Why Does a Parent Medicate a Child? An Interview with My Mother
When Brooke Siem was 15 years old, her father died. Her mother, Dee Barbash, sought help for her daughter that led to a prescription for a psychiatric drug. In this interview, they look back on that fateful decision.
Preventing Suicide Among Older Adults
In an ideal world, the goal would be to have interconnected, trauma-informed, “helping” communities to prevent suicide in older adults.
Study Finds Over 25% of Antidepressant Prescriptions Given to High-Risk, Long-Term Users
A new article published in BMC Medicine finds that antidepressant use in two Scottish regions increased 27% between 2012 and 2019. The current work,...
SAFE: Survivors And Families Empowered—An Update
We hope to combat the increasing reliance on force, too often used with the justification “for your own good.”
The Aggressive Suppression of Spiritual Awakening
As they handed her hospital pajamas, similar to the orange prison suits you see on TV, she suddenly understood how little these people could help.
What Helped and What Hindered My Recovery from PSSD and Protracted Withdrawal from Antidepressants?
To recover from protracted withdrawal, I did everything I could to survive the process and help my body and mind heal.
From Freud to Fanon: How Daniel Gaztambide is Redefining Psychoanalytic Practice
In this interview, Daniel Gaztambide discusses how decolonial perspectives can transform psychoanalytic practice.
Is Mental Health a Choice—and Can Understanding Help Us Heal?
There’s a pattern and a purpose to what the mind does. You can’t change it, you have to understand it.
Antidepressants Linked to Lasting Sexual Dysfunction, Study Finds
New research highlights the challenges in quantifying the prevalence of Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD), a condition that continues to affect patients long after they stop taking antidepressants.
Right-Wing or Left-Wing: Who Really Owns the Critique of Over-Medicalisation?
Left-wing critique has always challenged powerful vested interests that prefer not to be disturbed.
Go Where You Are Watered
It is now five years after I had the courage to take hold of my own destiny. To not let people make me feel like I was less-than due to a diagnosis.
Researchers Accuse Lancet Article and British Psychiatrists of Minimising Antidepressants’ Withdrawal Effects
A response to a seriously flawed review.
How to Be a Happy, Successful Incurable Schizophrenic
If you are a young schizophrenic, I encourage you to accept the challenge of leading a happy, productive, meaningful life.
ADHD Drugs Linked to Psychosis and Mania
In one analysis, those on a high dose of prescription amphetamines were more than 13 times more likely to develop psychosis/mania.
Faith Healing in India: An Ancient Way of Tending to Madness
In contrast to the colonial legacy of medical psychiatry in India, indigenous and faith healing methods emphasize the interconnectedness of the mind, body, and spirit, using rituals, storytelling, and communal support to create a holistic healing environment.
On Not Becoming David Foster Wallace
I didn't know Wallace was a poster boy for antidepressant withdrawal because I didn't know that antidepressant withdrawal was common, or that I would be experiencing it myself.
The Long-Disputed Science of Twin Studies
Twin studies and heritability estimates are used in support of biological determinism and in defense of the global inequality status quo.
STAR*D: The Harms of Orchestrated Psychiatric Fraud
STAR*D’s results are too bitter a pill for psychiatric leaders to swallow, so they have chosen to become a rogue medical specialty.
Antidepressant Withdrawal: A Psychiatrist’s 30-Year Challenge to Conventional Wisdom
For thirty years, Dr. Giovanni Fava has sounded the alarm on the long-term effects of antidepressants and the risks of withdrawal, pushing back against pharmaceutical narratives.
Human Suffering as Numbers and Graphs: The Problem with Measuring Outcomes in Therapy
Outcome monitoring is a product of bureaucratic healthcare: Human suffering reduced to efficiency optimization.
Antidepressant Withdrawal Commonly Misdiagnosed as “Mental Illness”
A new study reveals that more than two-thirds of patients experiencing antidepressant withdrawal were misdiagnosed with psychiatric disorders.
MindFreedom’s Shield Program: Working to Free People from Psychiatric Incarceration and Forced Treatment
“We need the MindFreedom Shield to have someone in our corner when we are told that it doesn't matter what we want, that someone else can make a choice about our bodies that we will have to live with for the rest of our lives.”
Human
God-like, they assured me they knew what was wrong with me and had the elixir. But their elixir was a poison.
Elder Eyes Wide Shut
There is no universal moral code: Elder law and the injustice and inhumane practice of legal guardianship are a calculated effort by the court, the attorneys, and the healthcare system.
Do Depression Pills Improve Quality of Life?
In the upside-down world of psychiatry, the pills that destroy your sex life are called happy pills. I call them unhappy pills or anti-sex pills.
