MIA Today

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Mad in America’s 10 Most Popular Articles in 2022

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A roundup of Mad in America's most read blogs and personal stories of 2022 as chosen by our readers.

Assisted Dying Laws Are Devastating for Suicide Prevention, Warns New Research

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From Scottish Daily Express: European countries and US states that have introduced systems to allow for euthanasia have reported an increase in the number of non-assisted suicides.

‘Restraint and Seclusion’ Harms Kids. So Why Is It Used in Schools?

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From The Washington Post: What if you went five days a week to a school that regularly locked you up or physically held you down? Most of us would walk in ready for a fight, not to learn.
Illustration depicting orange person looking frightened with orange ghosts swirling around them

Ghosts Popping out Everywhere: The Shifting Times We Live in and the Process of...

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We are living in challenging times. Every day we hear or read or hear stories of racism, sexism, inequalities, oppression. Emerging, there are experiences...

I Was Hospitalized Against My Will. I Know Firsthand the Harm It Can Cause

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From The Guardian: As Mayor Eric Adams recently announced a dramatic expansion of New York City’s involuntary hospitalization policy, I listened in disbelief, overcome with both rage and grief.
Close-up of therapist's hands explaining a problem to his patients

When Violence Hits Home, Can We Keep Growing?

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We want to share conversation we had coming out of these events in the hopes it might help others explore how to keep growing emotionally in an uncertain and sometimes violent world.

‘Transparent Replications’ Project Aims to Improve Reliability in Psychological Research

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From Clearer Thinking: The new initiative, launched by Clearer Thinking, will replicate a substantial fraction of papers coming out in top psychology journals.
Profile of a bearded man head with a symbol of neurons in the brain

A Brain for Our Emancipation

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In times of crisis, we are required to adapt to conditions of suffering to safeguard capitalist production. We are asked to adapt our flexible brains to a hostile environment, and the possibility of transforming that environment is suppressed.

Celebrating Steps Toward Humane Approaches to Distress

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From John Read, PhD/Psychology Today: 2022 saw many examples of the ongoing international struggle for effective mental health services. Here is my list of some of the year's successes.

Antidepressants Plus Immune Response Terminate Pregnancies in Mice

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Also, male mice born to mothers with an immune response exhibited “autistic-like” behaviors, scientists report.
A photo of Mayor Eric Adams at a podium, with many other people behind him wearing suits.

Consumer Advisory Board Chair: NYC Mayor Adams Did Not Consult With Us on New...

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I chair the Consumer Advisory Board for the NYC Department of Mental Hygiene (DOMH). And I can tell you firsthand: We were not consulted before this plan came to fruition.

The Bipolar Rollercoaster: Looking Beyond the Labels

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Removing assumptions evoked by my family member’s diagnoses has transformed my understanding of their experience and increased my ability to arrive at solutions applicable to their expressed needs.
A Black woman sits with a therapist

Psychotherapy: Less Expensive and Better Than Pills, It’s What the Patients Want but Don’t...

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Studies with long-term follow-up show that psychotherapy has an enduring effect that outperforms pharmacotherapy. Psychiatry does not deliver what the customers want.
Photo of pregnant person holding a glass of water and a handful of pills. Sitting cross-legged on couch. We cannot see her face.

Dubious Science: Downplaying the Risks of Antidepressants in Pregnancy

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When popular websites, such as Johns Hopkins and the Mayo Clinic, downplay the possible risks of antidepressant use in pregnancy, they are ignoring the evidence.
Vector-style illustration depicting men and women chained to a giant pill bottle

Researchers Identify Factors to Predict Risk of Antidepressant Withdrawal

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Paroxetine, SNRIs, and MAOIs were associated with the highest risk of withdrawal, as was long duration of use and whether the person experienced withdrawal in the past.

The Wisdom of the Symptom Bearer: It’s Always the ‘Crazy’ One Who Knows the...

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From Medium/Rev. Sheri Heller, LCSW: The 'symptom bearer' or 'identified patient' is the scapegoat who carries the evidence of the familial dysfunction.
Illustration of a blue face; the back of it is dissolving into computer code

Data on Your Mind: Good Public Health or Mental Health Surveillance?

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The ethics of data harvesting are murky and echo global concerns around the ways in which profiling technologies can be used to perpetuate discrimination.

Civil Rights Advocates Call U.S. Child Welfare System a ‘National Problem’

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From The Imprint: A new report says the child welfare system fails to adequately address the needs of families and often harms the very kids it's designed to protect.

Why Is Stigma Toward ‘Schizophrenia’ Getting Worse?

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From Psychology Today/Justin Garson, PhD: Intriguingly, the greatest increase in stigma toward 'schizophrenia' occurred from 1990 to 2001, the so-called "decade of the brain."
Illustration of a brain on a blue background. A magnifying glass shows viruses inside it.

Tardive Dyskinesia, Chronic Lyme Disease, and Infection

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The Bartonella bacteria, which is almost always associated with chronic Lyme disease, can cause dyskinesia too and it looks and is experienced the same as “tardive” dyskinesia.

Eat For Life Podcast: The Hidden Harms of Antidepressants with Robert Whitaker

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From Eat For Life: As one of the first children to be put on Prozac, this is an important and personal episode for me, as depression and mental illness continue to rise despite all the drugs available today to treat them.
Illustration of a box labeled "BITTER Pills" with some small capsules beside it

Number Needed to Treat with a Psychiatric Drug to Benefit One Patient Is an...

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The number needed to treat with a psychiatric drug to benefit one patient is largely an illusion, because more patients are harmed than receive a benefit.
3D illustration of white DNA double helix against dark blue background. The center of the helix is erupting into a computer-network-like shape

The Schizophrenia Genetics Illusion—A Century of Failure and Hype

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This is the schizophrenia game. It has been played for over a century, and it’s time to stop.

Animals Exposed to Antidepressants in Utero Are Worse at Taking Care of Their Own...

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A new study in rats found that those exposed to antidepressants in utero had an impaired ability to nurture their own children in later life.

Authenticity Can Heal Trauma | Gabor Maté, MD

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From How To Academy: What happens if, for the sake of fitting in with the family or culture, we have to give up our connection to ourselves, our authenticity, for the sake of attachment?