Breaking The Silence – Supporting Young People who Hear Voices in the US

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In the last few years I’ve developed a sincere admiration for those youth workers who specialise in working with young people pushed out onto the edge of society. I’ve witnessed, first hand, the ease with which they can broach topics that would leave many of us feeling uncomfortable. The best of them can speak about sex, violence, drugs and exploitation in a real and pragmatic way that signals a deep acceptance and understanding of the dilemmas young people face – with no blame or judgement. This ability to transform the taboo into the ordinary is something I’ve tried to develop in my own work. Through Voice Collective, a project supporting children and young people who hear voices in London, I specialise in training youth workers to do the one thing that can push them far outside of their comfort zone – talking with young people about hearing voices.

Markingson Case Supporters: Please Join Our Call-In Campaign

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Patient advocates and bioethicists have launched a call-in campaign demanding action on psychiatric research abuse at the University of Minnesota.

Antidepressants, Pregnancy, and Autism: Why Wouldn’t Antidepressant Chemicals Affect a Developing Baby’s Brain?

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This week another study was published showing that SSRI antidepressant use during pregnancy is associated with increased rates of autism in the children.  By my count, this is now the tenth study on this topic and it follows on the heels of previous studies – all of which found links between SSRI antidepressant use in pregnancy and autism in the offspring.  Most of these studies were recently reviewed by Man, et al, who also concluded that SSRI antidepressant use during pregnancy is associated with autism in the children. So we now have numerous studies in different human populations all showing a link between SSRI use in pregnancy and autism in the children. Yet, much of the news and blogosphere focus on casting doubts about these findings. What is going on here?

Psychotropics Accelerate Cognitive and Functional Decline

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Researchers at Johns Hopkins, The Mayo Clinic, Harvard Medical School, Duke and others found in a study of 230 Alzheimer's patients tracked over four...

The Virtues of Boredom

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From The Atlantic: Like loneliness, boredom is an emotion that almost everyone feels, but almost no one talks about. Boredom may be useful in revealing...

Study Explores Māori Community’s Multifaceted Understanding of “Psychosis”

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A new study explores how “psychosis” and “schizophrenia” are viewed within the Māori community in New Zealand.

From Madness to Mastery: Gaining Competence with Altered States

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Is madness good for something? If there is something positive about psychosis, then perhaps what we really need is a balanced view, somewhere between “romanticizing” it as being all good and “awfulizing” it as being all bad.

In Patients Diagnosed with Schizophrenia, Depression Linked to More Accurate Assessments

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Participants diagnosed with schizophrenia with higher levels of self-reported depression have more accurate assessments of abilities.

Cognitive Enhancement With Yoga

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From Psychiatric Times: A recent study suggests that Kundalini yoga may be at least as effective as memory training in improving cognitive resilience in older adults with...

Could a Different Approach to “Mental Health” Be Part of Solving the Climate Crisis?

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Earth Day 2013 is a good time to reflect on how problems in our mental health system reflect deep flaws in “normal” conceptions of what it means to be a human being. These flawed conceptions then contribute in a critical way to the climate crisis that threatens us all.

“I Cried Every Day at Work”: Mental Health Among Doctors

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From The Guardian: Doctors are increasingly experiencing mental health issues due to the unrelenting pressure, inhumane working hours, brutal competition, and workplace bullying that is...

The Real Myth of the Schizophrenogenic Mother

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Acknowledging the role of trauma inflicted by a given individual’s mother is not the same as laying all blame for “mental illness” at the feet of motherhood. Meanwhile, a mountain of evidence has accumulated linking schizophrenia to sexual, physical, and emotional abuse and many other categories of adverse childhood experiences.

Michael Wilusz: Coming of Age on Psych Drugs

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Michael Wilusz discusses his experience struggling with emotional distress, the ensuing regimen of psychiatric drug treatment, and his process tapering off of the drugs.

Benzo Drugs, UK Fudge, Cover Up and Consequences

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In 1980, the British Medical Journal published a “Systematic Review of the Benzodiazepines” by the Committee on the Review of Medicines. The committee denied the addictive potential of Benzodiazepines and limited their suggestions to short term use. The results have been devastating.

Researchers Find Brief Intervention for Preventing Self-Harm Ineffective

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“These interventions also have the potential to increase rumination and negative affect, and potentially self-harm repetition, by serving as unhelpful reminders of negative experiences in the lead-up to the index self-harm event or during hospital treatment.”

“Woman Can Sue Study Sponsor for Suicide Try”

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A woman in Texas attempted suicide while in the active group of a clinical trial for smoking-cassation drugs Chantix and Zyban, both known to...

UK Woman Speaks Out About 22 Year Addiction With Prescribed Ativan

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ITV features and article and video today about the widespread problem of addiction and withdrawal from benzodiazepine drugs used to treat anxiety, including Ativan, Librium, Diazepam and Temazepam. Mother of three Sandra Minshull shares her story and discusses how Ativan “robbed her of her life.”

Antidepressants Actually Reduce Serotonin Levels

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Common scientific beliefs about serotonin levels in depression and how antidepressants act on the brain appear to be completely backwards.

“Study Links Mobile Device Addiction to Depression and Anxiety”

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A study published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior found that addictions to mobile devices are linked to anxiety and depression in college students....

“Special K” as Antidepressant: Short-term Gain; Long-term ?

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Ketamine (known in social circles as "Special K") has been touted as a rapid-acting and "profound" treatment for depression. The Journal of Psychosocial Nursing...

“Move Over Big Pharma Amphetamines — Cannabis Successfully Treats ADHD in Clinical Trials”

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At Alternet, Jay Syrmopoulos of The Free Thought Project discusses new research on the use of medical marijuana as a treatment for ADHD within the context of the ongoing debate over the validity of the ADHD diagnosis.

Minimal Empirical Support for Antidepressant Treatment in Young People

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Researchers from Australia reviewed the existing literature for good-quality evidence of effective prevention and treatment of depression in young people. Prevention research was dominated...

Association Between ADHD and Bipolar Disorder

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Researchers in London review the literature on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and bipolar disorder (BD), finding that "comorbidity and family studies appear to...

Healing from an Addiction to Patterned Ways of Thinking

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I had a soul-redemptive heart-to-heart reunion with a woman I had known from a distance but whom now (after our hours long coeur-a-coeur/heart-to-heart) I consider a close friend. I shared with her some very exciting and some challenging circumstances I have been experiencing of late. After I shared and shed a few tears she told me a story from her life that also poses, like my story, an invitation for profound change in our lives.

The Side Effect of Meditation I Didn’t Expect

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In this piece for The Elephant Journal, Flavia Simas shares how meditation not only helped reduce her depression and anxiety but also improved her self-esteem. "It helps...