained 25 kilograms during this time.
Beddoe began to suspect the medications caused her ordeal after a family friend drew her mother's attention to a documentary on rare but extreme adverse effects of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. She tapered off each drug extremely slowly and with great care. She completely regained her mental health.
Eighteen months after Beddoe ceased medication, her psychiatrist noted no evidence of bipolar mood disorder without her revealing she had stopped the drugs. She is now the face of a new national push by clinicians and former patients called The Not Broken Project questioning long-term mental health medications.
