Blogs

Bob-- Since we've started posting these letters, I've had a number of readers responding to me and asking about my strategies for withdrawal. As you...

I was invited to give a Keynote Address at the 2012 Alternatives Conference in Portland Oregon, and I'm collecting your input on what I should...

Bob-- I'm going to share with you a case from today that did not involve psychotropics, but I think it illustrates an important point about...

Is the Food and Drug Administration violating its own mandate to approve safe drugs? That was the question that Donald Light, co-author of The...

Dear Bob-- Here's a story of stark contrasts. I saw a man for a physical recently, mid-50's.  He was the picture of health, on no medications...

Dear Bob-- I want to share an email I received from a physician friend, who practices in a hospital-based specialty. He is highly intelligent, naturally...

Bob-- Many cases I have shared with you have been interactions with patients who are seeking a healthier way of dealing with mood disorders, or...

At Recovery Innovations we believe in the fact of recovery, and that people tell their journeys from many perspectives. We hope that the stories in this blog from our team, the people we serve and their families and supporters will fill your heart and inspire you with hope!

Bob-- This is the twentieth letter that I'll be posting on your website. I thought I'd use the occasion to reflect on what I've observed...

Dear Bob-- As I share with patients my new perspectives on the ineffectiveness and potential harm of psychotropic drugs, I have found that many, even...

Randy Tucker was homeless and sleeping beside the veterans memorial in his Florida town. He had little patience with the local VA and a lot of intent to harm himself. Then he heard the cry of Tom Cruz’s child in the background of their phone call. And that's when the possibility of recovery struck him. If Cruz could come to the brink of suicide himself, and survive and thrive …

Dear Bob-- I saw a very nurturing woman a few months ago, quite obese, for the symptoms of chest pain and fatigue. She had been admitted...

Bob-- A couple of very positive patient encounters yesterday: • First, I saw a fit, vibrant 45 year old woman who presented for the first time...

Robert Whitaker’s book, Anatomy of an Epidemic, has provoked all manner of responses.  Some outraged, dismissive, but many supportive and relieved to hear the...

About a year ago I participated on a television panel which discussed the antipsychotic drugs and the massive settlements pharmaceutical companies paid out. A...

While some will frame Eleanor Longden’s story, told in her awesome TED video (which has now been viewed about 1/2 million times!), as the triumph of an individual struggling against “mental illness,” I believe the story might better be seen as a refutation of the whole “illness of the mind” metaphor, and as an indication of a desperate need for a new paradigm.

This post is a bit different from my typical system sausage making pieces in that I would like to reflect on the Mad in...

I envision a world where there is no need for a mental health field/system because communities are strong and we have a holistic understanding...

Bob-- A couple of weeks ago, I got a call from the mother of one of my teenage patients, a 14 year old Chinese-american boy...

Bob- I saw a sixteen-year old girl for a sports physical today. She plays softball for the local high school and also is on the...

Senator Charles Grassley is upping the ante on the controversy surrounding the Vertex pharmaceutical executives who cashed in on overstated clinical trial data --...

In June this year the BMJ published an article supposedly about how the Black Box Warning that antidepressants cause suicide had led to a drop in the use of the same antidepressants and an increase in suicides. The message was widely trumpeted in daily newspapers and other news outlets as well as the press office of Harvard University and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. In fact there had been no drop in the use of antidepressants and no increase in suicide rates or suicide act rates. The letters sent to the BMJ in response to the article wondering how such a shoddy piece of work could possibly have been published are worth reading – rarely is academic contempt so scathing.

Bob-- Today, I saw a bright, athletic lacrosse player who is a high school sophomore. She was seeing me to follow up on a mild...

Bob-- Today, I saw a very friendly, highly intelligent (she has a PhD in economics) and overweight 34 year old woman for a refill of...

I’ve kept a deep, dark secret for almost 25 years. No one, other than a few therapists, has any clue that I attempted suicide when I was 26. Not one friend. Not one family member. Now, by “owning” what I did, I’m exposing more of my soft, vulnerable side, which is scary, but at the same time, it’s my most beloved side of myself.