Understanding Psychological Disorders: My Personal and Professional Journey
A conflict in my personal life made it possible for me to imagine the power of emotional trauma to trigger a mental health disorder—and gave me new insights about what can help heal it.
Discourse, Drug Use, and Psychiatry: An Interview with Critical Psychologist Ilana Mountian
Richard Sears interviews Ilana Mountian on drug use, marginalization, the disease model of addiction, and problems with prohibition.
A Review of “Mud Flower: Surviving Schizophrenia and Suicide Through Art”
In "Mud Flower," Meghan Caughey seeks an ethics centered on the valuation of madness—and on art as one communicative pathway for values—for the muddy waters discarded by society.
Global Psychiatry’s Crisis of Values: Dainius Pūras, MD
From Psychiatric Times: "If such a willingness to discount the feelings and testimonies [of patients] is widespread, I cannot help but think that psychiatry is really in a serious [moral] crisis."
Mental Health Survival Kit, Chapter 4: Withdrawing from Psychiatric Drugs (Part 4)
Psychiatrists have made hundreds of millions of people dependent on psychiatric drugs and yet have done virtually nothing to find out how to help the patients come off them again.
No, the FDA’s Black Box Warning Did not Increase Suicides
Researchers again debunk the claim that the FDA black box warnings on antidepressants led to more suicides.
The Wisdom of Trauma: Film Premiere June 8–14
From Science & Nonduality: Trauma is the invisible force that shapes our lives, and the root of our deepest wounds. Renowned physician Dr. Gabor Maté gives us a new vision of a trauma-informed society and points us to the path of individual and collective healing.
Lessons from the Pandemic: Panic Attacks Are Not Random
The ease and confidence with which many clients assume they are prone to panic attacks reflects larger cultural trends truncating and framing human suffering in medicalized terms.
The Voice in Your Head: Reshaping Our Understanding of ‘Mental Illness’ – & Consciousness...
From The New Statesman: A movement of people who hear voices is reshaping our understanding of 'mental illness' – and consciousness itself.
Treatment Providers Have the Power to Make or Break Recovery
We need treatment providers that listen to their patients and treat them like human beings. Their job is to support our recovery, not stymie it.
From LA Jail, Two Inmates Pioneer Care for ‘Mentally Ill’ Peers
From The Christian Science Monitor: From the squalid conditions of the Los Angeles County jail has emerged a potential model for how to address 'mental illness' among incarcerated people. The secret? Care, on a daily basis.
FDA OKs New ‘Antipsychotic’ Drug Combo That ‘Limits the Pleasure of Food Intake’
From MedPage Today: A newly approved 'medication' for 'schizophrenia' and 'bipolar disorder' promises to reduce usual weight gain with olanzapine (Zyprexa) by making it less pleasant to eat food.
Modern Psychiatry’s Allure: It Tells People What They Want to Hear
Could psychiatry’s medical model owe its popularity to wishful thinking? Could it work so well for people (at some deeper level), that they’re willing to overlook its illogic/flaws?
Minimal Medication Alternatives for Psychosis Needed
Researchers question the long-term use of antipsychotics and suggest increased research and investment in psychosocial interventions.
The Abusive Society: Why Abuse Seems to Reach Into Every Corner of Modern Life
From Medium: What Americans really need is to fix the cycles of abuse that have driven them to seek, and yet never find, safety in the unsafe world they have created.
My Letter to an Advocate for Involuntary Treatment
How long would I have to be off meds and stay safe and out of the hospital before my story would mean something to you and the advocates for chemical interventions?
Mental Health Survival Kit, Chapter 4: Withdrawing from Psychiatric Drugs (Part 3)
Cochrane has no interest in a review about safe withdrawal of depression pills but did its utmost to defend the psychiatric guild, its many false beliefs, and the drug industry.
Psychotherapy Can Prevent Relapse When Discontinuing Antidepressants
“Short and simple psychological programs can prevent people from relapsing when they stop their antidepressants.”
Police Investigate If ‘Antipsychotic’ Drug Caused Lecturer’s Death
From The Telegraph: A coroner ruled that Margaret Molyneux, 69, died of natural causes, but a review found that she had been prescribed higher than recommended doses of the drug olanzapine (Zyprexa).
Does Official Recognition of Peers Undermine Their Work?
Recognition of peers under Medicaid could undermine their interventions by morphing them into a hybrid of traditional medical and clinical recovery principles.
WHO Online Launch Event Jun. 10: Rights-Based Transformation in Mental Health
From the World Health Organization: Many mental health services around the world are failing people. There is a different path that countries and services can take.
Antidepressant Risks: New Website Informs and Shares Personal Stories
From Antidepressant Risks: Katinka Blackford Newman, Professor David Healey, Sarah Culshaw and Dr. Ed White have teamed up on a new website helping people understand the risks of taking antidepressants.
Responsibility Without Blame in Therapeutic Communities: Interview with Philosopher Hanna Pickard
Hanna Pickard on the elusive middle ground between personal responsibility and systemic factors in our understandings of addiction.
Malcharist: “One of Medicine’s Darkest Secrets Is Exposed in All of Its Sordid Detail”
From RxISK: Leemon McHenry reviews the first novel published by David Healy's writers co-operative—"a must-read for medical professionals, and especially aspiring key opinion leaders."
It’s All About Rights—or Should We Say “Unequal Privileges”
On May 26, MindFreedom will partner with “I Love You, Lead On” to host the fifth in an educational series to create cross-disability understanding of common themes and initiatives.
