David Baksh — Op-Ed Bio
David Baksh,  co-director and cinematographer for Yoghurt Utopia, has had a diverse directing career, which spans broadcast TV, commercials, event visuals and award-winning digital ad campaigns,  making...
Anna Thomson — Op Ed Bio
Anna Thomson, co-director/producer of the Yoghurt Utopia documentary, is a director of documentaries and drama-docs who has worked for Discovery, Nat Geo, History Channel, BBC, Sky Arts and...
Val Marsh, MSW – Short Bio
Valerie L. Marsh, MSW, is Executive Director of the National Coalition for Mental Health Recovery (NCMHR). Marsh received both her bachelorâs and masterâs degrees in social...
Julie Greene – Short Bio
After three decades as a "patient," Julie Greene began to write about human rights abuses in the System, a battle that almost killed her....
Val Marsh – Op-ed Bio
Valerie L. Marsh, MSW, is Executive Director of the National Coalition for Mental Health Recovery (NCMHR). Marsh received both her bachelorâs and masterâs degrees in social...
Why Parents Give Amphetamines and Other Risky Psychiatric Drugs to the Children They Love
The stakes are very high when loving parents anxiously sit down across from a child psychiatrist who has completed an ADHD evaluation of their child. All of the parents' high hopes for their precious child's well-being and future happiness are pressing on the parent's heart and mind. The psychiatrist leans to the side, reaches into a drawer, and lifts out a life-size model of a human brain for the parent or parents to see. The little five-year-old sitting on the floor playing stops and looks up at a model of his or her brain as the psychiatrist breaks the bad news. And the question is formed right then in the little boy or little girl's soul that may haunt the child for the rest of their lives â "Why is there something wrong with my brain?"
Giovanni Fava – Op-Ed Bio
Giovanni Andrea Fava earned his medical degree from the University of Padova in 1977. In Padova he also completed his residency training in psychiatry. After...
Emily Lupsor â Short bio
Emily Lupsor is a social worker in Charlotte, North Carolina where she uses her lived experience to inform her practice. Emily facilitates a mutual...
Steve Imperato â Short Bio
Steve Imperato is a thinker and writer diagnosed with rapid cycling bipolar disorder. Â He is mainly concerned with battling the "disorder" label and exploring...
Mariel Chance â 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...
Andrew Thibault – Short Bio
Andrew Thibault is an extremely curious, inconvenient parent. Â He is Co-Founder of Parents Against Pharmaceutical Abuse (PAPA), a parent movement opposed to over-diagnosis and...
Niall McLaren – Short Bio
Jock McLaren is an Australian psychiatrist, author, and critic (in no particular order). He has practiced psychiatry in remote areas and stayed passably sane...
Vlado C. â Short Bio
Vlado C's first exposure to psychiatry came in his thirties when an antidepressant prescription for mild symptoms turned into a full blown crisis and...
Gary Sidley – Short Bio
Tales from the Madhouse: Gary is a freelance writer and trainer who opted to leave his Consultant Clinical Psychologist post after 33 years of employment...
Twilah Hiari â Short Bio
Illness and the Analytical Mind:Â Twilah Hiari is a recovering patient with a B.A. in Philosophy. She explores how the siloed nature of Western medicine...
Christopher James Dubey – Short Bio
Christopher James Dubey is the author of the novel Assignment Yggdrasil, a sci-fi technothriller with strong antipsychiatry themes, which is currently published by Andrews UK.
Michael Baker â Short Bio
Michael Baker is a writer from Ontario, Canada. He believes that self-Âawareness and acceptance are the keys to mental health. Michael enjoys sharing his...
Matthew Britts – Short Bio
Matt is a survivor of child abuse and has been working with other survivors for ten years. Matt is currently completing a PhDÂ investigating psychological...
Amphetamines Have Long-Term Effects on Adolescent Brain, Study Finds
A new study published in the journal Neuroscience finds that rats given regular doses of amphetamines during adolescence have brain and behavioral changes in adulthood....
Serafina B. â Short Bio
Serafina B. is a 36-year-old artist born in Nicuaragua who has won art prizes and has pieces in museum collections. She has been diagnosed with...
Deena Hoblit â Short Bio
After over thirty years in the mental health system and almost five institutionalized, Deena Hoblit continues to search for closure through the study of...
Kirk Schneider – Op-Ed Bio
Kirk J. Schneider, PhD, is a licensed psychologist and leading spokesperson for contemporary existential-humanistic psychology. Dr. Schneider is the past editor of the Journal...
Brenda LeFrancois – Short Bio
Dr. LeFrançois, an âindisciplinedâ academic and activist, has been deconstructing psychiatric violence for 20 years. She writes about childrenâs rights, sanism and building coalitions...
Opeyemi Parham â Short Bio
Opeyemi Parham practiced family medicine for just over twenty years as Dr. Camilla Parham. Eleven years "post-doctoring," she believes that those initials behind her name signify...
Kermit Cole – Short Bio
Kermit Cole, MFT, founding editor of MIA, works in Santa Fe, NM as a couple & family therapist. Inspired by Open Dialogue â as well as by the...