Crossing Zero

I’m Anders Sørensen, a Danish clinical psychologist, researcher, and author of Crossing Zero.

I hold a PhD in psychiatry, specializing in psychiatric drug withdrawal and tapering.

Since 2015, I’ve run a dedicated tapering and psychotherapy clinic in Copenhagen, helping people safely come off antidepressants, antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, benzodiazepines, and stimulants — and manage their lives without medications.

This newsletter distills what I’ve learned from a decade of clinical work, research, and thousands of conversations with people navigating withdrawal, rediscovering their emotional landscape, and making sense of their inner world — including honest answers to the question: ‘If not medication, then what?’”

Crossing Zero has three pillars:

1. The Taper Itself

   The science and practice of coming off psychiatric drugs safely — hyperbolic tapering, dose reductions, receptor occupancy, success stories, what happens in the brain, withdrawal symptoms, management strategies, and how to distinguish withdrawal from relapse.

2. Life Beyond Medication

   How to navigate your emotional landscape and triggers without pharmaceutical numbing or alteration — emotion regulation, trauma, intrusive thoughts, rumination, worry, identity, spirituality, diet, listening to your body, and the return of emotions that medications once kept muted.
   This is where the deeper psychological work begins - about how to build a life that makes psychiatric drugs unnecessary.

3. Making Sense of Your Inner World

   Understanding your experience, your suffering, your patterns, and your reactions — without forcing them into pathologizing diagnostic labels.
   This is about rebuilding a more accurate, compassionate story of who you are.

I write to help people understand themselves better — and to give them what the mental-health system rarely provides: strategies that work, genuine compassion, and a map for tapering and for living not just well, but better, beyond medication and diagnostic labels.

Free vs. Paid

The premise of this newsletter is simple:

Free Subscribers

• All tapering and withdrawal guidance is - and will always remain - completely free.
These are the essentials people need to stay safe, informed, and supported. I will never place withdrawal knowledge behind a paywall.

• You’ll also receive practical foundational psychology tools anyone can use - including insights on emotion regulation, stress, trauma, intrusive thoughts, and the kind of day-to-day mental wellbeing we all need.

• Plus: relevant research updates, new findings in tapering and mental health, announcements about talks and podcast appearances, and general news from the deprescribing and critical psychiatry world.

If you simply want to follow the journey and learn along the way, the free tier offers a great deal.

Paid Subscribers

• The deeper psychological work is where the paid community comes in.
This includes top-tier, ready-to-use psychotherapeutic tools, experiential exercises to overcome rumination and excessive worry, emotional skills training, trauma work, and in-depth explorations that require time, care, and interaction.

• A private chat community. Direct access to me and a group of committed members walking a similar path. This is a supportive space to ask questions, share experiences, and get perspective without judgment.

• Monthly live Q&A on Zoom. Bring your questions — about tapering, emotions, triggers, recovery, relationships, anything — and get real-time answers and clarity.

• Access to special online events, including the Crossing Zero Deep Dive Series and other members-only sessions where we explore the layers of withdrawal and healing in a semi-structured, interactive format.

Why This Work Matters

For many people, the decision to stop psychiatric medication becomes a second crisis. They face withdrawal they were never warned about, overwhelming emotions returning all at once, and the painful mislabeling of “relapse” when their nervous system is simply trying to recalibrate.

I’ve sat with people through withdrawal so severe it’s hard to believe it came from a prescription drug taken exactly as instructed. And I’ve watched how deeply our systems fail to prepare people for what coming off psychiatric drugs really takes.

Each subscriber — free or paid — helps this work reach the people who need it most, and helps shift the global conversation around mental health, medication, and what it means to heal without numbing.

Who This Newsletter Is For

• People tapering — or thinking about tapering — who want guidance and a sense of not being alone

• Loved ones trying to understand and support

• Anyone seeking non-pharmaceutical ways to navigate emotions, stress, trauma, and meaning

• Anyone questioning the medical model of “mental illness” and who are looking for honest alternatives

• Advocates, writers, researchers, and policymakers who care about real reform and genuine informed consent in psychiatry

I write because the science doesn’t match the story we’ve been told. Because too many people think they’re relapsing when they’re in withdrawal. Because there are ways forward and beyond life-long medication and pathologizing labels — and they begin with honesty, compassion and real conversation.

Thanks for being here.

- Anders