Therapists Collaborate with Clients through Metatherapeutic Communication
Researchers develop an initial framework for understanding metatherapeutic communication practices that may inform future integration of collaboration in psychotherapy.
The Breaking Point
How did I become someone who could barely function? I was a high-performing sales executive ranked in the top 2% of an international business communications company. But now, after using powerful psych meds for depression and anxiety for more than a decade, I couldnât do basic things like go to the grocery store, plan a meal, make dinner, or get together with friends.
ECT Shock Treatment Class Action â Case Update April 2018
In March, 2018, the Court issued an Order denying class certification in the case filed against the manufacturers of ECT shock devices. Attorneys for the ECT victims strongly disagree with the Court's assessment, and have now petitioned the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for permission to appeal the ruling denying class certification.
On Being Mad in Public
Even as you are being shown amazing and mystical things and having all sorts of mysteries clarified in your mind, you are also being placed in a position where no one will pay any attention to what you have to say, or if they do, the results of that attention will be negative (such as being locked up). The mysterious and powerful journey you are on is almost invisible to other people.
âPsychiatric Meds Saved Your Life,â and Mine
It's not about whether it's right or wrong, true or false that psychiatric drugs save lives. It's about telling the stories that aren't being told. That's why psychiatric drugs saved my life after they destroyed my health and nearly killed me. They gave me something I care about and am passionate about writing about. They gave me a pathway to bring healing to others.
Philosophers Question the Separation of Medicine and Culture
Radically questioning the distinction between the objectivity of science and the subjectivity of culture can give way to powerful biocultural methods of healing.
Metacognitive Training (MCT): A New Treatment Approach for Delusions
Since psychosis does not occur instantaneously and suddenly, but is often preceded by a gradual change in the appraisal of oneâs cognitions and social environment, empowering metacognitive competence may act prophylactically to prevent or hinder a psychotic breakdown.
How Victimization Affects Political Engagement in Adolescence
Study examines relationships between experiences of victimization, beliefs in government, and political participation among 12th grade students
Bright Light Therapy More Effective Than Medication Alone for Bipolar Depression
A new randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial has found bright light therapy to be a powerful intervention that could provide an alternative to medication for people with âbipolar depression.â
Your Pharmacist is Tattling On You!
A CVS pharmacy recently sent me a standardized form by fax with a dire warning about one of my patients. The form was called âMEDICATION NONADHERENCE THERAPY ADVISORYâ and it said: âA review of your patientâs retail and mail prescription history indicates that the patient has not obtained his or her first refill.â
Parental Conflict Changes Emotion Recognition in Children, Study Finds
Study suggests interparental conflict causes lasting damage in the way children are able to recognize and process emotions.
Enjoying the Road Less Traveled
The people that my son and I continued to consult with over the years didn't talk of mental illness as a brain disease, a chemical imbalance, or a problem with one's genes. Depending on the therapy, they spoke in terms of restoring life force energy, changing cellular vibration, learning to listen and understand, and building a self.
Jeffrey Michael Friedman: Trauma and Forced Psychiatric Treatment
An interview with Jeffrey Michael Friedman, clinical social worker and activist in the psychiatric survivors movement who provides trauma-informed therapy to victims of abuse and violence, including those who have survived abuses within the mental health system.
Book Review: The Other Mrs. Smith by Bonnie Burstow
In The Other Mrs. Smith, Dr. Burstow chose to use the fiction format, presumably because she felt it was the best way for readers to understand what it is like to experience electroshock and deal with the aftermath of massive memory loss. In this she succeeds spectacularly.
Study Finds Connection Between Trauma and Psychosis in Children
Researchers connect the impact of early trauma to the development of psychosis in children as young as 7 years old.
Debunking The Latest Gene Study
The researchers suggest that their finding implies a common genetic cause behind five different âdisorders.â This is big news! If true, it validates the biomedical view of mental âillnessâ and suggests that future medical treatments could âcureâ these conditions. However, that grand conclusion is not supported by the data.
Letter to The New York Times: Many People Taking Antidepressants Discover They Canât Quit
Ten years ago, the recent New York Times article entitled âMany People Taking Antidepressants Discover They Canât Quitâ would have shocked me. I would have dismissed serious medication withdrawal as rare. But I tell my patients something different today.
Chosen Name Use in Transgender Youth Linked to Reduced Depression and Suicide
The ability of transgender youth to use their chosen name is connected to reduced depressive symptoms and suicidal thoughts/behaviors.
“How Did This Happen?” â Being Injured By Pharmaceuticals Once Again
How did it happen to me? It happened because none of us have enough resources for the sort of brain injury and impairment the psychopharmaceutical drugs impart upon us. No one knows what is really being done to our brains and some of us are clearly more sensitive than others.
Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Testing is Often Wrong
Direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing has an âalarmingly highâ 40% false-positive rate.
Dr. Russell Razzaque: Breaking Down is Waking Up
An interview with Dr. Russell Razzaque, consultant psychiatrist and associate medical director in east London who, together with colleagues, is leading a pioneering multi-centre Open Dialogue pilot in the UK National Health Service.
Physical Activity and Exercise May Prevent Depression, Study Finds
Everyday exercise, regardless of intensity, can prevent the development of depressive symptoms.
Neurodiversity is Dead. Now What?
The neurodiversity movement is a public relations campaign that emphasizes the positive qualities associated with some presentations of autismâcreativity, increased tolerance for repetition, enhanced empathy, and exceptional memoryâwhile erasing or minimizing the experiences of autistics who are severely disabled.
The Scientism of Autism
Autism is now simply assumed to represent a real, tangible, identifiable âthing.â But no one is asking the obvious question: On what evidential basis can you conclude that autism represents a natural category that can be differentiated from other natural categories? According to the real science, autism should be seen as a fact of culture, not a fact of nature.
Apply Yourself, Your Whole Self, and Nothing But Yourself
Now, personality tests are being used to determine which side of the wealth gap people will fall on. Who you are is not neutral â the lens your personality-test results will be viewed through is: âare you a good worker?â Any definition of this will likely exclude psychiatric survivors, those labeled by the DSM and those who see, think, hear, speak and feel differently.
