My Mother Wound: Rethinking “Fear of Abandonment”
Therapists are quick to refer to this pain I feel as a “fear of abandonment,” as if it is a figment of my mind and something not worth the time to attend to.
Remembering Jay Mahler
“I’ve spent 58 years in the public mental health system—10 years surviving it and 48 trying to change it.” That’s how Jay Mahler—psychiatric survivor, activist, leader—described his experiences.
The Undervalued Potential of Living Without Psychiatric Drugs
Compared to the last six years, compared to how intense the drugs are and how grueling the side-effects, my first psychosis at 17, I admit, was honestly not that bad.
Allen Frances Takes on the Over-Prescription of Antidepressants
The prominent psychiatrist explores why antidepressants remain highly overprescribed and offers solutions to the problem.
Mental Health Survival Kit, Chapter 4: Withdrawing from Psychiatric Drugs (Part 1)
Very few doctors know anything about withdrawal and make horrible mistakes. If they taper at all, they do it far too quickly because the few guidelines that exist recommend far too quick tapering.
Anticholinergic Medications Linked to Cognitive Impairment in Schizophrenia
Researchers have found further evidence that the anticholinergic effect of psychiatric drugs can lead to cognitive impairments.
Current Anti-Stigma Campaigns Hinder Withdrawal from Psychotropic Medication
Anti-stigma campaigns reinforce a belief that people with mental health issues must have treatment and thus, push discussion of withdrawal and negative aspects of psychiatric drugs into anonymous spaces.
Drowning in Doubts: Why I Think About Leaving Psychiatry
Going into psychiatry as a naïve 25-year-old, I had no idea what I would discover. If I knew then what I know now, I wouldn’t have chosen this field.
Radical Acts of Community Healing and Self-Love
Self-love became a radical and revolutionary act of activism against this system. At its foundation was the rejection of “disease” as a label to define the uniqueness of my mind.
Psychedelics, Transformative Experiences and Healing: An Interview with Katrina Michelle
Richard Sears interviews transpersonal psychologist Katrina Michelle about harm reduction practices with psychedelics in therapy.
Ethical Issues Raised Over FDA Collaboration with Biogen on Failed Drug
The FDA collaborated with Biogen to conduct repeated re-analyses of aducanumab for Alzheimer's and FDA committee members are raising concerns.
Mental Health Survival Kit, Chapter 3: Psychotherapy: The Human Approach to Emotional Pain
Through the process of healing—whether assisted by psychotherapy or not—we learn something important that can be useful if we get in trouble again.
Reframing Britney: Press and Public Waking Up to Guardianship Harms
The documentary "Framing Britney Spears" has led to a change in the public’s view of Spears and even prompted political action on guardianship laws.
We Do Not Have Everything We Need
It’s healthier to figure out how to be with each other and care for each other than continue to engage in the destructive lie that we already have everything we need "inside ourselves."
From Wonder Drug to Catastrophe: My Seroquel Story
What my doctor had told me would be a two-week withdrawal from Seroquel turned into a 14-month nightmare with lasting repercussions: the movement disorder tardive dyskinesia.
Mental Health Survival Kit, Chapter 2: Is Psychiatry Evidence Based? (Part 9)
On Denmark's declining use of depression pills for children, and why one should never stop fighting to change psychiatry and society's reliance on it.
Study Confirms Overdiagnosis of ADHD in Children and Teens
Medical researchers present evidence that ADHD is overdiagnosed in children and teens, which can lead to significant harm.
How Can Mental Health Research Become More Relevant to Those it is Meant to...
As a psychiatrist, my bread-and-butter is the kind of private practice in which my patient’s concerns become my own and it is those concerns that drive our work together, my teaching, and my research.
Nutrition Is the Foundation of Resilience
Recent studies show that we are not consuming as healthy a diet as our ancestors did. Would that matter to our brain health? Yes!
Women We Call Crazy
“You’re so different,” people would say to Betty and me. We joked about the thinly veiled criticism—people thought we were crazy because we were women who consciously defined ourselves and how we wanted to live.
The Relapsing Peer Supervisor
Peer supervision is often silent and stigmatizing instead of including necessary, robust discussions around relapse.
Questioning the Moral Panic Around Teletherapy: An Interview with Hannah Zeavin
MIA's Emaline Friedman interviews Hannah Zeavin about what the history of teletherapy reveals about its limitations and radical potential.
Antidepressants Not Clinically Useful for Back Pain
While professional guidelines recommend antidepressants for back pain, researchers point out the lack of evidence for their usefulness.
Mental Health Survival Kit, Chapter 2: Is Psychiatry Evidence Based? (Part 8)
On psychiatry’s resistance to admitting to withdrawal effects, as well as the way doctors and scientists are treated when they critique the establishment.
Cochrane Review Calls for More Research on Antidepressant Withdrawal
Researchers find a lack of current literature on safe, effective ways to manage antidepressant withdrawal and make suggestions for future research.
