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Headlines of Today's Posts

Deadly Prescriptions: New Study Links Antipsychotics to Life-Threatening Risks in Dementia Patients

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With pharmaceutical companies pushing antipsychotics for off-label use, dementia patients are being put at risk for devastating health consequences. Research suggests safer alternatives exist—but why aren’t they being prioritized?
Two hands holding pills, one with a smiley face, the other with x's for eyes and a frown

Observational Studies Confirm Trial Results That Antidepressants Double Suicides

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Depression drugs don’t work, and they increase suicide.
Abstract design made of thick canvas paint relevant for human connections with the world's colors and textures

Schizophrenia in Philosophy and Theology

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From Socrates to Jesus to Nietzsche, all experienced divine Beatific Visions, just as I have.
Illustration of a head showing brain and cogs in the background

Psychiatry, Capitalism, and the Industrial Machine

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Psychiatry, under the guise of science, tries to identify and manage those who deviate from industrial society's norms.
Pop art retro style. A female therapist leans over a male client reclining in a suit.

Default Depression—How We Now Interpret Distress as Mental Illness

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The Situational Approach provides an alternative to the poor outcomes seen with the medicalisation of distress.
wooden box with farm vegetables in the hands of men and women, close-up. vegetarianism, healthy eating, autumn harvest, farming, without nitrates

Kyrie Therapeutic Farm: Distress Understood as Part of the Human Condition

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KTF aims to combine supportive community, holistic care, and meaningful opportunities for participating in a natural farm setting.

Antidepressant Withdrawal Symptoms Linked to Life-Altering Consequences, New Study Shows

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A new study reveals that withdrawal symptoms from antidepressants can last years, disrupting lives and relationships.
Professional Support. Psychologist comforting depressed female patient during therapy session in office

Beyond Techniques: The Common Factors That Drive Healing

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Common factors, rather than the intricacies of any single modality, are the real engine of therapeutic transformation.

“There’s No Word for Depression in Zulu”: Inside South Africa’s Mental Health Crisis

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High levels of childhood adversity interact with violent crime, poverty, and lack of access to education.

Kids Are Not the Problem: An Interview With Gretchen LeFever Watson

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In this interview, Brooke Siem, who is the author of a memoir on antidepressant withdrawal, May Cause Side Effects, interviews Gretchen LeFever Watson, PhD. Gretchen...
Two women, one looking sadly at the viewer and the other standing out of focus in the background. Magazines and chocolates on the bed. A pink convertible out of focus through the window in the background.

I Am Looking for People I Miss

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It’s a community of like-minded people; we should stick together. Maybe, hopefully, I will find my hospital friends.
A white-coated white male with glasses looks skeptical; an ouija board is the background

The Ouija Board and the Skeptic

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Skepticism, especially from those with lived experience, is necessary. It forces us to question whether our tools and methods truly help.
The universe inside us, the profile of a young woman and space, the effect of double exposure. scientific concept. The brain and creativity. Elements of this image furnished by NASA.

Guided Dreaming Can Transform Psychosocial Issues: 11 Case Studies

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Dreaming problem-solves various waking concerns creatively through memory consolidation and emotional processing.
3D illustration of a green tree emerging from an unlocked prison-cell like door shaped like a head

Schizophrenia and Homosexuality: My Experience and Case Studies

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During my confinement, I became convinced that the forced repression of my homosexuality was the true etiology of my schizophrenia.

Reframing Antipsychotic Discontinuation: A Psychiatrist’s Personal and Professional Call for Epistemic Justice

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A psychiatrist with lived experience advocates for a more humane, collaborative approach to antipsychotic discontinuation that respects diverse ways of knowing.

Peer Support and Resistance: Becky Brasfield’s Vision for Mental Health Justice

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In this interview with Ayurdhi Dhar, Becky Brasfield calls for radical truth-telling in the mental health system.

Summing up the STAR*D Scandal: The Public was Betrayed, Millions were Harmed, and the...

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American psychiatry, the NIMH, the larger medical community, and mainstream media have betrayed the American public by failing to make this scandal known.
Engraving-style art of a person looking out the door of an asylum room

From Auctions to Moral Treatment

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In less than 25 years Oregon moved from auctioning off the “care” of the "insane" to the lowest bidder to creating a safe place focused on recovery.

Mad in America’s 10 Most Popular Articles in 2024

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A roundup of Mad in America's most read blogs and personal stories of 2024 as chosen by our readers.
Medical Students In Lecture Hall 6th March 2022 Hyderabad India — Photo by rajastills

Modern Psychology and Its Colonial Legacy

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I question the modern rhetoric of ‘primitive’ cultures not having enough ‘knowledge’ about mental health and needing to be ‘educated’.
Close up of document titled "Informed Consent" being held

Who Can Consent to Research—and What Does That Mean for Forced Treatment?

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What the doctors are not seeing is the health in people—except when it’s convenient for them and their research projects.
Person sitting in the distance, yellow light corridor

The Fallacy of Modern Psychiatry: Treating Symptoms, Ignoring Causes

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To truly understand a person’s actions and behaviors, one must ask: What was this person exposed to? What did they experience?
Stock image of a person holding a warning sign in front of their face.

Mental Illness Prophesies Society’s Spiritual Sickness

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The rising prevalence of mental illness in the west is a warning to society to take a good, hard look at itself.
comic book style see, hear, speak no evil, psychedelic background

Set, Setting, Forgetting: Silence on Abuse in Psychedelic Therapy Histories

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The failure to address therapist abuse in MDMA-AT perpetuates a dangerous silence that distorts the field's history and compromises future practice.
Train Station in Sopot, Poland, Europe. Attractive man waiting at the train station. Thinking about trip, with backpack. Travel photography. tourist with backpack stand on railway station platform.

Exile: My Cure for Psychosis

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Psychiatry infantilizes the patient. Living in exile allows formerly psychotic people to achieve mature, healthy independence.