Psychiatry’s Denial of the Horrors of Tardive Dyskinesia
Tardive dyskinesia, a serious and horrible harm of psychiatric drugs, is often overlooked or deliberately ignored by psychiatrists.
What Is Climate DistressâAnd What Can Therapists Do About It?
Therapists who encounter climate distress should reject the false burden borne by individuals and embrace a spirit of shared vulnerability, solidarity, collective action, and demands for justice.
The Sweet Spot Between Ignorance and Certainty: A Place Where Dialogue and Healing...
Itâs now widely known that a good relationship between helper and person to be helped is one of the very most important factors determining the outcome from many different types of mental health treatment. But when people are in an extreme state such as the kind we call âpsychosis,â forming a good relationship is not an easy thing to do. And unfortunately, the typical interaction between professionals and clients seen as psychotic in our current mental health system has characteristics which make a positive human relationship almost impossible.
Mad Love
In the wake of transitioning from relationship to true friendship with my Beloved, I am continually struggling with what to do with myself in light of heartbreak, hardship on socially moving forward â alone, as it were â and ways to keep Hope alive. Were I to ably move forward in silence and in privately held pain and suffering, weeping in heartache, hoping for relief and release, wouldnât falling apart be easier without as much aforethought? Placing blame on my mental diversity, my moods, as it wereâŚ
I Believe Most of us Have a Broken Heart, Not a âMental Illnessâ
Some of you might know me from co-founding The Icarus Project, an online community, real-life support network, and alternative media project by and for people living with the complex gifts that are too often labeled as âmental illness.â Some of you might not know that I'm also a poet. I've been asked to share my work here on Mad in America. This first poem I'm going to offer you is about trauma and resilience; the ways that the world breaks our hearts, and the ways we survive to find our voices again.
Nutrient Boosting of Medications
Bonnie remembers seeing an issue of the Harvard Mental Health Letter dated October 2008 entitled âHerbal and dietary supplements for depressionâ [www.health.harvard.edu) and thinking âat last, people are beginning to accept that nutrient treatment of psychiatric symptoms is possible.â But the excitement turned to disappointment when the article revealed itself to be evaluating nutrients that could be used to âboostâ the impact of psychiatric medications.
Help Create a Real Stigma Reduction Campaign
The last four years I've been running Poetry for Personal Power, a stigma reduction campaign funded by SAMHSA. Poetry for Personal Power has been going to Missouri Universities and asking students what they do to get through hard times and we now have about 400 incredible videos on You-Tube, with youth wellness tools.
Recovery through Learning Creatura, a Language of Life
There is a language underneath our familiar verbal language. Ordinarily it is called nonverbal communication. It is also called body language. I came to...
Uses and Abuses of “Recovery” – A Review
The World Psychiatric Journal has published an interesting article, Uses and Abuses of Recovery: Implementing Recovery-Oriented Practices in Mental Health Systems, that outlines "7 Abuses of the Concept of 'Recovery.'" This effort to identify problems in the use of the term "recovery" is important, and it is good to see the many issues they raise being discussed in a major journal. I encourage people to read the article, as I won't be able to touch on many of its points here. Instead, what I want to do is to add some to their list of abuses of "recovery" and to critique some of their reasoning about what alternatives should be supported.
Are We Discovering More ADHD?
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.
The Spin Doctors: “ADHD” Research
We now spend over twenty billion dollars a year on treatment for something called âADHD.â For that amount of money, we could pay the mid-career salaries of an extra 365,000 teachers or 827,000 teachersâ aides.
âBreakthroughâ Treatment for Postpartum Depression: Game Changer or Misguided Magic Bullet?
Ultimately, the FDA Advisory Committee recommended approval of brexanolone by a 17-1 member vote. I was the only NO vote. I voted NO because as the sole Consumer Representative on the committee I didnât believe the company had demonstrated that the potential benefits outweighed the potential for harm.
Harm Reduction & the Elephant in the Room: End DSM Dependency
If youâve been paying attention the last two years, youâve seen the new DSM-5, as well as its predecessors, taking a beating from a variety of critics pre- and post-publication. Most have begun by noting the lack of construct validity of DSMâs diagnoses, dating from the landmark DSM-IIIR in 1987. Given the absence of scientific evidence to support their existence, these diagnoses were less likely to represent the neurobiological phenomena claimed by the DSMsâ several authors than to be products of their collective imaginations.
Psychiatry Is Not Based On Valid Science
On December 23, I wrote a post called DSM-5 - Dimensional Diagnoses - More Conflicts of Interest? In the article I sketched out the role of David Kupfer, MD, in promoting the concept of dimensional assessment in DSM-5, and I speculated that at least part of his motivation in this regard might have stemmed from the fact that he is a major shareholder in a company that is developing a computerized assessment instrument. The article precipitated a fairly lengthy debate in the comments section. The discussion was wide ranging, and some of the issues addressed were fundamental to the entire psychiatric debate, in particular: whether or not psychiatry is based on valid science.
Trump Anxiety Disorder Is More Fake News
For many people, the current political situation around the world is intensely frightening and not without cause. Depression and anxiety are on the rise, but we need a social model revolution in order to look at why this is happening. Labels like Trump Anxiety Disorder are merely a way to put peopleâs concerns in a box and leave them unaddressed.
Ready, Fire, Aim: Mainstream Psychiatry Reacts to the UN Special Rapporteur
In a commissioned commentary, two psychiatrists assailed the Special Rapporteurâs "anti-psychiatry bias." Their commentary reads as a crude ad hominem attack on the Rapporteur himself in order to divert attention from his well-founded conclusions about mainstream psychiatry.
Non-Compliance in the New Year: The Power of ‘No’
Iâm not sure how I feel about horseback riding. Well, actually, I know that the act of horseback riding itself terrifies me, but really what I mean is: Iâm not sure how I feel about the process of âbreakingâ a horse to make it rideable. However, when I conducted some (admittedly superficial) research on the topic, I came up with an abundance of information.
Holistic Approaches: A Proven Treatment for Psychotropic Drug Withdrawal
Published in the peer-reviewed journal Advances in Mind Body Medicine, this case series is the first of its kind to document the methodology employed in the successful discontinuation of a range of psychotropic medications, with holistic support interventions providing long-term mood support.
Holistic Recovery From Schizophrenia: A Mother and Son’s Journey
I am a mother of a son who was given a diagnosis of schizophrenia in December 2003, a son who is doing well today...
Effective Tactics for the âRehumanizing Resistanceâ: Real Politics 101, Part Two
In Part Two, I discuss strategy and tactics for the Rehumanizing Resistance, including: (1) Traditional, Personal, and Underground Politics; (2) Direct Action and Confrontation: When It Can and Cannot Succeed (3) Organizing: Taking Advantage of the Current Cultural Climate; (4) Alliances and Coalitions; and (5) Film and Media. In Part One, I discussed how the Resistance has been winning scientific battles but losing the war against the expansion of influence of First-Order Psychiatry (which includes American Psychiatric Association and Big Pharma), and how this is due in large part to the First-Orderâs effective political tactics and the Resistanceâs political naivety.
Diagnosing the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
What can we say about the DSM that hasnât already been said? Quite a lot, actually. The manual (full title: the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), produced by the American Psychiatric Association, is incredibly powerful. It shapes research agendas, clinical practices, social care, economic decision-making and individual experiences internationally. As Rachel Cooper notes in her excellent new book, Diagnosing the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, changes to it impact âthe lives of as many people as changes in the policies of most countriesâ (p. 2). The DSM needs to be talked about.
Is Psychiatry the Tea Party of Medical Science?
When I as a European follow American politics I canât help being amazed by the - I believe a polite expression would be â colorful personalities in the Tea Party and how they manage to continue to be a powerful part of American politics despite making claims that as I see them reported are easily debunked. American politics does not affect me directly but when I compare psychiatry as a part of the medical science to the Tea Party there are some striking similarities.
Nutrition Above the Neck: Why is This Topic Met With Hostility?
Why do people readily accept the data showing that nutrients are good for our hearts, and for prevention and (now perhaps) treatment of cancer . . . but they find it so hard to accept the use of nutrients to make us feel better mentally?
Children, Youth and Mental Health in British Columbia: A Presentation to the Legislature
"From years of personal and professional experience, I must tell you my biggest fear is that weâre massively misunderstanding the emotional and mental suffering of children and teens. Weâve taken their feelings, thoughts and suffering and transformed them into symptoms, diagnoses, reductive theories and then prescribing them an array of psychiatric drugs with dire short- and long-term consequences. Weâre drugging their emotions, their thinking and their quest for meaning into disabling silence."
“They Need to be Held Accountable”
Psychiatrists at the University of Minnesota forced a young man into a profitable study of antipsychotic drugs over the objections of his mother, who desperately warned that his condition was deteriorating and that he was in danger of killing himself. On May 8, 2004, Mary Weiss' only son, Dan Markingson, committed suicide. A petition to the governor of Minnesota now asks for an investigation.