Getting A Diagnosis Meant That My Sister Never Had the Chance to Resolve Her...
My sister was told if she took medications everything would be fine. But everything was not fine, and the medications sent her down a path of no return.
Drugs as the New Parents
From Mark Goulston MD/Psychology Today: Do emotionally orphan children turn to drugs to fill the void?
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.
By Tracing Addiction (and More) to Childhood Trauma, Can We Find Compassion?
From YES! Magazine: "Trauma is an overwhelming threat that you don’t know how to deal with," says Dr. Gabor Maté. "Our job, as human beings, is to learn from our suffering."
He Cheered on Britney Spears—While Fighting a Guardianship Battle of His Own
From The Washington Post: The aftershocks of #FreeBritney could continue to rattle the American legal system long after Spears’s victory.
Emotional CPR: Heart-Centered Peer Support
Two National Empowerment Center leaders discuss eCPR, a process for helping youth—or anyone—through an emotional crisis using three simple steps.
NC Pays Psychiatric Units That Break Rules Millions to ‘Care’ for Youth
Around the Web: A newspaper investigation discovered that the state continued to pay psychiatric residential treatment facilities millions when they repeatedly broke rules meant to ensure children's safety and well-being.
Punching, Predators, Neglect: Traumatized NC Children Suffer Inside Dismal Psychiatric Centers
From The Fayetteville Observer: "We are ruining people’s lives, and we’re doing it in the most expensive way possible," said State Rep. Verla Insko. "It’s inhumane and irresponsible. It is a government failure."
How Western Psychology Can Rip Indigenous Families Apart
An interview with Elisa Lacerda-Vandenborn about the consequences psychology and mental health treatment can have for indigenous children.
“Floss on the Waves”: My Sister’s Journey
It takes a long time to recover from a psychotic episode, I understand now, and I wish someone had found a way, especially during those early years of her troubles, to give Rachel more space and time to find her own path to health.
Adverse Childhood Relationship Experiences: The Most Underestimated Risk Factor for Chronic Illness
From Chronic Illness Trauma Studies: The impact of one of the ACEs (adverse childhood experiences) in particular - emotional neglect - is huge and underrecognized.
The Shadow Penal System for Struggling Kids
From The New Yorker: The Christian organization Teen Challenge, made up of more than a thousand centers, claims to reform troubled teens. But is its discipline more like abuse?
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.
Postpartum Anxiety, Psychiatric Drugs and Paternalism
My postpartum anxiety diagnosis became subsumed by an arbitrary diagnosis of depression. And this diagnosis has followed me for 30 years and counting.
Interview: How Does Climate Change Affect Youth Mental Health?
Psychiatric epidemiologist Jennifer Barkin talks about her research on the traumatizing effects of extreme weather events on youth and how caregivers can help them build resilience.
Limbic Revision – Love Heals Your Traumatized Brain
From MindKind Mom: We have to undo the encoding of abusive or poor-quality relationships we suffered as kids in order to heal our mental - and often physical - illnesses.
The Cost of Forced ‘Psychiatric Care’ Like Britney Spears Got Can Be Ruinous
From NPR: While hospitals sometimes absorb the cost, patients can be left with ruined credit, endless collection calls and additional mistrust of the mental health care system.
A Young Black Mother Died During Treatment for Postpartum Depression. Her Family Demands Answers
From The City: Denise Williams's family still doesn't know why the 29-year-old mother of two died after going to New York's Queens Hospital Center last month.
Facebook Documents Show How Toxic Instagram Is for Teens, WSJ Reports
From CNBC: Facebook has repeatedly found that its Instagram app is harmful to a number of young people - the demographic that makes up over 40% of its user base. The company is also working on a version of Instagram for kids.
Phony Diagnoses Hide High Rates of Drugging at Nursing Homes
From The New York Times: The government doesn’t publicly divulge the use of antipsychotics given to residents with a schizophrenia diagnosis, so this label is falsely used as a way to give residents more drugs.
Newborn Babies Go Through Antidepressant Withdrawal
A new study finds that newborn babies experience antidepressant withdrawal after birth if their mothers take SSRIs when pregnant.
Generation Sedated: Why Record Numbers of Our Children Are on Antidepressants
From The Telegraph: "Looking back now, I wanted someone to listen to me," said Sam Taylor, 19. "It was guidance I needed, not a prescription."
Interview: Moving Toward a Human Rights Approach to Student Mental Health
Psychologist Jim Probert of the University of Florida's student counseling center explains why "Our goal is not to take the steering wheel out of the person's hands."
The Sins of Conservatorship: Why Britney Spears Compared It to Slavery
For the last three years of my mother’s life, she was under absolute control of her conservator. If we dared to object to the neglect or abuse, retaliation was certain.
The Benefits and Harms of Antidepressants for Youth Depression and Anxiety
From The Mental Elf: Given their demonstrated harms and the fact there exist a number of alternatives, we should be asking whether antidepressants should be used at all in young people.
