A Mind of Your Own

I started off the book thinking “yes, girl, shout that louder” about the paucity of research regarding psychotropic meds. A lot of what she says is clear and valid and then... oh wow.. suddenly the rest of the book discredited all her good points in the beginning. She's anti vax and anti mask and that was enough for me.

When I studied biomedicine in undergrad I began researching naturopathic medicine for my senior sem presentation and fell in love. I began reading this out of curiosity and am so glad I did. The truth she reveals about antidepressant effects is needed. I enjoyed the dietary recommendations she gives esp the evidence - based natural replacements she give for standard medicine.

This is one of the worst ‘pseudo-science' books I have ever read. She criticises ‘Big Pharma' for using studies with small sample sizes and for failing to control for placebo effects – but then the studies she posts as sources for her truly outrageous claims are so completely flawed it's hard to know where to begin in criticising them.

I was hoping for a book that explained some of the science behind depression, and had some of the studies of the recent links between the microbiome and mental health. What I got was an angry, controversy theorists' rantings about the evils of antidepressants, antibiotics, statins, vaccines and painkillers.

Her healing ‘plan' seems to be a version of whole30/paleo, with some meditation and exercise thrown in. Though, disclaimer, I quit this book 40% of the way through because I just couldn't take any more.