Racial Justice and Lived Experience in Mental Health Advocacy: An Interview with Pata Suyemoto

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MIA's Julia Lejeune interviews scholar, activist, and educator Pata Suyemoto about lived experience activism and racial justice in the mental health field.
Photo of a prison cell with an uncomfortable-looking bed in the corner; a guard stands by the door

Inside a Forensic Psychiatry Unit: Earning the Right to Sleep on the Floor

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Life in the DC was far too complicated for me to be able to just listen to my body and sleep on a thick yoga mat placed on the floor to alleviate my severe back pain.

Screening for Bipolar: Have You Ever Been “Unusually Happy” for More than a Week?

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A new questionnaire funded by AbbVie conflates antidepressant side effects with bipolar disorder and doesn’t actually meet the criteria for being considered “screening.”
Illustration depicting a blue figure with three monkeys climbing on them

What We Have Always Known but Psychiatry Forgot

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When I came off my last medication, my psychiatrist said to me, “You will get sick again.” Psychiatry has always been sure that I would never recover from bipolar disorder.

Crisis on Campus: Mental Health Counselors Are Feeling the Crush

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A dramatic rise in demand for college mental health services has led to counselors feeling burned out. Counseling center directors are looking for solutions.

Australia’s Billion-Dollar Question: Why Is Mental Health Not Improving With Better Access?

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Amid growing mental health crisis, research raises questions about the mass rollout of brief psychotherapies in Australia.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA - September 8, 2018 The Indian Summer Festival, Child wearing traditional native american clothing, dancing at the pow wow competition.

A Case Before the U.S. Supreme Court Could Surge the Psychiatric Labelling and Drugging...

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If the Brackeen v. Halland case is successful, Native children are more likely to be placed with non-Native foster parents, and face a surge in psychiatric labeling and drugging.

Dorothea Buck’s Memoir Tells of the Horrors of Twentieth Century Psychiatry: A “Hell Amidst...

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Sterilized under Nazi law, Dorothea Buck fought throughout her life for psychiatric reform.

Mad in America’s 10 Most Popular Articles in 2023

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A roundup of Mad in America's most read blogs and personal stories of 2023 as chosen by our readers.
Photo of Don Weitz

Remembering Don Weitz, 1930-2021

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My hero, mentor, and very dear friend Don Weitz died comfortably, in his home, on the afternoon of September 1, attended by his loving twin children, Lisa and Mark.

Pathologized Since Eve: Jessica Taylor on Women, Trauma, and “Sexy but Psycho”

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Our guest today is Jessica Taylor, author of Sexy But Psycho: How the Patriarchy Uses Women’s Trauma Against Them, which was published in March...

Suicide Hotlines and the Impact of Non-Consensual Interventions

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Those struggling with suicidal thoughts may stay silent instead of reaching out to suicide hotlines because they fear non-consensual intervention and the harmful impact of police involvement.

The Impact the DSM Has Had On All of Us: An interview with Sarah...

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"You're not going to sell many drugs by saying your problem is your life experiences. It's far more effective to say your problem is in the brain. It's an imbalance, we can correct that imbalance, just take our product."

Antipsychotics Worsen Cognitive Functioning in First-Episode Psychosis

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Withholding antipsychotics may be beneficial for memory, the researchers write.

Inside a Forensic Psychiatry Unit: Here’s How to Survive

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Sean Gunderson, who was detained by the criminal justice system for 17 years after receiving an NGRI verdict, documents the life of a forensic psychiatry inmate.

Lead Exposure in Childhood Impacts Personality and Mental Health

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A study of over 1.5 million people in Europe and the US links the development of less adaptive personalities with childhood lead exposure.

So Long, Psych Meds: Escaping the Medication Maze

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There was a time when I could think of nothing else but pills and prescriptions, pain and panic. Psychiatry shrank my world.

Teen Arts Exhibition: Beyond Labels And Meds: What It Feels Like To Be Me

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28 teen artists share the power of their creativity in this collection of profoundly moving, courageous, and beautiful artwork.

“Never Look on the Dark Side”: The Science of Positivity from Early Eugenics to...

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The "science" of happiness has always been inextricably linked to eugenics. Modern positive psychology, with its focus on genetics and willpower, is no different.
UN flag against cloudy background

Global Psychiatry’s Attempt to Excommunicate the Former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to...

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The UN reflected a middle-ground position for human rights-based mental health, but the response from psychiatric organisations was hostile.

Andrew Scull—Desperate Remedies: Psychiatry’s Turbulent Quest to Cure Mental Illness

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Sociologist and author Andrew Scull discusses the history of psychiatry's "Desperate Remedies," from lobotomy and the asylum to the failures of today's drugs and the fads of ketamine and deep brain stimulation.
A screenshot from Dr. Strangelove depicting Major Kong riding a bomb and waving his cowboy hat

How to Explain Top Psychiatrists’ “Dr. Strangelove Exuberance” Unchecked by Reality

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Leading psychiatrists appear unfazed that their theories and treatments are repeatedly proven to be scientifically invalid and discarded.

Toxic Marketing: The Business of Selling TMS

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Ads pushing transcranial magnetic stimulation are everywhere. As someone harmed by the treatment, I believe they are misleading and unethical.

Screening for Perinatal Depression: An Effective Intervention, or One That Does More Harm Than Good?

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Why does the U.S. describe perinatal screening as providing a proven benefit, while the task forces in the U.K. and Canada see no evidence of such benefit?

Medicating Preschoolers for ADHD: How “Evidence-Based” Psychiatry Has Led to a Tragic End

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The prescribing of stimulants to preschoolers diagnosed with ADHD is on the rise, which is said to be an "evidence-based" practice. A review of that "evidence base" reveals that claims that ADHD is characterized by genetic and brain abnormalities are belied by the data, and that the NIMH trial of methylphenidate in this age group told of long-term harm.