Blogs

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

On a Paradox Revealed: Discontinuing Neuroleptics

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In Anatomy of an Epidemic, Robert Whitaker posits that long-term exposure to neuroleptics does more harm than good. I will discuss how I have wrestled with this in my practice.

Bring in the Peer!

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Around the country, consumers of the public mental health system speak of ‘empowerment’, ‘recovery’ and ‘independence’ while being disempowered, and made reliant on a system that uses the word ‘recovery’ as only a buzzword. How can Peer provided services help?

Madness Radio: Grainne Humphry on the Psychiatric Incarceration of John Hunt in Ireland

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Grainne was courageous to do this interview: I was struck by her strong love for John and her very deep sensitivity to the violence she has witnessed him undergo in the name of treatment. Let us all lend our hearts and passion to the international campaign to free John Hunt and to ensure that no one ever has to suffer the abuses he has suffered.

Return to Self an Alternative Medication?

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After nearly two years in Utah, from 2008-2009, I made the decision to return to the splendor of the Pacific Northwest where I had...

Letters from the Front Lines

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Dear Bob-- I've had a couple of remarkable conversations, not with my own patients, but with friends and acquaintances asking me for advice.  Each example...

The Power of Storytelling

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Over the years, I have heard many powerful recovery stories. I’ve also had many opportunities to share our family’s struggle with mental health challenges and our recovery journey.

The Reality Is In Our Heads

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Sandra Steingard’s recent post, “Is It All In Your Heads,” has occasioned a spirited discussion—on monism, dualism, and what may be going on when...

Should Jilted Lovers Be Treated with Antidepressants?

It is refreshing that The New York Times in the space of four days has published two articles which take a critical view of...

Revising the History of the Serotonin Theory of Depression?

Did scientists recently discover that the Serotonin Theory of Depression is false? Or has this been known for decades? We investigate.

Chapter Twenty-Three: On the Locked Unit, Locked in Myself

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As we made our way out of Boston and to the psychiatric hospital on the hill, I watched the ‘normal’ world— the world beyond the Plexiglas rear window of the ambulance I was strapped into— drift past me into the distance.

Bipolar Everywhere

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A recent dramatic rise in diagnoses of Bipolar has been documented (Moreno, Laje et al., 2007). Bipolar used to be a relatively rare event. When working at the state hospital during the 1970s, over a 7 year period, I recall only 4 or 5 patients with a bipolar diagnosis.

More on Recovery & Liberation: Oppression & Resilience

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Just a few days ago, the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, perhaps the foremost legal advocacy organization for persons with disabilities in the country, issued its “vision of community integration” for the disabled, listing the “key principles” that should be utilized to achieve that aim.

Is It All in Your Head?

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In a recent NPR story, there was a discussion of the serotonin theory of depression. It was acknowledged by the scientists who were interviewed that there is no evidence of a serotonin deficiency in the brains of people who are depressed.

The Taint of Eugenics In NIMH-Funded Research Today

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Recently, Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, identified the “NIMH’s Top 10 Research Advances of 2011.” He wrote: “This has been a year of exciting discoveries and scientific progress . . . Here are 10 breakthroughs and events of 2011 that are changing the landscape of mental health research.”

Tsunami of Frozen Grief Found in the Clinical Work

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One of the primary clinical teachings found in the pursuit of prescription drug withdrawal: we need stepping stones and a great many of them to navigate the perilous terrain.

Excellent Article on Antipsychotic Drug Harm Reduction in Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health...

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Matthew Aldridge, a psychiatric nurse at London's Lambeth Hospital, just published a new article in the 2011 Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, "Addressing Non-Adherence to Antipsychotic Medication: A Harm-Reduction Approach." This is an extraordinarily well researched clinical discussion of professional medication practice.

Foundation for Excellence in Mental Health Care Projects

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One of the incredible things I get to do is talk to researchers, people with lived experience, family members, psychiatrists, psychologists, pediatricians, therapists, social...

Psychiatry’s Grand Confession

The psychiatric profession has finally come clean and confessed on a national media outlet that there is no evidence to support the Serotonin Theory...

The Cure for Mood Disorders Is Dementia?

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Perhaps the most alarming current trend in psychiatry, documented by Domino and Schwartz (2008), is the rise in prescriptions for the class of drug...

Introducing Myself

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I’m an Associate Professor at the Georgia State University in the School of Social Work. Early in my career in the late 1960s and...

Get Off Prescription Drugs: Arriving at the Work

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I sat in my office in the middle of Provo, Utah (home of BYU) on a scorching hot Wasatch mountain day. I was taking a brief professional hiatus...

The Importance of Being Useful

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All people need to feel useful in this life.  The sense of belonging with others and being important to them is the primary need...

Letters from the Front Lines

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Dear Bob-- I met a new patient today, an African American gentleman in his late 40's, a successful entrepreneur and innovator (invented and marketed his...

Recovery and Liberation: One and the Same?

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You can’t have one without the other. I’ll explain as we go along. As 2011 was winding down, SAMHSA issued what it termed its “
...

Pilgrim’s Progress: From Young Madman to Old Therapist

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I'll begin this chapter of my personal odyssey through madness and the vocation it created of my life as a therapist specializing in madness, with...