‘Your Consent Is Not Required’: When Psychiatric Treatment Isn’t Voluntary
From Psychology Today: Forced 'treatment' is on the rise in North America, but an exhaustive new study finds that it does not actually improve mental health.
Critical Psychiatry Textbook, Chapter 7: Psychosis (Part Three)
Peter Gøtzsche discusses the lack of evidence for benefit, and the evidence of harms, of psychosis drugs used for early intervention/first-episode psychosis.
Cultural Co-dependency | Barry and Janae Weinhold
From The Weinholds: When people don't feel safe to feel their feelings, when they're not able to identify what their needs are, it keeps them feeling disconnected, lonely, afraid, and looking for an authority figure.
“Dominator” vs. “Partnership” Cultures: A Profound Re-Telling of Human History
From Jordan Bates: The 'dominator' model of social organization permeates most aspects of modern life, causing pain, repression, and alienation. But it wasn't always this way.
A New York City Psychiatric Hospital Patient Said Staffers Illegally Restrained and Drugged Her;...
“No one is watching these hospitals,” Miranda warned. “No one is listening. Our rights are being violated left and right. They can do whatever they want.”
Pharmed Out Podcast: Paying Attention to ADHD Diagnosis and Treatment in Children
On the latest Pharmanipulation podcast, hosts Dr. Adriane Fugh-Berman and Caroline Renko interview psychologist Dr. Gretchen LeFever Watson and journalist Robert Whitaker about the...
LGBTQIA+ Peer Respites: The Personal Is Political
Peer respites have great value. Affinity peer respites—such as an LGBTQIA+ peer respite—may have even more.
Services Needed for People Withdrawing From Antidepressants
From Psychology Today/John Read, PhD: A new study documents the dissatisfaction of 1,200 patients with their doctor's knowledge and expertise regarding antidepressant withdrawal.
The Delusions of Western Medicine
From Terry Baranski/Healing the Self: Western Medicine is firmly entrenched in three fundamental ideologies when it comes to chronic mental and physical pathology: A disease-based perspective, symptom-focused treatment, and mind/body separation.
Racial Justice and Lived Experience in Mental Health Advocacy: An Interview with Pata Suyemoto
MIA's Julia Lejeune interviews scholar, activist, and educator Pata Suyemoto about lived experience activism and racial justice in the mental health field.
Emotional Crisis Response: The Peer-Run Respite/Soteria House Approach Compared to the Conventional Approach
The peer respite/Soteria house model responds to emotional crisis with compassion and curiosity, rather than pathologizing.
Alarming Overprescription Patterns for Older Adults on Antidepressants
New study finds polypharmacy for 73% of older adults on antidepressants, with 56% at risk of harmful drug interactions.
Trauma Can Turn the World Into a Gathering of Aliens
From CPTSD Foundation: If I were to fit into one ‘label,’ then it would definitely be that of complex trauma, as ‘complex’ is my middle name, I have been told.
Critical Psychiatry Textbook, Chapter 7: Psychosis (Part Two)
Peter Gøtzsche reviews the evidence that psychosis pills substantially increase mortality.
Colonial Psychology: The Psychology We All Recognize
From Psychology Today: Psychology is dominated by a worldview most of the world does not have. Its premises are considered myths from the standpoint of Indigenous psychology.
From Peer Support to Psychedelics: Psychiatry’s Co-Optation & De-Radicalization
To strip psychedelic use down to its chemicals is to de-radicalize its communal and anti-authoritarian roots. Given psychiatry’s history of treatment outcome failure and its ethically compromising financial relationships with Big Pharma, is it really a good idea to make psychiatry the societal authority in charge of psychedelic use?
Elon Musk’s First Bid to Test Brain Chips in Humans Rejected by FDA, Citing...
From Reuters: Musk said his company Neuralink, which is one of over a dozen companies developing brain implants, will make the paralyzed walk, the blind see and eventually turn people into cyborgs.
Global Survey Leads to New Recommendations for Deprescribing Psychiatric Drugs
Growing rates of long-term psychiatric drug prescriptions and documented issues with withdrawal demonstrate a need for safe deprescribing practices.
Mad Poetry Slam!
Poets with lived experience with mental distress are invited to perform their poetry live at MIA's Mad Poetry Slam on Zoom on May 7th, 12PM EST.
Doctor, Do I Still Need This Medication? An Introduction to Deprescribing
Dr. Emily G. McDonald of the Canadian Deprescribing Network gives a grand rounds presentation on polypharmacy, medication overload and deprescribing.
In Florida, Showing Mental Health Struggles Could Get a Child Detained
From The Washington Post: Under the Baker Act, kindergarteners can be forcibly committed to psych centers for exams. Advocates say the process is traumatic without being helpful.
Acute Religious Experiences: Madness, Psychosis, and Religious Studies
It is the capacity of mad studies to advance the idea that mad is not necessarily bad. Acute Religious Experiences are always phenomenally mad, but not necessarily pathological.
Tolstoy’s Hermit: Jay Schulkin
Jay Schulkin, a neuroscientist and philosopher of prodigious curiosity and energy, has died at age 70 of hepatic cancer.
What We Know About Irvo Otieno and the 10 People Charged in His Death
From CNN: Civil rights attorney Ben Crump said the video is a "commentary on how inhumane law enforcement officials treat people who are having a mental health crisis as criminals rather than treating them as people who are in need of help."
Virginia Deputies Charged With Murder in Man’s Death at Mental Hospital
From AP: Family and attorneys say Irvo Otieno, 28, was subjected to brutal treatment at a local jail and then at the state hospital where he died during the admission process.
