I Want Change
Only two hours after we got home, Dan fearlessly told me of the suicide plan that he'd devised while in the hospital. He had all that time to think about it while nobody was listening. He'd lost his dignity, his identity and his place in society. He had lost the will to live.
Is the Mental Health System Yet Another Form of Institutional Racism?
With the political tide shifting across the United States and reports of hate crimes increasing daily, examining the systems that promote social control and act as tools of racism is paramount. Is it possible that the mental institution is just another venue for imprisoning Blacks unjustly?
Safety Analysis Weighs Harms and Benefits of Antipsychotic Drugs
The researchers find that the drug effects for reducing psychosis are small and that treatment failure and severe side effects are common.
Have You Ever Wondered Why Labels on Supplements are so Vague?
If it wasnât evident before, these newer regulations make it crystal clear that prescription drugs have a monopoly over the terms âmedicineâ and âtherapeutic benefit,â and that it is very difficult for anything that isnât a Big Pharma drug to make a therapeutic claim.
My Baby, Psychosis & Me: A lesson in how not to make a documentary...
The issue of how women in crisis are supported after a birth is personally relevant. One day I hope to have a child. As someone whose distress sometimes takes the form of psychosis, I was eager to connect with the stories of women who had trodden this path before me.
How the Technologically-Immersive Culture is Wrecking Our Youthâs Health & Well-Being
The devices that have been left to our kids are not âchildâs play,â and should not be treated as such. At any given time, our youth can run up thousands of dollars in bills, view graphic and disturbing sexual images, be awoken with frightening messages, reach anyone, anywhere, at any time, and live an otherwise distracted, detached life.
Kids Diagnosed with Autism More Likely to Get Psychotropic Drugs
Children diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are much more likely to be prescribed a psychotropic medication.
Treating Depression with Exercise and an Internet-Based Intervention
A new study compares exercise, Internet-based cognitive-behavioral therapy (ICBT) and usual care for treating individuals with depression.
A Best Kept Secret
After working in the field, I have found that the majority of people in the mental health system are not getting adequate care like I received during my first psychotic episode. I was lucky enough to have a doctor who took a nontraditional approach to schizophrenia and worked with me on coming off of medications.
The ACE Survey is Unusable Data
Do the effects of trauma matter more, or a person's ACE score? I think this is unusable data that harms people when you gather it. Here's why.
Study Finds No Benefit for Testosterone Treatments
Researchers find no benefits for testosterone as a treatment for improving mood, psychological well-being, and cognitive function.
Troubled by Individual and Collective Psychosis? Maybe Compassion and Dialogue Could Help!
We need to learn to listen and respond in a caring way to the disturbed and disturbing voices within the populationâto really engage with them, while also not believing any lies or distortions or letting destructive forces take over.
Pharma Data Sharing Efforts Off to a Slow Start
Researchers discuss the preliminary results of clinical trial data sharing efforts by pharmaceutical companies and other groups.
Understanding Extreme States: An Interview with Paris Williams
In this interview we will explore often-contentious topics including the non-validity of the biological model, the link between parenting problems and psychosis, and how best to help psychotic people who are fighting both emotional conflicts and a psychiatric system drugging them into silence.
Antidepressants Increase the Risk of Suicide and Violence at All Ages
Although the drug industry, our drug regulators and leading psychiatrists have done what they could to obscure these facts, it can no longer be doubted that antidepressants are dangerous and can cause suicide and homicide at any age.
Curing Schizophrenia via Intensive Psychotherapy
I believe that an Intensive Psychotherapy can lead to healing and, often, a cure of psychotic states. By cure I mean the cessation of delusions and hallucinations, and a gradual titration off of antipsychotic medication, with the cure lastingâeven without continuing psychotherapy.
Neurosexism: Study Questions Validity of Gender-based Neuroscientific Results
Neuroscientific results that class humans into two categories, âmaleâ and âfemale,â tend to reify gender stereotypes by giving them the appearance of objective scientific truth.
How I Healed My âBipolar Disorderâ
I was desperate to get off the medication. I wanted to be in control of myself again; independent and capable. The label of Bipolar Disorder made me feel like I was seen as a crazy person who did not fit into society. I wanted my dignity back!
VA Hospitals Perform Worst on Inpatient Psychiatric Care
The results of the cross-sectional study show that U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) owned hospitals perform worst on most measures.
In a Post-Trump Election World: What is Insanity?
Insanity is often the result of chronic oppression, trauma, and a sense of injustice and hopelessness. Is it possible we are in the midst of a collective psychosis?
Going On or Off Psych Drugs: One Reason or Many?
Many people report having one reason to go off psychiatric drugsâfeeling that they just know they need to, sensing they will die if they donât come off, etc. It is far less common to hear of someone going on psych drugs because they know they must.
Study Finds Music Therapy May Be Effective in Clinical Practice
In a new study published in The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, Professor Sam Porter and co-authors, present the results of a music...
Whatâs the Harm in Taking an Antidepressant?
We know that all drugs have side effects. Thatâs just part of the deal right? But is it really possible that an antidepressant can cause a sane person to act like a cold-blooded criminal?
Dual-award Winning Play and Film About Human Beings, not Psychopathology
[M]y play, SHADES, and my film, "Is Anybody Listening?" are about people who have experienced major troubles, even trauma or other tragedies, who have dark secrets that torment them, but who use connection, love, humor, and creativity to come through, even to heal. And no one in the play or the film is pathologized.
Exploring Psychiatry’s “Black Hole”: The International Institute on Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal
When Carina HĂ„kansson sent out an invitation for a symposium on "Pharmaceuticals: Risks and Alternatives," some of the world's top scientists, along with experts-by-experience, came from 13 countries to explore better ways to respond to people in crisis.
