Yearly Archives: 2024
Committed: An Interview With Suzanne Scanlon
FromPsychology Today: Scanlon's Committed: On Meaning and Madwomen—A Memoir concerns the treatment of prolonged grief in a major psychiatric hospital.
Prescription Drugs Are the Leading Cause of Death
Overtreatment with drugs kills many people, and the death rate is increasing. Why have we allowed this drug pandemic to continue?
I Was the Poster Girl for OCD. Then I Began to Question Everything I’d...
From The Guardian: When I sought help for crippling invasive thoughts, I was told I had a disease like any other. But I wasn’t able to recover until I understood the fallacy at the heart of mental healthcare.
What Is “Care” in a Psychiatric Medical Camp for the Unhoused in India?
Indian doctoral scholar Neha Jain wonders what kind of ‘care’ and ‘help’ are possible in the absence of real consent.
A Felt Sense of Safety – From Disassociation to Embodiment
I know now that I can trust myself and listen to my intuition. Within the mental health system, I trusted everyone but myself.
Witless and Dangerous? Challenging the Assumptions of the ‘Schizo’ Paradigm
Despite growing awareness that ‘schizophrenia’ is not a scientifically valid concept, the old assumptions still drive clinical practice.
When Medication Changes More Than Symptoms: Antipsychotics’ Effect on Identity
Recent research reveals how antipsychotic medications can significantly impact users' identity and self-image, challenging existing clinical approaches.
Hard of Hearing by Francis Fernandes
I kept telling her that Carsten Dahl
is not Carson Dyle for the obvious reason
the former doodles Danish bebop
on the piano with a sort of...
Tapering Strips: A Practical Tool for Personalised and Safe Tapering of Withdrawal-Causing Prescription Drugs
Tapering strips are one of the practical tools mentioned in the new Maudsley Guidance.
Bad Science, With Robert Whitaker | Where Is My Mind? Podcast
From Where Is My Mind?: Niall Breslin and Robert Whitaker discuss the paradigm shift needed in mental health to ensure people have informed consent and a true understanding of their distress.
Antidepressant Trials “Hijacked for Marketing Purposes,” Researchers Say
About half of the large antidepressant trials are biased enough to be considered “seeding trials,” according to the researchers.
From the Dopamine Theory to the Outcomes Paradox
Why does long-term use of neuroleptics correlate with poorer social and occupational outcomes?
Engaging Voices, Part 2: Working Our Way Toward Connection
Sam Ruck shares his fourth excerpt from his book Healing Companions, which describes his life with, and love for, his wife and her “alters.”
Debunking the Myths About Depression and Antidepressants
From EmpowerUAmerica: Psychologist and author Bruce E. Levine is interviewed about the problem of depression in America and how it's being treated.
Mom’s 911 Call for Her Son’s Mental Health Ends With His Death After Police...
From MedPage Today: Taylor Ware's August 2019 death was among more than 1,000 over a decade after police used common use-of-force tactics that are meant to stop people without killing them.
Poems Needed by Daniel Hanrahan
we have poems
about madness
and poems written
in states of madness
no poems yet about
the guitar amp buzzing
dark electric fuzz
of the madness sparked
coming off psychmeds
we lack poems...
The Significance of Semiotics in Social Work
Mental health treatment requires more than words; it demands a deep understanding of the unspoken, the symbols and signs that permeate our lives.
Against Her Will
From Investigative Journalism Foundation: Under Canada's Mental Health Act, doctors don’t have to get a patient’s consent for treatment — or the consent of a substitute decision maker. They have what’s known as the patient’s “deemed consent” to administer any treatment that’s been approved by the director of the mental health facility.
Study Links Prenatal Antipsychotic Exposure to Developmental Delays and ADHD
A comprehensive review indicates that children exposed to antipsychotics in the womb face an increased risk of ADHD and developmental delays.
Giving Caregivers a Platform: Meagan, Mother of Matt
A mom describes her son's descent into the harms of psychiatry—and his way out. "It was really difficult to watch Matt decline. He had given up hope that he could get well."
Unbecoming
If the wounded healer doesn't work on their wounds, they become the wounded wounder, keeping the client and themselves trapped in their roles.
What Needs to Change at the FDA? A PharmedOut Report
In the past 30 years, repeated regulatory failures and a shift in the FDA’s mission from protecting public health to speeding drugs and devices to market has tarnished the agency’s reputation and, more importantly, harmed patients.
On the Brink of Murder Because of an Antidepressant
After being put on antidepressants, Katinka started hallucinating wildly, thinking in very violent images.
STAR*D: It’s Time to Atone and Retract
From Psychiatric Times: “Our patients, our field, and our integrity demand a better explanation of what happened in STAR*D than what has thus been provided," argue two San Diego psychiatrists.
Bad Science Revisited: “The Bell Curve” Turns 30
Critiquing the wildly popular 1994 eugenicist book, which purported to link IQ and race, by reviewing the supposed genetic evidence.
