The Role of Love in Mental Health

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The one core ingredient on which any recovery from emotional distress depends is the one that never makes an appearance in any medical handbook or psychiatric diagnostic manual—that is, love.

The False Memory Syndrome at 30: How Flawed Science Turned into Conventional Wisdom ...

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Soon after states finally began providing adults who remembered childhood abuse with the legal standing to sue, the FMSF began waging a PR campaign to discredit their memories—in both courtrooms and in the public mind.

The Nurtured Heart Approach Instead of Drugs: An Interview with Howard Glasser

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This episode of “Mad in the Family” focuses on a non-drug method to bringing out the best in challenging children, particularly those diagnosed with “ADHD.” It is called the Nurtured Heart Approach® and its essence is that, in the words of our guest, “the same intensity that drives people crazy is actually the source of a child’s greatness."

A Nurse’s Nightmare: Child Nearly Dies from ADHD Drug

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My hope and prayer is that this dramatic look at a negative effect of this class of drugs will help you understand that, in my professional assessment, their risks outweigh their benefits.

Now I See a Person: A New Model for Breaking Free of Mental Health...

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NISAPI helps people achieve recovery by pairing the normalcy of a ranch and the nurturance of horses with a philosophy of postmodern collaborative practice.
woman walking away, footprints in the sand

To the Young Person Who Doesn’t Identify with Their Disability Diagnosis Anymore

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Your diagnosis should serve YOU. Not your parents, your doctors, your teachers, or the next door neighbor. We should be fighting for a future where the person being labeled has the ultimate say over how doctors and therapists view them.

Writing Is My Best Medicine

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For me, writing is a powerful tool for wellness and healing, whether that involves an escape into science fiction or simply putting my dreams, emotions, memories, and observations on paper.

Increasing Numbers of Children Prescribed Multiple Psychiatric Medications

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According to researchers, children are being increasingly prescribed multiple different psychiatric medications.

Researchers: Antidepressant Use in Children Increases Suicide, No Evidence of Benefit

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Noted antidepressant researcher, Michael Hengartner, summarizes the latest research on the use of antidepressants in children and adolescents.
sad child

Four Children

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I went to the children’s ward, to work with the kids. I remembered to tell all of them that I had been locked up my whole childhood on psych wards, and this always made them trust me.
blurry photo of flowers

Suicidal Thoughts, Psychiatric Diagnosis, and What Really Helps: Part Two

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This piece is the second of a two-part essay about suicide, diagnosis, what doesn't help, and what does help. This part is about barriers to seeking help and about the ways we actually can be of help to people who are considering suicide.
Photo of a flower

Suicidal Thoughts, Psychiatric Diagnosis, and What Really Helps: Part One

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This piece is the first of a two-part essay about suicide, diagnosis, what doesn't help, and what does help. This part is about suicide, diagnosis, and some of what fails to help.
child with protective mask standing in front of blackboard and the word "spin"

CAUTION: Spin Ahead! There is No Evidence That Psychostimulants Reduce the Risk for Infection...

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Debunking a recent study on ADHD and COVID-19: It suffers from a series of manipulations and spins that are inappropriate in scientific research that aspires to objectivity and that aims to reveal truths.

Jodi Aman – Anxiety, I’m So Done with You

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An interview with Jodi Aman, LCSW, a psychotherapist and coach who has more than 20 years of experience working with children, their parents, and helpers. She is the author of the book Anxiety....I'm So Done With You: A Teen’s Guide to Ditching Toxic Stress & Hardwiring Your Brain For Happiness
prescription for Valium

Born Addicted to Valium: Understanding a Lifetime of Symptoms

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Withdrawal felt like: evil feeding on my soul, my spirit being tortured, not being able to feel love, constantly feeling like I was falling in a dark tunnel, and wanting to get out of my body.

Embrace the Messiness! An Interview with Pediatrician Claudia Gold

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An interview with Claudia Gold, M.D., pediatrician, infant-parent mental health specialist, author, teacher, and speaker based in western Massachusetts. We discuss the importance of human interaction in child development.

Child Abuse and Psychosis: My Healing Journey

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Hospitalized for "grandiose delusions," I began to wonder: Was my dis-orientation really just a sickness? Or in "treating" it, was I missing a powerful re-orientation toward healing old wounds?
geriatric depression

The Year I Lost Everything, Psychiatry Offered Nothing

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After a failed suicide attempt following my son's death, New York State incarcerated me in a mental institution for 21 days. The environment was degrading, stultifying, and downright depressing.

Youth Antidepressant Use Associated With Increased Suicide and Self-Harm

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National data on rates of youth antidepressant prescription, suicide, and self-harm in Australia sparks public health debate about drug safety.
protesters with a sign reading "silence is suicide"

Black Suicidality and Mental Health #BlackLivesMatter

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Suicides in Black communities can be understood to be caused by an institutionalized inequality that requires Black folks to negotiate their quality of life with life itself.

Exercise for Youth Mental Health in the Lockdown: Interview with Psychologist Scott Greenspan

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School Psychologist Scott Greenspan discusses how to promote exercise and mental wellbeing for adolescents stuck indoors during the pandemic.

Withdrawing Kids from Psych Drugs: Why, How, and When

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Here are methods for reducing or eliminating a child's psychiatric medications that I have seen work well over years of supporting families through this process.

Supporting Children and Parents to Withdraw from Psychiatric Medication

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The main problem with prescribing psychiatric drugs to children is that it hasn’t been very effective.

What If This Pandemic Is the Best Thing to Happen to Children with Challenges?

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Families may be worried that the stress of lockdown may aggravate their child’s struggles. Yet, we hear some parents say the situation has changed their child for the better. Why might that be? In this interview, Dr. Nicole Beurkens talks about the impact of “quarantine life” on children with different types of behavioral, emotional, and neurodevelopmental challenges.

Awakening: Shedding the “Mentally Ill” Identity and Reclaiming My Life

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If I had not crumbled, brought to my knees beneath the weight of the misdiagnoses and sordid side-effects of the medications, I would not have had the opportunity to rise up and gain such a strong sense of self—something for which many spend their whole life searching.