“Dad, You Were Right”: I Got Better When I Stopped Treatment
Through all the years that I was a mental patient, my parents were excellent advocates who constantly questioned what the docs were doing, even though my own faith in psychiatry was unwavering.... Amazingly, what cured me was not some type of âtreatment,â but getting away from drugs and therapy.
Lee Coleman â The Insanity Defence, Storytelling on the Witness Stand
An interview with Doctor Lee Coleman, in which we focus on psychiatry in the courtroom and why the psychiatric expert witness role may be failing both the individual on trial and society at large.
Caroline Mazel-Carlton: Judaism Madness and Spirit
Voice hearers, mystics, visionaries, and mad people are found throughout the scriptures of Judaism. What does Jewish theology have to teach us about madness and psychiatric diagnosis?
In Ontario, a Battle for the Soul of Psychiatry
From The Globe and Mail: A proposal made by the Ontario Ministry of Health in January would radically limit psychotherapy provided by psychiatrists and family physicians.
William Styron: His Struggles with Psychiatry and Its Pills
Author William Styron is often remembered for speaking about depression as an illness. But a review of his life reveals that psychiatric drugs may have triggered and even worsened his depressive episodes.
Psychiatrists View Drug-Free Programs for Psychosis as âUnscientific,â Study Finds
A new study provides an insiderâs look into how psychiatrists view the establishment of drug-free programs in Norway.
The Effects of Antidepressant Exposure Across Generations: An Interview with Dr. Vance Trudeau
Dr. Vance Trudeau discusses his study's finding that antidepressants may have far-reaching, adverse effects that last up to three generations.
Introducing Multi-Lens Therapy
How can we restore something as essential to the healing and helping process as knowing what is going on? If your client has an actual biological problem, he needs one sort of help. If he hates his job, he needs another sort of help. It is absurd (and not okay) that a helper would look only at putative âsymptomsâ and not at whatâs going on.
Psychiatryâs Incurable Hubris
From The Atlantic: The protracted attempt to usher psychiatry into medicineâs modern era is the subject of Anne Harringtonâs Mind Fixers: Psychiatryâs Troubled Search for the Biology of Mental Illness.
Lee Coleman â The Reign of Error
An interview with Doctor Lee Coleman, psychiatrist and author of the 1984 book Reign of Error. Now retired, Lee devotes his time to public education that exposes the individual and public harms from todayâs âmental healthâ industry.
Recovery Porn: Tell Me Your Story, Iâll Tell You Your Value
There is little denying the power of story⌠until our own stories get taken from us, positioned against us, and used to determine our value as some sort of human commodity. We deserve to have our stories heard and to hear the stories of others, but on our own terms, without being fetishized or controlled, and without competition for paltry awards and recognition.
Dangers of Antidepressants: My Personal Struggle with Conventional Medicine
I believed my doctor knew best about my health. I trusted that he knew it would be safe to switch me from an anti-anxiety drug that I had been taking for several years and put me on this new drug. It was only during the horror I went through afterward that I found out everything about this evil drug all on my own. To this day, I still get brain zaps in my sleep.
Kick Big Pharma Out of the Classroom
School-based strategies such as the âtalk to your doctorâ campaign about any childhood problem have been extremely effective in helping the pharmaceutical industry to marginalize traditional child-rearing practices and replace them with advice from mental health âexpertsâ and the use of dangerous drugs. These campaigns are reminiscent of now-illegal vintage tobacco ads in which doctors endorsed cigarette smoking.
Why ‘Happy’ Doctors Die by Suicide
From Pamela Wible MD: Physician suicide is a global public health crisis. In the U.S., more than one million Americans lose their doctors each year to suicide.
Freedom of Speech Award Given to Norwegian Psych Survivor Merete Nesset
From University of South-Eastern Norway: "This so-called treatment is so cruel and inhuman that I need[ed] to make use of it for something, someday... all this suffering must not be in vain."
Researchers Make the Case to Rename Schizophrenia
The authors outline reasons for renaming schizophrenia and the way a change can reform practice.
Youth-Nominated Social Support Reduces Mortality for Suicidal Adolescents
The Youth-Nominated Support Team intervention invites adolescents to select adults in their life to receive training on how to support them.
New Book Deconstructs Ideology of Cognitive Therapy
CBT forwards a hyper-rational perspective of human suffering that complements a managerialist culture of efficiency and institutionalization in the Western world.
Harvard Study Shows the Dangers of Early School Enrollment
From Intellectual Takeout: When children have educational experiences that aren't geared to their developmental level, it causes them feelings of inadequacy, anxiety and confusion.
Alita Taylor – Open Dialogue: Making Meaning
An interview with psychotherapist, trainer and facilitator Alita Taylor who shares her passion for Open Dialogue, explaining why Open Dialogue 'cannot be taught, but needs a teacher'.
Racial Discrimination a Clear Contributor to Youth Mental Health Disparities
Greater perceptions of discrimination during adolescence are linked to more depressive and internalizing symptoms.
Technology Not a Strong Factor in Adolescent Well-being, New Study Claims
A new study suggests digital media use among adolescents has a smaller negative effect on well-being than bullying or smoking marijuana.
Healing From Benzodiazepines
Healing From Benzodiazepines â A positive support group for those withdrawing from Benzodiazepines. We also provide a safe space for loved ones. We focus on helping our members with positive distractions, resources and practical coping skills.
Q&A: May I Take My Foster Child Off Her Drug Cocktail?
I recently became the foster parent of a 10-year-old girl. She is on a cocktail of several medications prescribed to treat behavioral problems, according to her social worker. They don't really seem to help her. What are the considerations involved with withdrawing her from the meds, and what power do I have to influence this decision?
As Doctors Taper or End Opioid Prescriptions, Many Patients Driven to Despair, Suicide
From Fox News: "The government has a duty to respond to the overdose crisis, but to do so in a way that [harms] people [with] a legitimate medical issue is a human rights issue."