“Don’t Worry, You’ll Be Fine”
I was prescribed a âbaby doseâ of diazepam for pain management. Over the following months, everything got progressively worse.
Systematic Failure
This is the story of a life in turmoil, my failings and those of the systems meant to help such persons.
Madness to Miracles
I lost 20 years of my life and everyone and everything I held dear, including myself, due to psychiatric medicine. Why did doctors not see how drastically I changed and how rapid and brutal my descent was?
I Had No Idea That Gabapentin Could Do This…
I am now a few months off of Gabapentin, and my withdrawal problems have not passed. I still deal daily with internal tremors throughout my head and back.
Mad Parenting: On Becoming an Unlikely Family Man
Iâve often been told I shouldnât have kids because Iâm âbipolar.â But since my twinsâ birth, Iâve been way more stable than I thought I would be, and Iâve found what Iâve always been looking for.
If We Knew What We Know Now
I never questioned the adults around me or wondered if the medications were necessary. Of course they were necessary. A doctor said so.
Trauma Survivors Speak Out Against Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)
Despite the majority of the individuals being sent to DBT having histories of severe childhood trauma, little about DBT treatment is âtrauma-informed.â
How the Internet Helped Save My Mental Health
My experience has shown me that if you have enough pain in your life, you will look anywhere for the truth, even if this truth goes against what the medical system is telling you.
The One That Was Away
I had read about such places in The Bell Jar, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, and One Flew Over the Cuckooâs Nest. For more than a year, this place was my home.
Nothing At All: How Antidepressants Failed Me
If ânothing at allâ sums up my best experience with antidepressants, it also represents the averaged efforts of the psychiatrists who prescribed them.
Psychedelic Therapy Will Not Save Us
For women survivors of sexual or physical trauma, MDMA should be used judiciously. Or maybe it shouldnât be used at all.
Inside My Suicidal Mind
I need somebody who will push through that thick cotton wool ball with me until that moment when we can toss it away altogether. Someone who really tries to look at this world through the lens of my life, not theirs.
Called by God: Dealing With Depression and Psychosis
God supported me during my psychosis. I was afraid that I would lose God when I took antipsychotics again. That had happened after my first forced medication.
My Substance Intoxication Was Misdiagnosed as Psychiatric
I thought itâd be a good idea to just triple the daily dose of St. Johnâs wort â surely a plant-based, prescription-free pill couldnât be dangerous? I was wrong.
The Abused Children to Bipolar Pipeline
The mental health system traumatized me further. They were allies with my abusers to cover up and continue my abuse.
Eugenics, Lobotomy, Risperidone: “Science” Gone Awry
The worst thing about psychiatry is how it convinces your family to do things that they think are correct, which ultimately gets them to participate in harming you.
The Song of Psychiatry: The Impact of Language
I want to share the journey I took to find a new language, a new story, around my experiences and how that journey impacted my survival.
From Labeled to Healer: A Road Less Traveled
We have let down our children (and ourselves) by losing touch with parental intuition and handing their care over to professionals at the first sign of a problem.
The Observation Room
Class war between the haves and have nots is nowhere more evident than in a psychiatric ward. Dissidence becomes both a disease and a crime where cure is indistinguishable from punishment.
Anesthetized
At times I dream about meeting those doctors, and telling them how wrong they were when they told me I would always be a very sick person, needing medication my whole life.
Connecting the Dots: My Toxic Workplace Made Me âMentally Illâ
In 1996, I suffered my first manic episode. My mother was convinced it had been caused by chemical exposure. But I wouldnât hear it, and neither would my psychiatrists.
Becoming Whole: How a Change in Me Became a Change in My Practice
It feels challenging to commit to a lifetime process of self-reflection and self-improvement when someone is offering you an easy way out.
Parenting Changed My Perspective on âADHDâ
My experience of raising a son who was bright and creative but didnât fit the mold helped me to approach my restless, impulsive students more compassionately and creatively.
Dying to Stay Alive: A Ketamine Disaster
Ketamine treatment, which was being hailed as a âmiracle cureâ, backfired so spectacularly that it very nearly cost me my life.
The Unveiling of the Truth: A Journey Into the Invisible World
It is through the experience of suffering that God educates us with the knowledge of the heart that He alone holds the key to.
