Yearly Archives: 2023
How the Medical Model Corrupted Mennonite Values
How to square the violent restraint and isolation of a vulnerable patient with the empowering, pacifist values of the hospital's founders?
âIt Is What It Isâ â Learning From the Past Without Getting Stuck in...
My first mental-ward stay would not be the last. At last count... I lost count. Fortunately for me, I've learned much from my experience and vicariously from my peers.
‘Delusions’ and ‘Paranoia’: What Are They, Really, and How Can We Engage Them in...
Sam Ruck shares a second excerpt from his book "Healing Companions," which describes his life with, and love for, his wife and her âalters.âÂ
The Power Dynamics of Psychedelic Therapy
I want people who have gone through psychedelic therapy to not feel alone if they felt silenced, controlled, or interpersonally hurt.
When I Was Indifferent by Timothy Hamilton
When I was indifferent, Life was easier.
Day followed day.
Beans from a can,
Fresh Asian noodles I once loved,
Sunny delicate spring days,
Grey clouds and tedious half-hearted...
Mental Health App That Cost Australian Taxpayers $33m Did Not Result in âClinical Outcomesâ
From The Guardian: Dr Piers Gooding, a senior research fellow with Melbourne Law School, said: âDigital approaches are often presented as an unquestioned good, particularly in the mental health field...There is hype around digital technology like AI â and industry pressure â that can shut down critical reflection."
Robert Whitaker Answers Reader Questions on Mad in America, the Biopsychosocial Model, and Psychiatric...
On the Mad in America podcast this week we have Robert Whitaker with us to answer questions sent in by readers and listeners.
Q&A: What Is Executive Function, and How Can Parents and Teachers Help Kids Focus?
Ask anyone whoâs ever taught kids, and theyâll tell you a story about one student who sticks in their memory.
We’ve Got the Mental Health Crisis All Wrong
From OK Doomer: Almost everything in our culture attempts to convince us that mental health is a personal responsibility, a performance we owe to society, not the result of a society where we take care of each other.
Much of U.S. Healthcare Is Broken: How to Fix It (Chapter 1, Part 2)
Les Ruthven addresses off-label prescribing as well as physiciansâ anti-science pushback against the use of well-conducted clinical trials.
A School Promised Not to Send Kids to the ER for Misbehavior â But...
From AP News: Schools across the country are sending children to the ER for psych evaluations in response to behaviors prompted by bullying or frustration over assignments.
Stop Using Antidepressants Except for âthe Most Severe Depression,â Experts Say
Experts advocate limiting antidepressant use to only the most severe cases of depression, emphasizing the need for social and psychological interventions.
Systemic Insanity
Is the answer to numb ourselves and learn to deal with lives that we don't feel good about? Shouldn't the solution be to heal and live lives that don't make us stressed, unhappy, and sick?
Beyond Pills: UK Parliament Must Support Social and Psychological Services Instead
Davies calls on the UK Parliament to support the Beyond Pills initiative, and follow the evidence to put social and psychological help first.
The Great Grey Beast
I am not the only child to have been devoured by the great grey beast that is the American psychiatric system. You're eaten away little by little, every single day, until what's left is barely a person.
Antidepressants and the Tangle of Treatment-Related Suicidality
From Psychiatry at the Margins: What can be said with quite some certainty, says clinical psychologist Martin PlĂśderl, is that antidepressants overall do not decrease suicidal behavior.
Mental Disorder Has Roots in Trauma and Inequality, Not Biology
The scientific evidence is of social/psychological, not biological, causation: negative environmental conditions, not disease.
Experts Call for Reversing Rate of Antidepressant Prescribing in UK
From The Guardian: An open letter to the government from experts and politicians says rising antidepressant usage "is a clear example of over-medicalisation."
You Have the Legal Right to Informed Consent
My doctor didnât tell me about any side effects, and I didnât ask. I assumed that if there were any risks with taking Paxil, he would tell me.
Psych Patient Held Against Will Discharged After FOX31 News Inquiry
From FOX31 Denver KDVR: âI suspect theyâre extending his stay here so they can keep on using his insurance until it expires at the end of the month,â said the man's cousin, who contacted Fox 31.
After MIA Calls for Retraction of STAR*D Article, Study Authors Double Down on the...
In their letter to the editor, Rush et al. have doubled-down on the fraud they committed in their 2006 summary report of STAR*D outcomes.
A Remarkable Feat: A Psychiatric Patient Changed the Law on Restraints
The case of Silas Dam obliged the Danish government to increase rights for psychiatric patients subjected to belt restraints.
ADHD Drugs Linked to Cardiovascular Disease
Service users taking drugs to treat ADHD may be at increased risk for hypertension and arterial disease
Much of U.S. Healthcare Is Broken: How to Fix It (Chapter 1, Part 1)
On the difference between basing a medical system on clinical belief versus one based on scientific evidence.
Itâs OK to Never âGet Overâ Your Grief
From The New York Times: Traditional mourning practices were designed to preserve a place for the dead among the living, to help mourners carry the weight of their grief not by getting over it but by maintaining their relationship with the deceased.
