Yearly Archives: 2017
Vital Minds: Four Stories of Recovery
My patients have trashed themselves for decades, and after one month of dietary change, daily meditation, detox, and psychospiritual support, they are reborn. At a time when people are being euthanized for depression because they believe it to be a life sentence, it has never been more critical to spread the truth that healing is possible.
“Not Not Guilty: My Brother, Schizophrenia, and the State of Illinois”
From The Fix: "This is the reality of where mental health remainsâjust as stigmatized and embarrassingly disentangled as it was last year at this...
Quitting Smoking May Help with Depression
A new study suggests that smoking cessation is related to depressive symptom improvement, but that depression may also make it harder to quit.
Intentional Peer Support: Creating Relationships, Creating Change
IPS is about creating a power-balanced, relational context in which we can begin to explore and even challenge the stories we have been taught. We can name our experiences, and challenge the meaning that we have constructed around those experiences. This fundamentally alters what we think of as âhelp,â but also challenges social and political constructs of disability.
“Is it Time to Abandon the Medical Construct of Being Normal”
Jonathan Sholl, a professor of medical philosophy in Denmark, writes for Aeon:Â "In any parlance, the specific meaning of ânormalâ has important consequences, especially if...
New Data Supports Acupuncture as a Treatment for Depression
Researchers found acupuncture effective in the treatment of chronic pain and depression
Integrative Mental Health: 27 Non-drug Options that Work
Four years ago I dove into a deep and murky pond: the bottomless depths of medical databases that hold mental health research. After examining over 4000 studies, and hundreds of meta-analyses, I surfaced from my research and was hit with a startling âAhaâ moment: non-drug approaches really work.
“94 Psychiatric Patients in South Africa Died of Negligence, Report Finds”
The New York Times reports on the findings of a South African government investigation that determined that "94 psychiatric patients died of negligence last year after being...
Physicians Underestimate Harms and Overestimate Benefits of Treatment
A new study analyzed over 13,000 doctors and found that physicians had a poor understanding of risks and benefits in every field, including psychopharmaceutical prescription, to CT scans, and cancer screening.
Sir Robin Murray and Our Collective Mea Culpa
Sir Robin Murray, a distinguished British professor of psychiatry, recently published a paper in Schizophrenia Bulletin titled, âMistakes I Have Made in My Research Career.â I wonder what leads Robin Murray to acknowledge his mistakes when others seem to hunker down. I also wonder how I can know when I am misled in my assumptions.
Understanding Extreme States: An Interview with Lloyd Ross
In this interview, Lloyd Ross of ISEPP and I discuss how to help people experiencing delusions, hallucinations, paranoia, and other problems commonly associated with a diagnosis of âschizophrenia.â We discuss the problems with the biological model of âmental illnessâ as contrasted with a more psychosocial, contextual model of distress.
ISEPP Calling for Organizations to Join in Petition
Using an invalid diagnostic tool flies in the face of professional ethical guidelines. The International Society for Ethical Psychology & Psychiatry has drafted an open letter to the APA and other professional organizations, publicizing concerns with the DSM's lack of validity and asking for ethical guidance. ISEPP is soliciting other groups to join us in this effort.
Scapegoating: Why Humanity Desperately Needs Hope to Cling to
How convenient to be able to deposit all our hatred, anger, fear, and worry into a pail that looks different and believes in stuff we don't understand. Or better yet, to be able to throw all of our sorrow, hatred, and pain into an abstract bin organized by the greatest piece of trash: the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM).
The Outing of a Consumer
The problem with being a consumer is that we get consumed. Iâve been the bacon at far too many mental health picnics. Someoneâs salary gets paid, someoneâs program gets funded, someoneâs career gets enhanced, someone gets accolades for being so altruistic and such a great savior â and me, what do I get? Exposed, laid bare, and isolated.
CRPD Absolute Prohibition Campaign and Course
For a long time I have been interested in offering a course on CRPD (Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) to pass on my knowledge to other activists and allow more people to take up the frustrating and passionate responsibility of human rights work. Finally I have come up with a plan that is doable.
Killing âSchizophrenicsâ: Contemporary U.S. Psychiatry Versus Nazi Psychiatry
In any society that prioritizes economic efficiency, productivity and order above life and all of lifeâs varieties, people experiencing altered and extreme emotional states will be seen as defective and as burdensâmonkey wrenches that disturb the societal assembly line.
Neuroscience-based Treatment Program Proposed for Adolescent Depression
A study published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience proposes a new model for the treatment of adolescents diagnosed with major depressive disorder (MDD).
“The Dangerous Ideal of Mental Health”
"Today... mental health is increasingly understood as a positive state: as something to aspire to. Led by the new academic field of positive psychology...
‘Doctors Gave Me Depression Pills I DIDN’T Need for 20 Years’
Luke Montagu writes in the Daily Mail, "Six years after taking my last dose of antidepressants, I am still suffering from their effects. I...
Spoiling Split: Hollywoodâs Latest Run at âAlternative FactsâÂ
Will âSplitâ lead directly to someone dying or being beaten up? No, probably not. But, is it a pretty outrageous piece of evidence illustrating cultural trends that regularly represent people with psychiatric diagnoses as frightening and volatile? Absolutely.
Venomagnosia
In Ordinarily Well: The Case for Antidepressants, Dr. Peter Kramer makes two arguments that I agree with. The trouble for me is that Kramerâs clinical vision seems strangely rose-tinted. He is an advocate of using antidepressants to treat depression, but he doesnât seem to see any of the problems antidepressants cause.
Psychiatry Interrogated:Â A Book Review
Psychiatry routinely presents itself as a legitimate medical specialty differing from the other specialties only in the kinds of illnesses treated. But there is another important difference between psychiatry and real medicine. Psychiatry's core concepts are embedded formally and informally in our legal, social, educational, and workplace institutions in ways that the other medical specialties are not.
What Shyamalan’s ‘Split’ Gets Wrong About ‘Dissociative Identity Disorder’
Mental health advocates warn that the film stigmatizes dissociative identity disorder and may directly impact those living with it. "You are going to upset and...
Children with ‘ADHD’ Commonly Prescribed Antipsychotics
Despite little evidence for benefit, and substantial risk of harm, antipsychotics are commonly prescribed to children diagnosed with ADHD
Chemical or Psychological Psychotherapy?
Prolonged use of psychotropic drugs can cause permanent brain damage, which can make it impossible for the patient ever to return to normal, and also cause a return to the disease state the patient originally came from.
