MIA Today

From Filter: The US drug-warrior mentality reflects many troubling things, but what strikes me the most is its lack of compassion for people who use drugs and their families.

From Undark: Mass psychogenic illness is “a collective stress response,” says medical sociologist Robert E. Bartholomew, and “everyone is potentially susceptible because it’s based on a belief” — in many cases, of a perceived threat.

Understanding life events (and/or our responses to them) as trauma has transformed how we suffer and how we relate to pain.

From Sustainable Human: When we are alienated from our gut feelings, we no longer have a sense of reality, nor a sense of truth.

From Kindred Media: Many of the most problematic behaviors are not considered “mental illness” by the DSM, though they would be by any indigenous psychology standard.

Service-users' experience was at the heart of everything the critics spoke about, as well as the importance of relying on the most up-to-date and accurate evidence.

From The Pyschexperience: Dr. Nardi, creator of the New England Psychiatry Mentorship Institute (NEPMI), interviews Bob Whitaker about his 2010 book Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America.

MIA's Family Resources and Arts sections are co-sponsoring an online teen multimedia art exhibition with the theme “Beyond Labels and Meds: What It Feels Like to Be Me.”

A more detailed critical evaluation of molecular genetic studies, which have failed to discover genes shown to cause depression.

From The Nation: People need four things to be in recovery: permanent supportive housing, community, purpose, and health care. This is not what California's new CARE Court provides.

In behavior therapy, enduring psychological discomfort is an essential aspect of therapy leading to recovery. This may have implications for withdrawal experiences.

From The New York Times: The problem of multiple medication use, or polypharmacy, that first emerged a decade ago among young people in foster care and low-income settings, has now gone mainstream.

From alice-miller.com: Just as children are often blamed for anything that happens to them, patients are often blamed, and thus denied adequate care, for their afflictions.

From Mental Hellth: The dominant belief is that cars form a welcome and irreplaceable part of modern life and that their benefits outweigh the negatives. What advantages, though, do they really bring?

From drgabormate.com: Most addicted people use no drugs at all, and addiction cannot be understood if we restrict our vision of it to substances, legal or illicit.

I’ve often been told I shouldn’t have kids because I’m “bipolar.” But since my twins’ birth, I’ve been way more stable than I thought I would be, and I’ve found what I’ve always been looking for.

The avoidance of real-world outcome measures in research seems almost phobic. Yet this type of outcome should be considered the most important.

From the BBC: Evidence suggests these medications can hinder the body from regulating temperature properly, cause people to sweat excessively, not register thirst or make skin more sensitive to sun.

From the BBC: They remain unable to get out despite Scottish ministers saying 22 years ago that they should be living independently in the community.

As a therapist, I feel that CBT is offered best on a voluntary basis. The therapist must move away from CBT-like interventions when it is not helpful.

From The Washington Post: A report by Safeguard Defenders charges that reform laws passed in 2012–13 “did not bring about any substantial improvement to the systematic political abuse of psychiatry in China.”

From The BPS: Our services, as they are currently configured, make the medicalisation of our suffering the core precondition for receiving any care or support at all. That is wrong and must change. Dr. James Davies

From the BPS: Rufus May had a breakdown at 18 and was 'diagnosed' with 'schizophrenia.' Now a clinical psychologist, he explains his approach and what he thinks needs to change in the mental health system.

From The BPS: The current debate in mental health poses a challenge to power, and as we know, few people or institutions will give up power voluntarily. Dr. Lucy Johnstone

We talk with author Beverley Thomson about her latest book, entitled Antidepressed: A Breakthrough Examination of Epidemic Antidepressant Harm and Dependence.