About seven million Australians (over a quarter of us) are taking mind altering drugs for emotional distress and behavioural challenges (most commonly, anxiety, depression, ADHD). Few of those (1-3% of the population) have what is commonly referred to as serious mental illness. It’s time to look more critically at what is actually going on and chart a new course. 

The Not Broken Project challenges the dominant narrative that emotional and psychological distress is evidence of a ‘broken brain’, requiring lifelong pharmaceutical treatment.

We are committed to creating a more compassionate, informed, and holistic approach to supporting mental health through:

1. Raising Awareness

We educate the public, health professionals, and policymakers on the limitations of the 'chemical imbalance' theory and the over medicalisation of mental distress more generally.

2. Improving care and treatment

We provide information to help clinicians, and the general public better understand the scientific realities of psychotropic medications – including side effects and withdrawal – encouraging more informed, patient-centred care. When doctors prescribe drugs to relieve mental distress or behavioural challenges, they will do so understanding that in most cases they are suppressing symptoms, not correcting an underlying chemical imbalance.

3. Advocating for Policy Reform

We work to shift mental health policy toward addressing the social, developmental, and environmental roots of mental distress, reducing reliance on medication-first approaches.

Ultimately people seeking help for mental distress or behavioural challenges will no longer be left feeling that have a broken brain or lifelong deficit which can only be helped by biomedical intervention.

Not Broken Project

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Not Broken Project

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