On January 24, 2023, Lindsey Clancy, a 32-year-old labor and delivery nurse living outside of Boston, strangled her 3 young children. Her husband who had left to pick up takeout and stop at CVS, came home to find her, after she had jumped out the window desperately trying to end her own life.
As a former pharmaceutical representative, I used to sell some of the exact medications she was taking.
Until 5 years ago, I would have told you that SSRIs like Zoloft are relatively benign, especially at low doses. I no longer believe that to be true.
Someone very close to me was on the exact same medications as Lindsay and experienced what looked a psychotic break. I have seen the harm that these medications can cause.
- October 2022: Prescribed 25mg of Zoloft, quickly titrated to 50mg. Lindsey reports zero sleep for 48 hours, racing thoughts, and worsening anxiety.
- October 20th: Reports heart palpitations. Her psychiatrist pulls her off Zoloft and prescribes Ativan and Benadryl.
- November 16th: Goes to the ER with severe insomnia and anxiety. Prescribed Trazodone.
- November 20th: A prenatal behavioral health program prescribes Prozac. Lindsey states she is “very frustrated, scared, and has extreme insomnia.”
- November 24th: Four days later, the Prozac makes her insomnia worse. She is prescribed Ambien, Remeron, and Klonopin.
- November 25th: She tells practitioners she cannot determine what is real and feels entirely disconnected.
- November 28th: Getting only 3 hours of sleep. Disoriented and scared. Prescribed Seroquel.
- December 2nd: Reports she is actively suicidal and hearing things.
- December 5th: Calls a crisis hotline begging to be admitted. They turn her away because she “doesn’t meet the criteria.”
- December 6th: Her husband, Patrick, tells the practitioner Lindsey is “10,000x worse” since starting Seroquel. The provider increases the Seroquel dose anyway.
- December 20th: Returns to the ER suicidal.
- December 21st: Admits herself to a program, but is removed because a doctor claims she is just “over-medicated” and lacks a true mental health issue. She admits herself to a second hospital and is discharged with a script for Trazodone.
- January 10th: Prescribed Valium and Amitriptyline. Desperate, Lindsey searches Google for “what is a psychopath.”
- January 24th: Lindsey hears a voice saying, “This is your last chance. Kill the children so you can kill yourself.” That evening, she listened to the voice and killed her three babies.
We need to stop popping neuroscience medications like candy. Antidepressants can make some people dramatically worse in the first weeks. This isn’t because their illness is “winning”, it is because of what the drug is actively doing to the brain.
Clinicians call it ACTIVATION SYNDROME. Its most dangerous form is AKATHISIA: a relentless, agonizing internal agitation that patients describe as wanting to crawl out of their own skin. It is not standard anxiety. It is not a case of the medication “not working yet.” It is an adverse drug reaction strongly associated with sudden suicidal and violent thinking in people who had neither before.
The tragic paradox is that akathisia looks exactly like the deterioration it is mistaken for. When an agitated, sleepless patient presents to a clinic, the doctor assumes they are getting sicker. So, the dose goes up, or a 2nd drug is layered on top. Each new chemical failure is treated as evidence of how sick the patient is, rather than evidence that the bottle itself is causing harm.
Layering sedatives (like Ativan, Trazodone, and Valium) on top of akathisia is especially cruel. They quiet the physical pacing without touching the mental torment underneath. The patient looks calmer on the outside while burning alive on the inside. Furthermore, antipsychotics like Seroquel can cause akathisia in their own right.
The answer isn’t that one class of molecules is entirely bad and another is good. The answer is that we have stopped listening to the profound warning signs of the medications we casually consume. We have to find better, safer alternatives.