Yearly Archives: 2019
Mental Health Services Turned My Daughter’s Crisis into a Way of Life
My world turned upside down when my daughter nearly died from a serious suicide attempt. After several years as her caretaker I began to wonder: What can we do to change the way our mental health services are organized so they won't turn a crisis into a way of life for already distressed and vulnerable people?
Countervailing Forces Against Ritalin Use in France
A new study in the journal Social Science and Medicine explores why French children take stimulants far less than children in the United States. The study looks at how particular forces in society, in concert with government agencies, became an effective check on stimulant marketing for kids in France.
ACLU Suing Officials on Behalf of Traumatized Separated Families
From Truthout: "We think that the family separations was so extreme and so unprecedented that if ever there was a case warranting damages, it’s this one," an ACLU spokesman said.
Steven C. Hayes – A Liberated Mind: How to Pivot Toward What Matters
An interview with Dr. Steven C. Hayes about his recently released book, A Liberated Mind: How to Pivot Toward What Matters, which uses the principles of acceptance and commitment therapy to help readers overcome negative thoughts and feelings, turn pain into purpose, and build a meaningful life.
We Need to Treat BPD for What It Really Is – a Response to...
From The Conversation: Thinking about BPD in terms of its underlying cause would lead to better treatment and reinforce the importance of preventing child abuse and neglect in the first place.
Study: Antidepressants Linked to Higher Gestational Diabetes Risk
From CNN: “Taking antidepressants while pregnant may be associated with an increased risk of gestational diabetes, a new study suggests.
It turned out that the...
Climate Change, Mental Health and Collective Action: An Interview with Jennifer Freeman
In an interview with MIA's Akansha Vaswani, narrative therapist Jennifer Freeman calls for a shift away from individualistic approaches to 'eco-anxiety' and toward responses that connect us all to a counter-tsunami of action for the planet.
Functional Medicine: My Path Out of Psychiatry
My blood work indicated a host of issues that had been lurking under the surface of my “psychiatric diagnoses” for years. I’d seen various mental health professionals and none had recommended these types of tests, or stopped to think about any underlying factors, aside from the well-known “serotonin myth.”
Clinical Trials Show Antidepressants “Not Beneficial in the Long Term”
Clinical trials also consistently fail to measure and report long-term harmful effects.
Memories of a Childhood in a Mental Hospital
My stay at the hospital had no impact on the problem that led to my admission. But it did exacerbate other problems and change me in fundamental ways. I am a deformed product of that ‘cutting-edge facility’ and the ‘treatments’ I received there — social isolation, pills and shots, ice bath and ECT.
Inspectors Discover Poor Standards at 28 UK Mental Health Units
From The Guardian: The disclosure of such widespread substandard care in privately-run mental health facilities has prompted psychiatrists to call for a public inquiry to investigate.
Clinical Guidelines for Depression Need Urgent Revision
A coalition of 35 health organizations expressed serious concerns that the NICE guideline for adult depression may cause clinical harm—they demand “full and proper” revisions.
The International Institute for Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal
Millions of people around the world are currently trying to come off psychiatric drugs but finding it extremely difficult because of withdrawal effects which are often severe and persistent, and because there is so little support available to come off the drugs slowly and safely.
Researchers: “Antidepressants Should Not be Used for Adults with Major Depressive Disorder”
A new review, published in BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine, concludes that antidepressants should not be used as the risks outweigh evidence for benefits.
Forced-Treatment Advocacy Group Cherry-Picks Data to Support Agenda (Again)
Did the Treatment Advocacy Center actually uncover research proving that poor psychiatric medication adherence plays a "significant" role in whether people diagnosed with schizophrenia become violent? If such research does exist, is it as compelling as TAC described?
A Biopsychosocial Model Beyond the Mind-Body Split
Can a renewed biopsychosocial approach, grounded in an updated philosophy, foster person-centered medicine, and psychiatry?
Do Not Swallow the Pill by Anonymous
Do not swallow the pill, This condensed mass of powder That the world has convinced you Will “fix” you, your “problematic” self My darling, you are not broken You are not lost, you are not crumpled You are merely a being living In a society, in a culture That you were never meant to be forced into
A Doctor Cures His Bipolar Diagnosis Without Psychiatry: Review of ‘I’
I details what happened to Jeffrey Fidel when he quit psychiatric drugs and embraced an alternative, non-medical healing approach — a set of philosophical and spiritual teachings known as the Tao Te Ching and Hua Hu Ching.
Understanding Voices: New Website for Voice-Hearers and Their Supporters
From Hearing the Voice: New website offers practical techniques and information and sheds light on the links between voice-hearing and inner speech, trauma, creativity and spiritual or religious experience.
How a Parent’s Affection Shapes a Child’s Happiness for Life
From Motherly: A number of recent studies highlight the relationship between parental affection and children’s happiness and success.
Peter Kinderman – Why We Need a Revolution in Mental Health Care
An interview with Professor Peter Kinderman about his new book, A Manifesto for Mental Health, Why We Need a Revolution in Mental Health Care, in which he proposes a rejection of invalid diagnostic labels, practical help rather than medication, and a recognition that distress is usually an understandable human response to life's challenges.
Ancient Singing Tradition Helps People Cope With Trauma in the Modern World
From YES! Magazine: "Lament [singing] is a very old, traditional way to express your feelings...If you are hurt or you have sorrows...you cry it out, you let it come out. That’s what they would do in the old times."
Arab-Americans’ Mental Health Suffers Due to Census Box
From Scienceline: Beyond cloaking millions of people in invisibility, the lack of a Middle Eastern and North African ethnic box has also complicated efforts to research the minority group’s mental health.
Ambushed by Antidepressant Withdrawal: The Escape Story
I’m alive. More than 30,000 veterans in the past decade alone are not. I was not warned of the risks of this drug. I was not told that once on it, I might never be able to get off it, or the nightmare that would ensue when I tried. I know millions of others were not told either.
Time’s Up: Culture of Denial Impacts Mental Health of Sexual Abuse Survivors
Study finds that not believing sexual abuse survivors often leads to self-blame and mental health issues.
