Episode 12: Bob Fiddaman

Akathisia Stories

On this episode, we hear from author, blogger, researcher, and self-described humanist and humorist Bob Fiddaman. His eponymously titled blog has focused on drug company and regulatory malfeasance since making its debut in 2006. At the time, Bob, an Englishman living in Birmingham, was taking himself off of Seroxat, a GlaxoSmithKline-produced antidepressant known here in America as Paxil. After making a protracted attempt at tapering off of the drug, he eventually decided to go cold turkey, a course of action he strongly advises against.

[Bob Fiddaman] "Within 24 hours, I was pretty much in a fetal position, you know, suffering stomach cramps, head zaps, intrusive thoughts. It was pretty bad. And it took about three months of absolute torture to get through to the other side, but I pretty much knew once I did reach the other side — because I was getting all my empathy, for one; that was coming back, so I’d be listening to music that I’d never really listened to before and really focus in on the lyrics. So, you know, my type of music is rock, AC/DC in particular. I started listening to the Dixie Chicks’ “Travelin’ Soldier,” and was listening to the lyrics and the story and I was crying, and then Martina McBride “Concrete Angel.” I was just crying my eyes out at these lyrics. So for the first time in a very long time I was able to sort of, like, feel things again, feel emotion again."

Bob Fiddaman was born in London in 1964, the youngest of three children. In 1967, his family moved to Birmingham where he has lived since, though he now splits his time between England and his adopted home in Panama. Bob married in 1987, divorced in 2006, and has three grown children. In 2006, he created the SEROXAT SUFFERERS STAND UP AND BE COUNTED blog, later changing the name to FIDDAMAN BLOG. Bob has met with the U.K.'s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency on a number of occasions but has now ceased contact with them. He has also been a thorn in the side of drug manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline, reporting on numerous inquests and wrongful death lawsuits brought against the company by bereaved families. In our interview, you'll hear about some of these, including Dolin v. GSK, the 2017 trial that MISSD founder Wendy Dolin was the plaintiff in. Bob is the author of a 2011 memoir called The Evidence, However, Is Clear: The Seroxat Scandal, and has recently finished a science fiction novel called No Other Man. [Bob Fiddaman: “It's about angels, it’s about numerology, it’s about demons and it’s about love.] We spoke over Zoom.