An Illness, or Risky Experimentation?
Questioning is what I did, but once I started questioning so much of what I had learned and of what my identity had been, it wasnāt obvious to me where I should stop.
In Andrewās Honor: Attorney Elizabeth Richās Fight Against Unjust Commitments
Anyone detained and then formally committed under Wisconsinās civil mental health laws can initially be held and forcibly drugged for six long months. Yet, for years, not a single person has been able to appeal the six-month commitments in court.
Systematic Failure
This is the story of a life in turmoil, my failings and those of the systems meant to help such persons.
A Return to Dignity from Psychiatric and Childhood Abuse
Homebirth was a reflection of how the mental health system should work: Informed person-centered care while respecting your agency.
Why We Urgently Need New Approaches to Mental Health
Emotions function like a guidepost to what we need. But if we are not aware this, we cannot understand what they are trying to convey.
Meaningless Distractibility, or Meaningful Mind-Wandering?
What do we lose when we view boredom and curiosity as "symptoms" of ADHD? It can rob us of intuitions that crucial life changes desperately need to be made.
Thomas Szasz Versus the Mental Health Movement
Unbiased experts must examine the claims and research of psychiatry and issue a report as to whether psychiatry not only has a valid medical basis, but whether this basis justifies the widespread violation of medical ethics and the routine use of imprisonment and torture.
Understanding the Limits of the Beneficial Effect of Antidepressants Reported in the Meta-analysis by...
Stone, M. B., Yaseen, Z. S., Miller, B. J., Richardville, K., Kalaria, S. N., & Kirsch, I. (2022). Response to acute monotherapy for major...
The Psychiatristās 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
MIAās Ayurdhi Dhar interviews Diana Rose about producing knowledge with survivors of psychiatry, abuses faced by service users, and what good research would look like.
āBeware, Scientology Relatedā: 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
Itās time to change the conversation around guardianship. The question is not āWhen do we remove someoneās rights?ā but āHow can we best support them?ā
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 JureidiniāEvidence-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 āBeyond Labels and Meds: What It Feels Like to Be Me.ā
Major Depression: The āChemical Imbalanceā Pillar Is CrumblingāIs 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
Iāve often been told I shouldnāt have kids because Iām ābipolar.ā But since my twinsā birth, Iāve been way more stable than I thought I would be, and Iāve found what Iāve 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.
