The Ghosts of Christmas: Was Scrooge the First Psychotherapy Patient?
From The New Yorker: Revisiting his past allowed Scrooge to feel pity and grieve for his childhood self—which led to the blossoming of his feelings and compassion.
The Psychiatric Patient: Who Is She?
The psychiatric patient is interesting—not your average person. She is the one who might tell you: “There is more to this reality, and I saw the proof.”
Psychosocial Disability Rights and Digital Mental Health: An Interview with Piers Gooding
MIA's Emaline Friedman interviews legal scholar Piers Gooding on his work on disability rights and digital mental health technologies.
Insane Medicine, Chapter 6: Neoliberalism and the Compare-and-Compete Society
Neoliberalism teaches people that suffering has nothing to do with the inequality they experience, but that it comes from their own individual failures of body and mind, and requires "experts" to identify and treat it.
New Survey Reveals Class, Age Divide in Mental Health Crisis
From The Hill: We are in absolute crisis across this country, and it's not getting nearly enough attention let alone anyone doing anything about it in DC.
Why Some College Dorm Policies Are Driving Students Into Depression
From Forbes: Out of concern for their bottom line, colleges are betraying their students and trapping them in social isolation.
Stop Saying This, An Encore!
Continuing the series, we look at discussions of "chemical imbalances," medications, and diagnoses, as well as telling people to "calm down" and a further look at the "observer."
To the Young Person Who Doesn’t Identify with Their Disability Diagnosis Anymore
Your diagnosis should serve YOU. Not your parents, your doctors, your teachers, or the next door neighbor. We should be fighting for a future where the person being labeled has the ultimate say over how doctors and therapists view them.
Letters to My Doctors (Part 3)
Rape is to Love what Bombs are to Peace and what Behavioral Eugenics are to Mental Health. So I choose noncompliance with psychiatric force.
No, Jill Biden Should Not Be Called “Doctor”… But Only Because No One Should
Jill deserves all the defense she is receiving. However, this rush to defend Jill’s honorific usage is missing a much bigger and far more pervasive point: NO ONE should be called “Dr. Last-name.”
Narrow Escape: My Prescribed Nightmare
It has taken me close to three years to be able to live with my memories from the hospital, where I felt completely and utterly alone, despairing that I might never live a normal life or see my family again.
Dr. Pies: Still Going Wrong
In his attacks against the British Psychological Society's report "Understanding Depression," Dr. Pies falls into his own trap: "There are none so blind as those who will not see."
Listening to the Patient Voice: The Antidepressant Withdrawal Experience
Patient advocates join with researchers and service users to present first-hand experiences of antidepressant withdrawal.
This Crisis Team Has Handled Mental Health Calls Without Cops for 30 Years
From VICE: “When the threat of coercion and that fear of violence is removed from the interaction, people can actually engage and de-escalate," said mental health lawyer Anita Szigeti.
Insane Medicine, Chapter 5: The Manufacture of Childhood Depression (Part 2)
The promotion of SSRI antidepressant use began with the pharmaceutical industry and occurs despite evidence that these drugs are harmful, not helpful, in children and adolescents.
To Save the World, We’re Going to Have to Stop Working
From The Big Think: If we don’t break ourselves of this addiction quickly, we will leave our progeny to face catastrophes on a scale which will make the current pandemic seem trivial.
Literally Indescribable: Are Antidepressants Addictive?
“My life was very, very good.” That’s how Michael sums up how things were for him—prior to his suffering from devastating withdrawal effects after discontinuing GlaxoSmithKline’s blockbuster drug Paxil.
Psychiatric Medication: Does It Work?
One can lead a good life with a “mental illness” and I am the case. Yes, it is possible. Even with a diagnosis of “bipolar” above your head.
Do Antipsychotics Protect Against Early Death? Or Contribute to It?
From Psychological Medicine: Editor Robin Murray stirs a debate on the impact of antipsychotics on mortality among those diagnosed with psychotic disorders.
Letters to My Doctors (Part 2)
Why am I whole when I dance and paint but deathly ill when faced by a European/American medical mechanic? Why was I locked in a room for a week in the first place? Was it to heal? Or was it to fill a bed?
Racial Microaggressions Take a Major Toll on Black Americans
From The Washington Post: Subtle, everyday forms of mistreatment and discrimination have a major impact on psychological and physical health.
Finding Meaning in Suffering: How Existentialism Can Help
Suffering is a universal human condition. But without making meaning of suffering, it can overwhelm us. Finding meaning in suffering might help to find the will to survive when life is difficult.
Surviving the Bipolar Label
The label bipolar validated that I was suffering, yes, but it was also a bargain that asked me to see my suffering as unreasonable, the result of a deformity within my body.
The Onion: Majority of Psychological Experiments Conducted in 1970s Just Crimes
From The Onion: "Much of the time these researchers didn’t even bother to test a hypothesis or collect data, but instead just tortured student volunteers for amusement."
Insane Medicine, Chapter 5: The Manufacture of Childhood Depression (Part 1)
The medicalisation of our emotional lives has led to a horrific cultural shift in which we, and our children, have become alienated from and suspicious of our emotions, chipping away at our natural resilience.
