Anthropology, Arctic Iceland and Antidepressant Withdrawal: A Conversation With Fiona Frenzen
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What is Fiona Frenzen’s background and how did she become interested in anthropology and mental health?
Welcome to the Madden America Podcast, your source for science, psychiatry, and social justice.
Welcome to the Mad in America podcast. My name is Brooke Seem, and I am the author of the award-winning memoir on antidepressant withdrawal may cause side effects. This series is a little different as I am interviewing folks who have been through psychiatric drug withdrawal and have come out on the other side in either an interesting or inspiring or both way. And I am here today with Fiona. Friends in, and I'm so excited to talk to her about this because she and I have been communicating over Instagram for a number of years now. And I have been very interested in and not only her journey in the world, physically where she is and how she ended up there, but also there has been an awareness and an intellectual approach to your withdrawal that I've found to be very refreshing and interesting.
And so I'm hoping to talk a little bit about that as well as where you are in your journey now. I will start with a little bit of a biography, which is super interesting. So, born in Germany and raised in Denmark, Fiona is a qualified teacher with a master's degree in anthropology. For years, she had a dream about living in Iceland. The raw nature had a grounding and healing effect on her. But due to her mental health challenges and severe withdrawal syndrome, this dream seemed very unrealistic. However, this past fall, she moved to a very rural part of Iceland, where she began teaching at the local elementary and high school. She's happy to be there and very proud that she made it through the dark winter far away in the Arctic.
But she thinks this is hopefully a stepping stone to another field. She dreams about putting her degree in anthropology to use by working in research and also contributing more to the awareness and risks of antidepressants and the difficulties of withdrawal. Fiona, thank you so much for joining us today.
Yeah, thank you so much. I'm really, really excited.
You mentioned before we started recording that your journey and this whole experience actually began with Madden America. So this is about a little bit of a full circle experience for you. Can can you can you start there and tell us how the journey began?
It started a little bit before, but that's when I realized that oh, I'm in withdrawal. Um it was fall two thousand twenty two and I somehow found um an episode on Matt in America uh podcast with uh Anna Sarnson, the Danish uh researcher. And I listened to him and I was just wow, okay, that's what happened to me. I'm in withdrawal. That's why I I lost everything in my Everything broke down and um a year earlier I decided to um try coming off Certrillin I was on two hundred milligrams and had been for years. Um and to give a little bit of context, I've always struggled with anxiety and O C D. Um I can remember the first symptoms started when I was five years old. My mom died. Um, and that's when it started.
So um I lived with it and of course it was hard and sometimes quite severe. Um, especially when I had like traumatic life events it broke out and I went to therapy and uh got back on track. But I always lived without antidepressants until when I was twenty five. Um I had had years of Це вія м сліп. problems and issues and it developed into um anxiety around sleep and noises. And um in the end with my GP I decided to try out Search for Lin. And went on it uh hundred milligrams. Yeah, there's a long story behind that. I became better, but my anxiety also just shifted because that is something I have with me. Um I lived in Germany, I quit my job and moved to Germany, did therapy, got into a serious relationship, we were on for together for a long time.
Um and then something really traumatic happened and my OCD broke out. And I was on medication at that time. Still in the hundred milligrams. And there was never a plan how to get off. I just okay, I was on it and didn't really think about it. Um, took my pill every morning. Yeah, so this um thing happened and I worked in a school.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is Fiona Frenzen’s background and how did she become interested in anthropology and mental health?
0:04–5:26
2
How did Fiona first realize she was in antidepressant withdrawal and what were her early symptoms?
5:26–9:06
3
What challenges did Fiona face while tapering off high‑dose Sertraline and how did her body react?
9:06–13:43
4
How did the move to rural Iceland influence Fiona’s recovery and daily life?
13:43–18:36
5
What role did acceptance and mindset play in Fiona’s long‑term healing process?
18:36–23:51
6
How did Fiona’s support network—friends, family, and clinicians—help her during withdrawal?
23:51–28:53
7
What insights does Fiona have about the connection between gut health, trauma, and antidepressant withdrawal?
28:53–33:50
8
What future projects does Fiona envision linking anthropology, research, and awareness of antidepressant risks?
33:50–37:42
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Mad in America: Rethinking Mental Health
The West Doesn't Have All the Answers: An Interview with Dinesh Bhugra
Go/No Go - How Mental Health Research Took a Wrong Turn: An Interview with Marianne Apostolides
Unlearn Your Pain: Harnessing the Power of Neuroplasticity – A Conversation With Howard Schubiner
The Empire of Madness: Why Psychiatry Must Rethink Human Suffering - An Interview with Khameer Kidia
A Mother's Journey Through Psychiatric Drug Harm and Healing
Using Lived Experience to Challenge Systemic Prescriber Inexperience in Antidepressant Withdrawal