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).

Are We Discovering More ADHD?

6
This is an important issue. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the percentage of children with an ADHD diagnosis continues to increase, from 7.8% in 2003 to 9.5% in 2007 and to 11.0% in 2011. The CDC also notes that the base rates for ADHD varies substantially by state ranging from a low of 4.2% in Nevada to a high of 14.8% in Kentucky.

A Harm Reduction Approach to the Mental Health System

28
There are an ever-increasing number of professionals and lay people who advocate for reforms within the mental health system. Even the staunchest of biological psychiatrists agree that changes must be made. When I first decided to pursue clinical psychology as a career, I did so with the intention of trying to change the system for the better, or at least to offer a different experience to individuals in distress. Personally, I believe that peer-led alternatives and independent funding are the things that advocates should focus more heavily on, but that does not solve the problem of what to do to decrease the amount of harm that is being done on a daily basis in the present. In this sense, I believe that a ā€œharm-reductionā€ approach to dealing with the current system is the best way to get what we can until something better exists.
doctor saying sorry

Power Means Never Having to Say Youā€™re Sorry

74
I wonder how this system would be changed if, tomorrow, every provider (past and present) woke up and made it their mission to find someone whoā€™s been through their services in one way or another, and told them they were genuinely sorry for something specific that had happened during that time.

DOOCE: A Case Study on the Failure of Psychiatry

250
Heather Armstrongā€™s life was taken by psychiatry, and our unwillingness to scrutinize their methods of madness.

Q&A: What Is Informed Consent, and What Should I Know to Help My Child?

5
My experience caused me to look into the origin of including the patient in decision-making about treatment and informed consent.

Complexity

17
The movement to radically reform the modern mental health system is rooted in a desire to offer people going through emotional distress a wider variety of options for care. As a society we have largely shifted to a model of care that is limited to a select few options that primarily advocates the use of strong psychotropic drugs and simplistic diagnostic labels for complex and widely varying narratives. The stigma of going on an antidepressant has been lessened to such a degree that one out of nine people in the US now takes this class of drug. In the context of this astronomical growth in drug-based therapy, reformers are rightly calling for a dramatic reappraisal of how we are treating emotional distress.

Raising Our Voices at TED 2013

29
At the end of my TED Talk one of the conferenceā€™s co-hosts came onto the stage and asked me, with a respectful interest, whether I still hear voices. For a split second I hesitated, wondering whether to play it down with an airy ā€œoh, not all that much now.ā€ Instead I opted for the truth: ā€œAll the time,ā€ I said cheerfully, ā€œIn fact I heard them while I did the talk ā€“ they were reminding me what to say!ā€

Pilots Crashing on Antidepressants: A (Not So) Brief History

17
With the current focus on the possible contribution of psychoactive drugs to the crash of GermanWings flight A320 on Tuesday, March 24, it is useful to identify potential links between the effect of the antidepressants and the events.Ā  In all 47 cases listed on SSRIstories, the pilots were taking antidepressant medications, mostly SSRIs, often in combination with other medications and sometimes with alcohol.
Teenagers Lifestyle Casual Culture Youth Style Concept

Good Damage: How Community-Led Healing Challenges the Campus Mental Health System

8
Being re-grounded in my community reminds me that mourning and love are inseparable, and that ā€œnothing about us, is for us, without us.ā€

Why Do We Lock People Up?

56
Every day, people who have not broken any laws have their human rights suspended indefinitely, without a formal judicial hearing, all on unsworn hearsay evidence and with practically no right of appeal.

Involuntarily Voluntary

14
I was never voluntary, no matter how much I convinced myself I was. Only now, my mind, body, and spirit fully free from the mental health system, am I coming to understand this. After desperately searching for answers to that once perplexing question of ā€œWho am I?ā€ I have found that Iā€™m connecting with a true, authentic sense of my Self for the first time.
rethink

Rethinking the Validity of Schizophrenia on World Mental Health Day

50
An open letter launched onĀ WorldĀ Mental Health Day, supported by people with lived experience, friends, family members, workers and researchers, calls onĀ Rethink Mental Illness, one of the major English mental health charities,Ā to co-create a new conversation about the diagnosis ā€œschizophrenia.ā€

Slices of Pies: A Dialogue with Ronald Pies

168
For those of you who haven't read it, I published a blog post called, 'Too Much Pies,' on Mad in America on Wednesday, April 10th.Ā  The post included an invitation to psychiatrist Ronald Pies (who caught the interest of many when he wrote a letter to the New York Times about psychiatric diagnosis) to a real dialogue, not limited by number of words, frequency of reply or professional licensure. I copied the letter directly to Mr. Pies, not knowing if he would reply.Ā  On Thursday, April 11th I received a direct reply that Mr. Pies has authorized me to repost here.Ā  I am also including my response to him.
Profile of a bearded man head with a symbol of neurons in the brain

A Brain for Our Emancipation

6
In times of crisis, we are required to adapt to conditions of suffering to safeguard capitalist production. We are asked to adapt our flexible brains to a hostile environment, and the possibility of transforming that environment is suppressed.

So You Say You Want a Revolution?

22
It's commonplace to hear that we need a big changeā€”a revolution, if you willā€”to make "the system" recovery-oriented, to replace the tired old over-emphasis on a biological model and to replace it with a new more hopeful standard of care.Ā  I knowā€”I have used all these catchwords myself for the past several years.

News Flash: 4.5 Million Children Forced Daily by ā€œCaretakersā€ to Do Cocaine-like DrugsĀ 

58
Before we get to the meat and potatoes documenting how this headline is not only shocking but also accurate, you must know that a secondary goal of this blog is to test a few theories. I have been pondering these theories because it seems to be a mystery as to why (after more than two decades of whistleblowers warning the public) so many adults have not heard or heeded the news that ADHD stimulant drugs, which are not that different from cocaine, are extremely dangerous for kids.

The Indian Health Serviceā€™s Psychiatric Drug Habit & the ā€˜Heavy Influence of Biomedical Modelsā€™

16
For many years, Iā€™ve been curious about the full extent of the Indian Health Serviceā€™s psychiatric drug habit. If I was sitting down with the agency and trying to help, Iā€™d likely ask questions like ā€œWell, how much money do you spend on your habit? How often are you using? What are your ā€˜drugs of choiceā€™?ā€ If Iā€™m to try to assist, I usually try to discover the interdependencies and relationships that represent obstacles to reducing and eventually quitting oneā€™s habit. In the case of the IHS, those interdependencies are extraordinarily complex.
lithium salts

Lithium: A Survivorā€™s Guide for Parents

55
When I was a young adult, I was misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder and placed on lithium. I am 61 years old now, living on the edge of end-stage kidney disease. If I could undo everything, by all means, I would not have taken this drug. It is not safe for anyone at any age.

How Can We Spread the News?

110
Ever since I read Mad in America and later Anatomy of an Epidemic by Robert Whitaker, I have been wondering how to spread this knowledge to the masses and how to do this in a way that will make a difference to as many people as possible.

Welcome to Planet ADHD: A Farce to be Reckoned With

25
Hello and welcome to my inaugural blog! It's an honor to join the insightful and talented team of writers at Mad in America. This exciting opportunity is the perfect complement to my efforts to help kids worldwide live childhood drug-free.

Critical Psychiatry Network Calls on Institute of Psychiatry to Cancel Charles Nemeroff

70
The decision by the Institute of Psychiatry, Britain's leading centre for psychiatric research, to invite disgraced Professor Charles Nemeroff to speak at the inaugural lecture of the Institute's new Centre for Affective Disorders has caused a great deal of controversy, news that was recently featured on Mad in America. In the latest development members of the Critical Psychiatry Network in UK have written an open letter to Professor Pariantes, the Director of the new Centre for Affective Disorders, requesting that he cancel Nemeroff's invitation.

Reclaiming My Voice

22
Everything was not okay, but how could I possibly explain? That I donā€™t belong here. That I am a phony, a fraud. That I am damaged beyond repair and unsuitable for this work. I felt it happening again: the pressure building in my chest and the tears burning my throat at the prospect of someone discovering my deepest, darkest secret. The precursor to my entire life falling apart.

Risk Management vs. Dignity of Risk

25
What does ā€œriskā€ really mean? Is it something to be afraid of and avoided at all costs, or something to be embraced?

Brand Fascism

2
The norm in science is that there is free access to the data underpinning experiments. If free access is denied; itā€™s not science. In the case of branded pharmaceuticals, we do not even know what trials have been done. What is put in the public domain is not data. The selected highlights of a football game and the comments of the pundits afterwards don't change the score. The selected highlights of pharma studies and the comments of pundits routinely change the score.

Interpreting Harrow’s 20-Year Results: Are the Drugs to Blame?

30
Martin Harrow has just published his 20-year outcomes data for schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders. Those who took antipsychotics regularly experienced more psychosis, more anxiety, cognitive impairment, and markedly fewer periods of "sustained recovery." Harrow asks: "Is very long-term treatment with antipsychotic medications undesirable?"