Telling friends and family what you're doing re: withdrawal is risky business.  To me it's akin to making a commitment to them. Do I do it? Yes, over and over.  Do I regret it?  Yes!  It's a 2 way street, other people's expectations have both a positive and negative effect on my efforts to get off psych drugs.  Yes, sharing intensions can produce a sense of accountability to others, create support networks and generate a strong motivation to succeed.   Yet these same expectations, especially in the early stages of a withdrawal effort, might lead others to make unreasonable demands on me that could put me at emotional risk.  ("Why aren't you here helping?  or "You're always withdrawing from drugs!" my brother said to me, my family not believing or understanding what this withdrawal effort entails).  Yeah well guess what, this is incredibly difficult work, withdrawal from psych drugs,  and it takes a long time.  I can't tell you how many times I went to fast with my taper, only to have to slow it down or go back up a little in my dose.  I used to lick the pill at the end there.    

 So as far as sharing plans, if I was considering it, I'd say:  I can share my plans with you if you totally support my desire to change my own way.  Then you will help bolster my confidence.  But any interference that is not entirely supportive will have a toxic and coercive effect on my sincere plan.

This is a great start for a blog. You can post it as a blog on this site by going to add new post on the dashboard.

I lost almost all my friends due to abuse I endured while inpatient, mainly because they refused to believe me or take me seriously. I am no longer friends with any of those folks. I got all new friends. I will not be friends with anyone who sees me as a disease. As for family, none of them were speaking to me for about 20 years. Last spring, one of my brothers read Anatomy of an Epidemic. This changed our relationship and now we are very close.

Thank you for sharing, Julie. I try to get everyone to read Anatomy of an Epidemic. It changed my life as well.