Experts Urge Caution as AAP Calls for Mental Health Screenings for Newborns to 21-Year-Olds
From Children's Health Defense: With warnings of a mental health crisis among young people, the recommendation may appear sound and reasonable—but depression screening can be dangerous, some experts say.
Q&A: How Can I Best Advocate for My Child in the Mental Health System?
Steve McCrea, MA, advises on how to research options, set goals, look out for a child's interests—and speak up, if need be.
To Prevent Mass Shootings, Stop Relying on the Myth of Motive; Start Doing Forensic...
From PACEs Connection: The right question is: What happened to this person? What happened to a beautiful baby boy to turn him into an 18-year-old killer spouting racist screed?
Stimulants Don’t Improve Academic Performance in Kids with ADHD
“Efforts to improve learning in children with ADHD should focus on obtaining effective academic instruction rather than stimulant medication.”
Simplifying Childhood May Protect Against Mental Health Issues
From Raised Good: Suffering with a "cumulative stress reaction" as a result of the snowballing effect of "too much," children develop their own coping strategies to feel safe.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy, or: Play by the Rules, Hysteric!
From Surviving Psychiatry: The idea that the "DBT clinician" is the "master" who holds the authority to assess individuals’ emotions, experiences, and coping strategies, and to "fix" them is, as a premise, utterly disempowering.
ADHD Meds Don’t Lead to Higher Grades or More Learning, FIU Study Finds
From the Miami Herald: The research contradicts a longstanding belief among doctors, teachers, parents and patients that ADHD students perform better in class while on prescription amphetamines and stimulants.
Man Who Killed Son Tours Canada With “Know Your Drugs” Campaign
From the Windsor Star: “You’ve got to question your doctor,” said David Carmichael, of Toronto. “You’ve got to question, research, and report suspected adverse drug reactions.”
Risk of Depression Spikes When Kids Take Ritalin
Risk of depression increased when children were taking methylphenidate for ADHD, but once they stopped taking the drug, depression risk dropped to normal levels.
How Emotional Neglect Can Leave You Feeling Deeply Flawed | Jonice Webb, PhD
From Psychology Today: Being raised in an emotionally neglectful family sets you up to have an estranged relationship with your own emotions, which sets you apart from others and yourself.
Are Violent Teens Suffering ‘the Rage of the Unparented’? | Gabor Maté, MD
From Dr. Gabor Maté: We need to look at the lives of today’s children and adolescents and, above all, at what’s missing in their lives.
Why Forced Addiction Treatment Fails | Maia Szalavitz
From The New York Times: Since the data shows that the best treatment is compassionate and inviting, coercion should be the last resort, not the first.
NHS Data: 41% Rise in Antidepressant Prescribing to Children Aged 5-12 Since 2015
From The Pharmaceutical Journal: The majority were males, and peaks in antidepressant prescribing to young people in England coincided with periods of lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic.
New Tools to Support New Moms: An Interview with Jennifer Barkin, PhD
A maternal mental health expert shares how perinatal stress and the climate crisis are affecting women’s everyday lives.
Allowing Human Nature to Work Successfully | Jean Liedloff
From ContinuumConcept.org: In her book The Continuum Concept, Jean Liedloff argued that the psychosocial ills of modern society result from our misconception of human nature as something inherently bad or problematic.
The Bear in the Classroom – Trauma-Informed Teacher
From Ransom for Israel: Here’s the reality; if you are a teacher or you work in any capacity with children, then you are working with children with Complex Trauma.
From Horse Ranch to Home Ground: Healing Families via Telehealth
Since COVID, NISAPI has transitioned our collaborative therapy setting from barns and fields to kitchens and living rooms. Our clients report similar positive outcomes with telehealth as in person.
Who Are the New ‘Patient Influencers’ on Social Media?
From HealthDay: 'Patient influencers' are being seen as an increasingly popular direct-to-consumer marketing tool by pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers.
Top Mental Health and Prayer Apps Fail Spectacularly at Privacy, Security
From Mozilla: Mental health and prayer apps are worse than any other product category at protecting people’s privacy and security, according to Mozilla researchers.
ADHD: The Money Trail
Doctors, drug companies, and the news media have profited from skyrocketing rates of diagnosis and drugging for ADHD, and the law has created a perverse set of incentives for parents and children which favor the ADHD label.
How to Distinguish Antidepressant Withdrawal from Relapse
Mark Horowitz and David Taylor provide advice on how to tell the difference between antidepressant withdrawal and depression relapse.
The Roots of Pathology: Authoritarianism Towards Babies | Darcia Narvaez
From Kindred Media: When traumatized early and subjected to existential fear, a child loses their center of gravity, surrenders spontaneity and begins to function as an automaton.
The Abused Children to Bipolar Pipeline
The mental health system traumatized me further. They were allies with my abusers to cover up and continue my abuse.
Trans Lifeline: Naming Trans-Specific Harm in Mental Health
Interim Hotline Manager Jahmil Roberts and Advocacy Director Yana Calou from the Trans Lifeline work towards connecting trans people to the community support and resources they need to survive and thrive - free of prisons and police
From Labeled to Healer: A Road Less Traveled
We have let down our children (and ourselves) by losing touch with parental intuition and handing their care over to professionals at the first sign of a problem.
