When It Comes to Mental Health Problems, The Disability Framework Fails
Treating those struggling with emotional distress and troublesome behaviors as mentally disabled is a barrier to arriving at humane and dignified ways of assisting them.
Drugs as the New Parents
From Mark Goulston MD/Psychology Today: Do emotionally orphan children turn to drugs to fill the void?
A Politics of Care: How the Science of ACEs Deepens Our Emotional Vocabulary
From SuzanneZeedyk.com: In the 21st century, we find ourselves at the very beginning of a public consciousness of the ‘catastrophic burden’ of emotional poverty.
Book Review: “Opening Up: The Parenting Journey”
This is a book about stories, urging families to recognize their own strengths and create new narratives on the path ahead.
Lithium No Better Than Placebo for Preventing Suicide Attempts
A trial in veterans who had survived a previous suicide attempt was stopped early because the drug was found to be no better than a placebo.
Inside a Forensic Psychiatry Unit: Here’s How to Survive
Sean Gunderson, who was detained by the criminal justice system for 17 years after receiving an NGRI verdict, documents the life of a forensic psychiatry inmate.
Trauma, Trust and Triumph: Psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk on How to Recover from...
From The Guardian: His 2014 book, The Body Keeps the Score, has become a huge pandemic hit, topping bestseller lists this summer and becoming a meme on social media. What does it tell us about the world we live in?
The Woman Who Pioneered “Housing First”
From YES! Magazine: Three decades ago, one nurse came up with a radical idea: Give homeless folks suffering from addiction and 'mental illness' a safe place to be themselves.
It’s In Your Head: Why Reducing All Problems to ‘Mental Health Issues’ Hurts Humanity
From RT: The framing of an increasing array of social issues in mental health terms raises important questions about how we are being asked to think about the problems that face us.
Break Down. Wake Up. podcast – 009 – Integrating an Epiphany Through Daily Practice...
How a ski accident gave a practical philosopher the insight to liberate his own self worth from the judgments of others and to discover his own career path.
Why The C in C-PTSD Will Haunt You
From Gemini Adams: Unlike PTSD, the symptoms of CPTSD are often entrenched in an individual's personality, having taken root during formative years, when attachment styles and brain development are fragile and still maturing.
Concerning Forgiveness: The Liberating Experience of Facing Painful Truth | Alice Miller
From alice-miller.com: It is precisely the opposite of forgiveness – namely, rebellion against mistreatment suffered, the recognition and condemnation of our parents’ misleading opinions and actions, and the articulation of our own needs – that ultimately frees us from the past.
Why Albuquerque’s Latest Experiment in Policing Involves Social Workers, Not Officers
From Christian Science Monitor: The city has become one of the first to push public safety in a new direction with its new stand-alone Community Safety department.
MH Services in England Are Being ‘Uberised’ – That’s Bad for Patients & Therapists
From The Conversation: A standardized and digitalized model of therapy called Increased Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) - England's largest NHS program - is causing therapist depression, anxiety and burnout.
By Tracing Addiction (and More) to Childhood Trauma, Can We Find Compassion?
From YES! Magazine: "Trauma is an overwhelming threat that you don’t know how to deal with," says Dr. Gabor Maté. "Our job, as human beings, is to learn from our suffering."
He Cheered on Britney Spears—While Fighting a Guardianship Battle of His Own
From The Washington Post: The aftershocks of #FreeBritney could continue to rattle the American legal system long after Spears’s victory.
Emotional CPR: Heart-Centered Peer Support
Two National Empowerment Center leaders discuss eCPR, a process for helping youth—or anyone—through an emotional crisis using three simple steps.
Psychotherapy Has an Enduring Effect on Depression—in Contrast to Depression Pills
A meta-analysis published last month showed that psychotherapy has an enduring effect on depression—in contrast to depression pills.
NHS to Give Therapy for Depression Before Medication Under New Guidelines
From The Guardian: Draft guidance says a "menu of treatment options" including CBT, exercise and mindfulness should be offered in less severe cases.
NC Pays Psychiatric Units That Break Rules Millions to ‘Care’ for Youth
Around the Web: A newspaper investigation discovered that the state continued to pay psychiatric residential treatment facilities millions when they repeatedly broke rules meant to ensure children's safety and well-being.
Punching, Predators, Neglect: Traumatized NC Children Suffer Inside Dismal Psychiatric Centers
From The Fayetteville Observer: "We are ruining people’s lives, and we’re doing it in the most expensive way possible," said State Rep. Verla Insko. "It’s inhumane and irresponsible. It is a government failure."
A Peer-Run Center in North Carolina Offers Alternative for Psychiatric Care
From NBC: At Retreat @ the Plaza, guests use their experiences with 'mental illness,' homelessness and domestic violence to help one another regain their footing.
ADHD as Cargo Cult Science
Barkley’s theory on ADHD was akin to what Richard Feynman called “Cargo Cult Science,” only more misleading and dangerous. In contrast, there is no evidence of brain abnormality in ADHD. The airplanes have not landed, nor are they likely to.
Family Deeds: Constellation Therapy & Generations of Trauma
From Psychology Today: Family and ancestral constellation is a therapeutic tool that allows the invisible influences from the present and past to be made visible, acknowledged, and whole.
Tower of Babel: The Meaning and Purpose of Voicehearing and Psychosis
A bottomless well of ideas and stories and seeming fantasies emerges from the mouths of voicehearers, psychotics, and schizophrenics. Is anyone taking the time to actually listen?
