Dramatic Decline in California’s Use of Antipsychotic Drugs on Its Foster Children
From The Imprint: Youth and Family News: A new study indicates statewide reforms have freed thousands of abused and neglected children from the lasting effects of the most powerful psychiatric drugs, but concerns about other medications persist.
Michigan’s Mental Health Agencies Are in Charge of Investigating Themselves
From Detroit Free Press: When mental health service recipients' rights are violated in Michigan, the system for redress has a built-in conflict that is hurting the most vulnerable.
Talking About Suicide Helps Us Stay Alive
From Slate: Normalizing discussion of suicide is the key idea behind Alternatives to Suicide (Alt2Su), peer-led groups intended for adults who have suicidal thoughts or identify as survivors.
What Liberal Admonishers of Left Psychiatry Critics Get Wrong | Bruce Levine
From CounterPunch: It is disappointing to see Jacobin accepting the mainstream liberal narrative that goes like this: If one cares about alleviating emotional suffering, one must defend psychiatry.
Some Schools Bringing Back Corporal Punishment; Parents Opt In as Students Protest
From TODAY: "Corporal punishment signals to the child that a way to settle interpersonal conflicts is to use physical force and inflict pain," said the American Academy of Pediatrics in a 2014 statement.
Child Frustration Breeds Race Hatred; Columbia Scientist Finds Punishment of Baby Is Seed of...
From Project NoSpank/The New York Times, December 22, 1940: The aggressiveness which adults exhibit, said Dr. Ashley Montagu, is originally produced during childhood by parents, teachers, nurses, or whoever else participates in the process of socializing the child.
The NY Times Suddenly Discovered We’re Giving Kids Dangerous Drugs
From the New York Post: The New York Times' splashy story about the overmedication of children was 20 years too late. Why does obvious damage to children go ignored for so long?
As a Cop, I Know Police Contempt for Drug Users Is Still Widespread—And It...
From Filter: The US drug-warrior mentality reflects many troubling things, but what strikes me the most is its lack of compassion for people who use drugs and their families.
In Afghanistan, a Quiet Epidemic of Mass Psychogenic Illness
From Undark: Mass psychogenic illness is “a collective stress response,” says medical sociologist Robert E. Bartholomew, and “everyone is potentially susceptible because it’s based on a belief” — in many cases, of a perceived threat.
Our Gut Feelings Are Not Luxuries | Gabor Maté, MD
From Sustainable Human: When we are alienated from our gut feelings, we no longer have a sense of reality, nor a sense of truth.
Relational Disconnection as ‘Mental Illness’ | Darcia Narvaez, PhD
From Kindred Media: Many of the most problematic behaviors are not considered “mental illness” by the DSM, though they would be by any indigenous psychology standard.
Are New Guidelines in Order? The Psychexperience – Interview with Robert Whitaker
From The Pyschexperience: Dr. Nardi, creator of the New England Psychiatry Mentorship Institute (NEPMI), interviews Bob Whitaker about his 2010 book Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America.
Forced Treatment Isn’t What Unhoused People Need
From The Nation: People need four things to be in recovery: permanent supportive housing, community, purpose, and health care. This is not what California's new CARE Court provides.
This Teen Was Prescribed 10 Psychiatric Drugs. She’s Not Alone.
From The New York Times: The problem of multiple medication use, or polypharmacy, that first emerged a decade ago among young people in foster care and low-income settings, has now gone mainstream.
Brainwashing in the Medical Training | Two Letters to Alice Miller
From alice-miller.com: Just as children are often blamed for anything that happens to them, patients are often blamed, and thus denied adequate care, for their afflictions.
Driving Ourselves Crazy: Car Culture as Collective Madness
From Mental Hellth: The dominant belief is that cars form a welcome and irreplaceable part of modern life and that their benefits outweigh the negatives. What advantages, though, do they really bring?
Beyond Drugs: The Universal Experience of Addiction | Gabor Maté, MD
From drgabormate.com: Most addicted people use no drugs at all, and addiction cannot be understood if we restrict our vision of it to substances, legal or illicit.
Some Antidepressants, Antipsychotics May Make Heatwaves Challenging
From the BBC: Evidence suggests these medications can hinder the body from regulating temperature properly, cause people to sweat excessively, not register thirst or make skin more sensitive to sun.
Scots With Learning Disabilities and Autism Locked in Hospitals for Decades
From the BBC: They remain unable to get out despite Scottish ministers saying 22 years ago that they should be living independently in the community.
How China Weaponizes Psychiatry Against Dissent
From The Washington Post: A report by Safeguard Defenders charges that reform laws passed in 2012–13 “did not bring about any substantial improvement to the systematic political abuse of psychiatry in China.”
‘The Medical Model Has Presided Over Four Decades of Flat-Lining Outcomes’
From The BPS: Our services, as they are currently configured, make the medicalisation of our suffering the core precondition for receiving any care or support at all. That is wrong and must change. Dr. James Davies
‘I Was a Rebel Without a Cause Before My Breakdown… I Saw Psychology as...
From the BPS: Rufus May had a breakdown at 18 and was 'diagnosed' with 'schizophrenia.' Now a clinical psychologist, he explains his approach and what he thinks needs to change in the mental health system.
‘We Are Engaged in Something Much More Complex Than a Debate About the Evidence’
From The BPS: The current debate in mental health poses a challenge to power, and as we know, few people or institutions will give up power voluntarily. Dr. Lucy Johnstone
New Narrative Game Raises Awareness of ACEs & Their Impact on Youth Mental Health
From iThrive Games: Children of the Flame was created by youth designers at the SEED (System-Educated Expert Disrupters) Institute to raise awareness of trauma and trauma-informed practices.
Ending Child Abuse: The Next Spiritual Revolution
From Bryan Eden/alice-miller.com: Humanity’s progress toward peace, love, prosperity and happiness is being held captive by an invisible plague of cruelty and violence.
