Necessary Powers: How I Became Fire
When a person is in hell, surrounded by enemies, without a protector or strong force on their side of any kind, that person needs to become their own powerful spokesperson.
Was it Just? America and Her Suicidal Combat Veterans
From CounterPunch: Suicide after taking part in war, and its killing, is not a new phenomenon, and its likely cause, guilt, is understood if seldom discussed.
Polydrugged With 12 Different Drugs… For Insomnia
Before my nightmare with psychiatric medication began, my life was full and happy. But since being prescribed 12 different psychiatric drugs in one year, I have become bedridden, ill and jobless.
Change.org Petition: Hypocrisy: APA’s Resolution on Human Rights
From Change.org: The International Society for Ethical Psychology and Psychiatry is petitioning the American Psychological Association to be consistent with the UN's condemnation of forced psychiatric treatment in its resolution on human rights.
Why I Fight for Trauma-Informed Systems
I am not sure what was worse: being abused growing up while my community documented—then ignored—my torment, or being attacked for going public with my story.
Britney Spears Was Forced Into Mental Health Treatment. It’s Surprisingly Common.
From Mashable: Research shows that being forced into mental health treatment can be painful, traumatic, humiliating, and may lead to worse outcomes.
ISEPP to American Psychological Association: Condemn Forced Treatment
The International Society for Ethical Psychology and Psychiatry petitions the American Psychological Association to condemn forced treatment as a human rights violation
When Treatment Makes You Sick: The Eating Disorder Clinic
Eight years after beginning ‘treatment’ for an ‘eating disorder’, I was eating worse than ever. Yet three years after quitting that ‘treatment’, food is a pleasure, not a problem.
The Untold Story of Purdue Pharma’s Cozy Relationship With the AMA
From Mother Jones: A look at the AMA’s track record shows that the opioid crisis is the latest development in a long history of dissonance between the organization’s mission and its actions.
Psychiatry Is the Cause, Not the Solution
I have found that trauma is frequently at the root of many eventual psychological and medical issues. Medications often only worsen the disconnection caused by trauma.
Pathologizing Dissent
From CounterPunch: The existence of antiwar veterans’ groups helps defeat the lie that protest is pathological, and announces to all that knowing right from wrong is not a medical condition.
Southcentral Wildfire Study: Wildfires Ignite Mental Health Concerns
From The Revelator: The extended period of multiple stressors caused by wildfires show that we need to prepare more than just physically for the effects of climate change.
EVENT: Town Hall on Children and Psychiatric Drugs
On August 13, Mad in America and three partner organizations will present four international experts to discuss the problem of the widespread psychiatric drugging of children—and seek solutions.
Man Arrested in Mistaken Identity Case Locked in Hawaii Mental Hospital for Two Years
From The Guardian: The more Mr. Spriestersbach asserted that he was not Mr. Castleberry, the more he was declared delusional and psychotic by Hawaii State Hospital staff and doctors and heavily medicated, a court petition said.
Paula Caplan, 74, Dies; Feminist Psychologist Took On Her Profession
From The New York Times: Dr. Caplan, the author of 11 books, was perhaps best known for her seven-year battle with the American Psychiatric Association as it planned the fourth edition of its "DSM."
What Happened to Britney Spears Can Happen to You
From RxISK: Inaccurate and invalid so-called "expert" psychiatric testimony is used in a number of ways - not just guardianships - to take people's rights away in court.
Mental Health Survival Kit, Chapter 5 (Part 6): Patient Stories and Conclusion
In an evidence-based healthcare system, we should not use interventions that do more harm than good, but that's just what psychiatry does.
Surviving Race: Intersection on Injustice, Disability and Human Rights – Dialogues and Retreat 2021
From Open Excellence/Surviving Race: Surviving Race will convene advocates, artists, educators, peer supporters, psychiatric survivors, and white allies in response to the increased visibility of structural racism, systemic oppression, and police violence.
An American History of Addiction, Part 8: A Turning Point, But Where Do We...
Practitioners and researchers have increasingly started to feel that the maintenance of the status quo has left the addiction field in a state of conflict and fluctuation.
How I Learned the Social and Environmental Causes of Madness
My first encounter with mental illness was when I was 17. My friend was hospitalised in the psychiatric unit of the local general hospital and diagnosed with hypomania.
Do We All Have Alzheimer’s? Drug Makers Might Want You to Think So
From The Baltimore Sun: Recent efforts indicate that Biogen is trying to persuade adults who occasionally misplace their keys that they not only have Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), but that MCI is an early form of Alzheimer’s disease.
So Long, Pill Mill: A Letter to My Former Patients and Their Families
I love being a psych nurse practitioner, and I never want to feel that my only role is pushing pills. The private practice I started is my effort to move away from this dysfunctional system.
Inner Experience: From James Hillman’s Archetypal Psychology Towards a Liberation Psychology
From Acid Horizon: In this podcast, MIA Science News writer Micah Ingle discusses the work of archetypal psychologist James Hillman and its implications for anti-capitalist politics and other forms of activism.
Speak Out! Britney’s Fight Is Our Fight
With all eyes on Britney, we must unmask the role of psychiatrists in court hearings like hers, where basically what the shrink says, goes— and the person’s freedom and human rights are stripped away.
Looking Beyond Self-Help to Understand Resilience: An Interview with Michael Ungar
Ayurdhi Dhar interviews Michael Ungar about how complex systems make us vulnerable and how resilience emerges in context-specific ways.
