Yearly Archives: 2015

M.O.M.S: Cindi Fisher is founder of the organization M.O.M.S. She networks moms and others together to support each other in advocating for themselves or their...

Statistics from the UK reveal that prescriptions for painkillers and antidepressants continue to rise despite concerns over dependence and debilitating withdrawal effects. The British Medical Association (BMA) Board of Science has released a report that acknowledges changes to medical practice, research and policy necessary for addressing the dependence and withdrawal effects of benzodiazepines, opioids, and antidepressants.

“Although there is no established connection between autism and murder, some eagerly leapt to causality and scapegoating,” Andrew Solomon writes in the New York Times. “Tarring the autistic community in this manner — like presuming that most black people are thieves or that most Muslims are terrorists — is an insidious form of profiling. It exacerbates the tendency for people with autism to be excluded, teased and assaulted in childhood and adulthood.”

One of psychiatry's most obvious vulnerabilities is the fact that various so-called antidepressant drugs induce homicidal and suicidal feelings and actions in some people, especially late adolescents and young adults. This fact is not in dispute, but psychiatry routinely downplays the risk, and insists that the benefits of these drugs outweigh any risks of actual violence that might exist.

Janet Singer is an advocate for OCD awareness, with the goal of spreading the word that OCD, no matter how severe, is treatable. She...

Yoga, meditation and nutrition are the practices Cyndi used to save her life after a 12-year battle with severe depression, anxiety and a misdiagnosis of bipolar...

Cassie Cramer is a social worker (MSW, LICSW) and active member of the Boston peer/recovery advocacy community.  She works with older adults in the...

In the Netherlands, Lia graduated as a first grade teacher, but never went on to teach at school, in part because her Dutch degree...

Idakatherine Graver was raised in southeast Texas by her classically-trained artist parents. Art was the family religion. She moved west to Santa Fe for...

Lisa D. is a psychiatric survivor, wife, and mother of five adopted children who owns and operates an off-premise catering company with her husband....

Peter Gajdics has been published internationally, including in The Advocate, The Q Review, New York Tyrant, The Gay and Lesbian Review/Worldwide, Gay Times, The Printed Blog, and Opium, where he won their...

Audrey Wagner holds undergraduate degrees in Philosophy and Liberal Studies and graduate degrees in Counseling and Theological Studies. She enjoys reading, writing, photography, nature, church...

Kerstin Ogard is a former psychiatric patient who has been involved in the development of mental health services in Finland, and has also been devoting...

Hilary Bryant is the Holistic Health Coordinator and Yoga Instructor for Toivo by Advocacy Unlimited, a mind-body center in Hartford, CT that believes that no...

Corrine A. Taylor shares her story at www.theProject321.com for awareness, empowerment and change toward living a well life after experiencing trauma. Having used psychiatric services unsuccessfully for...

Madeline Goldstein is originally from the Bronx, New York and has done extensive community work throughout her life. She is the editor of two published...

In The Daisy Project, Daisy’s upcoming book, she shares her insider knowledge as a former mental health nurse and as a former psychiatric patient....

Elahe Hessamfar is a former business executive and has a PhD in Divinity from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. She has an MA...

Becca Shaw Glaser is co-editor and author of Mindful Occupation: Rising Up Without Burning Out (AK Press), a booklet on engaging in activism while caring for...

Suzanne Beachy is a mother, musician, writer, and activist, who advocates for more recovery-oriented approaches to treating the kind of mental/emotional distress which gets...

David Fox is a registered psychologist and couples counselor. His book, Change your Life, was written to assist people in making positive changes in their lives and to...

Victor Morasse is a psychologist in Québec, Canada. So, yes, he speaks French! He just started a private practice and is trying to slowly...

To coincide with World Mental Health Day on October 10th, 2015, Verso Books, the largest independent and radical publishing house released a series of blogs on mental health and critical and antipsychiatry. The posts include pieces on R.D. Laing, colonialism, women’s oppression, delusions and art, “The Happiness Industry,” and social and institutional oppression.

There are an ever-increasing number of professionals and lay people who advocate for reforms within the mental health system. Even the staunchest of biological psychiatrists agree that changes must be made. When I first decided to pursue clinical psychology as a career, I did so with the intention of trying to change the system for the better, or at least to offer a different experience to individuals in distress. Personally, I believe that peer-led alternatives and independent funding are the things that advocates should focus more heavily on, but that does not solve the problem of what to do to decrease the amount of harm that is being done on a daily basis in the present. In this sense, I believe that a “harm-reduction” approach to dealing with the current system is the best way to get what we can until something better exists.

The satirical news site the Onion took aim at psychiatrists and overprescribing to children and adolescents last week with this headline.  “A lot of...