An American History of Addiction, Part 10: My Strange Path to Recovery
Every drinking “experiment” I performed was already tainted. Every time I would try, I became angry and resentful, feeling like I had been tricked into joining a cult.
Patient Reports Reveal SSRI Antidepressants Often Lead to Emotional Blunting
According to patient reports, SSRI antidepressants most frequently lead to the subjective experience of emotional blunting.
An American History of Addiction, Part 9: How I Became an “Addict”
My current allotment of Xanax had just run out, and I remembered feeling the last dose wearing off. My heart had started racing and I had become fidgety.
Books Under Review: Spring 2022
Reviews of four recent books reflecting various perspectives on the mental health system.
Marci Webber Files Lawsuit Against Mental Facility Staff for Abuse and Medical Mistreatment
Ms. Webber says the long list of abuses and interference in her medical treatment plan demonstrate "a pattern or practice of mistreatment" of herself and other patients at the Illinois facilities where she has been confined.
From Labeled to Healer: A Road Less Traveled
We have let down our children (and ourselves) by losing touch with parental intuition and handing their care over to professionals at the first sign of a problem.
Apples and Oranges in Peer Support Research
Discussing a meta-analysis on the effectiveness of peer support: The co-opting of peer support specialists into roles that don’t fit with their purpose is a big problem.
Psych Concepts Creep Into Our Everyday Experiences: An Interview with Nicholas Haslam
MIA’s Ayurdhi Dhar interviews Nicholas Haslam about how psychiatric terms get diluted and creep into everyday language, altering our experiences.
Taking It Personally: Indignation as a Vehicle of Therapy | Alice Miller
From Alice Miller: Child Abuse and Mistreatment: The open display of indignation on the part of the therapist as witness ultimately sets off a process of liberation that has previously been impeded by society's injunction against blaming one's parents.
Saving Lives or Cementing Stigma? A Review of “Just Like You…”
In my experience, episodes of anxiety and depression dwindle in the face of hope and empowerment, while broken-brain narratives lead to deeper despair.
Mad in (S)pain
A Q&A with the team members who edit and run Mad in (S)pain: "There must be a radical change in the way mental suffering is understood and cared for."
Psychiatric Drugs Increase Dementia Risk Threefold After COVID in 65+ Population
Hospitalized COVID patients over 65 were three times as likely to receive a dementia diagnosis if they took psychiatric drugs.
A Future with No Future: Depression, the Left, and the Politics of Mental Health
From LA Review of Books: Capitalism inflicts a double injury on depressed people: first, it causes, or contributes to, the state of depression, and secondly it erases any form of causality and individualizes the illness, implying that the depression in question is a personal problem (or property).
Pandemic Prescribing of Antidepressants
From Psychology Today: A huge global increase in SSRI use, especially over the last two years, raises concerns about safety and their environmental impact.
Interview with Sonja Styblo: Update on the Massachusetts Benzo Bill
Styblo discusses the history of the Benzodiazepine Bill, its current status, the purpose of the legislation, and why she and others have so vigorously pursued this legislation.
Calif. Man Seeks to Overturn Conviction, Alleging Adverse SSRI Reaction
Benjamin Bathen was convicted in 2018 of making criminal threats to his former therapist, but he says his behavior was caused by the medication she had urged him to take.
“The Truth About Marci Webber” Blog
A Facebook page has been set up to tell of what it is like in the Illinois mental hospital where Marci Webber is being held after staff fought her conditional release because she refuses to take any more psych drugs.
The Dramatic Results of John Weir Perry’s Diabasis House Program
John Weir Perry’s Diabasis House Program both built on and exceeded Jung’s previous understanding of psychosis.
False Positives in Brain Imaging, Unpublished and Missing Trials, and Conflicts of Interest
In our Science News podcast, Peter Simons reports on false positives in brain imaging, unpublished and missing trials, conflicts of interest and more.
‘I Felt Disillusioned and Abandoned’: Mental Health in the Medical Field
From The Seattle Times: America has shown its weak hand in caring for the general public, and also for the workers who have devoted their time, energy and lives to keeping our society healthy.
The Impact the DSM Has Had On All of Us: An interview with Sarah...
"You're not going to sell many drugs by saying your problem is your life experiences. It's far more effective to say your problem is in the brain. It's an imbalance, we can correct that imbalance, just take our product."
Many Service Users Interested in Decreasing Antipsychotic Use with Professional Help
New research examines service user attitudes on discontinuing and reducing antipsychotic drugs.
The Grief Pill is Coming!
If you yearn or pine too long for your dead child, partner, spouse, or friend, you may be addicted to grief, according to the new revision of the DSM.
Mad in Finland
The people who run Mad in Finland have experienced profound awakenings in the course of their lives, moments of awareness when they understood the failures of the psychiatric disease model and saw its harms.
‘My Name Is Chellis and I’m in Recovery From Western Civilization’
From What Is Sustainable and Spirituality & Practice: Therapist and activist Chellis Glendinning's 1994 book describes the link between the rampant psychological dysfunction in our society and the ecological crisis in our world.
