Psychiatric drugs are controversial. There’s the good story and the bad story. In his book ‘Anatomy of an Epidemic’, Robert Whitaker puts it like this: ‘There is a famous optical illusion, and depending how you look at it, you either see a beautiful young woman picture which tells of a revolutionary advance in the treatment of mental disorders. Or you see an old hag picture which tells of a form of care that has led to an epidemic of disabling mental illness.’

When I used mental he...