Family silhouettes against a green and yellow background of a tree

SAFE: Survivors And Families Empowered—An Update

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We hope to combat the increasing reliance on force, too often used with the justification “for your own good.”
An older man holds his hands together obscuring his face, head dropped in sadness

Elder Eyes Wide Shut

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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.

The Path from Trauma to The Power of Nature: An Interview with Banning Lyon

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Our guest today is Banning Lyon, author of The Chair and The Valley: A Memoir of Trauma, Healing, and The Outdoors. An account of...

To Young People of Color with Lived Experience: Pay it Forward; Become a Peer

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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

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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 mother’s path ahead.

The Birth of The “Just Stop It” Movement: A Family’s Journey Through Mental Health...

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Will was plunged into an extreme state following exposure to a synthetic street drug, which led to repeat hospitalizations and psych drugs.

Dismissing the “Human Experience”: College Students Feel Unseen by the Medical Model of Mental...

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In conversations with college students and recent graduates from across the country and around the world, they described feeling dismissed by views of mental health that narrow their experiences to individual medical problems.

Conveying Hope, Empowering Teens: An Interview With Jessica Schleider

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Clinical psychologist Jessica Schleider is founding director of the Lab for Scalable Mental Health, researching single-session interventions.

The TikTokification of Mental Health on Campus

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Many people view their social media feeds as reflections of their identities—and when posts center on a specific diagnosis, it can feel like the platform is diagnosing them.

Giving Caregivers a Platform: Meagan, Mother of Matt

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A mom describes her son's descent into the harms of psychiatry—and his way out. "It was really difficult to watch Matt decline. He had given up hope that he could get well."
A sepia-tone photograph of a lonely teddy bear small against a window.

Medical Journals Refuse to Retract Fraudulent Trial Reports That Omitted Suicidal Events in Children

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The published articles underreported suicide-related events and provided false claims that the drugs were effective.

Engaging Voices, Part 1: Validating The Arrival of My Wife’s First ‘Alters’

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Sam Ruck shares his third excerpt from his book Healing Companions, which describes his life with, and love for, his wife and her “alters.” 

My Lived Experience Helps Others Heal: Working with Families on the Path to Recovery

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If one person is struggling, everyone in the family is struggling. Families need support.
Photo of a girl surrounded by bullies holding cell phones

“A Dangerous Substance”: The Impact of Social Media on Youth Mental Health

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This is what social media does, she says. It draws people in. It hurts people. In the worst cases, it kills people.

Reflections on the Silicon Valley Teen Suicides-by-Train: Fifteen Years Later

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A psychiatrist and mom reflects on teen suicide clusters in Palo Alto and discusses alternative ways to address adolescent mental health.
Illustration of a mother holding a baby with dark clouds in the background; pills fall like rain

Enlarging the Treatment Lens for Postpartum Depression

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Drugs, social support, placenta encapsulation: How can we approach the specter of postpartum depression?
Young boy looking through the window

As a Psychologist, I’ve Seen Many Children Misdiagnosed as Autistic—It’s a Clinical Catastrophe

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The ASD diagnosis glosses over the many developmental specifics that might underlie a child’s challenges related to social communication.

Giving Caregivers a Platform: Chandra, Mother of Sophia

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This is the story of Chandra and her daughter Sophia (not their real names), who has been in the mental health system since the age of 10.
A child playing with pills

Driving Our Children into Suicide with Escitalopram and Other Happy Pills

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The Lexapro study is marketing dressed up as science. It represents a flagrant abuse of ethics, deceiving readers at the cost of children's lives.

Giving Caregivers a Platform: Sam, Husband of Ka’ryn Marie

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For many caregivers who assist their loved ones, the journey involves navigating the medical system and its many challenges. This time, the journey takes...

Challenging Western-Centric Child Psychology: An Interview with Nandita Chaudhary

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Ayurdhi Dhar interviews Nandita Chaudhary about children’s lives across cultures, the problems with global aid agencies and their interventions, psychology’s bias in the study of children, the limits of attachment theory and more.

NIMH’s It-girls: The Genain Quadruplets and the Whiteness of Psychiatry

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The poster-children of psychiatric genetics, who endured abuse throughout their lives, were also the product of a racist culture.

Giving Caregivers a Platform: Elianna, Mother of Brandon

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An interview with Elianna, who lives in Colorado with her son, Brandon, 34. His many diagnoses and misdiagnoses include autism and schizophrenia.
A collage depicting cut-up photographs of David Carmichael and his son Ian, Lindsay Clancy and her children, and a bottle of pills spilling out

SSRIs, Lindsay Clancy, and Me

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Sharing the similarities between Lindsay Clancy's homicidal episode and my own will hopefully help prevent rare SSRI-induced suicides and homicides, including mass shootings.
Hands of mother and baby closeup

Mad/Cripistemologies of Pandemic Parenting: Insights for Our “Post-COVID-19” Present

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Respondents described the grief and rage associated with being socially isolated while healing from childbirth and caring for a newborn, in some cases, entirely on their own.