‘The Invisible Cage Called Freedom’: My Work, My Kids, My Mental Health
I
see my 3-year-old’s innocent smile as she plays and rides her tricycle, and I can’t help but feel sad and worried about my daughters’...
Agony of Families Who Say Pills for Depression Led Their Children to Take Their...
From The Daily Mail: The knowledge that pills that are supposed to prevent suicidal feelings may actually be the cause of a loved one's suicide can only exacerbate survivors' pain.
Critical Psychiatry Textbook, Chapter 8: Depression and Mania (Affective Disorders) (Part Eight)
Researchers have again and again demonstrated that depression pills double suicides both in children and adults.
Podcast: The Rise in Forced Treatment and Abusive Guardianships
From PsychCentral: Often well-meaning family members are trying to 'help' by having their loved one force-treated, but they end up traumatizing and permanently damaging them instead.
NIMH’s It-girls: The Genain Quadruplets and the Whiteness of Psychiatry
The poster-children of psychiatric genetics, who endured abuse throughout their lives, were also the product of a racist culture.
Why Are So Many Girls on SSRIs?
From Girls/Freya India: We are kidding ourselves if we think condensing every emotion into something diagnosable and solvable with consumption isn’t doing profound psychological damage to Gen Z.
Children Are Vulnerable Cogs in the Psychiatric Machine
My guardian decided to seek out “professional” advice about how to diminish my “outbursts.” I was perceived as a problem that needed to be extinguished into a compliant state.
Changing Brains, Changing Minds: Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal and the Marital Relationship
As family support people for those caught in the mental health system, our job is to mitigate as much of the trauma as we can.
For Native People, the Past is Present: David Edward Walker on Oppressive Mental Health...
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...
The Nervous System in the Classroom | Gary Sharpe
From Gary Sharpe: Many of our institutions, from schools to hospitals, seem almost designed to constantly trigger our sense of threat.
State Hospital Memories: More of My Story
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.
Teenagers Pathologized by Traditional Addiction Treatment
From Filter: Traditional treatment can pathologize normal behaviors of adolescence, thereby reinforcing stigma and existing low self-esteem.
CT Sen. Chris Murphy Calls for Restrictions of Restraint and Seclusion in U.S. Schools
From CT Insider: "It's hard to believe, but there are thousands of kids who are being put in solitary confinement or having their hands bound as punishment for misbehavior at school," said Murphy.
Giving Caregivers a Platform: Elianna, Mother of Brandon
An interview with Elianna, who lives in Colorado with her son, Brandon, 34. His many diagnoses and misdiagnoses include autism and schizophrenia.
Patients at Greatest Risk of Self-Harm Right After Starting Antidepressants: Study
From Axios: It has been known since 2004 that antidepressants can increase suicidal behavior, but new research is clarifying when the threat is greatest.
The Medicalization of the American Mind
One cause of fragility? Pathologizing our children with psychiatric diagnoses and focusing on a medical solution to life's problems.
Trauma Responses Are Conditioned, Not “Chosen”
From Dr. Glenn Doyle: From our nervous system’s point of view, if it had to wait around for us to think about everything that happens to us or "choose" a response, we’d have been eaten by sabre tooth tigers eons ago.
Interview with Robert Whitaker – How Psychiatry Lost Its Way
From Witt-Doerring Psychiatry: Robert Whitaker and Dr. Josef Witt-Doerring discuss what is wrong with the way psychiatry is practiced today, why there are so many problems and why they haven't been fixed.
SSRIs, Lindsay Clancy, and Me
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.
Eating Disorders Among Teens More Severe Than Ever
From NBC News: Since the pandemic, people are experiencing eating disorders at younger ages and in more serious condition, with both mental and physical symptoms appearing more urgent.
Federal Judge Finds Texas Use of Psychotropic Drugs on Foster Children ‘Appalling’
From KERA News: "These children are being repeatedly raped in [DFPS's] care," said Judge Janis Jack. "They’re being drugged in your care if they complain. If their behavior is not up to snuff, they’re getting psychotropic drugs. And that is not safe."
Q&A: What Is Informed Consent, and What Should I Know to Help My Child?
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
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.
To Promote Mental Health, We Must Teach It
When we are quick to pathologize suffering, yet do not provide the fundamentals for healthy living, it is inhumanity of the highest order.
A Case Before the U.S. Supreme Court Could Surge the Psychiatric Labelling and Drugging...
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.
