childhood bipolar

Childhood Bipolar Disorder, Deconstructed

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Diagnosing children with juvenile or pediatric bipolar disorder is largely an American phenomenon. Do we actually have more “bipolar” children in the United States—or are we simply labeling more of them as such? If it is ever fair to call a child “manic,” isn’t the child’s environment the direction in which we should look?

Medication Overload, Part II: The Explosion of Drugs for Kids

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An analysis of the huge increase in drugs for children, the role of Big Pharma, and a look at the impact on families and communities.

How “Mental Health Awareness” Exploits Schoolchildren

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Imagine being a parent at a meeting with educators to discuss Johnny's academics or behavior. Suddenly, your child’s teacher is telling you that he needs to see a doctor for an assessment of a suspected “mental disorder,” which usually leads to a prescription for medication. Warned of “the risks against failing to intervene,” you will likely acquiesce.

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

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28 teen artists share the power of their creativity in this collection of profoundly moving, courageous, and beautiful artwork.

The Nurtured Heart Approach Goes Mainstream: Research and Experience Support “Celebrating Greatness in Every...

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The Nurtured Heart Approach represents a massive shift in thinking—about schooling, about children and how to raise them, about how we regard those with intensity, and about the medical model pathologizing them.
A boy is holding a head. He is unhappy and upset.

The Faulty Reasoning That Turned ADHD Into a Disease

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Leading ADHD researchers outline four mistakes that turned ADHD from a description of behavior into a medical disease.
babydoll quadruplets

Hereditary Madness? The Genain Sisters’ Tragic Story

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The story of the Genain quadruplets has long been cited as evidence proving something about the supposed hereditary nature of schizophrenia. But who wouldn’t fall apart after surviving a childhood like theirs? The doctors attributed their problems to menstrual difficulties or excessive masturbation — anything except abuse.

In Memory of Sandra Escher, Pioneer on Voice-Hearing

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Sandra Escher, who helped create a foundation for the Hearing Voices movement, recently passed away. She was the first researcher in the field of children who hear voices.
suicidality

Why My Daughter Died and I Lived

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To be a parent of a suicidal child is to be in a terrible position, where you hold in your hands the life most valuable to you and know that any slip of your hands may end that life. In the 1970s, my suicidality was treated nonmedically and I lived. In the 2000s, my daughter Martha’s suicidality was treated medically and she died.

State Hospital Memories: More of My Story

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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.
Scowling teenage boy holding up pills sealed in blister packs in his hand as he leans on a wooden table with an intense stare

Risk of Depression Spikes When Kids Take Ritalin

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Risk of depression increased when children were taking methylphenidate for ADHD, but once they stopped taking the drug, depression risk dropped to normal levels.

The Real Myth of the Schizophrenogenic Mother

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Acknowledging the role of trauma inflicted by a given individual’s mother is not the same as laying all blame for “mental illness” at the feet of motherhood. Meanwhile, a mountain of evidence has accumulated linking schizophrenia to sexual, physical, and emotional abuse and many other categories of adverse childhood experiences.

Childhood Trauma Is Not a Mental Illness

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My childhood was stolen by systems focused on labeling and medicating me instead of healing the effects of abuse and neglect.
A black rubber duck stands out among a group of yellow rubber ducks

“Please Be Normal!” My Experience Working for NAMI

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At my job with a NAMI affiliate, I heard daily from people who looked at family members with “mental illness” as non-people, non-human, the “other.” In the office, it was no different. If NAMI had a tagline, it would be “Please be normal like us.”

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...

Healing From Psychiatric Drug Harm, Part 1: First Steps

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I needed to teach my nervous system, via different types of neuromuscular reeducation, that it was safe to move again. Before I could walk, I had to crawl, literally.

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.
Wooden pawn-like figures surrounding a gavel

Guardianship Destroyed My Family

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People who can’t take care of themselves need support and protection, but guardianship provides neither. I know: I've lived it.

‘We Have a Neck’: Psychiatrist James Greenblatt on The Links Between Body and Brain

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James Greenblatt is an innovator and longtime authority in the fields of integrative medicine and functional psychiatry, focusing on nutrition and other natural modes...
Unhappy Woman In Converstion With Friend Or Counsellor

“Get Over It”? A Response to Empower Parents to Repair Instead of Victim Blame

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An epidemic of children blaming their parents in therapy? In my 20 years as a psychologist, I've seen the opposite.

ADHD Diagnosis Leads to Worse Quality of Life, Increased Self-Harm in Kids

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When comparing kids with the same symptoms who were either diagnosed with ADHD or not, those who received the diagnosis had worse outcomes.
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.

Abused by Psychiatrists After a BPD Misdiagnosis

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

Conservatorship: The Racket That Ruined My Father’s Last Years

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I have watched as my father’s pursuit of happiness was swept away by the court system in his senior years.
Elia Abi-Jaoude

Understanding the Youth Mental Health Crisis: An Interview with Elia Abi-Jaoude

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The child psychiatrist talks about the importance of seeing the big picture and why parents shouldn't "be afraid if their kid is in distress."