After Seroquel
The topic of this article is Seroquel withdrawal: the process of withdrawal and the consequences of having taken this particular chemical for over ten...
âVirtual Autismâ May Explain Explosive Rise in ASD Diagnoses
New clinical case studies have found that many young children who spend too much screen timeâon TVâs, video games, tablets and computersâhave symptoms labeled as âautism.â When parents take away the screens for a few months the childâs symptoms disappear.
I Donât Believe in Autism
The conversation about what truly constitutes âautismâ is an ongoing one. Although I resist the label personally, I do not begrudge anyone for identifying as autistic, or seeking out an autism diagnosis. Leaving this discussion within the domain of medicine is limiting. Thatâs why a new discourse is emerging, not among doctors, but among activists who push for autistic self-advocacy.
Psychiatric Hegemony: A Marxist Theory of Mental Illness
In Psychiatric Hegemony: A Marxist Theory of Mental Illness, Bruce Cohen explains the expanding power and influence of psychiatry in terms of its usefulness to the capitalist system â the more useful it is, the more power it is given, and the greater its power, the more useful it becomes.
Hegemonic Sanity and Suicide
The âgoodâ suicide attempt survivor wakes up in a hospital bed bathed in beautiful natural light, surrounded by the people who love them most, and they realize that their thinking was flawed and all those unsolvable problems can actually be solved if they are just compliant with medication and therapy. And then there's the âbadâ suicide attempter who is angry that they lived, who challenges the status quo.
My Story of Benzo Withdrawal and Activism
My story starts in 1976. I had a nervous breakdown whilst studying for my Accountancy Technician examination. I was then prescribed a series of benzodiazepine/anti depressant drugs for 5 years. I have been campaigning for the last 28 years at local, national and international level on this public health scandal and government cover-up. The following questions need to be asked to those responsible: Why have the doctors and psychiatrists ignored the 1988 Committee on Safety of Medicines Guidelines on the prescribing of benzodiazepines? Why are the same physicians making the same mistakes with the newer drugs?
Soldiers as Guinea Pigs: the Case of Mefloquine and Tafenoquine
Hundreds of Australian veterans have been diagnosed with serious neurological and psychiatric disorders, often mistaken for post-traumatic stress disorder, as a result of mefloquine, a neurotoxicant able to cause a âlasting or permanentâ brain injury, and the experimental drug tafenoquine[.] Many maintain they were compelled to participate in trials of the drugs.
The Unforeseen Relationship: Psychiatric Medication and Spirituality
In 2015 I completed a qualitative research study exploring the interrelationship between psychiatric medication and spirituality. The key finding was that people were engaging spiritually with their prescriptions in ways that significantly impacted the course and outcome of recovery.
Flibanserin: The Female Viagra is a Failed Me-too Antidepressant
Since a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory committee, on June 4, recommended approval of flibanserin (AddyiTM) in June, there have been numerous editorials and news stories about the controversies surrounding the first âpink Viagraâ to hit the market. We have sought to understand the process and financial incentives that led the advisory committee to recommend its approval, with Sprout Pharmaceuticals prepared to market it as a treatment for a new disorder in DSM 5: Female sexual interest/arousal disorder.
A Mother’s Very, Very Worst Nightmare
I was Marciâs former psychotherapist. When I heard what had happened, I immediately informed the detectives that I suspected that the homicide and suicide attempt were related to psychiatric drugs.
Brain Disease or Existential Crisis?
As the schizophrenia/psychosis recovery research continues to emerge, we discover increasing evidence that psychosis is not caused by a disease of the brain, but...
The Downfall of Peer Support: Are You Kidding Me?
In April of this year, Sera Davidow authored a blog titled âThe Downfall of Peer Support: MHA & National Certification.â I do not agree with much of what she says in her blog, and as the vice president of Peer Advocacy, Supports and Services at Mental Health America I'd like to respond.
Electroshocking Children: Why It Should Be Stopped
In a recent commentary, University of Toronto historian Edward Shorter laments the efforts of people like myself in states like Texas who have successfully put limits on shocking children in order to induce grand mal convulsions. His argument is that we who have fought against this are denying children a benevolent medical treatment. In order to understand why Shorterâs plea to use electroshock on children is so egregious, we need to know what it does to childrenâs brains, which means a look at the science.
The Great Turning
When I first heard of the proposed âHelping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act of 2013â (H.R. 3717)â, I felt relieved and thought âmaybe somebody has finally got it!â However, as I read and processed the words I realized just how much Tim Murphy didnât get it. Is this mental health system broke? Yes it is. Can it be fixed? Yes it can. But we must do it collectively and with the experience and voices of those with true lived experiences including their families and allies. I stand with millions of others who have shown through our resiliency that our movement is real, has saved lives and most of all we have people that can give voice to what really needs to be changed within the system. If only people will listen.
Ensuring Integrity of Studies: Analysis of the Dan Markingson Case
Dan Markingson was a 26-year-old mentally ill young man who violently killed himself in 2004 while enrolled in a drug-sponsored study of atypical antipsychotics among persons experiencing psychosis for the first time. Highly vulnerable individuals like Markingson should not be taken advantage of in the name of scientific research, and inability to protect such vulnerable subjects compromises the integrity of research.
Uncomfortable Relations: Reflections on Learning From Psychiatric Survivors
I increasingly think we can only reach greater understanding by working through our own experiences first, and then, if we can, alongside survivors. That will help us become more open to survivor knowledge. For example, we may need to work through our own need for control and understanding. Itâs helpful to consider our own reactions to distress or madness â in ourselves and others.
Hearing Voices: Where We Locate Them Shapes Our Experience
My experience began when I heard two people talking about me when I was home alone. I needed a reasonable explanation, and concluded that it had to be my upstairs neighbors. Then I began to hear the voices outside of my apartment â this new presentation meant that my explanation no longer made sense.
How Canada’s Prisons Killed Ashley Smith: A National Crime and Shame
Ashley Smith was a very troubled and rebellious teenager. By the time she was 13, she was getting into trouble in school. On one occasion, Ashley was charged with the crime - actually a childish prank - of âthrowing crabapples at a postal worker.â Ashley was convicted and sentenced to detention in New Brunswick Youth Centre. Prison psychologists and psychiatrists labeled her defiant behavior a âmental health issueâ; a thinly disguised term for âmental illness.â There is no record of any detention or prison staff or health professional trying to understand Ashleyâs resistance to authority as youth rebellion.
Don’t Harm Them Twice: When the Language Surrounding Benzodiazepines Adds Insult to Injury (Part...
Language is important. And when language dictates specific treatment protocols, it should be used with extreme scrutiny. Using the wrong words can put vulnerable people at riskânot only to their sense of self-worth, their sense of self-knowledge, and they way they are treated, but also to their health.
Voices in our Heads: The Prefrontal Cortex as Parasite
As I considered the voice I heard talking to me in my own head, it occurred to me that what was happening was, more or less, a later development of the brain talking to a more basic and earlier level of consciousness, one which was not verbal itself and was, in fact, the actual seat and locus of my real awareness.
The Medicalization of Conversation
Language, and how we use it, are important to counsellingâs conversational work. As a counsellor, my language for understanding and addressing client concerns often fits poorly with the diagnostic and treatment language used to manage services within that system.
An Outsider’s Observation
People are encouraged to visit their GP for help with all manner of symptoms â many of which may originate in conditions of stress and distress encountered in our lives and may actually be self-limiting given time, appropriate support and perhaps some change in circumstances.
Makers of Risperdal Sued for Breast Development in Boys
Thousands of boys and young men are lined up in courthouses around the country to sue J&J for gynecomastia caused by taking Risperdal as young children. The condition is irreversible except by surgical removal. Collectively, they have become known as the Risperdal Boys.
Deadly Medicines and Organised Crime: How Big Pharma Has Corrupted Health Care
In 2012, I found out that the ten biggest drug companies in the world commit repeated and serious crimes to such a degree that they fulfill the criteria for organised crime under US law. I also found out how huge the consequences of the crimes are. They involve colossal thefts of public monies and they contribute substantially to the fact that our drugs are the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer.
Reclaiming Humanity
Now that biological psychiatry has been discredited, I am championing a pro-suffering cultural shift. It is time to stop pretending that, with the assistance of hoped-for medical "miracles," we can eliminate everything we are afraid of. It is time that we get over ourselves and appreciate that a full existence as humans is fleeting and full of pain, suffering . . . and beauty.