MIA Today

It is encouraging to hear leading scientists such as Plomin acknowledge that psychiatric diagnoses are fundamentally arbitrary and that the idea of a “cure” does not make sense with regards to psychological issues.

From The BMJ Opinion: While greater transparency about the nature of financial interests is important, on its own, such a move is unlikely to mitigate the risks to patient safety and may make matters worse. 

Two recent mental health reports from Oregon are steeped in the medical model, written by "experts" without lived experience and sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry.

Let’s start only accepting real relational offerings that do not make us contort, disavow comfort, strong-arm ourselves into appearing strong, or shoulder responsibility that is not ours.

FromThe BMJ Opinion: To challenge the status quo, we need to offer clear solutions and convince patients, the public, and policymakers to support change.

A "mental illness culture" means that full time work is seen as impossible and discouraged, and your social world only consists of other mental health "consumers" and mental health workers.

From The Bristol Cable: People are being sent away to private mental health providers for specialist treatment, but this often means poorer outcomes at higher costs, says occupational therapist Keir Harding.

From Medium/Elemental: "If it is true that these things we think of as our inner enemies are really heroes stuck in time, that allows people to relate inside with a lot more compassion and love."

From The Daily Mail: They say they were never informed that ECT could cause permanent memory loss as well as trouble with basic tasks like facial recognition, walking, and reading.

The Galvin family is the quintessential example of "genetic" schizophrenia. But their history of sexual abuse, violence, and trauma provides a clearer and simpler explanation.

The first time I met Bill was in 1991. I was just a couple years out of residency, and he was already the legendary “father of psychiatric rehabilitation.”

From The BMJ Opinion: The enduring judgments around addiction in our society have long been a problem. But I hadn’t expected to face this even within healthcare services.

It should have been safe and healing for me in the hospital. Instead, it was like being at home with my stepfather: I was abused and invisible, just trying to protect myself. 

From Darcia Narvaez, Phd/Moral Landscapes: Jean Liedloff's 1975 book The Continuum Concept: In Search of Happiness Lost revealed how native groups in the Amazon intuitively raised healthy and intelligent adults.

From The School of Life: Our crisis, if we can get through it, is an attempt to dislodge us from a toxic status quo and an insistent call to rebuild our lives on a more authentic and sincere basis.

A new review of strategies to support both patients and practitioners through the process of discontinuing antidepressants.

MIA's Gavin Crowell-Williamson interviews the neuropsychologist and novelist Jussi Valtonen about how novels can lead us to see the limits of our understanding.

Pies and Ruffalo argue that psychiatric diagnoses are "diseases" because the word "disease" can't be defined, and suggest that circular logic is scientifically valid.

From the VictimFocus Blog: Grooming should be reframed as a common, normal human behaviour that we all engage in. That's why teaching children and women to "spot the signs" doesn't work.

From Stuff: Again and again, homeless people tell their story to officials and agencies. The most common thing they get back, new research suggests, is a script for anti-depressants.

From The Washington Post: Several analyses have found that the majority of deaths attributed to 'excited delirium' are associated with the use of physical restraint.

My brain zaps—symptoms of benzo withdrawal—were like having a mini seizure on a daily basis. But my doctor kept telling me that my “underlying” anxiety was causing all my distress.

Our fears about drugs and drug addiction have allowed our society to accept court mandated treatment and the continuing militarization of police.

From The Appeal: : "COVID-19 really highlights the risk factors [for deaths of despair] that we know are most prevalent: unemployment, social isolation, disconnection. Those are huge risk factors."

I was a victim of racial and criminal profiling on campus. I worried whether, as an introvert and someone who also identified as mentally ill, people thought I was a potential shooter.