Insane Medicine, Chapter 3: The Manufacture of ADHD (Part 2)
Sami Timimi discusses the lack of findings for a genetic or neurobiological basis for ADHD, and explores the short- and long-term effects of stimulant drugs.
How Culture Influences Voice Hearing: An Interview with Stanford Anthropologist Tanya Luhrmann
Ayurdhi Dhar interviews Tanya Luhrmann about cultural differences in voice-hearing, diagnosis and damaged identities, and conflicts in psychiatry.
Understanding Mental Illnesses, and Ourselves
I trained in psychiatry in the 1950s. I saw psychiatry switch from trying to help patients to understand themselves better to trying to find a drug that would relieve their symptoms.
Insane Medicine, Chapter 3: The Manufacture of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) (Part 1)
Both the idea that there are some characteristic brain-based abnormalities for those diagnosed with ADHD, and that the medications used have specific properties that target a disease process—like a chemical imbalance—are false.
Promising Preliminary Results from a Small Study of Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy
A new study offers promising results for psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for depression.
Navigating the Mind: What Medication Cannot Address
I believe there's no harm in giving meds a try—it worked for me. Just be aware that they can only do so much. The rest of the journey requires some navigation and self-direction.
Who’s to Blame for the Lost Soul of Psychiatry?
An interview between Drs. Aftab and Pies reveals a deep mistrust of patients' reports of their own experiences, and devolves into a game of semantics in an attempt to prove psychiatry's relevance.
Researchers: Antidepressant Use in Children Increases Suicide, No Evidence of Benefit
Noted antidepressant researcher, Michael Hengartner, summarizes the latest research on the use of antidepressants in children and adolescents.
Stepping Into One’s Inner Radiant Space
It is hard to step out of the space of diagnoses because of the power it holds. The “doctor” who inflicted on you the awful label of “schizophrenia” or “bipolar” damages you because of the power he holds.
Insane Medicine, Chapter 2: The Scientism of Psychiatry (Part 2)
Paying attention to the science tells us that we need to look beyond formal services. People need connection and meaning as well as basics such as safety, housing, and work.
Not Just Another Stain on the Wall
During my 96-hour hold in the psych unit—despite that I was rational and a danger to no one—I was made to feel ashamed and somehow unclean. I went home feeling more depressed than ever.
When Psych Diagnosis Means Life-or-Death
One label in the DSM that applies to cognitive abilities—“Intellectual Disabilities”—is crucial in determining whether people accused of crimes in some US states will be executed.
The Need for Acknowledgment of Context Within Approaches to Mental Distress
Mental distress is often perceived as something devoid of context, as an individual medical condition or a failure instead of a human condition linked to the social context one exists in.
The Reckoning in Psychiatry Over Protracted Antidepressant Withdrawal
Medically-induced harm—affecting tens of millions of people worldwide—has taken the field decades to take seriously.
The Spin Doctors: “ADHD” Research
We now spend over twenty billion dollars a year on treatment for something called “ADHD.” For that amount of money, we could pay the mid-career salaries of an extra 365,000 teachers or 827,000 teachers’ aides.
Anticholinergic Drugs Increase Risk of Cognitive Decline
A new study finds that anticholinergic drugs, like antidepressants and antipsychotics, are associated with mild cognitive decline.
Insane Medicine, Chapter 2: The Scientism of Psychiatry (Part 1)
Wherever you find mental health services to have expanded, you find a parallel increase in the numbers who have been classed as disabled due to a mental health disorder.
Researchers: It’s Time to Stop Recommending Antidepressants for Depression
Researchers review a new synthesis of the existing evidence and conclude that the harms of antidepressants outweigh any benefits.
The Double Standard at the Heart of Peer Services
There is clear evidence of a double standard and attitude that favors and privileges one side of the binary—the clinicians—over peers. This discrimination must be made visible and revealed to mental health advocates and changemakers.
An American History of Addiction, Part 3: Mr. Booze
Coupled with a burgeoning new movement (AA) for temperance members to refer to, the movement changed from a public policy interest group to what we would now call a treatment-based outreach organization.
Original Soteria House Members to Speak!
Soteria House’s history is complex and fascinating. Soteria Houses have never had the support they needed, but they still managed to change so many lives.
Stop Saying This, Part Five: Fake It Till You Make It
Megan Wildhood discusses the flaws in phrases like "fake it till you make it," "you can choose how you feel," and "no one is responsible for your life but you."
De-Weaponizing Empathy
I am not immune to what I call weaponized empathy, which I see as the pure intention of compassion for another tainted with aggression around eradicating pain, pain that could be a source of growth for the sufferer if allowed to arise and pass away without force.
Insane Medicine, Chapter One: The Medical Model of Mental Health Is Finished
The concepts we use have undermined our natural resilience, sensitised us to an idea of our vulnerability, and encouraged us to transfer our agency to practitioners who use a system as if it has scientific validity and is clinically useful.
Psychiatric Oppression Under Victoria’s Mental Health Laws
Public mental health authorities continue to oppress persons with psychosocial conditions through a combination of punitive and discriminatory laws that are constructed with a "best interests" paradigm in mind and a medical model that pathologises difference and dissent.
