UNSHRUNK: A STORY OF PSYCHIATRIC TREATMENT RESISTANCE

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Available for Pre-Order at these retailers- Releases March 2025

ABOUT UNSHRUNK

“A really moving and heart-rending story. Unshrunk will help and empower so many people.”
—Johann Hari, New York Times bestselling author of Stolen Focus

The powerful memoir of one woman’s experience with psychiatric diagnoses and medications, and her journey to discover herself outside the mental health industry

At age fourteen, Laura Delano saw her first psychiatrist who immediately diagnosed her with bipolar disorder and started her on a mood stabilizer and antidepressant. At school, Delano was elected the class president and earned straight-As and a national squash ranking; at home, she unleashed all the rage and despair she felt, lashing out at her family and locking herself in her bedroom, obsessing over death.

Delano’s initial diagnosis marked the beginning of a life-altering saga. For the next thirteen years, she sought help from the best psychiatrists and hospitals in the country, accumulating a long list of diagnoses and a prescription cascade of nineteen drugs. After some resistance, Delano accepted her diagnosis and embraced the pharmaceutical regimen that she’d been told was necessary to manage her incurable, lifelong disease. But her symptoms only worsened. Eventually doctors declared her condition so severe as to be “treatment resistant.” A disturbing series of events left her demoralized, but sparked a last glimmer of possibility . . . what if her life was falling apart not in spite of her treatment, but because of it? After years of faithful psychiatric patienthood, Delano realized there was one thing she hadn’t tried—leaving behind the drugs and diagnoses. This decision would mean unlearning everything the experts had told her about herself and forging into the terrifying unknown of an unmedicated life.

Weaving Delano’s medical records and doctors’ notes from her time in treatment with illuminating research on the drugs she was prescribed, Unshrunk questions the dominant, rarely critiqued role that the American mental health industry, and the pharmaceutical industry in particular, plays in shaping what it means to be human.

PRAISE

Advance Praise for Unshrunk

“Unshrunk is the story of a young woman who dared to be herself, and a potent reminder of why human suffering can never be reduced to a diagnostic manual. A must read for anyone probing the dark side of mental health treatment.”
—Anna Lembke, MD, New York Times bestselling author of Dopamine Nation

“A powerful, inspiring, rigorously research-backed memoir about escaping the nightmarish trap of psychiatric drug treatment. As Delano writes, ‘The more I suffered, the more medical treatments I was convinced I needed, but the more treatments I received, the more I suffered.’ I highly recommend this brave and important book.”
—Tao Lin, author of Leave Society

“A really moving and heart-rending story. Unshrunk will help and empower so many people.”
—Johann Hari, New York Times bestselling author of Stolen Focus

“Unshrunk is a revelation—haunting, but ultimately hopeful. For many, there is a way out from behind the veil of mental illness. Delano has gifts for both intense personal story and deep analysis.”
—Heather Heying, author of A Hunter-Gatherer’s Guide to the 21st Century

“In this gripping, essential memoir, Laura Delano takes readers through the labyrinth of the American mental health system, where ‘the best available care’ left her sicker, more desperate, and more lost than ever before. As she deftly weaves the history of psychiatry with her own harrowing odyssey out of its grip, Delano’s clarity and compassion are awe-inspiring. This beautiful, rageful, joyful book is a beacon for all seeking a life beyond labels, beyond medication, beyond disorder.”
—Jessica Nordell, author of The End of Bias: A Beginning

“Laura Delano’s 15-year odyssey through the most exclusive corridors of American Psychiatry lays bare the self-deception and hubris of a profession which has alienated so many seeking its help. That she came out the other side and reclaimed her purpose, humanity, humor — her full self — would be impossible to believe, except that it is all here in this book, a juicy blend of biography, authoritative science, and cultural criticism. Anyone seeking help for mental despair would do well to read Unshrunk before taking the leap. This is reading-as-therapy, of the most bracing kind.”
—Benedict Carey, author of How We Learn

“An intimate and riveting memoir of a spiral into despair, Laura Delano’s Unshrunk is required reading for any of us who have been diagnosed with a mental health condition. Harrowing reading, superb detective work, frank and unflinching, this book leaves its mark—and raises as many questions as it answers. Delano should be applauded for her keen intelligence and bravery. It takes guts to take on a system—and a diagnosis. Bravo.”
—Ann Dowsett Johnston, author of Drink: The Intimate Relationship Between Women and Alcohol

“Turning children into psychiatric patients is tricky business and can have grave consequences, creating a life sentence unless the child grows into an adult with the courage to course correct. Laura Delano beautifully captures this plight in her harrowing memoir. In an age of fast drugs and cure-alls, sometimes letting things alone, be as they are is the healthiest course of all. I will not soon forget Unshrunk and the wisdom at the heart of Delano’s story.”
—Martha McPhee, author of Omega Farm

“Laura Delano’s Unshrunk bravely describes her harrowing journey through the American mental health system. It is both a memoir and a detective story. She trains the most powerful lens on herself, unsparing in the details, yet without a trace of self pity. Her analysis of the science behind psychotropic drugs is rigorous and eye-opening. She offers practical guidance as well as hope for those who feel hopeless and despairing. Unshrunk is equally inspirational and riveting.”
—Sally Bedell Smith, New York Times bestselling author