Yearly Archives: 2023
Self-test for Adult Symptom Deficiency Disorder (ASDD)
In the spirit of the thinking behind the DSM, I have worked out a test for a new disorder for those who don't meet criteria for anything else.
We Don’t Have a Health Care System. We Have a Medical-Industrial Complex
From John Abramson, MD/Hillsdale College: Instead of a health care system, we have a medical-industrial complex that is sucking America’s wealth away from the things that would actually make us healthier.
Can Listening to Heavy Metal Be Therapeutic?
Many enthusiasts of heavy metal will say things like "Heavy metal saved my life," and there is a fairly established narrative amongst fans of the wellbeing benefits.
Patients Given Aripiprazole (Abilify) ‘Should Be Told of Gambling Addiction Risks’
From The Guardian: The UK's National Problem Gambling Clinic has observed growing numbers of patients who have developed a gambling addiction after starting to take aripiprazole.
Critical Psychiatry Textbook, Chapter 7: Psychosis (Part Six)
Discussing the damage psychosis pills cause to the brain, and how that manifests in many clinical harms, like tardive dyskinesia.
In Defense of Incoherent Psychiatry
In JAMA Psychiatry, the authors claimed we have no way to assess outcomes, and no way to know whether outcomes are "continuing to improve."
Can’t Be Trusted: A Book Review Review
My book is a memoir written around the denial of my medical certificate required to fly light aircraft for mental health reasons.
Warning Over Antidepressants as Top Experts Say They May Raise Risk of Suicide
From The Daily Mail: A study examining almost 8,000 inquests which mentioned antidepressants shows the drugs may "not be having the intended effect on suicide outcomes," said researcher Mark Horowitz.
Waking From the Nightmare: Is Recovery From Akathisia Possible?
I had a chemical brain injury from medications. The only help doctors could offer was more medications: treating the failed treatment with other dangerous treatments.
Q&A: What Is Informed Consent, and What Should I Know to Help My Child?
My experience caused me to look into the origin of including the patient in decision-making about treatment and informed consent.
The Hidden Injuries of Oppression
Oppression is the single greatest factor contributing to human suffering. To treat it as an individual problem amounts to blaming the victim.
Indiana Jail Let Man ‘With Schizophrenia’ Starve to Death in Solitary, Lawsuit Alleges
From The Appeal: Sheriff’s Office employees locked a man having a psychotic episode in solitary confinement for three weeks—without mental health care or even toilet access—until he died of malnutrition.
Listen to the Victims: Senate Holds Hearing on Guardianship
I have seen the exploitation wreaked by court-appointed guardians. It is up to us to use our voices for those who cannot speak out.
One of America’s First Workplace Shootings Had an Unlikely Suspect: Prozac
From The Washington Post: Following a deadly 1989 attack in Louisville, survivors and victims’ families filed a suit against Eli Lilly, alleging that Prozac had contributed to the massacre.
Critical Psychiatry Textbook, Chapter 7: Psychosis (Part Five)
Discussing the studies that have compared the different psychosis drugs, as well as the harms of adding more psychosis drugs to the regimen.
Mental Health ‘Industry’ Issues Outlined in New Book About Forced Treatment in North America
From Ashland Source: "It is an industry — and it needs to be understood in that way," said Rob Wipond, author of Your Consent Is Not Required: The Rise in Psychiatric Detentions, Forced Treatment, and Abusive Guardianships.
The Misery of Being Misdiagnosed and Overmedicated
From an early age, relatives and doctors alike had told me I was severely mentally ill. Naturally, I believed them.
Are We No Longer Just Consumers, but the Consumed?
From Gary Sharpe: Our purpose in life seems to have become not just to be consumers of, but to be consumed by, monsters of our making, such as "The Markets" and "The Economy."
Chronic Stress and “Mental Illness”
Could it be possible that what we call “mental illness” is a direct consequence of the changes that occur in the body as a result of trauma and chronic stress?
Elon Musk and Others Call for Pause on A.I., Citing ‘Profound Risks to Society’
From The New York Times: A.I. developers are "locked in an out-of-control race to develop and deploy ever more powerful digital minds that no one – not even their creators – can understand, predict or reliably control," said an open letter signed by tech leaders and researchers.
To Promote Mental Health, We Must Teach It
When we are quick to pathologize suffering, yet do not provide the fundamentals for healthy living, it is inhumanity of the highest order.
How Awais Aftab and Institutional Psychiatry Sidestep the Challenges Put to Them
From ISEPP: Institutional psychiatry at its essence is fundamentally flawed. Thus it must resort to belittling and attacking its critics instead of answering their challenges honestly.
Lost Poetry: Psychiatry and Creativity
A poem can be destroyed when psychiatry treats a poet without reverence and honor for their creativity and their diversity of mind.
Open Letter Re: John Oliver’s ‘Last Week Tonight’ Episode on Psychedelic Assisted Therapy
From Psymposium: Last Week Tonight joined a long and growing list of media outlets that have added fuel to the hype of psychedelic medicalization by omitting its potential risks and actual harms.
Critical Psychiatry Textbook, Chapter 7: Psychosis (Part Four)
How cold-turkey withdrawal is mistaken for "relapse," and how the largest drug companies have paid billions in fraud settlements related to these drugs.
