Childhood Bipolar Disorder, Deconstructed
Diagnosing children with juvenile or pediatric bipolar disorder is largely an American phenomenon. Do we actually have more “bipolar” children in the United States—or are we simply labeling more of them as such? If it is ever fair to call a child “manic,” isn’t the child’s environment the direction in which we should look?
Mary Maddock – Short Bio
Imagine No Psychiatry: Human rights activist and writer campaigns to expose the truth about coercive psychiatry and its tortuous treatments such as electroshock and...
Beyond Labels and Meds—Closer Look: Isabella Castillo
At times I tend to feel invisible. Sometimes I don’t feel like I fit in with everyone else; I feel like an outsider.
NCMHR — Short bio
NCMHR works to ensure that consumer/survivors have a major voice in the development and implementation of health care, mental health, and social policies at the...
Suzanne Beachy – Short Bio
Suzanne Beachy is a mother, musician, writer, and activist, who advocates for more recovery-oriented approaches to treating the kind of mental/emotional distress which gets...
New Perspectives on Eating Disorders: An Interview with Shira Collings
“Eating disorder recovery is about rejecting oppressive values.” Therapist Shira Collings discusses person-centered approaches to dealing with food-related challenges in youth.
Mariel Chance — Short Bio
Mariel Chance has a Master's Degree in Sociology and is hoping to be accepted into an MSW program in Boston. She has been an...
Rethinking the Nature of Our Woes
Parents must inform themselves about the flaws in the current paradigm if they are to have any chance of thinking sensibly about what might be distressing their child. Toward that end of providing information about those flaws, I interviewed Richard Hallam, author of the new book Abolishing the Concept of Mental Illness: Rethinking the Nature of our Woes.
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.
The Kids Aren’t All Right
From The Atlantic: The youngest among us will bear the larger burdens of trauma and economic fallout from COVID-19.
David Traxson – Short Bio
David's posts focus on the Child Safeguarding issue of the over-prescription of a wide range of psychotropic drugs to children following dubious diagnoses of...
Patients at Greatest Risk of Self-Harm Right After Starting Antidepressants: Study
From Axios: It has been known since 2004 that antidepressants can increase suicidal behavior, but new research is clarifying when the threat is greatest.
Hugh Middleton – Short Bio
Medical Essentials from England: A Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, a Member of the Royal College of Physicians and a medical practitioner of...
Jaqueline Kalach – Op-Ed Bio
Jaqueline Kalach is a student at the TEC de Monterrey in Mexico City.
Now Doctors Want to Screen EVERY American Child Over Age of Eight for Anxiety
From the Daily Mail: Experts said the new recommendations could spur a surge in the use of anti-anxiety medications, which, some fear, are already at the center of a budding addiction crisis in the US.
If We Knew What We Know Now
I never questioned the adults around me or wondered if the medications were necessary. Of course they were necessary. A doctor said so.
Committed at 16: Memories of a State Hospital
While most of the sting is gone, even now — almost sixty years on — I can’t get through a single day without thinking about shock treatment and the state hospital. I regularly have dreams or nightmares about being lost in a strange place and someone making me feel like dirt.
Steven Morgan – Short Bio
Steven Morgan is Operations Manager and a trainer for Intentional Peer Support. Over the past decade, he’s worked various peer support roles in both...
Study Highlights Mental Health Consequences of Parent Emotion Suppression
New research suggests that when parents model emotion suppression strategies in social interactions, their children’s approaches to social engagement may suffer.
Withdrawing Kids from Psych Drugs: Why, How, and When
Here are methods for reducing or eliminating a child's psychiatric medications that I have seen work well over years of supporting families through this process.
Bipartisan “RISE from Trauma Act” Introduced to Address Childhood Trauma in America
The Resilience Investment, Support, and Expansion (RISE) From Trauma Act, legislation designed to increase support for children who have been exposed to Adverse Childhood Experiences, includes $50 million in funding for a “mental health in schools” program. Exactly what these programs would entail remains unclear.
Marilyn Wedge – Short Bio
Thinking Outside the Kid: Marilyn Wedge is a family therapist, creator of Strategic Child-Focused Family Therapy, and author of Pills Are Not For Preschoolers: A...
Danielle Egan – Short Bio
Danielle Egan is a Vancouver based freelance journalist. Her articles about psychiatric neurosurgeries and bio-medical technologies have been published in many titles, including New Scientist, Vancouver...
A 9-Year-Old Was Pepper-Sprayed by Police. Here’s What Should Have Happened Instead
From USA TODAY: To expect a child to be able to overcome a biological stress response for the sake of compliance demonstrates a lack of understanding, said child advocate Deb Rosen.
Agony of Families Who Say Pills for Depression Led Their Children to Take Their...
From The Daily Mail: The knowledge that pills that are supposed to prevent suicidal feelings may actually be the cause of a loved one's suicide can only exacerbate survivors' pain.
