Rebekah Beddoe attributes years of severe side effects and bipolar diagnosis to sertraline and subsequent psychiatric medications

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.

Nearly one in five Australians are on mental health-related prescriptions according to AIHW data from 2023-24.

Five million people were dispensed a mental health script that year. 9 million since 2014-15. Sixty-seven per cent of mental health prescriptions in 2023-24 were for antidepressants.

2 million antidepressant scripts were issued. More than half of Australians on antidepressants are on them longer than the recommended nine to 12 months after remission, with 2 million people using them long term. " He leads Adelaide University’s Critical and Ethical Mental Health research group.

A systematic umbrella review of evidence found there is no evidence depression is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain, according to The Not Broken Project. Prescriptions of stimulants for ADHD are up 600 per cent since 2017, especially among adults and women, said Dr Paul Denborough, director of Infant, Child, Youth & headspace at Alfred Health.

Siswella Lanzillotti experienced severe behavioral and mood side effects including suicidal ideation after being prescribed medication for what was thought to be depression as a student. This was followed by incorrect diagnoses of bipolar and borderline personality disorder.

She received electroconvulsive therapy that erased memories of the years from about age 20 to 30 and spent one year withdrawing from medications before receiving treatment for an underlying sleep disorder.

A Medical Journal of Australia article of May 2025 noted it is unlikely that 14 per cent of the Australian population would fit the clinical guideline criteria for antidepressant use. The Not Broken Project aims to raise awareness of non-pharmaceutical supports for distress linked to life circumstances and to highlight that mental health medications are very easy to start but harder to stop.

" She joined the group alongside Beddoe to promote wider support options.

"For some people, medications are the answer, and that’s fine," Lanzillotti said.