May 4, 2013

Jacks McNamara is a genderqueer artist, writer, organizer, and healer. Jacks co-founded The Icarus Project and is the subject of the poetic documentary Crooked Beauty. They are the author of Inbetweenland, released by Deviant Type Press, have self-published 5 zines, and are co-author …
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Categorized in: Addiction, Anxiety, Bipolar, Blogs, Community, Depression, ECT, Mind/Body, Non-Drug Approaches, Psychotherapy, Recovery/Empowerment, Suicide, Trauma/Distress | Tagged as: Asheville, Certified Peer Specialists, Death & Dying, distress, ECT, Icarus Project, Inbetweenland, Jacks Ashley McNamara, Jen Padron, Loss, Lovers, Mad in America, Mad Love, Mothers, peers, psychiatric survivors, Texas, Trauma, Wellness Centers

April 26, 2013

It has been 7.5 years since I got off benzos, the drug that damaged me the most, and 6.75 years off all meds; the final medicine I tapered was a tricyclic antidepressant, nortriptyline, in autumn 2006. Since that time, I have not taken another psychoactive medicine, nor have I had any desire to. Neither have I sought out therapy or the like. Personally, I’m sick of labels, sick of the industry, sick of talking about my “problems,” sick of navel-gazing, and would just rather live.
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Categorized in: Addiction, Adult, Benzodiazepines, Blogs, Disorders, Featured Blogs, Psychiatric Drugs

April 9, 2013

Those of us, the survivors, who speak from experience, with nothing to gain from sharing our stories and in fact a hell of a lot to lose, risk having them revised or repudiated at every turn by the very people who, and paradigm which, sickened us. I’m simply trying to tell my story as I lived it, because I know exactly what I went through and why, and I don’t think anyone else should have to suffer this way if they need not do so.
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Categorized in: Addiction, Adult, Anxiety, Blogs, Disorders, Featured Blogs

March 15, 2013

A North Carolina study of 1,420 participants finds higher rates of agoraphobia (4.6x), generalized anxiety disorder (2.7x), and panic disorder (3.1x) among victims of bullying. Among those who had been both bullies and victims, the study found higher rates of depression (4.8x), panic disorder (14.5x), agoraphobia (26.7x) and suicidality (18.5x) in both childhood and young adulthood. Results appeared in JAMA Psychiatry.

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Categorized in: Addiction, Adult, Anxiety, Anxiety, Childhood Adversity/Trauma, Children and Adolescents, Depression, Depression, Disorders, Featured News, Non-Drug Approaches, Trauma/Distress, Violence

March 13, 2013

Part 1 of this series examined how the disease model of addiction intersects with the genetically based “mental illness” theory and practice of Biological Psychiatry. Part 2 analyzed the serious limitations and sometimes harmful effects of the domination of addiction treatment by the Twelve Step (disease model), and how Biological Psychiatry has both seized upon and expanded the culture of addiction in this country. What follows will be a presentation of some alternative methods for overcoming addiction problems.
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Categorized in: Addiction, Adult, Blogs, Disorders, Featured Blogs, Hearing Voices

February 3, 2013

The New York Times, in an extraordinarily lengthy front-page article, chronicles the descent of popular college class president, athlete, and aspiring medical student into an ADHD diagnosis, Adderall addiction, psychosis, and suicide.

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Categorized in: Addiction, ADHD, Adult, Children and Adolescents, Disorders, Featured News, In the News, Psychiatric Drugs, Stimulants

December 7, 2012

The recent research scandals out of the University of Minnesota’s Department of Psychiatry may be alarming, but they are not new. Back in the 1990s, when the university was working its way towards a crippling probation by the National Institutes of Health (for yet another episode of misconduct (this time in the Department of Surgery), the Department of Psychiatry hosted two spectacular cases of research wrongdoing, both of which resulted in faculty members being disqualified from conducting research by the FDA.
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Categorized in: Addiction, Antidepressants, Antipsychotics, Blogs, Featured Blogs, Industry, Schizophrenia and Psychosis, Schizophrenia/Psychotic Disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychotic Disorders, Substance Abuse/Addiction, Suicide, Uncategorized | Tagged as: Antipsychotics, Barry Garfinkel, CAFE study, Charles Schulz, clinical trials, corruption, fraud, James Halikas, Psychosis, research misconduct, Schizophrenia, Stephen Olson, University of Minnesota

September 12, 2012

Both addiction and “mental illness” are far more prevalent where there is poverty, patriarchy, and other forms of mental and physical violence; all this creates fertile ground for various forms of trauma experiences on a daily basis. Addiction and extreme states of psychological distress will never be fully eradicated, or even humanely treated on a broad scale, until the material conditions from which they have emerged are transformed in a truly revolutionary way.
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Categorized in: Addiction, Adult, Blogs, Disorders, Featured Blogs

June 29, 2012

8% of major league baseball players have been diagnosed with ADHD (double the rate in the general population) and prescribed stimulants; medications which are ordinarily banned from the sport. An article on the Major League Baseball website asks why.

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Categorized in: Addiction, ADHD, Adult, Children and Adolescents, Disorders, In the News, Industry

June 28, 2012

Citing reasons from weight loss to housecleaning, there has been a 750% increase in the use of Adderall among women in the U.S. aged 26 to 39. Some admit to stealing the drug from their kids and getting addicted, according to an article in yesterday’s Mail, a U.K. newspaper, and ABC News.

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Categorized in: Addiction, ADHD, Adult, Children and Adolescents, Disorders, In the News, Industry, Psychiatric Drugs, Stimulants

June 22, 2012

The June issue of Current Pharmaceutical Design is devoted to a review of the interaction between cannabis and psychosis.

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Categorized in: Addiction, Adult, Disorders, In the News, Research, Schizophrenia/Psychotic Disorders

May 16, 2012

The APA convention last week included a debate about the addition of “Behavioral Addiction – Not Otherwise Specificed” to the new edition of the DSM. The new category could be used to diagnose as illnesses addictions to shopping, sex, the internet, or video games – a potential addition of 20 million newly categorized “addicts.” “The biggest problem in all of psychiatry is untreated illness, and that has huge societal costs,” said Dr. James H. Scully, chief executive of the APA. Others are concerned the change would result in a misdirection of resources. “These sorts of diagnoses could be a real embarrassment,” said Thomas F. Babor, editor of the journal Addiction.

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Categorized in: Addiction, Adult, Disorders, In the News, Industry