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).

Vector style illustration of a woman hugging her knees with cloudlike scribbles on a blue-gray background

Splitting Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder

53
Recognition of C-PTSD might be a double-edged sword, further marginalizing the very individuals it aimed to assist.
Red and white pills have spilled from a crystal dish along with red liquid

Critical Psychiatry Textbook, Chapter 8: Depression and Mania (Affective Disorders) (Part Eight)

4
Researchers have again and again demonstrated that depression pills double suicides both in children and adults.
Ekaterina Netchitailova

Stigma: But What if I Don’t Want to Be Like Everyone Else?

Should I keep silent when I am well, or continue talking about it, knowing that I will probably deal with stigma for the rest of my life?
Illustration depicting a row of people being erased by a broom-like object

Critical Psychiatry Textbook, Chapter 8: Depression and Mania (Affective Disorders) (Part Seven)

1
Peter Gøtzsche continues to detail the increase in suicide attempts and deaths found in studies of depression pills.

Changing Brains, Changing Minds: Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal and the Marital Relationship

5
As family support people for those caught in the mental health system, our job is to mitigate as much of the trauma as we can.

Akathisia: Historical Perspective for Healing

10
I'm still tapering from medications, but I am better, which is how I know recovery is possible. Understanding the systems that were impacted by medications was an essential piece of the puzzle.
Illustration depicting a pencil eraser erasing a person from a row of businessmen in suits

Critical Psychiatry Textbook, Chapter 8: Depression and Mania (Affective Disorders) (Part Six)

9
On the pharmaceutical industry's spinning of results of clinical trials to hide suicide attempts and deaths on depression pills.
Illustration including the words "MYTHS" and "FACTS"

Cochrane’s Demise: Misleading Denigration of Benzodiazepines for Acute Psychosis

7
On a misleading Cochrane review of benzodiazepines for acute psychosis, and how Cochrane responded to criticism.
Photo of a white child covering ears with hands

Critical Psychiatry Textbook, Chapter 8: Depression and Mania (Affective Disorders) (Part Five)

10
Peter Gøtzsche continues the discussion of the pharmaceutical industry’s manipulation of depression pill trials for children and adolescents.
Photo of a man in a suit holding money and making a shush sign with his finger on his lips

Psychiatrists: The Criminals Behind the Scenes of the Conservatorship Business

17
We need to dig deeper into the doctors who conduct these evaluations, who hide behind their sealed documents with no transparency and zero accountability.
Illustration depicting birds on wires. One bird sits far apart from the crowd.

Not Everyone Agreed With FDA Approval of Antipsychotic Rexulti for Agitation

5
Providing the sole "no" vote on the approval of Rexulti, the consumer representative on the FDA's advisory committee shares her reasoning.
Close-up of a gold padlock hanging from a man's belt

Antidepressants Have Destroyed My Sexual Function and Range of Emotions

32
In 2012, in a period of low mood and anxiety, my GP prescribed an antidepressant. Little did I know that this would derail my life.
A young woman crouches in distress in a corner, while a doctor's hand reaches out to her. Everything is white

An Unacknowledged Role of Doctors: Suppressing Women

65
Western culture has instilled the idea that women are inherently weak and must trust authoritative doctors to manage their distress for them.
A bottle of blue pills overturned on a wooden table

Critical Psychiatry Textbook, Chapter 8: Depression and Mania (Affective Disorders) (Part Four)

3
Discussing how depression pills don’t work for children and increase their risk of suicide.

Making Crazy: Rob Wipond’s “Your Consent Is Not Required”

7
Rob Wipond’s exposé details the vast net the psychiatric industry has cast over society under the guise of “trying to help.”
Vector illustration on blue background showing a person, book, magnifying glass, eye, and light bulb

Neurodiversity Is a Scientific Revolution

12
Although I experience distress acutely, I don’t have a disease, a bug, or an error. I have a body. When my circumstances are untenable, my body protests.

Giving Caregivers a Platform: Elianna, Mother of Brandon

8
An interview with Elianna, who lives in Colorado with her son, Brandon, 34. His many diagnoses and misdiagnoses include autism and schizophrenia.
A pill bottle on its side spills white tablets out (photo)

Critical Psychiatry Textbook, Chapter 8: Depression and Mania (Affective Disorders) (Part Three)

0
On the latest fad, ketamine, and how depression pills cause dependence and withdrawal.
Close up of two hands circling a group of wooden figurines on a table

The Medicalization of the American Mind

15
One cause of fragility? Pathologizing our children with psychiatric diagnoses and focusing on a medical solution to life's problems.

DOOCE: A Case Study on the Failure of Psychiatry

250
Heather Armstrong’s life was taken by psychiatry, and our unwillingness to scrutinize their methods of madness.
A woman in a box is glowing while people walk around her

It’s Time for Soteria: An Australian Perspective

24
Soteria-style community houses are a proven, viable, cost effective alternative to traditional psychiatric hospitals.
Illustration depicting a card on a clothesline reading "DIAGNOSIS: PLACEBO EFFECT" against a blue background

Critical Psychiatry Textbook, Chapter 8: Depression and Mania (Affective Disorders) (Part Two)

1
Peter Gøtzsche discusses misleading statements about depression pills and dosing.
A bottle of spilled pills on black background.

The Systemic Harms of Psychiatry

60
My research into psychiatry began in late 2016 after being admitted to a mental "health" facility. There was nothing healthy about that experience!
lonely man on the bench autumn, winter

Psychiatrogenesis (Whither Psychiatry or Reform)

Preying on the privatisation of distress comes the medical-industrial complex perverting the mental health landscape.
Close up photo depicting a man in a suit pouring two pills into his open palm

Critical Psychiatry Textbook, Chapter 8: Depression and Mania (Affective Disorders) (Part One)

On the drug industry’s influence in defining disorders and the lack of efficacy for depression pills.