For Native People, the Past is Present: David Edward Walker on Oppressive Mental Health...

3
David Edward Walker is the author of Coyote’s Swing: A Memoir and Critique of Mental Hygiene in Native America, which was published in February...

State Hospital Memories: More of My Story

23
The Detroit Free Press did an excellent job in bringing to light the conditions at Pontiac, its loss of accreditation, and closing. Still, they didn't quite grasp the severity of violence there.

Giving Caregivers a Platform: Elianna, Mother of Brandon

8
An interview with Elianna, who lives in Colorado with her son, Brandon, 34. His many diagnoses and misdiagnoses include autism and schizophrenia.
Close up of two hands circling a group of wooden figurines on a table

The Medicalization of the American Mind

15
One cause of fragility? Pathologizing our children with psychiatric diagnoses and focusing on a medical solution to life's problems.
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

16
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.

Q&A: What Is Informed Consent, and What Should I Know to Help My Child?

5
My experience caused me to look into the origin of including the patient in decision-making about treatment and informed consent.

Listen to the Victims: Senate Holds Hearing on Guardianship

13
I have seen the exploitation wreaked by court-appointed guardians. It is up to us to use our voices for those who cannot speak out.
Close up photo of hands dripping water on a plant outside

To Promote Mental Health, We Must Teach It

49
When we are quick to pathologize suffering, yet do not provide the fundamentals for healthy living, it is inhumanity of the highest order.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA - September 8, 2018 The Indian Summer Festival, Child wearing traditional native american clothing, dancing at the pow wow competition.

A Case Before the U.S. Supreme Court Could Surge the Psychiatric Labelling and Drugging...

6
If the Brackeen v. Halland case is successful, Native children are more likely to be placed with non-Native foster parents, and face a surge in psychiatric labeling and drugging.

Abused by Psychiatrists After a BPD Misdiagnosis

50
If you don't realize that you are autistic, your intellectual, sensory, social, and emotional differences are a mystery, even to you.

Tanya Frank—Zig-Zag Boy: My Family’s Struggles With Broken Mental Healthcare

9
Author Tanya Frank discusses her book 'Zig-Zag Boy A Memoir of Madness and Motherhood', which chronicles the experiences of her son Zach who experienced psychosis as a 19-year-old.
An abstract painting depicting heads in profile in various colors

Emotional Crisis Response: The Peer-Run Respite/Soteria House Approach Compared to the Conventional Approach

13
The peer respite/Soteria house model responds to emotional crisis with compassion and curiosity, rather than pathologizing.

One Pill To Disrupt: Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal and the Marital Relationship

13
The suicidality that accompanies akathisia is the natural human impulse to escape being tortured. To save my wife, the woman I love, I was forced to argue for her continued torture.
Hands of mother and baby closeup

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

2
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.

Screening for Perinatal Depression: An Effective Intervention, or One That Does More Harm Than Good?

2
Why does the U.S. describe perinatal screening as providing a proven benefit, while the task forces in the U.K. and Canada see no evidence of such benefit?

What’s Missing from NAMI and Pro-Psychiatry: Lived Experience

22
Since many psych patients become forced consumers, their advocates have a duty to be educated and concerned with adverse reactions.
Isabella photo

Beyond Labels and Meds—Closer Look: Isabella Castillo

1
At times I tend to feel invisible. Sometimes I don’t feel like I fit in with everyone else; I feel like an outsider.
A woman's head is silhouetted with the sunset over the water

Beyond Psychiatry: A Trauma-Centric View of Mental Health

23
Internal family systems therapy is a non-pathologizing method of working toward healing from trauma, a journey of returning to wholeness by reconnecting with ourselves.

Beyond Labels and Meds—Closer Look: Madeline Aliah

2
Meet another talented teen behind the pieces in MIA's art exhibition. She writes: "This poem was written in my first year at a queer-positive school and is processing the new forms of guilt and shame I experienced and was exposed to."
Needle about to pop a green balloon

One Flew Over the Scientific Consensus’ Nest—The Story of Dr. Ophir and ADHD

20
The backlash against Dr. Yaakov Ophir, licensed clinical psychologist and promising scholar, began when he reported his findings about the scientific validity of ADHD.

Chemicals Have Consequences—Antidepressants and Pregnancy: An Interview With Adam Urato, MD

4
Adam joins us to discuss what we do and don’t know about the effects of antidepressants on babies and mothers and the importance of counselling in order to aid families in making important decisions about pharmaceutical drug use.
Illustration by Aurora Ramos of a girl with dark hair

Beyond Labels and Meds—Closer Look: Aurora Ramos

5
Meet another talented teen behind the pieces in MIA's art exhibition, who says: "I think art is underrated sometimes because of its seemingly uselessness, but I highly believe it can cure many minds."
"A Grasp at Knowledge" by HoJin Kwak

Beyond Labels and Meds—Closer Look: HoJin Kwak

1
This is the first of 4 spotlight interviews with some of the talented youth behind the pieces in MIA's art exhibition. HoJin states: "The original idea for my drawing started with the brain. The complexity of its sudden twists and curves fascinates me."

Teen Arts Exhibition: Beyond Labels And Meds: What It Feels Like To Be Me

6
28 teen artists share the power of their creativity in this collection of profoundly moving, courageous, and beautiful artwork.
A painting depicting clouds with lightning over the sea at sunset

Breaking the Cycle: How I Overcame Intergenerational Trauma and Became a Peer Advocate

5
How did that young Puerto Rican girl who very much disliked seeing a therapist when locked up in the juvenile system end up working in the mental health field as an adult?