Change.org: Coalition Against Coercive Psychiatry in Germany – Non-Violent Psychiatry Now
From the International Association Against Psychiatric Assault: The two Germany-wide "user" and survivor organizations, the BPE and die-BPE, have launched a joint campaign for a "violence-free psychiatry."
Love Can Fuel the Deep Empathy Needed to Understand Psychosis
From Psyche: Understanding, being understood and sharing a meaningful life are central to feelings of belonging, which in turn are fundamental to wellbeing and recovery from mental health problems.
The New School: ‘CRAZYWISE’ Film Screening Feb. 2 with Dr. Gabor Maté, Phil Borges
From The New School for Social Research: The panel will explore finding meaning through suffering, how indigenous cultures identify 'psychotic' symptoms as an indicator of shamanic potential, and the growing severity of the mental health crisis in America dominated by biomedical psychiatry.
We Can Heal the Shock We Carry
From Darcia Narvaez/Kindred Media: Dr. Stephanie Mines’ book We Are All in Shock: Energy Healing for Traumatic Times guides readers in self-healing through an integration of trauma psychology, neuroscience, and energy medicine.
Reducing Mental Health Detention of People with Autism and/or Learning Disabilities
From Doughty Street Chambers: People with learning disabilities and/or autism who have experienced and survived institutionalisation often carry the psychological scars for many years.
‘Our Son Has Been Locked Up Like an Animal for 21 Years…for Being Autistic’
From The Daily Mail: Families give shattering testimony of their battle against a hidden injustice in the British care system.
Westchester County Shrink Ruined Family Relationships, Suit Claims
From NY Post: A psychiatrist who treated his friends’ son for 20 years soured the man’s relationship with his parents and ruined his inheritance, a new lawsuit charges.
She Tweeted That Alan Dershowitz Might Be Acting Crazy. So Yale Fired Her.
From Intelligencer: The case of Dr. Bandy Lee involves conflicting interpretations of the Goldwater Rule, which itself has long been controversial.
New Year’s Resolution: Address Grief and Trauma in Healthy Ways
From Darcia Narvaez, PhD: Everyone needs to learn to grieve losses and deal with shock. Here are practices that build resilience in children (and everyone).
Therapy Before Pills Is Great, But Why Wait Till People Are Depressed to Teach...
From Zac Fine/Medium: Life gives us certain moments — which register in our guts (connected to the vagus nerve) — to break through and grow. This is the moment that you, as an infinitely intelligent organism, are being called into initiation.
Darby Penney, Who Crusaded for Better Psychiatric Care, Dies at 68
From The New York Times: She shed light on marginalized people’s lives by examining the contents of suitcases left in the attic of a psychiatric hospital. She went on to become a prominent activist.
Stop Dishing Out Antidepressants, Doctors Told
From The Times: Doctors should prescribe fewer antidepressants and for a shorter time, experts said, after a review found no strong evidence that the drugs were effective.
Take Your Time: A ‘Slow Thought’ Manifesto
From Aeon: "Our basic needs never change. The need to be seen and appreciated...to belong. The need for nearness and care, and for a little love! This is given only through slowness in human relations." ~ Norwegian philosopher Guttorm Fløistad
Tragic Schoolboy Was Prescribed Huge Increase in Anti-Depressants
From Belfast Telegraph: Johnny Shields, 14, who tragically took his own life had been prescribed up to a 700% increase of controversial anti-depressant drugs in the months leading up to his death.
BBC Sitcom Pilot: “Disordered: The Health Assessment”
From BBC Sounds: For a limited time: Listen to a new sitcom pilot by George Mason about an optimistic but struggling single dad dealing with long-term mental health issues.
2017 Study: Nearly a Third of FDA-Approved Drugs Had Problems
From CNN: Out of 222 new drugs approved, 61 need to have black box warnings subsequently added to call attention to serious or life-threatening risks.
The Time I Didn’t Get Enlightened: My Silly Visit to the Emergency Psychiatric Facility
From Dan Latner/Medium: I’m baffled that such a pleasurable and transformative experience as I had was immediately pathologized as a mood disorder.
NHS Trusts Criticized Over System That Films Mental Health Patients in Their Bedrooms
From The Guardian: The Oxevision system, used by 23 NHS trusts in some psychiatric wards to monitor patients' vital signs, could breach their right to privacy and exacerbate their distress.
How Emotions Affect Our Cognitive Functioning | Gabor Maté, MD
From Gabor Maté, MD: Nature has given us the capacity to tune out or dissociate as a survival mechanism to escape overwhelming stress.
Art-Making as an Alternative Philosophy of Care During Emotional Crisis
From National Empowerment Center: MIA Arts Editor Karin Jervert gives a talk on the role of creativity in the healing process as part of the "Compassionate Approaches to Crisis" webinar series.
The Essence of Illness
From Psychology Today: Your body creates symptoms based on sensing cues of safety or threat. Sustained mental or physical threat — current or past — will cause serious illness and disease.
Drugs as the New Parents
From Mark Goulston MD/Psychology Today: Do emotionally orphan children turn to drugs to fill the void?
A Politics of Care: How the Science of ACEs Deepens Our Emotional Vocabulary
From SuzanneZeedyk.com: In the 21st century, we find ourselves at the very beginning of a public consciousness of the ‘catastrophic burden’ of emotional poverty.
Trauma, Trust and Triumph: Psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk on How to Recover from...
From The Guardian: His 2014 book, The Body Keeps the Score, has become a huge pandemic hit, topping bestseller lists this summer and becoming a meme on social media. What does it tell us about the world we live in?
The Woman Who Pioneered “Housing First”
From YES! Magazine: Three decades ago, one nurse came up with a radical idea: Give homeless folks suffering from addiction and 'mental illness' a safe place to be themselves.
