About May Cause Side Effects with Brooke Siem

This isn’t a mental health newsletter. It’s a wake-up call for your soul.

Welcome to May Cause Side Effects, a newsletter about the untold history of psychiatry, the emerging science of antidepressant withdrawal, and what it takes to rebuild your identity after a lifetime of drugs.

I’m Brooke Siem—author of the award winning memoir May Cause Side Effects, speaker, and one of the first public voices to talk about the long-term consequences of medicating children with psychiatric drugs. After spending half my life—and my entire adult life—on antidepressants, I wondered: Who might I be without them?

Nine years after taking her last antidepressant and now fully healed from explosive and terrifying antidepressant withdrawal, my work questions the modern mental health system, all while demanding hope and forgiveness in the name of healing.

This newsletter is for anyone who has been:

  • Prescribed an antidepressant/psychiatric drug and never warned about withdrawal

  • Told they’d be on medication “for life”

  • Medically gaslit, dismissed, or harmed by the psychiatric system

  • Trying to reclaim a sense of self beyond diagnosis

Through research breakdowns, personal reflections, and cultural critiques, I unpack the forces—both historical and modern—that shape our understanding of depression, identity, and healing.


You’ll find:

  • Investigative writing on the history and evolution of psychiatry

  • Plain-language summaries of withdrawal research and clinical trials

  • Cultural criticism of the mental health industrial complex

  • Personal essays on navigating healing, identity, and reintegration

  • Updates on science, media coverage, and advocacy opportunities


This newsletter is not:

  • A substitute for medical advice

  • An anti-science rant. It’s actually extremely pro-science, which reveals how bad the science on the subject truly is.

  • A place for toxic positivity/victimhood/whining

It’s a place that will ask you to step up and do the hard human work, grounded in data, story, and soul.


Who is this for?

  • People in the thick of withdrawal

  • People questioning if their drugs are actually working

  • Survivors of psychiatric harm

  • Professionals seeking to better understand the lived experience

  • Anyone asking: “What’s wrong with this system?”


If you’ve ever wondered why our mental health is getting worse despite more drugs and more “awareness,” you’ve come to the right place. You’re not crazy, although you can probably get a diagnosis that says otherwise. It’ll take all of 5 minutes, but don’t worry there’s a pill for that. Makes sense, doesn’t it?

Subscribe, share, and let’s keep questioning.

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Subscribe to May Cause Side Effects with Brooke Siem

Investigating the untold history of psychiatry, the science of antidepressant withdrawal, and stepping back into the soul after psychiatric drugs.

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Brooke Siem (@brookesiem) is a writer whose work has appeared in The Washington Post, New York Post, Insider, and more. Her debut memoir, MAY CAUSE SIDE EFFECTS, was published in 2022 and is available wherever books are sold.