The “Slow Taper”: New Book Crossing Zero Shows You How to Successfully Get Off Psychiatric Drugs -

     This July, Danish clinical psychologist Anders Sorensen published what will probably be considered the go-to resource for successfully tapering off psychiatric medications. His Crossing Zero: The Art and Science of Coming Off — and Staying Off — Psychiatric Drugs is a 408 page manual published by North & Vale which explains the science of withdrawal, provides strategies for tapering off psychiatric drugs with minimal withdrawal symptoms, and offers tips for living well after tapering is complete.

     The term “crossing zero” is taken from the field of electronics to indicate the passing of a signal or waveform from negative to positive (or vice versa) as it passes through a zero value. Sorensen uses that point of transition as a metaphor for going from a medicated to an un-medicated life through wise tapering.

     Sorensen has a PhD in psychiatry from the University of Copenhagen and has worked for more than a decade with patients successfully tapering off psychiatric drugs. After the earlier publication of his highly successful twelve page pamphlet on tapering, he has become a prominent voice of the international de-prescribing movement.

     Crossing Zero shows that psychiatric medication can cause mental health problems all by itself. Couple that with the dangers from the cascade of prescriptions some patients receive to handle the “side effects” of their first medications and one finds that the route out of that overly medicated quagmire can be a long one. Research has now shown that successful tapering can take far longer than the weeks or months that some suggest, Sorensen writes.

     Besides the practical strategies he offers for successful tapering that itself won’t make one feel suicidal, Sorensen stresses the importance of not entering into a tapering program alone. To be successful one not only needs competent medical advice, one also needs a strong emotional support team of family or friends.

     In Part I Crossing Zero gives a specific and thorough overview of the psychiatric medications used most often today and the system of diagnosis used for their prescription. The point at which objective diagnosis passes into subjective opinion can itself be a significant crossing zero moment from positive to negative values.

     Part II shows the tactics and strategies necessary for how carry out a successful slow taper and Part III offers exercises and technologies that can be used to return to successful strategies for living after one has completed a tapering program.

     This week Sorensen is offering a free download of the Introduction and Chapter One of Crossing Zero from his Substack account.