For-Profit Healthcare Is a Predator; Its Main Prey Is Our Young
Labeling kids with ābrain diseasesā sets them up for failure. This explains why the U.S. has so many youth crises.
School Phone Bans and āMental Healthā
Banning school phones is not an answer to improving mental health.
SAFE: Survivors And Families EmpoweredāAn Update
We hope to combat the increasing reliance on force, too often used with the justification āfor your own good.ā
Elder Eyes Wide Shut
There is no universal moral code: Elder law and the injustice and inhumane practice of legal guardianship are a calculated effort by the court, the attorneys, and the healthcare system.
Impacting Parenting from a Place of Strength: Looking Back to Move Forward
You may forget what people did for you, but you will never forget how they made you feel.
To Young People of Color with Lived Experience: Pay it Forward; Become a Peer
A Peer Support Specialist tells her story and issues a callout to the BIPOC LatinX community, advocating for change.
Giving Caregivers a Platform: Leigh, Mother of Melissa
This is the story of a young woman who suffered through the agony of "kindling" and other drug-related harm, eventually dying by suicide. This is also the story of her motherās path ahead.
The Birth of The āJust Stop Itā Movement: A Familyās Journey Through Mental Health...
Will was plunged into an extreme state following exposure to a synthetic street drug, which led to repeat hospitalizations and psych drugs.
Did Something Happen?! The Power of Poetry in Telling My Sonās Story
It's hard, if not impossible, to impose on my sonās story any kind of literary āsense.ā As a writer and a mother both, this has been my challenge.Ā
Stealing My Mother From Me: The Horrors of Conservatorship
My beloved mother was mistreated, cheated, abused mentally, and alienated from her family by her conservator and the courts.
When the Help Becomes Part of the Problem
The feeling of being institutionalized and medicated over minor ailments is difficult to shake. I have been to countless therapy sessions attempting to deconstruct the feelings of dehumanization into digestible morsels.
A Felt Sense of Safety ā From Disassociation to Embodiment
I know now that I can trust myself and listen to my intuition. Within the mental health system, I trusted everyone but myself.
Engaging Voices, Part 2: Working Our Way Toward Connection
Sam Ruck shares his fourth excerpt from his book Healing Companions, which describes his life with, and love for, his wife and her āalters.āĀ
Giving Caregivers a Platform: Meagan, Mother of Matt
A mom describes her son's descent into the harms of psychiatryāand his way out. "It was really difficult to watch Matt decline. He had given up hope that he could get well."
Engaging Voices, Part 1: Validating The Arrival of My Wifeās First āAlters’
Sam Ruck shares his third excerpt from his book Healing Companions, which describes his life with, and love for, his wife and her āalters.āĀ
My Lived Experience Helps Others Heal:Ā Working with Families on the Path to Recovery
If one person is struggling, everyone in the family is struggling. Families need support.
Reflections on the Silicon Valley Teen Suicides-by-Train: Fifteen Years Later
A psychiatrist and mom reflects on teen suicide clusters in Palo Alto and discusses alternative ways to address adolescent mental health.
Enlarging the Treatment Lens for Postpartum Depression
Drugs, social support, placenta encapsulation: How can we approach the specter of postpartum depression?
As a Psychologist, I’ve Seen Many Children Misdiagnosed as AutisticāIt’s a Clinical Catastrophe
The ASD diagnosis glosses over the many developmental specifics that might underlie a childās challenges related to social communication.
“Get Over It”? A Response to Empower Parents to Repair Instead of Victim Blame
An epidemic of children blaming their parents in therapy? In my 20 years as a psychologist, I've seen the opposite.
Arrested Development: Britney Spearsā Memoir Is a Survivorās Tale of Generational Trauma, Psychiatric Abuse,...
Miranda Spencer discusses Britney Spears' new memoir and the harms of conservatorship.
Giving Caregivers a Platform: Sherita, Mother of Tony
This is the story of Sherita and her son Tony, and her efforts to help him following years of psychiatric drugs and hospitalizations.
Conservatorship: The Racket That Ruined My Fatherās Last Years
I have watched as my fatherās pursuit of happiness was swept away by the court system in his senior years.
‘Delusions’ and ‘Paranoia’: What Are They, Really, and How Can We Engage Them in...
Sam Ruck shares a second excerpt from his book "Healing Companions," which describes his life with, and love for, his wife and her āalters.āĀ
Escaping The Shackles of Psychiatry: What Iāve Seen and Survived, as Both Doctor and...
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,ā said Edmund Burke. This is as true on...