Can We Allow Suffering?
After 9/11, no psychiatrist, nurse, or social worker asked me what it felt like to watch as nearly 3000 souls left this planet in flames; what it felt like to be so afraid. There was a strange silence around it, as if this horrible event was unrelated to my mental state.
UN Special Rapporteur Dainius Pūras: Biomedical Approach “Still Has an Important Role to Play”
In Pūras' new UN report, his use of biomedical language seems at odds with his message to move beyond the medicalization of distress.
Dear “Psychology Today”: Believe Incest Survivors
Incest survivors are the neglected heroes of the #MeToo movement. Yet when it comes to entrenched narratives that silence incest survivors, mainstream media continues to propagate these harmful myths unchecked.
Deep Sleep “Therapy” in Australia in the 1960s & ’70s: Could Something Like This...
Psychiatry has a history of continuing to perform harmful, even deadly procedures. But does it still happen? Medication-induced akathisia filled two and a half pages of the DSM-IV. Why was it written out of the DSM 5?
Inequities in Mental Health Services: It’s Time for a Reckoning and Rectification
Clinical education must include more training in macro skills that help build the supports, policies, and community infrastructures under-served clients need.
SSRI Withdrawal’s Elephant in the Room: Tardive Akathisia
Slower tapering of antidepressant dose is generally more comfortable. However, success or failure after stopping completely mostly relates to whether tardive akathisia occurs.
Do We All Need Tinfoil Hats? Considering Schizophrenia
If alien species wanted to intervene in human society without fully revealing themselves, how would they do it? Choose a select number of individuals who are easily discredited by others in the group. In other words: Turn people into schizophrenics.
An American History of Drugs and Addiction, Part Two: Immigrating to a Temperance Culture
As Prohibition was taking hold on the East Coast in response to European immigrants, equal efforts for Prohibition were occurring on the West Coast, fueled by racist caricatures of Chinese immigrants.
Who Is a Danger to Others: The “Mentally Ill” or the Powerful?
If the cultural and socioeconomic structures of society had, from the beginning, allowed me to function, and even thrive, I undoubtedly never would have felt a need for antidepressants and “therapy.”
Ecotherapy/Nature Therapy/Green Therapy
Do you love hiking, backpacking, gardening or taking walks in beautiful places? Ecotherapy explores how our relationship with nature is an essential and therapeutic part of our humanity.
Behavioural Geneticist Robert Plomin: “There Are No Disorders, There Are Just Quantitative Dimensions”
It is encouraging to hear leading scientists such as Plomin acknowledge that psychiatric diagnoses are fundamentally arbitrary and that the idea of a “cure” does not make sense with regards to psychological issues.
A Tale of Two Paradigms
Two recent mental health reports from Oregon are steeped in the medical model, written by "experts" without lived experience and sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry.
Stop Saying This, Part Three: “Everything in Moderation” and More
Let’s start only accepting real relational offerings that do not make us contort, disavow comfort, strong-arm ourselves into appearing strong, or shoulder responsibility that is not ours.
Identity, Oppression, and the Culture of “The Mentally Ill”
A "mental illness culture" means that full time work is seen as impossible and discouraged, and your social world only consists of other mental health "consumers" and mental health workers.
Kicking Over a Straw Woman
The Galvin family is the quintessential example of "genetic" schizophrenia. But their history of sexual abuse, violence, and trauma provides a clearer and simpler explanation.
A Recovery Movement Jedi Master, Bill Anthony, Died Recently
The first time I met Bill was in 1991. I was just a couple years out of residency, and he was already the legendary “father of psychiatric rehabilitation.”
Drs. Pies and Ruffalo Still Rattling Their Wooden Swords
Pies and Ruffalo argue that psychiatric diagnoses are "diseases" because the word "disease" can't be defined, and suggest that circular logic is scientifically valid.
An American History of Addiction: Ardent Spirits
Our fears about drugs and drug addiction have allowed our society to accept court mandated treatment and the continuing militarization of police.
Professional Mental Health Leaders: Experts in Humanity or in Marketing?
A lot of people, perhaps especially Americans, like a quick fix. Unfortunately, for those of us who get the “help” of the mental health system, the results can be disastrous.
Whose Finger is Taking the Pulse of America’s Shock Treatment Controversy?
My doctors presumed I had agitated catatonia and ran 450 volts of electricity through my head 116 times to “reboot” my brain. They called it electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). I call it Electroconvulsive Trauma.
Stop Saying This, Part Two: “Reframing” and More
Myths around reframing, having to love yourself before someone else can love you, and being triggered are all addressed in this blog.
Is COVID-19 Making Everybody Crazy?
The response to the pandemic promises a vast expansion of the market for therapists, but such claims carry great potential for harm, adding to the burdens of people with upsetting but understandable, deeply human feelings.
Racism and Radical Psychiatry
A radical caucus within the American Psychiatric Association tried to combat systemic racism in the 1960s. So why is the APA still behind the times?
Suicide & Candy Corn: The Utility and Challenges of Risk Assessments
Researchers admit their suicide risk assessments work only about as well as random guessing, and they can lead to harm. We can instead focus on finding new ways to form connections that might help tether someone to this world.
Kerry O’Malley: A Personal Struggle Against Forced Medication
Neglect for personal autonomy is a pervasive attitude in the mental health system. No human being should be stripped of their dignity and autonomy, much less a vulnerable 74-year-old woman.
