The Song of Psychiatry: The Impact of Language
I want to share the journey I took to find a new language, a new story, around my experiences and how that journey impacted my survival.
An American History of Addiction, Part 10: My Strange Path to Recovery
Every drinking “experiment” I performed was already tainted. Every time I would try, I became angry and resentful, feeling like I had been tricked into joining a cult.
Patient Reports Reveal SSRI Antidepressants Often Lead to Emotional Blunting
According to patient reports, SSRI antidepressants most frequently lead to the subjective experience of emotional blunting.
An American History of Addiction, Part 9: How I Became an “Addict”
My current allotment of Xanax had just run out, and I remembered feeling the last dose wearing off. My heart had started racing and I had become fidgety.
Books Under Review: Spring 2022
Reviews of four recent books reflecting various perspectives on the mental health system.
From Labeled to Healer: A Road Less Traveled
We have let down our children (and ourselves) by losing touch with parental intuition and handing their care over to professionals at the first sign of a problem.
Apples and Oranges in Peer Support Research
Discussing a meta-analysis on the effectiveness of peer support: The co-opting of peer support specialists into roles that don’t fit with their purpose is a big problem.
Psych Concepts Creep Into Our Everyday Experiences: An Interview with Nicholas Haslam
MIA’s Ayurdhi Dhar interviews Nicholas Haslam about how psychiatric terms get diluted and creep into everyday language, altering our experiences.
Saving Lives or Cementing Stigma? A Review of “Just Like You…”
In my experience, episodes of anxiety and depression dwindle in the face of hope and empowerment, while broken-brain narratives lead to deeper despair.
Mad in (S)pain
A Q&A with the team members who edit and run Mad in (S)pain: "There must be a radical change in the way mental suffering is understood and cared for."
Psychiatric Drugs Increase Dementia Risk Threefold After COVID in 65+ Population
Hospitalized COVID patients over 65 were three times as likely to receive a dementia diagnosis if they took psychiatric drugs.
Interview with Sonja Styblo: Update on the Massachusetts Benzo Bill
Styblo discusses the history of the Benzodiazepine Bill, its current status, the purpose of the legislation, and why she and others have so vigorously pursued this legislation.
The Observation Room
Class war between the haves and have nots is nowhere more evident than in a psychiatric ward. Dissidence becomes both a disease and a crime where cure is indistinguishable from punishment.
The Dramatic Results of John Weir Perry’s Diabasis House Program
John Weir Perry’s Diabasis House Program both built on and exceeded Jung’s previous understanding of psychosis.
The Impact the DSM Has Had On All of Us: An interview with Sarah...
"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."
Many Service Users Interested in Decreasing Antipsychotic Use with Professional Help
New research examines service user attitudes on discontinuing and reducing antipsychotic drugs.
The Grief Pill is Coming!
If you yearn or pine too long for your dead child, partner, spouse, or friend, you may be addicted to grief, according to the new revision of the DSM.
Mad in Finland
The people who run Mad in Finland have experienced profound awakenings in the course of their lives, moments of awareness when they understood the failures of the psychiatric disease model and saw its harms.
Inside a Forensic Psychiatry Unit: Calling in AIR Strikes
I was not going to earn my release the “traditional” way through unquestioning obedience to the treatment team and ADMIN. I was either going to die in there or find a non-traditional path to my freedom.
Anesthetized
At times I dream about meeting those doctors, and telling them how wrong they were when they told me I would always be a very sick person, needing medication my whole life.
Mental Wellbeing Poorest in English-Speaking Countries of the World
A survey of 233,087 “internet users” in 34 countries that measured “mental wellbeing” found that the percentage of respondents who were “distressed or struggling” was highest in English-speaking regions of the world, where 30% fell into this category.
Trusting People as Experts of Themselves: Sera Davidow on the Wildflower Peer Support Line
Sera Davidow is a filmmaker, activist, advocate, author, and mother of two very busy kids. As a survivor of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse...
Connecting the Dots: My Toxic Workplace Made Me “Mentally Ill”
In 1996, I suffered my first manic episode. My mother was convinced it had been caused by chemical exposure. But I wouldn’t hear it, and neither would my psychiatrists.
Mad in the UK
Mad in the UK describes its mission as “Fundamentally re-thinking UK mental health practice and promoting positive change.”
The Functions of the Mental Health System Under Capitalism
The mental health system is a system of care and control, legitimated by the concept of mental illness, and playing an important role in capitalist and Neoliberal societies.
