Stephen’s Voice

13/02/2026

We are here purely to shine a light on something that too often stays in the shadows - adverse reactions to prescribed medications.

Patient information leaflets clearly state that 1 in 100 people starting, stopping, or changing the dose of certain medications can experience suicidal thoughts. That is not rare. That is not insignificant. That is not something families should have to discover the hard way.

If we had truly understood this risk when Stephen was going through those final weeks, we might have seen things differently. He kept telling us, “The medication has done something to my head.”

We heard his distress….but we did not understand what it could mean. We did not know that medication itself can trigger suicidal thoughts. We did not know that akathisia, agitation, emotional blunting, or sudden despair can be adverse drug reactions.

We were completely oblivious to the possibility that the very thing meant to help could cause such harm.

No family should have to learn this after the fact.

We speak now so others are informed. So that when someone says, “This medication has changed me,” they are listened to. So that risks are acknowledged. So that monitoring is taken seriously. So that lives are protected.

Awareness is not anti-medicine. It is pro-safety. And safety starts with honesty.

12/02/2026

There’s something deeply silencing about the phrase “I take them and I’m fine.”

We’re genuinely glad you are. Truly. But your good experience does not cancel out someone else’s harm.

Prescribed medications can save lives…..that’s the message we often hear. But they can also cause devastating side effects and adverse reactions, including akathisia, severe agitation, emotional blunting and medication-induced suicidal thoughts

When people speak about being harmed, they are not attacking you or your treatment……they are asking to be heard. We need space for those experiences too.

Dismissing them protects no one. Listening, acknowledging and demanding safer prescribing does. There must be room in this conversation for the people who were not “fine.”

12/02/2026

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12/02/2026

12/02/2026

We have had lots of new followers over the last few days so we want to share Stephen’s story again 💜

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This post contains content relating to su***de which some readers may find distressing
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My name is Stephen O’Neill; I was a singer and musician, lived a healthy lifestyle, never had touched a drop of drink in my life, smoked or took drugs. I was in to fitness, ran marathons and loved to raise money for local charities. I lived for my family. I had no money worries, I was comfortable in life.

However in 2016 I was having trouble sleeping and switching off at night, I decided to go to the doctors and on 16th June 2016 I was prescribed 50mg of Sertraline for “mild anxiety” and “sleep disturbance”.

My brother in law picked me up from the doctors that day and we went on a few deliveries. I told him I had just been prescribed anti-depressants and that I had been having trouble sleeping. We had a good chat and then I went to pick up the tablets. I told the pharmacist that I didn’t want to go down the medication route, I had responded well before to CBT after the death of my parents but there was a wait list for the talk therapy so I thought I’ll try what the doctor prescribed. I was feeling my usual upbeat self, what harm could they do?

In the early hours of 18th June, after taking the tablets for just 24hours, everything changed. I experienced the scariest night of my life. My heart was racing; I felt feelings of agitation so strong that I could not sit still. Thoughts were running through my head a million miles a second, my mind was in over drive with scary thoughts I had never had before. I don’t know why, but I put a belt around my neck. At about 2am I ran a cold shower to try snap out of this feeling, it didn’t work. I went for a walk at about 3am to try and get rid of the restless feeling in my legs and clear my head, it didn’t work. I came back home and took the Sacred Heart picture off the wall and held it, praying for the sun to come up.

As soon as morning came I went to my sister’s next door and told her I needed to see the doctor ASAP. She didn’t understand what was happening but as it was a Saturday said I should go see the pharmacist. Without even getting freshened up, I went down the town. I know the pharmacist was shocked at the change in my appearance. I told her it was the tablets; they had done something to my head. She rang the out of hours doctors and they told me to stop the tablets immediately and gave me diazepam.

I went home but still couldn’t shake the feeling. I rang my other sister and she picked me up. I told her everything; I was having dark thoughts that were never there before the tablets. We rang the out of hours doctors again and they sent out a crisis team. I told the crisis team the same thing I had told my sisters and the pharmacist, the tablets had done something to my head.

I was so scared and desperately wanted to get better so I voluntarily went into a local psychiatric unit. I told anyone who would listen that there was something wrong with the medication, I felt like it was poisoning me. They noted that I wasn’t clinically depressed and that I had an adverse reaction to Sertraline but they didn’t really seem to take on board what I was telling them.

Over the next six weeks, instead of just taking me off medication, the doctors kept prescribing me tablets. In that short space of time I admitted myself to the unit twice more and I was given Quetiapine (antipsychotic drug) and Mirtazapine (serotonergic drug), Buspirone (anti-anxiety) as well as other drugs such as Diazepam, Propranolol and Zopiclone. A cocktail of drugs, each one just seeming to exacerbate the symptoms.

The feelings were unbearable, I had to phone and cancel all my music bookings. All I wanted to do was walk. I must have walked for miles trying to shake the feelings of restlessness and agitation. If i couldn’t go for a walk I would just pace round and round the house. I just couldn’t settle. All my thoughts were multiplied by 1000. I couldn’t sleep, I felt so nauseated I would even retch but nothing was coming up because I couldn’t eat. I had no appetite. I lost about a stone and half in weight. My hands were shakey and my legs were twitchy. Sometimes I felt like I had mice crawling up my legs and that the hair was standing on my head, tingling. Everything seemed louder too; a slight bang would have me jumping. I had this overwhelming feeling of fear. I was twitchy, jittery, tearful, exhausted.

But I was determined to fight this feeling; I was determined to get better. Because the doctors kept telling me that it couldn’t be the tablets I began to think of what else could be causing this. I had lost the sight in my eye when I was younger after an accident so I even went for an eye test incase something would show up behind the eye and I was also looking into booking private for a brain scan. I even tried a spiritual healer in my desperation. I just didn’t know what was happening to me. They just kept telling me and my family I would not act on my thoughts, that my physical body would not be harmed.

We called the crisis team again on 27th July as I collapsed in front of my sister. She even told them I had woke up in the hallway with a rope around my neck; I had snapped out of trance and didn’t know how I got there. I was scared. But I was told not to come down to the unit; I was told again it would take a few more weeks for the tablets to work.

But it was too late, on 29th July 2016 I was dead, six weeks after I first took medication; I was found by brother, in the backyard.

**************************************************** Stephen dedicated his life to helping others. He will continue to help others through his story. We are not anti-medication, we are pro-informed choice and transparency.

If only we knew then what we know now.

If you think you or your loved one is having difficulty with medication.....you are probably right. You can find lots of useful information and help on the RxISK website.

Speak with your GP, be firm with your feelings.

If this post can help at least one family from avoiding the absolute carnage that our family has suffered then we can take some comfort in knowing Stephen’s Voice lives on

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Please follow Stephen’s Voice for more information on adverse reactions to SSRIs and other medications

11/02/2026

Catastrophic reaction were the words used at Stephen’s inquest 💜

Adverse Reaction, Not a Side Effect

When Akathisia occurs while someone is taking a medication, often shortly after starting it or dose changes, it is routinely dismissed as just another “side effect” but that framing urgently needs to change.

Language shapes understanding. And when it comes to akathisia, the language used in medicine and public discourse remains dangerously misleading.

Calling akathisia a “side effect” minimizes a medical crisis that has devastated lives.

A side effect is defined as:

A secondary, unintended effect of a medication that often occurs in addition to the intended therapeutic effect.

An adverse drug reaction, however, is defined as:

A harmful, unintended, and abnormal response to a medication that may be life-altering or life-threatening.

When people hear the term “side effect,” they typically think of minor, transient issues such as:

• Dry mouth
• Nausea
• Headaches
• Dizziness
• A metallic taste

Temporary. Uncomfortable. Manageable.

Akathisia is none of those things.

Akathisia can occur as an adverse reaction while taking a medication, or as part of a withdrawal syndrome when coming off the medication. It is not rare discomfort or anxiety, and it is not something patients should be expected to tolerate.

At the severe end, Akathisia is a catastrophic adverse drug reaction or part of a withdrawal syndrome that can result in prolonged neurological injury.

For many, akathisia involves:

• Unrelenting inner torment
• An unbearable need to move
• Inability to rest or sleep
• Extreme psychological distress
• Sudden, overwhelming suicidal and/or aggressive thoughts or impulses

This reaction has taken lives.

When akathisia is labeled a “side effect,” patients are dismissed, misdiagnosed, and often harmed further, frequently prescribed additional medications that worsen the injury.

Akathisia must be recognized for what it too often is:

A severe, life-threatening medication-induced neurological injury, not an inconvenience, not an expectation, and not an acceptable outcome of treatment.

The Akathisia Alliance advocates for accurate, harm-aware terminology.

10/02/2026

The recent article highlighting that “hundreds of people died by suspected su***de after recent contact with HSE services” is deeply troubling. But once again, it not only tiptoes around the elephant in the room. It ignores it altogether.

We are told about under-resourcing, overwhelmed staff, long waiting lists and fragmented services – all of which are real problems. Yet the most obvious question remains almost entirely unasked: what treatment were these people actually receiving? What medication were they prescribed?

If someone is in contact with mental health services, there is a very strong likelihood they have been prescribed psychoactive medication – antidepressants, antipsychotics, mood stabilisers, benzodiazepines.

These are powerful drugs that act on the brain and nervous system, and many of them list increased suicidal thoughts and behaviours as recognised side effects, particularly in the early stages of treatment, during dose changes, or during withdrawal. Some antibiotics also work like SSRIs and can trigger the same problems.

Why is this never discussed openly?

We talk endlessly about the system being overwhelmed. But overwhelmed by what? Could part of that burden be created by people experiencing adverse reactions to the very medications meant to help them? Could some of the repeat crises, emergency presentations and deteriorations be driven not by “untreated mental illness,” but by treatment-induced harm that is going unrecognised?

There is a circular logic at play. A person feels down, is prescribed medication, they then experience agitation, emotional blunting, akathisia, insomnia, or suicidal impulses as side effects, returns to services in worse shape, and is often given more medication. With no acknowledgment or awareness that the meds have caused the worsening state.

The system becomes busier. Waiting lists grow. Clinicians are stretched thinner. And the original trigger…..the drugs themselves…..is rarely questioned.

Of course services need more funding and staff. No one disputes that. But pouring more resources into a model that refuses to examine its own practices will not solve the crisis.

A simple, uncomfortable question needs to be asked: if these medications worked as safely and effectively as we are told, would we be seeing su***de figures like this among people actively engaged with mental health care?

Medication can help some people. But it can also harm. That is not anti-psychiatry rhetoric – it is written plainly in patient information leaflets and drug safety warnings. Yet when tragedies occur, the possibility that prescribed treatment played a role is almost never explored.

Families deserve honest investigations. Patients deserve proper monitoring and informed consent. And the public deserves a conversation that looks at the full picture…..not just staffing levels and service structures, but the actual interventions being delivered within them.

Until we are willing to confront that issue, we will continue to discuss the crisis while ignoring one of its central drivers. Medication-induced su***de.

Enough is enough.

09/02/2026

08/02/2026

06/02/2026

The new Akathisia Stories host, Ivan Kaiser, sits down with his aunt, Kristina Kaiser, for a conversation about medication safety, loss, and purpose. Kristin...