Schizophrenia and Homosexuality: My Experience and Case Studies
During my confinement, I became convinced that the forced repression of my homosexuality was the true etiology of my schizophrenia.
Burnout: How Mental Health Systems Fail Neurodivergent Professionals
Many neurodivergent professionals are burning out quietly in a field that prides itself on empathy while treating its providers like machines.
Reframing Antipsychotic Discontinuation: A Psychiatrist’s Personal and Professional Call for Epistemic Justice
A psychiatrist with lived experience advocates for a more humane, collaborative approach to antipsychotic discontinuation that respects diverse ways of knowing.
Peer Support and Resistance: Becky Brasfield’s Vision for Mental Health Justice
In this interview with Ayurdhi Dhar, Becky Brasfield calls for radical truth-telling in the mental health system.
Summing up the STAR*D Scandal: The Public was Betrayed, Millions were Harmed, and the...
American psychiatry, the NIMH, the larger medical community, and mainstream media have betrayed the American public by failing to make this scandal known.
My Involuntary Metamorphosis
After day treatment, I went once a week to a “continuing care” group. What was “continued” was the lesson that you had a fault that was shameful, volatile and dangerous.
From Auctions to Moral Treatment
In less than 25 years Oregon moved from auctioning off the “care” of the "insane" to the lowest bidder to creating a safe place focused on recovery.
Mad in America’s 10 Most Popular Articles in 2024
A roundup of Mad in America's most read blogs and personal stories of 2024 as chosen by our readers.
Modern Psychology and Its Colonial Legacy
I question the modern rhetoric of ‘primitive’ cultures not having enough ‘knowledge’ about mental health and needing to be ‘educated’.
Who Can Consent to Research—and What Does That Mean for Forced Treatment?
What the doctors are not seeing is the health in people—except when it’s convenient for them and their research projects.
The Fallacy of Modern Psychiatry: Treating Symptoms, Ignoring Causes
To truly understand a person’s actions and behaviors, one must ask: What was this person exposed to? What did they experience?
Mental Illness Prophesies Society’s Spiritual Sickness
The rising prevalence of mental illness in the west is a warning to society to take a good, hard look at itself.
Set, Setting, Forgetting: Silence on Abuse in Psychedelic Therapy Histories
The failure to address therapist abuse in MDMA-AT perpetuates a dangerous silence that distorts the field's history and compromises future practice.
Exile: My Cure for Psychosis
Psychiatry infantilizes the patient. Living in exile allows formerly psychotic people to achieve mature, healthy independence.
Rights, Responsibilities and Resources–Peer Support in Mental Health Services
Service users and peer support experts should be taking inspiration from the Recovery movement and the defense of rights.
The Schizophrenic and the Dreamer
If delusions contain symbolic content, like dreams, then the language of the schizophrenic may be intelligible after all.
Mad Sisters: An Interview With Susan Grundy
Susan Grundy on her lifelong caregiving journey for an older sister diagnosed with schizophrenia at the age of 13.
What Are Waking Dreams, and Why Should You Care?
Indigenous cultures around the world recognize and intentionally cultivate waking dreams for both personal and community well-being.
Benzodiazepines Linked to Suicide, Study Finds
A new study finds that benzodiazepines—alprazolam (Xanax), lorazepam (Ativan), and diazepam (Valium)—are associated with an increased risk of suicidal events.
The Consciousness of Voices and Visions
Alan Robinson reviews a 30-year journey working with his voices and visions in directing actors and creative writing.
The Two Earliest Stories of Recovery in Oregon
In the early 19th century, frontiersmen Pelton and Day experienced recovery from "mental illness" after traumatic experiences.
Seriously Misleading Testimony by Psychiatry Professor in Oslo District Court About the Effect of...
Lawsuits are a means to obtain changes in an inhumane psychiatry.
Smoke ‘Em if You Got ‘Em: Rethinking Smoking as a Trauma Response
For people with trauma-impacted brains, smoking is a tool to quiet an ever-present storm.
Psych Drugs May Increase Likelihood of Death in Schizophrenia
The drugs, especially benzos and high doses of antipsychotics, led to an increased risk of death within five years. Antidepressants also did not reduce mortality.
Beyond the Chemical Imbalance: Looking to the Past to Understand the Mental Health Crisis
Our bodies and minds evolved to thrive in an environment that is vastly different from the one in which a majority of us now live.
