Brooke Siem joined Sean Kelly on the Digital Social Hour to talk about a story she's spent years turning into a book: what it was like to be prescribed antidepressants at fifteen, stay on them for the next fifteen years, and then work through what it took to come off them. It's a personal story she tells carefully, and one she hopes opens up a wider conversation.
From there, the conversation widens into Brooke Siem's broader thinking about children, mental health, and the medical system — alongside a very different side of her life as a chef who has cooked professionally, including for elite athletes.
About Brooke Siem
Brooke Siem built a career as a professional chef, including cooking for elite athletes, before turning her own history into a book. Her memoir, May Cause Side Effects, chronicles being prescribed antidepressants at fifteen and, fifteen years later, the process of tapering off them under medical guidance.
Since then, Brooke Siem has become a vocal voice in conversations about how quickly children and teenagers are prescribed psychiatric medication, drawing on both her own experience and her research into structured tapering approaches, including frameworks like the Maudsley Prescribing Guidelines. She frames her story as one experience among many, not a prescription for anyone else's path.
What Brooke Siem and Sean Kelly Talked About
- Brooke Siem's account of being prescribed antidepressants at age fifteen
- Why she wrote May Cause Side Effects to document her fifteen years on medication
- Her perspective on how quickly children today are prescribed psychiatric medication
- Her account of tapering off medication under structured, guided care
- How her background as a chef shaped her broader approach to health
- Her experience cooking for elite athletes and what it taught her about diet
- Why she frames her story as personal experience, not medical advice
Why This Conversation Matters
Brooke Siem's conversation with Sean Kelly adds a personal, firsthand account to an important and difficult conversation about children, antidepressants, and mental health care. Her story is hers alone — not medical guidance and not a judgment on anyone currently taking medication — but it's a perspective worth hearing as that conversation continues.
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube
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About Sean Kelly & the Digital Social Hour
Sean Kelly is an entrepreneur and the host of the Digital Social Hour, one of the fastest-growing interview podcasts in the world, where he sits down with entrepreneurs, athletes, creators, and cultural voices for candid, long-form conversations. The show draws over 100 million views a month across platforms. Explore more guest features on SeanKelly.io.
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