Mission Statement

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

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

Our commitment

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. 

We’re not alone in our concerns

  • The World Health Organisation (WHO) states it’s ‘critical that the mental health system and services widen their focus beyond a biomedical model to also include a more holistic approach that considers all aspects of a person’s life.
  • The Royal Commission into Victoria’s mental health system (2020) said the system had become unbalanced with an over reliance on medication.
  • The UK Beyond Pills All Party Parliamentary Group (May 2024) has called for radical change, with a shift towards more social interventions and away from pharmaceutical and other purely biomedical ones.
  • MAHA (Make America Healthy again) Commission (May 2025) states: ‘there is a concerning trend of overprescribing medications to children often driven by conflicts of interest in research , regulation and practise. This has led to unnecessary treatments and long-term health risks.
  • 90% of Australians believe depression is caused by a chemical imbalance. There is no scientific evidence of this (Moncrieff 2021).
  • There has been an exponential increase in the prescribing of amphetamines for children in Australia, with little examination of the long-term risks. Australia’s youth are reporting higher levels of mental distress than ever before despite increasing use of medication. 
  • Australians are the 3rd highest users of SSRIs (antidepressants) per capita with little evidence that we are any happier.

Get involved

You can help reshape the future of mental health care:

Share the message
Spread awareness by sharing our mission, resources, and research within your networks.

Attend & engage
Join our events, webinars, and talks to stay connected and informed.

Lend your voice
Share your lived experience or professional perspective to enrich the conversation.

Support advocacy
Participate in campaigns for ethical and evidence-based mental health policy.

Contribute or collaborate
Donate, volunteer, or partner with us to help sustain and expand our work.