The Rise of Solitary
From Dissent Magazine: In her recently published book 23/7: Pelican Bay Prison and the Rise of Long-Term Solitary Confinement, scholar and advocate Keramet Reiter discusses the...
How Survivors are Finding Strength in Martial Arts
From Love Fighting Hate Violence: For many women, participation in Muay Thai and other martial arts can play a major role in healing from sexual violence...
Non-Medical Treatments for PTSD Effective, Study Suggests
Group-based MBSR and PCGT therapies effective as a complementary treatment for PTSD.
A Veteran Wonders: How Will My PTSD Affect My Kids?
In this piece for The Atlantic, Brooke King reflects on how her trauma currently affects and may continue to affect her children, as well as...
Virtual Reality Promising for Mental Health Treatment
From Healio: A recent review indicated that virtual reality-based treatment may be effective for a variety of mental health concerns including phobias, social anxiety, PTSD,...
New Bill Targets Asian-American, Pacific Islander Community
From NBC News: Representative Judy Chu recently introduced the Stop Mental Health Stigma in Our Communities Act, a bill to reduce mental health stigma in...
Pentagon Study Links Prescription Stimulants to Military PTSD Risk
A new study suggests that service members who take stimulant medications to stay alert are five times more likely to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, the LA Times reports. “Those who had been prescribed multiple stimulants and the biggest supplies of the drugs were the most likely to have PTSD.”
Childhood Adversity May Increase Risk of Suicide
Swedish study suggests experiencing adversity in childhood is linked to dying by suicide as an adolescent or young adult.
Psychology Needs New Concepts and Healing Models for Racial Trauma
Contemporary empirical research explores new ways to conceptualize and heal racial trauma through anticolonial and sociohistorical lenses.
Healing from an Addiction to Patterned Ways of Thinking
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.
Distinguishing Dissociative Disorders from Psychotic Disorders: Compounding Alienation
If a person recognizes the “alien” parts of themselves as being parts of themselves, they are likely to be seen as having PTSD or a dissociative disorder. If they see the “alien” parts of themselves as being literally aliens, or demons, they will likely be diagnosed as psychotic. But these experiences are really on a spectrum.
Psychosis and Dissociation, Part 2: On Diagnosis, and Beyond
Recently I wrote an article on MIA entitled Trauma, Psychosis, and Dissociation. Several people responded privately with some very thought-provoking questions that I would like to explore and possibly answer to some extent here. Dedicated readers of the MIA website are all too familiar with the myriad problems that exist with diagnoses in general, the stereotypical (and often untrue) assumptions associated with these various categories, and their lack of scientific validity or reliability. First, though, I want to state that my area of experience and research is with trauma, psychosis, and dissociation . . .
All Tip, No Iceberg: A New Way to Think About Mental Illness
From The Conversation: The search for a single, identifiable cause underlying each mental disorder has yielded very few useful results. New research suggests that a network...
Selling Bad Therapy to Trauma Victims
From Psychology Today: The American Psychological Association has just issued guidelines for treating trauma that are backed by faulty science. The research behind the guidelines...
Emotional Triggers, Safe Spaces, PTSD and Politically Correct Language
-Emphasis on language "political correctness" on many college and university campuses may have less to do with politics than with how we process trauma.
Can Psychedelics Help End Addictions with One Dose?
Q13 Fox News discusses recent research giving psychedelics to people struggling with alcohol or cigarettes. David Nutt, an Imperial College London neuro-psychopharmacologist "thinks psilocybin...
Study Finds Increasing Minimum Wage can Decrease Child Maltreatment
Increasing the minimum wage - even modestly - can lead to less cases of child abuse in the home.
Study Examines Women’s Experiences of Hearing Voices
An international group of researchers from multiple disciplines has published a historical, qualitative, and quantitative investigation into voice-hearing in women. The interdisciplinary project, freely available from Frontiers in Psychiatry, explores how sexism, exploitation, and oppression bear on women’s’ experiences of hearing voices.
How Severe, Ongoing Stress Can Affect a Child’s Brain
From AP News: In response to research showing the long-term health impact of adverse childhood experiences, pediatricians, mental health specialists, educators and community leaders are...
Using Shakespeare to Ease the Trauma of war
From The New York Times: Learning Shakespeare can be a valuable way for veterans to begin to understand and heal from the trauma of war.
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Mental Health, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews: In his new book Mental Health, Inc., Art Levine reports on the dire state of the U.S. mental health system.
"The author delivers the...
I Took My First Antidepressant, and the Effects Were Frightening
In this opinion piece for The Guardian, Deborah Orr tells of her frightening experience with intense disassociation that occurred after starting an antidepressant.
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Here’s How Witnessing Violence Harms Children’s Mental Health
From The Conversation: Witnessing violence, via both media coverage of disturbing events and in-person aggression, can have a serious, long-term impact on children's mental health.
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United Nations Report Calls for Revolution in Mental Health Care
In a new report, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to health, Dr. Dainius Pūras, calls for a move away from the biomedical model and “excessive use of psychotropic medicines.”
How Trauma Lodges in the Body
In this episode of On Being, psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk discusses the role that bodywork including yoga and eye movement therapy can have...