Discipline, Not Drugs
This is how a child gets into the mental health system. At age 3 he pitches a fit in the grocery store because he...
Doctors Need Support
An old friend suggested to me that doctors need support after hearing the messages in Robert Whitaker’s book, “Anatomy of an Epidemic”. I agree....
The Mouse That Roared: CIAD & Friends vs. the State of New York
If you log onto the website of the New York State Office of Mental Health at www.omh.ny.gov, you’ll find out that less than three...
How entrepreneurial thinking can improve mental health advocacy
I've been working on starting a business that can use market forces to create benefit for our communities. This is called social entrepreneurship. Different models...
The Rotted Fruit
In the law if one falsehood is uncovered in sworn testimony, all of the statements made and the actions that follow are suspect. If...
An Opportunity to Walk the Talk — Occupy the American Psychiatric Association May 5th...
On May 5, 2012, MindFreedom International is holding its Occupy the American Psychiatric Association protest at the APA's annual convention in Philadelphia. Momentum is building for the...
Madness Radio: Toby Watson on Ethical Psychotherapy
It was a long haul from being a psychiatric patient in 1992 to graduating with a masters in counseling in 2011. I flunked out...
Chapter Twenty-Six: Reaching the End, and Making a Start
A deep blue blanketing of 1AM sky envelops my car as I sit in my parents’ driveway in February 2010, pondering my next, last...
How the “Brain Defect” Theory of Depression Stigmatizes Depression Sufferers
Viewing depression as a “brain defect” rather than a “character defect” is supposed to reduce the stigma of depression, according to the American Psychiatric...
How drug companies continue to hide the true story of Tamiflu and other drugs...
I’ve been reading Dr. David Healy’s new book, Pharmageddon, and while some of it may seem like old news, I was struck by his...
When university attorneys play hardball with patients
Everyone knows that some attorneys have a reputation for playing hardball. In fact, many of us even seek out attorneys who play hardball. But...
Should Children Have Consent Rights For Psychosurgery, ECT and Sterilization?
"Madness!" was the vehement one word response from my friend when I told her that the Mental Health Minister of Western Australia has proposed legislation to allow children as young as...
Letters from the Front Lines
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...
New Study on a Non-Toxic Intervention for Those at High Risk of Psychosis
A new multi-centered study was released about using cognitive therapy for young people who were seen as being at high risk of psychosis.
The article reporting the study is on the British Medical Journal website, available in full – http://www.bmj.com/content/344/bmj.e2233. It’s curious to see how it is being reported in the press.
Why We Should Be Customers and Not Charity Cases
Recently I posted about mental health social entrepreneurship, where we can use market based principles to solve our problems accessing effective care. Some people...
Working the assembly line at the human experimentation factory
If the past decade had an emblematic moment for clinical research, it was probably November 12, 2005, the day when Bloomberg Markets published its...
You Are What You Eat
Food is the most important thing any of us ingests and it seems foolish to not pay careful attention to the foods we choose to eat.
Hope
Hope is the emotional state, the opposite of which is despair, which promotes the belief in a positive outcome related to events and circumstances...
Why We Need Mental Health Social Entrepreneurship
A mental health social entrepreneurship is a business that uses market principles to maximize benefit instead of maximizing profit. For instance, my business, Wellness...
“Social Workers’ Malaise: What’s Our Mission?”
Just a few final words on this issue.
One of the readers of the blog I posted on March 27 on madinamerica.com identified himself as...
Playing Hide-and-Seek with Psychiatric Drug Studies
If I were in charge of distributing NIH grant money, I’d be sending a lot of it to researchers like Erick Turner, a psychiatrist...
Does It Matter if We Believe in Mental Illness?
It's clear that different people relate to the idea of "mental illness" and labeling differently. Many people find the experience of being diagnosed with...
Bipolar? When Quitting is the Answer
Whether it’s the Nurtured Heart Approach, or any other method that’s truly up to the task, we need these effective strategies and ways of thinking to be more widespread so we can lessen the pitfalls of the medical model’s limited prospective which has no idea of how to turn intense into immensely great.
Dialogical Recovery of Life
During a recent dialogue training, Dr. Peter Rober, from Belgium, said, "listening deeply, going beyond categories, creates dialogical space in which life can come......
1984 & DSM5, Revisited: Where Are the Social Workers?
Where are the social workers? Where are the NASW and its local and state-wide chapters? For that matter, where are the peer-run and -led...
