The Med Free Mental Fitness Podcast
The Med Free Mental Fitness Podcast
Podcast Description
I’m Katinka Blackford Newman— life coach, bestselling author and journalist.
This podcast is a space for real, honest conversations about mental health, medication, and the alternative paths people have taken to heal. I’ll be talking to those who’ve experienced the darker side of psychiatric drugs, as well as experts who can shed light on safer, more empowering solutions
If you’re curious about mental health beyond the prescription pad, you’re in the right place. Let’s dive in!
www.kbnlifecoaching.co.uk
[email protected]
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
This podcast centers on mental health topics, alternative healing methods, and personal recovery stories, with episodes exploring experiences of psychiatric medication, holistic strategies for well-being, and discussions on resilience. For example, a recent episode features bestselling author Rachel Kelly, who shares her journey of overcoming depression without medication.
I’m your host, Katinka Blackford Newman, a life coach, author and health journalist.
The Med-Free Mental Fitness Podcast is an interview-led show exploring mental health, behaviour change and wellbeing in the context of modern life. Through in-depth conversations, it examines how people live with overwhelm, stress and long-term challenges, and what genuinely supports recovery, resilience and agency.
At its core, the podcast is about meaning and agency beyond diagnosis and quick fixes, with space for complexity and differing perspectives.
Guests include clinicians, researchers, authors, journalists and practitioners, alongside people with lived experience. Topics include mental health and diagnosis, grief and loss, sleep and insomnia, trauma, addiction and habit change, pain, weight, medication use and withdrawal, informed consent, and evidence-informed, non-pharmacological approaches to recovery.
Video interviews are available on YouTube.
If you would like personalised support through life coaching, you can book a free consultation via:
www.kbnlifecoaching.co.uk
[email protected]
In her first in-depth interview, Jessica Barrett shares the devastating story of losing her twin sisters and how her family later came to believe that akathisia, a recognised adverse drug reaction linked to antidepressants and other medications, played a significant role in the tragedy
Host Katinka Blackford Newman interviews Jessica Barrett (Nee Crespi), daughter of David Crespi, who in 2006 killed his five-year-old twin daughters in what Jessica describes as a prescription-drug-induced state after a two-week medication escalation that included Prozac, Trazodone, Ambien and one night of Lunesta, alongside an antibiotic. Jessica recounts her close childhood relationship with her father, his intermittent stress-related insomnia and medication cycles, the day she learned of the deaths, and seeing him in apparent psychosis. She explains how her mother’s research, including Peter Breggin’s Medication Madness, led the family to suspect a drug reaction and akathisia, and discusses his plea deal, prison medication changes, eventual tapering, and their ongoing grief, forgiveness, and hope that others will question and closely monitor psychiatric medications. Jessica’s faith has helped her come to terms with what happened and she now co-hosts the Something… About Catholics podcast on Spotify.
For more information about antidepressant harm, withdrawal and informed consent, visit the not-for-profit organisation founded by host Katinka Blackford Newman – www.antidepressantrisks.org
Katinka is also an accredited life coach helping people go from stuck to unstoppable. Find out more at www.kbnlifecoaching.co.uk
00:00 Jessica’s Story Begins
00:51 A Normal Childhood
03:51 Dad’s Stress and Med Cycles
07:46 The Drug Cocktail Before
09:09 The Day Everything Changed
13:34 Aftermath and First Visit
17:30 Akathisia and Medication Clues
24:02 Trial and Life Sentences
26:20 Grief and Returning to School
30:21 Stopping Meds in Prison
33:00 Remembering and Reframing
35:53 Justice and Ongoing Impact
40:26 Forgiveness and Her Own Reaction
42:58 Book Publicity and Lessons
44:24 Final Takeaways and Outro
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