Monthly Archives: September 2019
“Please Be Normal!” My Experience Working for NAMI
At my job with a NAMI affiliate, I heard daily from people who looked at family members with “mental illness” as non-people, non-human, the “other.” In the office, it was no different. If NAMI had a tagline, it would be “Please be normal like us.”
Economic Deprivation and Social Fragmentation Drive Suicide Rates in US
Major study finds that economic deprivation and a lack of social capital are driving increasing rates of suicide in the U.S.
Why I’m Glad I Did Not Complete the Mental Health Counselor Education Program
One needs no psychiatric or counseling degree to have the common sense of displaying some good manners in a profession that claims to be all about helping people. I’m glad I did not get further involved within a field that seems to be so hypocritical and moody.
How to Involve Youth in Their Own Mental Health Care
Clinicians play a key role in empowering adolescents and their parents to make decisions about their mental health treatment.
Prescription Drugs Are No Cure for Deprivation
From The BMJ Opinion: The highest proportion of patients receiving prescriptions for antidepressants and opioids is located in areas of greatest social deprivation.
Antidepressant Use Associated With More Violent Suicide Attempts
A new study found that taking an antidepressant medication was associated with a heightened risk of suicide using violent means.
Prozac Maker Paid Millions in Secret Deal in Mass Shooting Lawsuit
From USA TODAY: Eli Lilly vigorously shielded the payment for more than two decades, defying a Louisville judge who fought to reveal it because he said it swayed the jury's verdict.
10 Reasons Why Psychiatry Lives On—Obvious, Dark, and Darkest
No matter how clearly the scientific case is made that psychiatry is a pseudoscientific institution, it continues to retain power. When we recognize that scientific truths alone are not setting society free, we begin to shift our energy to different strategies.
Antidepressant Use Does Not Prevent Suicide, Study Finds
A new study has found that antidepressants are ineffective for reducing suicide attempts. Researchers report that the risk of suicide is particularly high in the first month after starting an antidepressant.
Therapy Gets More Effective Over Time While Antidepressants Decrease in Effectiveness
New review of long-term depression data finds psychotherapy more effective over time whereas antidepressants decrease in effectiveness.
The Rise of the Digital Asylum
The digital pill Abilify MyCite, which is now being introduced into the market, foretells of a future where such technology is used to monitor the behavior, location and "medication compliance" of a person 24 hours a day.
Yale COPE Project to Study How People Control Their Voices
From Yale School of Medicine: The goal is not necessarily to get rid of the voices, said the project's co-director, but to empower voice-hearers with the skills to influence those experiences.
Groundbreaking Report by Public Health England on Prescribed Drug Dependence
From the All Party Parliamentary Group on Prescribed Drug Dependence: The report reveals the disturbing scale of the problem in England and makes several urgent recommendations.
Is Remaking Psychiatric Care Possible?
The failures of our current drug-based paradigm of psychiatric care tell of a pressing need for systemic changes in psychiatry. But as we discovered when marketing our new continuing education course on this topic, it's always difficult to promote radical change.
Ben Furman – Understanding and Dealing With Adolescent Rage
A podcast interview with Finnish psychiatrist Ben Furman in which he discusses adolescent rage and how parents can come to understand and deal with teenagers and young adults who are angry and explosive.
Systemic Constellations: Healing Situations Other Therapies Don’t
From the Findhorn Foundation: I had been trying to think my way through something that needed to be felt and engaged with spiritually. As soon as I partnered with the larger energetic system I am a part of, it helped me with the needed answers.
My Brother Rescued Me; I Wish I Could Have Rescued Him
From The Baltimore Sun: It has taken me until now, nearly three decades after his death, to fully understand how childhood trauma crept up and destroyed him.
Lingering Side Effects of Quitting Antidepressants
Nobody told me what it would be like when I first stopped taking antidepressants. The worst is definitely over, but I’m still experiencing some lingering side effects. When the hyper-arousal to sights and sounds kicks in and my head starts buzzing, I’ve learned some ways to cope.
Scaling Up Psychiatric Interventions Globally May Impede UN Goals
Peter Lehmann argues that administering psychiatric drugs in low-and-middle-income countries works at cross purposes with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Psychiatrist Describes Role in Open Dialogue Model of Care
Psychiatrist outlines varying roles in Open Dialogue model, fostering service-user and family agency through meaningful conversations with a team of providers.
Opioid Crackdown Forces Pain Patients Into Sudden Tapers Off Their Drugs
From The Washington Post: The CDC opioid-prescribing guideline authors acknowledged that medical experts don’t really know what happens to people forced to taper suddenly from high dosages.
Trump and Cuomo: Red Flags Are Red Herrings
Curtailing the rights of people with psychiatric histories is nothing more than a red herring, a ploy to maintain social control. We need to disarm the “re-institutionalization” movement by holding it accountable to the actual science of modern psychiatry and the history of institutions.
How Does the Soteria House Heal?
The alternative treatment model of Soteria helps individuals suffering from schizophrenia without relying on medication or coercion.
How Psychological Injuries Cause Physical Illness—And How Therapy Can Heal It
How does experiencing physical abuse as an 8 year old shorten one's lifespan? How do insulting words turn into diabetes? Or sexual abuse trigger a heart attack 50 years in the future? Emotional wounds can damage DNA and produce a huge web of destructive effects, but therapy can turn the process around.
Response to Criticism of Recent Article on Antidepressant-Suicide Risk
From the Council for Evidence-Based Psychiatry: Far from undermining our findings, the critique by Hayes et al. provides us with a unique opportunity to address important issues that were not covered in our original paper.
