When Laura Delano was just 14 years old, a single psychiatric appointment set her on a 14-year path of diagnoses, medications, and a belief that her brain was permanently broken. In this conversation, the author of Unshrunk shares how treatment that initially promised relief gradually led to dependency, identity loss, and despair — and how questioning that narrative changed the course of her life.

Laura and Leslie explore what real informed consent in mental health care should look like, why patients and doctors often lack full information, and how diagnoses and polypharmacy can shape — and sometimes distort — a person’s understanding of themselves. This episode isn’t anti-medication; it’s pro-information, pro-agency, and pro-humanity — an invitation to think more deeply about mental health, healing, and the power of informed choice.

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