Opening Up: The Parenting Journey by Anne Peretz

Book Review: “Opening Up: The Parenting Journey”

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This is a book about stories, urging families to recognize their own strengths and create new narratives on the path ahead.
Oryx Cohen and Briza Gavidia

Emotional CPR: Heart-Centered Peer Support

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Two National Empowerment Center leaders discuss eCPR, a process for helping youth—or anyone—through an emotional crisis using three simple steps.

NC Pays Psychiatric Units That Break Rules Millions to ‘Care’ for Youth

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Around the Web: A newspaper investigation discovered that the state continued to pay psychiatric residential treatment facilities millions when they repeatedly broke rules meant to ensure children's safety and well-being.

How Western Psychology Can Rip Indigenous Families Apart

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An interview with Elisa Lacerda-Vandenborn about the consequences psychology and mental health treatment can have for indigenous children.
sister

“Floss on the Waves”: My Sister’s Journey

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It takes a long time to recover from a psychotic episode, I understand now, and I wish someone had found a way, especially during those early years of her troubles, to give Rachel more space and time to find her own path to health.
Shira Collings

New Perspectives on Eating Disorders: An Interview with Shira Collings

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“Eating disorder recovery is about rejecting oppressive values.” Therapist Shira Collings discusses person-centered approaches to dealing with food-related challenges in youth.

Interview: How Does Climate Change Affect Youth Mental Health?

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Psychiatric epidemiologist Jennifer Barkin talks about her research on the traumatizing effects of extreme weather events on youth and how caregivers can help them build resilience.

Limbic Revision – Love Heals Your Traumatized Brain

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From MindKind Mom: We have to undo the encoding of abusive or poor-quality relationships we suffered as kids in order to heal our mental - and often physical - illnesses.

Facebook Documents Show How Toxic Instagram Is for Teens, WSJ Reports

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From CNBC: Facebook has repeatedly found that its Instagram app is harmful to a number of young people - the demographic that makes up over 40% of its user base. The company is also working on a version of Instagram for kids.

Newborn Babies Go Through Antidepressant Withdrawal

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A new study finds that newborn babies experience antidepressant withdrawal after birth if their mothers take SSRIs when pregnant.

Interview: Moving Toward a Human Rights Approach to Student Mental Health

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Psychologist Jim Probert of the University of Florida's student counseling center explains why "Our goal is not to take the steering wheel out of the person's hands."

The Benefits and Harms of Antidepressants for Youth Depression and Anxiety

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From The Mental Elf: Given their demonstrated harms and the fact there exist a number of alternatives, we should be asking whether antidepressants should be used at all in young people.

Lead Exposure in Childhood Impacts Personality and Mental Health

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A study of over 1.5 million people in Europe and the US links the development of less adaptive personalities with childhood lead exposure.

Why I Fight for Trauma-Informed Systems

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I am not sure what was worse: being abused growing up while my community documented—then ignored—my torment, or being attacked for going public with my story.

So Long, Pill Mill: A Letter to My Former Patients and Their Families

I love being a psych nurse practitioner, and I never want to feel that my only role is pushing pills. The private practice I started is my effort to move away from this dysfunctional system.

Suicidality: When Your Feelings Are Too Dangerous

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After finding a cop at my door, I learned it wasn’t safe to talk about my feelings of wanting to die. As a result, I spent the better part of the next decade not telling anyone when I was suicidal.

Cindi Fisher on Hunger Strike: Free My Sidd

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Cindi Fisher has gone on a hunger strike to demand that her adult child, Siddharta, be freed from Western State Hospital after being suddenly removed from the discharge list without explanation.

“Getting to the Root Causes of Suffering”: An Interview with Patricia Rush, M.D.

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Dr. Rush talks about the THEN Center and the links between childhood trauma, inequality, human development, and chronic illness.

When Homosexuality Was a “Disease”: My Story of Abuse

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The horrors I was forced to undergo to “treat” my homosexuality are now unthinkable, but continue to raise questions about psychiatry’s ethics.

The Worst Thing: How My Mother’s Death Pushed Me to Overcome OCD

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The goal of creating a legacy for my mother required that I go beyond managing my symptoms to confronting my OCD at its roots. I had to fundamentally change my understanding of anxiety.

Boy, Interrupted: A Story of Akathisia

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I watched my son’s life change almost overnight. He developed akathisia from antidepressants, taken as prescribed for just a few weeks for garden-variety anxiety.

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.

No, the FDA’s Black Box Warning Did not Increase Suicides

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Researchers again debunk the claim that the FDA black box warnings on antidepressants led to more suicides.

My Mother Wound: Rethinking “Fear of Abandonment”

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Therapists are quick to refer to this pain I feel as a “fear of abandonment,” as if it is a figment of my mind and something not worth the time to attend to.

Welcome to Mad in America’s Family Resources Section!

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This week, you’ll notice a new name and a new look on this page. The Parent Resources section of Mad in America’s website is now officially the Family Resources section.