Feel free to sign my guestbook, and share your experience of my website or my work. Note: your email will not be made public, though if you share a link to your website that will be public. I also want to add that I cannot reply to people’s messages here. I’m really sorry about that!!
645 entries.
wrote on June 16, 2026
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12:32 am
Hi Daniel,
I just read your item about when you started journaling and all it has meant to you and done for you.
I like to watch a lot of true crime shows and sometimes I really think the world would have a lot less crime in it if everybody would express themselves by words instead of keeping stuff in and one day doing something they regret.
I like listening to your videos because I can relate to practically everything you say and sometimes I wonder when the world will figure it all out and become beautiful instead of all of this ugly stuff.
Your work is important and God Bless you. Florence
wrote on June 6, 2026
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9:30 pm
Thank you so much. Much love. I hope you take care of yourself <3
- from Morocco
wrote on June 4, 2026
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5:07 am
Hi Daniel,
I have watched so many of your videos and read your book ‘breaking from your parents’. Reading your book was like talking to someone who finally makes sense and is safe. I moved away from home to study as a young 19 year old and stayed abroad thousands of miles from my family. And with that came the courage of growing! It has been and is a challenging road with virtually no one to relate to except some books and videos such as yours. Just today, I was informed of my parent’s death. As relatives are blowing up my phone to make arrangements, I feel quite unmoved. I have contemplated what I would do when this day comes, and I have thought I would probably not go to my parent’s funeral. But I will for sure know what to do when the time comes. And as the time has come, I know from deep within me, that I am not going to the funeral. This is scaring me since it has been 10 years since I moved away and within that time I have changed so much, from being completely enmeshed to this point of even contemplating a life of just me, completely separate from my family system. Not going to the funeral is a definite statement of that life, it is like a ‘coming out’ of how serious I am to the rest of the family. A revelation of how disconnected I feel. I would have loved to revisit a video of yours on the subject of family funerals, but I don’t recall if you have talked on this topic at all. But you are the first person I thought would get my decision and find it even normal. Thanks for being an example!
wrote on May 21, 2026
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7:36 am
Hello Daniel Mackler,
I have been following your YouTube channel for quite awhile now. I hear you. I see you. I relate to your struggle to make sense of everything. I recently bought a book by the Crappy Childhood Fairy, aka Anna Runkle; titled “Re-Regulated” and have just started it.
I have CPTSD self-diagnosed. It’s just gaining understanding and momentum in the therapist community overall as I see it.
Regards to you and your work! I get your message and it is so relatable!
Ross M-D
wrote on April 21, 2026
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9:27 pm
Hi I follow you on YouTube and love your YouTube videos.
I found your channel through Jaret Romano, and I couldn’t believe how I found someone so like minded and feel like the way I feel about the world.
I always feel so rebaliant and outcasted, and could see through the truth most others couldn’t.
When you talked about finding real friends that are just like you and like you for you, it really gives me hope that my soulmates are out there, I just need to get out there.
despite how dangerous and toxic this world is, I will keep traveling and fighting, even as a solo female of color, even when it feels impossible, even when the anger overwhelms me when dealing with hypocrisy and bureaucracy.
Thank you for existing and the videos that made me realize that I wasn’t crazy all along.
wrote on April 16, 2026
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12:53 pm
I couldn't agree more with you on speaking the truth ( regarding your youtube video: the consequences of making honest videos). It really feels like you're speaking my thoughts and expressing my feelings. I think you are doing a very important and relevant thing here, offering what feels as an antidote. Thank you for sharing your life history with authenticity and for emphasizing what really matters in this world. Yes, you have reached at the very least one person (as you hope to do) and in the most beautiful possible way.
wrote on April 10, 2026
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2:58 pm
You’ve got to stop proving yourself to mental healthcare workers, it’s exhausting.
The mental health system pretends to help you, but it doesn’t. Their goal is to monitor you. In order to keep you hooked and exposing everything about yourself, it runs an intermittent reinforcement game that wires you into full-blown validation seeking behavior.
They hijack your narrative and make you over explain, session after session. They make you addicted to patching holes in the narrative they themselves puncture so you will leak even more thoughts, feelings and secrets.
You’re making a fool of yourself, pouring out rage, pain and tears in front of a manipulator/police in white coat who gets paid to pretend they care.
Therapists calling in a psychiatrist into the office is not a mild thing. This is the moment they (often voluntary and by manipulation) try to chemically restrain you and sell it as medicine.
They treat behavior, not feelings.
Stop seeking validation. Your story is yours alone to carry. Share only what is necessary, and only when it serves a clear purpose like securing food, housing or money when you cannot function. Every time you speak, make sure the benefit outweighs the risk.
wrote on March 29, 2026
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5:49 am
A Fish With Its Mouth Closed Will Rarely Get Caught
The more you talk, the more they can write down, twist, weaponize and manipulate you with.
Give them nothing but a grey rock. Stay flat. Stay “stable.” Don’t bite. Act harmless and maybe even helpful (offer them a drink or food the moment you get some for yourself during a session)
No outburst, no deep life stories, hold back your empathy, donnot bond with them on an emotional level, donnot let emotions go all over the place and only use honesty when the benefits outweigts the risks.
In systems like that, masking becomes survival. Work on your mask and always remind yourself of what they are: manipulators that use pills to chemically restrain people.
Donnot bite in those dirty hooks of psychiatry.
wrote on March 18, 2026
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12:51 pm
Thank you for what you do!! Sorry to bother you but loved your video on OCD as a response to trauma. Very much agree. As you know - “gold standard” for OCD these days seemingly is ERP and meds. In your framework as it being an offshoot of trauma - do you have any ideas on how to tackle it? EMDR? Thank you!! 🙏🙏🙏🙏
wrote on March 2, 2026
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3:38 pm
Healing From The Therapeutic Relationship
You can leave psychiatry, but you don’t get to skip the aftermath. This isn’t like walking away from a normal caregiver. If you dealt with psychiatrists, damage was done to you. Maybe invisible. Maybe polite. Maybe wrapped in “concern”. But the gaslighting, the subtle manipulation, the narrative hijacking, the power games, the pushing of drugs and the chemical steering once you got on the drugs? That wasn't mild, that was abuse.
Did they ever take your side effects and withdrawal stories seriously without downplaying it? I doubt it.
They won’t give you closure for what they did to you. They won’t acknowledge the damage. They won’t hand you a clean ending so you can find peace. If they truely want the best for you, they told you what they have done. They would come clean about the amount of lies and manipulation they used to drug you into silence. But they won't. They would rather DARVO their way out.
So that wound they caused stays open until you are able to close it yourself.
You cannot just tell yourself “that was then, this is now, I forgive them.”
This is not how this kind of injury heals.
Just like survivors of covert narcissistic abuse, you have to process the psychological erosion.
It’s not only recovery from side effects or withdrawal.
It’s repairing the hit to your trust in yourself and others.
Because many of us walked out with those things absolutely shattered by these "professional" manipulators, i mean psychiatrists.
Rebuilding your inner world is part of the work.
And yes, there is a brutal lesson hidden in all of this:
Never hand your inner world to someone because they wear a medical title or a friendly smile. Your inner world is secret.
Never overshare your real thoughts and emotions with anyone who can weaponize them, especially not authority figures if it won't come with a huge benefit.
Never assume everyone operates with your best interest in mind. Most people are selfish. Most people care about their own interests, and thats totally fine. Just keep it in mind so you wont get disappointed and destroyed to this level again.
If you’re out, then it's time to heal from the therapeutic relationship. The healing path is not linear.
wrote on February 6, 2026
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6:52 am
It was never about the client their life story, but about the hooks you can sink into it as a “professional.” Through those hooks, control can be exerted, drugs pushed and the entire narrative be hijacked altogether.
These manipulators always hide behind the vulnarable, behind disasters and pain. That is their shield. They will always DARVO when you question them, sometimes even go so far by saying the following: 'who are you to question us, where is the source PubMed evidence based source of what you claim, we are helpers, we save lives, we are professionals, we are Gods of the brain' (well not that last one yet)... And because no one is allowed to criticize their system, it became more and more toxic and destructive over time.
wrote on January 29, 2026
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3:26 pm
Narchiatry sucks lol
wrote on January 28, 2026
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1:17 am
Hello Daniel,
I am currently in a Masters student in Expressive Arts Therapy. One of our homework assignments was your documentary: “OPEN DIALOGUE”.
I enjoyed it very much and shared with a friend who is a psychology student who didn’t know that people recovered from certain mental illnesses. I’m so glad he was informed as well as myself about ways to be of help to people.
I wanted to share so much Expressive Arts Therapy. It’s a non-medical model combining philosophy, psychology, and the arts. No diagnosing is involved. It uses all 5 mother modalities: dance, drama, visual art, music, and creative writing. Not all at once, but it’s not one specific modality like dance therapy or music therapy. It’s intermodal.
Have you heard of it? Feel free to reach me at my e-mail if you would like to know more about it. A documentary would be amazing!
wrote on January 27, 2026
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12:58 pm
I have not seen very much of your work, but I totally embrace that what happens to us is a natural response to what we have been trough. I have been searching a lot of information about how psychosis work and trying to understand my own. It appeared suddenly late in life and I was for the first time in a safe spot in in my life. Just to understand this fenomen seems to be very hard. I am so greatful to have a stabil plattform and to know that to demand and expect but I am sorry to say that in the psychiatric field they do not macht up. Nobody seems to be able to tell their results of their treatment and to say in what stage in the process you are or even if there is a process. My own take is that it is a process that I have to go through and it will help me with sorting out trauma and stabilise my nervous system, so I am thankful. But still very confused about how low the interest and level of evendece based result the academic world can show here.
Keep up your good work!
wrote on January 16, 2026
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11:02 pm
Thank you. I experienced neglect, sexual, physical and emotional abuse. After decades of self harm and avoiding my emotions I hit bottom and joined Adult Children of Alcoholics and Dysfunctional families. This led me to breaking with my parents. Ive just completed your book of the same name. It was a revelation to know others knew what I had observed. I cried when you spoke of suicide. My parents would have loved that. I am the outcast, crazy person according to my family. Im proud of the work Ive done to escape.
Do you know of retreats in the US that might help me further my journey? Thanks again
wrote on January 14, 2026
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11:30 am
Thank you for your many helpful videos Daniel!
wrote on January 10, 2026
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11:59 am
Antidepressants made my suicidal
wrote on January 3, 2026
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6:37 pm
Hey, dear Daniel. I was wondering if you'd consider making a video or writing about the urge to self-destruct on different levels (which I suppose can come to suicidal urges) when / after being exposed to / put back into your family of origin for a bit of time. I'm in such a state right now, feeling like I have absolutely no self or integrity or anything to hold onto and so I might as well let myself go, lose control, pull my hair, and at the same time I see the thought that the suicidal urges are a manifestation of an attempt to keep some kind of integrity, among other things. This state feels familiar and so part of me accepts it. What do you think and feel about the self-destructive tendencies and/or feelings of being thrown off related to being exposed to one's family of origin once again?
wrote on December 29, 2025
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9:17 am
It was never you
There is no such thing as a random “chemical imbalance” that just appears out of nowhere. In the vast majority of cases, people break because the environment they live in is deeply toxic. Especially sensitive, empathic people the ones who actually feel, notice, and reflect.
We live in a society full of covert manipulation: small under-the-radar jabs, subtle humiliation, passive aggressive control, all used so others can feel power without being held accountable. Add to that workplace abuse; constant pressure, time stress, competition, performance metrics and people are reduced to wage slaves who must always hurry, comply, and deliver more.
It are not just the narcissists and psychiatrists, toxicity is all over the place.
That kind of chronic psychological violence breaks nervous systems.
Not brains. Not “disorders.” Not personal weakness.
It was never in your head and it's time that you stop oversharing your thoughts and pain with others because you have seen where that brings you.
Psychiatry is just the gaslighting reflex of society
wrote on December 24, 2025
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9:30 pm
I love listening to your videos! I think if I could talk with you, I would feel understood. I always feel like I’m observing the world as if I’m standing on a tower, while the majority of people lives down in the city. It needs both. Maybe my job is to be a guardian and tell what I’m observing from this tower ? As a child I was dreamy but at the same time I felt that sth is wrong in our society. Me and other eating disordered girls shared the same thought in our minds: adult = dead. As if they only live in their heads. Heart, soul and body seems like a suppressed zombie. I felt that there’s sth dark in this version of being an adult as a child. If being adult means that I should suppress what it means to be human, then I didn’t want to become an adult. I want to run spontaneously playfully without sports clothing in every age (if I’m still able) just for happiness about being alive and having energy inside. Children do this because they live with their heart. I might be an alien. I feel like I’m the only one with this urge, but still scared to accept myself. For me it’s very important to live a life, where my heart is able to breathe. I don’t want to play these ego games.
wrote on December 9, 2025
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9:12 pm
Hey Daniel what is your insight on mothers who disapprove of who their sons date and belittle their sons friends and girlfriends and it very hard for their sons to form relationships what would you advise a son in this situation to do
wrote on December 3, 2025
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2:08 pm
I have an addendum already - this is again taken from the Critical Psychiatry Network website. "Stemming the Tide - the Mental Health Industrial Complex." How do we stem this tide? Dr. Sami Timimi, "There are multiple drivers – that’s why I call it a mental health industrial complex.
There’s a lot of money in medicalising normal experiences.
Social media turbocharges it.
It’s also fed by a failure of politics....
Diagnosis has merged with identity politics – people now make diagnoses part of their identity.
That hyper-individualises problems and distracts from structural issues: economic crisis, austerity, performance culture, loss of trust in politics.
But wherever there’s a harmful movement, there’s resistance.
I see hopeful alternatives emerging – school projects, community projects, clinics doing things differently.
Some are funded because waiting lists are endless.
With your own children: be patient, resist the constant invitations to pathologise.
I know a mother whose school pushed for autism assessment because her daughter wouldn’t attend.
She fought it, worked with pastoral staff, went through months of hell at home – and now the girl is happily in school. No assessment needed."
wrote on December 3, 2025
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2:02 pm
Hello. I recently commented on your youtube about a variety of things. Namely, have you heard of the emerging field of metabolic psychiatry (sometimes called nutritional psychiatry)? One of my fav people in the movement is Dr. Georgia Ede - love her book (published about a year ago), "Change Your Diet, Change Your Mind," I have it on audible. Georgia does acknowledge that modern psychiatric medicine are not that effective, and modern treatment is not that good for all psychiatric conditions - though she still does believe in some medications.
In the past year, I've come to see nutrition completely differently. Our modern food system is completely corrupt. Should poor diet affect our mind, emotions, and brain? Of course! The brain is an organ after all. I also see certain substances in food as "addictive," though not all food is addictive. Per Joan Ifland, PhD - the author of the book, "Processed Food Addiction," the addictive substances are: sugar, flour, sweeteners, processed fats, excessive salt, dairy, caffeine, and additives.
Anyway, I really like Georgia Ede, M.D. At least she is trying to legitimately help people. Question 2: Have you heard of Peter Gøtzsche, a German doctor and author of many books about the corruption of big pharma? He has also written a book about the field of psychiatry (note: I've never read it). I was listening to him on a podcast and he mentioned an organization in the UK - as far as I'm aware, there is no organization like this is the US though - called the "Critical Psychiatry Network" which is a group of psychiatrists who are critical of their field.
I'm enjoying reading some of their transcripts (the website is criticalpsychiatry (dot) co (dot) uk). Here is a cut & paste from that website, Dr. Sami Tamimi
"Sociologists have known for decades about the power of labelling.
When you internalise a label, it further shapes your experience.
We’ve put normal struggles – anxiety, low mood, difficult behaviours – into a medical “symptom” framework where the goal is suppression or elimination.
Growing up is tough. It always has been.
I tell families I hope reincarnation isn’t real because I wouldn’t want to go through adolescence again.
The world is tougher now – higher expectations, performance culture, pessimism about the future.
Struggling doesn’t mean something is inherently broken inside you.
But the diagnostic framework sets people up to fight against a part of themselves they believe shouldn’t be there.
It turns meaningful experiences (connected to peers, family, life) into meaningless “symptoms” to be eradicated.
If medication helps for a while, you’re set up for a potential lifelong war against yourself.
A different framework could help you understand and live alongside that part – deepening resilience rather than weakening it."
wrote on November 19, 2025
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5:08 am
A wink from God
Daniel, in this I'd like to discuss the program of acaoa. I've found it very helpful and ive never heard you mention it. For me its a good place that brings up those traumas to be worked on. By hearing others share and sitting with what is uncomfortable. Also im surprised by the results of healing not being what I expected. I wanted to be better with people and woman to be attracted to me. I found after healing that it maybe even did the opposite of people being less attracted to me because we didnt have as much in common and it triggered them. Yes I dont feel as lonely now but I was surprised that this journey has really taken me farther away from people or has separated me from them. Casual sex really lost its appeal which is a bummer because I feel like I didnt get that as a young man because of my shyness and I feel ive had to completely bypass that and go straight to very mature man via the healing process. Its a striking erieness to heal phycologicaly and there be a great silence within and then to go to the social gatherings and no one can see it and if anything feel more separate or less able to connect or have less to connect on. I was struck by how little I knew what was coming on the healing journey and the reasons I got into being nothing like what I got out of it. There was some beauty and a higher power in that of awe that the universe had revealed something to me and it was very much outside of me because I had no idea all the things that were below the surface when I got into this so it was healing but also revealing of I didnt even know that was what happened either. That's why I think its like waking up because we have no way to comprehend what is about to happen to us and I think this is the only journey that happens on to such an extent because our whole being changes very deeply and there is no part of us left that could have witnessed it so we are completely transformed and baffled and we most go to a place of complete loss of self which feels like complete defeat and dissociation and terror if we are to heal at that depth. Its funny to have the remnants of that bubble bursting, we succumb to the voice we've been fighting we've identified as our aggressor or unhealthy parent and when the bubble bursts we become overwhelmed by it and loose our protection (recovery) and its days of sheer despair and lack of control and then that boundary barely reappears again and then a little while later its like what happened its gone and theres a great silence and nothing there and its devastating because I didnt want to let go of that voice certainly not at that level of it completely leaving forever. It shows impermanence and gives you an eerie sense of death and a perspective on grief and life ending and you realize all of this is a process of grief that everything is gonna leave. And I didnt want to let go of may parents which were that voice. I started this process and knew what I was doing but when it got to that level I didnt mean it and I didnt know I was actually lossing them and I wasnt ready for it. And now I can bring love into my relationships and truly begin and live a life filled with intention and meaning and care and love. But its so shocking cause I had no idea I never had those things and then its even more shocking to go back into the world and realize they never had those things!!
I also understand through this that healthy is a concept society is propagating out of unhealthiness and all along people who went through hardship as children and adults are the healthier ones even though they are the ones who need healing and have issues. Its such a bizarre feeling to have that healing its like laughing can arise and then sorrow all in several moments and somehow it doesn't get hooked to anything its like it comes up and goes and its errie because none of it means anything or lands on a sense of self. Thank you daniel thank you so much ive listened to these videos for years and my father was so abusive to me and I never knew my mom was emotionally using me. I look back now and realize i was always mad at them my whole life and somehow this process made me see that and acknowledge and process those feelings which is not what I thought was going on at all along this. I thought I was strengthening that disdain and anger and i didnt realize that voice was them and that I was actually gonna loose thst within me rather than grow stronger that it had been there all along and I just didnt realize it so it was eerie like the final reveal showed so much or the leaving of it made you go "take your breathe away" holy shit i didnt know thats what it was the whole time. It was like a little wink from God.
wrote on November 18, 2025
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3:37 pm
May psychiatry choke on its own illusions.
May every wound the system carved into human souls return to the edifice that created them,
not in flesh, but in reputation, in truth, in collapse and
tripled, if the universe deems it justified.
May the industry that mistook suffering for pathology face the full weight of the consciousness it tried to smother.
wrote on November 16, 2025
at
9:02 am
Hi everyone. Does anyone know some therapist or community in Europe, preferably Barcelona Spain, that can help get off of psych meds in a soft way? Thanks
wrote on November 14, 2025
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9:53 am
Hola Daniel:
Gusto de saludarte por éste medio.
Quiero decirte que he encontrado tu canal por recomendación de yt y me ha gustado mucho. Eres al primero que escucho decir lo mismo que pienso acerca de que algún día estaremos en un gran duelo, espero sea pronto. Me gusta escucharte porque te siento cercano y auténtico. Tiene un efecto sanador en mi, es como si estuviera con un terapeuta, y estoy escuchando a un terapeuta, realmente, pero es curioso. Y me hace sentir segura de lo que pienso porque es muy similar. Pienso en que este mundo está metido en un caos total, pienso que muchas terapias son solo letras, pienso que la naturaleza es una gran compañía para sanar, pienso que puedo conectar más fácil con personas que no conozco que con mis supuestamente "amigos" que me quieren disociada que ni siquiera se molestan en preguntarme que quiero, que necesito, pienso que la gente que dice "ánimo" "ya no pienses en eso" me quiere disociada, pienso que hay muchos de ellos que están sufriendo por dentro pero no lo quieren ver, pienso que el sistema familiar no quiere reconocer haber hecho daño y haber Sido dañados porque es incómodo. Yo no tengo amigos seguros que estén cerca físicamente, vivo muy lejos de ellos. Y aquí no tengo ninguno con quién pueda ser yo auténtica y hablar de mi. No he podido tener terapia en mi vida. Solo biblioterapia y vídeoterapia. Me cuesta mucho manejar los flashback y mantenerme estable. Tengo una o dos adicciones. Y no tengo todo el tiempo disponible porque cuido a mi hijo que tiene discapacidad. Siento como un gran deseo de salir y hablar públicamente pero tengo mucho miedo del escrutinio, de ser revictimizada, de que la gente sea dura conmigo. ¿ Cómo puedo saber si en verdad es un deseo genuino o es la necesidad de tener alguien seguro, un terapeuta, o con quien hablar simplemente?
Gracias Daniel. Un abrazo.
P.D. Lamento escribirte en español,, si me pongo a escribir en inglés me tardaría mucho o nunca escribiría .
wrote on November 14, 2025
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8:36 am
Hello Daniel
I'm 25 years old and I don't live in America, I live in South Africa and I'm an immigrant. Sorry, I don't know how to talk to you, I suppose I'm looking for help in terms of love and hope and faith, what I'm missing are those things and I'm busy listening to your video regarding not being valued in your house, and it resonates with me.
wrote on November 13, 2025
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11:47 am
Daniel,
sometimes when I watch your videos, I can feel that you’re not looking for fame or admiration. You’re looking for one simple human thing: confirmation that you’re not crazy for what your family and the psychiatric system did to you.
So let me tell you straight, without sugarcoating it:
You’re not crazy.
Not even close.
Everything you say makes sense.
Your words come from a place of clarity inside pain, not confusion.
And yes you’re still carrying a lot of hurt, a lot of unresolved echoes of what was done to you. That’s visible. That’s human.
But there is not a single video of you that has ever made me think you were mad, unhinged, or lost.
What I see is someone who was deeply traumatized, who never got a real space to speak, and who now tries to process a life that was too heavy for one person to hold.
You’re not crazy.
You’re someone who survived hell and is still trying to tell the truth about it.
And that truth is coherent.
It lands.
It matters.
wrote on November 11, 2025
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3:33 pm
There is a false self, there is an authentic self and there is the true self, the nondual observer beyond the construct we call a self. The self that stands when all collapsed and the ego died, the realization that we are the universe experiencing itself. The realization that we are one. Once you allow it instead of fighting it, you shall be free...