MIA Today

Headlines of Today's Posts

Triple exposure of young man holding hand over mouth

From Wounds to Labels to “Mental Illness”

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We don’t need to understand someone’s entire past to exercise a little emotional humility—to see behavior as adaptation, not brokenness.
Photo of people holding round hand-drawn faces over their own faces, each depicting an emotion

Waking Up to Your Emotions 101: The Other Side of Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal

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Many people find themselves stuck: withdrawal symptoms might have passed, but emotionally, life feels overwhelming.

Antipsychotics Do Not Provide a Clinically Meaningful Benefit Over the Short-Term: A Review of...

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70 years of RCTs fail to provide evidence that antipsychotics provide a clinically meaningful benefit for treating acute psychotic episodes.

Beyond Medicalization: Psychedelic Therapy and the Promise of Community-Based Healing

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Will psychedelics represent something different, or will we recreate the same problematic paradigms?
Alone woman at the beach one twilight time looking out to sea

Where Is God When I Cut Myself? Soul Care and the Voices of Self-Injury...

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Care, as I’ve come to see it, is about sitting beside someone when the pain is too loud for words and not leaving.
Black and white illustration, charcoal style, a man curled up on the bathroom floor in the dark

The Pill That Stays After the Panic Ends

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We need to stop expecting pills to do the work that only truth, connection, and expression can do. Relief is not the same as recovery.
Female College Student Meeting With Campus Counselor Discussing Mental Health Issues

Therapists, Neutrality Is No Longer an Option — Politics Is Tearing Us Apart

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To my fellow therapists: stop playing neutral. Stop minimizing systemic trauma to keep your comfort intact.

Veterans Take Their “War Cry For Change” to Capitol Hill

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Despite VHA’s $571 million suicide prevention budget, veterans are dying by suicide at alarmingly high rates. Advocates want answers and accountability.
A young blonde woman looks sad in bed with the covers up to her neck

Inertia as Neuroceptive State Beyond the Pathologizing Lens 

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Reframing inertia as an adaptive, biologically based survival response offers a powerful alternative to traditional deficit-oriented models.

A Therapist Navigating Antidepressant Withdrawal: Nelson Lee on the Power of the Present Moment

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Therapist and coach Nelson Lee joins us on the podcast to discuss how he approaches helping clients while navigating the complexities of antidepressant withdrawal.
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A Relationship Imbalance, Not A Chemical Imbalance

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With DSM-III, everything we knew about relationship dynamics was buried under the tidal wave of the pharmaceutical industrial complex.
Black male therapist listening to White female client

Between Diagnoses and Dialogue: The Silent Conflict Between Psychiatry and Psychology

In contrast to psychiatry's biomedical model, for many psychologists, care begins with listening rather than labelling.
A cutout of a head as if made of blue paper. The head is full of pills.

Researchers: “We Do Not Suggest” Antipsychotics for Depression

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Augmenting with antipsychotics was no better at reducing suicide than adding antidepressants, but led to increased risk of death from other causes.
A woman looks distressed while a man kisses her

Depression Caused by Kissing? Psychiatry Hits New Low with Clickbait Fear-Mongering

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Instead of being laughed at, this study is being promoted across outlets like Vice and The Colbert Report.
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The Three Ages of Treating Madness: Confinement, Conversation, Chemicals

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There was a time when therapy did something dangerous—it listened. Suffering wasn’t seen as a malfunction, but as a story worth hearing.

“Progress Only Occurs when People Make Demands”: Paolo del Vecchio Reflects on a Life...

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Paolo del Vecchio speaks with Leah Harris about his decades of public service at SAMHSA, what worries him most about mental health in today’s America, and where he sees hope in the recovery movement that he helped create.

Depsychiatrization: Dispelling Harmful, Diagnostical Self-Concepts in Therapy and Community Health Work

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Depsychiatrization is a way of reclaiming the right to be understood through a nonpathologizing, rehumanized lens.
An elderly man takes a pill

Elderly Patients Who Stop Antipsychotics Have Better Outcomes

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Older adults are often prescribed antipsychotics off-label for behavioral control in the hospital. But there’s no evidence for antipsychotics helping, and a great deal of evidence of harm.

Screen Time for Children Under Three: A Trigger for Virtual Autism?

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"A Stone Unturned" weaves together the research and stories of autism symptoms reversed by removing screens and adding more parent engagement.
Illustration of sad person with hands reaching toward them

Depression: Biological or Psychological?

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Scientific evidence tells us that depression is psychological and should be treated by behavior therapy, not by antidepressant drugs.

From EMPOWER to Exercise: What Actually Helps Older Adults Quit Benzos?

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Despite clear risks, benzos and z-drugs remain widely prescribed to the elderly. New research explores what helps—and what doesn’t—when trying to stop.
Frightful hands and scared woman sitting frustrated.

Blindsided by Benzos: Had I Known

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Doctors are not disclosing the harrowing truth that discontinuing these medications can plunge patients into relentless mental and physical torment.
Illustration of a person cringing while surrounded by ghostly figures

Exposure to Antidepressants in the Womb Makes for Sad, Scared Adolescents

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SSRI exposure in utero “alters the offspring’s brain structure,” causing a hyperactive amygdala and fear circuits, leading to anxiety and depression.
Pink Moon Board

Mapping Identity Through Moonlight: A Narrative Therapy Reflection

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Healing didn’t mean fixing the chaos or wrapping it in a bow, it meant refusing to be erased or silenced by it.
Blue pawns standing up, a single red pawn fallen over

“Life Unworthy of Life”: Historical Amnesia, Ausmerzen and the Rhetoric Surrounding Autism

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The idea that human value can be reduced to economic contribution is not merely reductive—it is deeply dangerous.