The Psychiatrist’s Dilemma: In Defense of Placebo Psychiatry
Telling stories they know are or may be untrue has become standard practice in psychiatry. It is a small step to set aside the need to provide truly informed consent.
Is Service-User Research Possible in Mental Health? An Interview with Diana Rose
MIA’s Ayurdhi Dhar interviews Diana Rose about producing knowledge with survivors of psychiatry, abuses faced by service users, and what good research would look like.
“Beware, Scientology Related”: How ADHD Experts Silence Criticism
We do not belong to the scientology movement, but this false accusation triggered an email correspondence that exposed the problematic happenings usually behind closed academic curtains.
#RestoreTheirRights: An Update on Guardianship Action
It’s time to change the conversation around guardianship. The question is not “When do we remove someone’s rights?” but “How can we best support them?”
Madness to Miracles
I lost 20 years of my life and everyone and everything I held dear, including myself, due to psychiatric medicine. Why did doctors not see how drastically I changed and how rapid and brutal my descent was?
The Culture Is the Poison: Why Psychedelics Are Dangerous Medicine in a Neoliberal Society
Extraction of psychedelics from the ritual process has dissociated them from community, connectedness, and responsibility, which used to define psychedelic drug use.
Jon Jureidini–Evidence-Based Medicine in a Post-Truth World
In this interview, Jon Jureidini talks about the issues with evidence-based medicine and describes what led to the debasement of a system originally conceived to challenge extravagant claims and poor science.
A Developmental Response to Trauma and Trauma Language
Understanding life events (and/or our responses to them) as trauma has transformed how we suffer and how we relate to pain.
Top 10 Myths About the Critics of Psychiatry
Service-users' experience was at the heart of everything the critics spoke about, as well as the importance of relying on the most up-to-date and accurate evidence.
I Had No Idea That Gabapentin Could Do This…
I am now a few months off of Gabapentin, and my withdrawal problems have not passed. I still deal daily with internal tremors throughout my head and back.
Call for Teen Art in All Media!
MIA's Family Resources and Arts sections are co-sponsoring an online teen multimedia art exhibition with the theme “Beyond Labels and Meds: What It Feels Like to Be Me.”
Major Depression: The “Chemical Imbalance” Pillar Is Crumbling—Is the Genetics Pillar Next?
A more detailed critical evaluation of molecular genetic studies, which have failed to discover genes shown to cause depression.
Behavior Therapy Helped My Patients Through Antidepressant Withdrawal
In behavior therapy, enduring psychological discomfort is an essential aspect of therapy leading to recovery. This may have implications for withdrawal experiences.
Mad Parenting: On Becoming an Unlikely Family Man
I’ve often been told I shouldn’t have kids because I’m “bipolar.” But since my twins’ birth, I’ve been way more stable than I thought I would be, and I’ve found what I’ve always been looking for.
The Phobic Avoidance of Attending to Real World Mental Health Outcomes
The avoidance of real-world outcome measures in research seems almost phobic. Yet this type of outcome should be considered the most important.
A Therapist Tried to Explain CBT When I Was 11 Years Old, Ineffectively
As a therapist, I feel that CBT is offered best on a voluntary basis. The therapist must move away from CBT-like interventions when it is not helpful.
The Mad in the World Network: A Global Voice for Change
Mad in Ireland is the newest Mad in America affiliate. The network of affiliate sites is becoming a global voice for change.
If We Knew What We Know Now
I never questioned the adults around me or wondered if the medications were necessary. Of course they were necessary. A doctor said so.
Beverley Thomson–Antidepressed: Antidepressant Harm and Dependence
We talk with author Beverley Thomson about her latest book, entitled Antidepressed: A Breakthrough Examination of Epidemic Antidepressant Harm and Dependence.
Ken Burns’ “Hiding in Plain Sight…”: Candid Interviews, Canned Conclusions
I was hoping for more accurate representation of youth mental health challenges. What I saw instead was a glossy patchwork of mixed messages.
Condensing “Anatomy of an Epidemic” into a High-Level Summary Document
After reading "Anatomy of an Epidemic," I needed something that could be read quickly, summarizing the material at a high level, to share with the general public.
Antidepressants No Better Than Placebo for About 85% of People
Researchers can’t predict the 15% who benefit from antidepressants, and the other 85% are unnecessarily exposed to the harms of the drugs.
Trauma Survivors Speak Out Against Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)
Despite the majority of the individuals being sent to DBT having histories of severe childhood trauma, little about DBT treatment is “trauma-informed.”
Away From Psychiatrization: Towards Socio-Ecological Wellbeing in the Community
The modern notion of poor mental health and how to respond to it is an escalating series of biomedical interventions that don’t actually solve the underlying problem.
John Read and Jeffrey Masson – Biological Psychiatry and the Mass Murder of “Schizophrenics”
On the Mad in America podcast this week, we hear from the co-authors of a paper published in the journal Ethical Human Psychology and...
