Blogs

Essays by a diverse group of writers, in the United States and abroad, engaged inĀ rethinking psychiatry. (The directory of personal stories can be found here, and initiatives here).

Hands together against the sky

How We Started the Bay Area Hearing Voices Network

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Voice hearers have created a community.Ā Often, for the first time, they feel safe to talk about their experiences and reach out for support.Ā 
Macro photography of wooden blocks representing people. One red one stands among wood-colored ones.

The Core Error of Psychiatrists and Psychologists: Certainty about ā€œConsensus Reality”

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Mental health professionals are selected and socialized to accept consensus reality and see a lack of adjustment to it as "mental illness."

“What Matters to You?” ā€“ An Antidote to “What’s Wrong” and “What Happened”

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Both ā€˜whatā€™s wrong with you?ā€™ and ā€˜whatā€™s happened to youā€™ risk sidelining peopleā€™s own understandings and solutions.
Vector illustration of an open pill bottle spilling red and white pills onto a blue floor from an outstretched pale hand.

So-Called Suicide Experts Recommend Antidepressants, Which Increase Suicides

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They are biased towards drug use and cherry-pick the studies they quote even when they call their reviews systematic.
A road curves past a tree. A path worn into the grass leads away.

A Case for Parallel Mental Health Care

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Can people turn against the psychiatric priesthood and find the answers within themselves and their own communities?
A sweet girl schoolgirl on a gray background. Works homework by reading a book in a yellow cover.

New Guidelines on How to Accurately Convey ADHD Information

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The guidelines explain what research on ADHD has found, strengths and limitations, and more accurate ways to express what it means.
Fraud stamped across STAR*D article

Investigators Who Blew the Whistle On STAR*D Fraud Call for Retraction of Five AJP...

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A letter that Ed Pigott and Jay Amsterdam sent to Ned Kalin, editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Psychiatry.
Cartoon illustration of a yellow brain lifting weights on a purple background

ADHD and ā€œWeak Muscle Disorderā€

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"ADHD" doesnā€™t explain inattentiveness, just like "weak muscle disorder" doesnā€™t explain muscle weakness, just describes something improvable.
A hand holding pills from a pill bottle. Legs in military camo are visible

Risks of Prescribing Psychiatric Drugs to Veterans

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I wrote this article because of continued inaction to inform veterans and all Americans of the risk profiles of the drugs theyā€™re prescribed.
The puppeteer's male hand manipulates the news announcer in the TV

Gigantic Hoax on Danish National TV: ā€œPatients with an ADHD Diagnosis Die Five Years...

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Danish TV issues a correction after learning that this purported study doesn't exist.
Older adult sitting with a blanket in lap, holding the hand of someone else out of frame

Preventing Suicide Among Older Adults

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In an ideal world, the goal would be to have interconnected, trauma-informed, ā€œhelpingā€ communities to prevent suicide in older adults.
Family silhouettes against a green and yellow background of a tree

SAFE: Survivors And Families Empoweredā€”An Update

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We hope to combat the increasing reliance on force, too often used with the justification ā€œfor your own good.ā€
Pop art style. Two workers carry a bandaged brain on a stretcher.

What Helped and What Hindered My Recovery from PSSD and Protracted Withdrawal from Antidepressants?

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To recover from protracted withdrawal, I did everything I could to survive the process and help my body and mind heal.
An orange and an apple with faces facing toward each other. Each have mold growing in different areas.

Is Mental Health a Choiceā€”and Can Understanding Help Us Heal?

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Thereā€™s a pattern and a purpose to what the mind does. You canā€™t change it, you have to understand it.
Black and white photo of a confused mob of people with one serene face in the middle

Right-Wing or Left-Wing: Who Really Owns the Critique of Over-Medicalisation?

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Left-wing critique has always challenged powerful vested interests that prefer not to be disturbed.
Line art of a person smiling; abstract orange and yellow blocks

How to Be a Happy, Successful Incurable Schizophrenic

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If you are a young schizophrenic, I encourage you to accept the challenge of leading a happy, productive, meaningful life.
Two similar looking men flexing muscles in black and white

The Long-Disputed Science of Twin Studies

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Twin studies and heritability estimates are used in support of biological determinism and in defense of the global inequality status quo.
Doctor looking frustrated raising hands behind a desk with piles of paper

STAR*D: The Harms of Orchestrated Psychiatric Fraud

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STAR*Dā€™s results are too bitter a pill for psychiatric leaders to swallow, so they have chosen to become a rogue medical specialty.
Miniature people walk in circles atop a pie graph

Human Suffering as Numbers and Graphs: The Problem with Measuring Outcomes in Therapy

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Outcome monitoring is a product of bureaucratic healthcare: Human suffering reduced to efficiency optimization.
An older man holds his hands together obscuring his face, head dropped in sadness

Elder Eyes Wide Shut

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There is no universal moral code: Elder law and the injustice and inhumane practice of legal guardianship are a calculated effort by the court, the attorneys, and the healthcare system.
Photo of cupped hands holding little pills with smiley faces on them

Do Depression Pills Improve Quality of Life?

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In the upside-down world of psychiatry, the pills that destroy your sex life are called happy pills. I call them unhappy pills or anti-sex pills.
Sepia toned close-up photo of pills

What Iā€™ve Learned about Tapering Psychiatric Drugsā€”A Holistic Therapistā€™s Perspective

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Liberation from pharmaceuticals is possible, but it is not an easy journey. I advocate for informed consent.
art mannequin leaning on a sad face wood block

The Iatrogenic Gaze: How We Forgot That Psychiatry Could Be Harmful

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The victims of psychiatric iatrogenesis believed they were taking a vitamin, only to later realize it was poison.