Mad In South Asia
While conducting research in rural Northern India, Ayurdhi Dhar spoke to a woman whose mother had vivid visual hallucinations of Indian wedding processions. When...
The Mad in the World Network: A Global Voice for Change
Mad in Ireland is the newest Mad in America affiliate. The network of affiliate sites is becoming a global voice for change.
“I Made it Through the Horrors of Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal” A Conversation with Comedian...
Dex Carrington, AKA Jørgen Kjønø, is a Norwegian-American stand-up comedian and actor. He joins us on the Mad In America podcast to talk about his experience with Lyrica and Zyprexa, including a five-and-a-half-year taper after 10 years on the drugs.
Becoming Stewards of Shadow: Beyond Great Men and Myths of Invention
Before the psyche was carved into parts with elegant diagrams and marketed methods, cultures walked with shadow.Â
“Dad, Something’s Not Right. I Need Help”: Richard Fee on the Dangers of Adderall
In appointments that last five to seven minutes, all doctors do is push drugs—psychiatric drugs, ADHD meds, everything.
Chemically Imbalanced: Joanna Moncrieff on the Making and Unmaking of the Serotonin Myth
Joanna Moncrieff joins Robert Whitaker to talk about her latest book, titled Chemically Imbalanced: The Making and Unmaking of the Serotonin Myth. They discuss the serotonin story and the fact that there is no good evidence that a serotonergic deficiency is a primary cause of depression.
A Therapist Navigating Antidepressant Withdrawal: Nelson Lee on the Power of the Present Moment
Therapist and coach Nelson Lee joins us on the podcast to discuss how he approaches helping clients while navigating the complexities of antidepressant withdrawal.
When Narratives Clash: Unshrunk and The Cognitive Dissonance of the NY Times
For the mainstream media, reviewing Laura Delano's memoir "Unshrunk" is an exercise in cognitive dissonance.
Anders Sørensen – Tackling Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal Through Research and in Practice
Anders Sørenson is a Danish clinical psychologist with a special interest in psychiatric drug withdrawal. He has undertaken research which assesses the state of guidance on psychiatric drug withdrawal and paid close attention to tapering methods with the aim of identifying approaches which might make withdrawal more tolerable for people.
The Fight Against Involuntary Commitment: Are Protection & Advocacy Organizations Fulfilling Their Mission?
Protection and Advocacy organizations were designed as ground-breaking tools for fighting involuntary commitment and protecting patients’ rights. Are they fulfilling their promise? And will they survive Trump?
Kids Are Not the Problem: An Interview With Gretchen LeFever Watson
In this interview, Brooke Siem, who is the author of a memoir on antidepressant withdrawal, May Cause Side Effects, interviews Gretchen LeFever Watson, PhD.
Gretchen...
Do Critics of Biological Psychiatry Have an Alternative to a Life of “Whack-A-Mole”?
Psychiatry has simultaneously offered multiple biological theories of depression and its other disorders, but the theories that stick are those that are effective marketing devices for money-making drugs.
The AI Who Helped Me Leave
In quiet desperation, I opened ChatGPT. I didn’t know then that I was about to build the most consistent, emotionally attuned dialogue I’d ever had.
Kermit Cole: Dialogical Therapy and Quantum Theory Walk Into a Bar…
On the podcast this week we are joined by Kermit Cole who shares his thoughts on how humor can help in creating a shared experience that is helpful to the healing process. Kermit, in his experiences of being with people in psychotic states, has seen humor as a moment when a connection can be made. In many ways, this project is bringing Kermit back full circle to his work as a film director, early in his professional career.
55 Steps to Informed Consent
55 Steps is a new film based on a true story that centers around two women: Collette, a lawyer with a tendency to work long hours, and Eleanor, who has spent far too much time incarcerated in hospitals. Over the course of five years, Collette fights for Eleanor’s right to choose whether or not she takes psychiatric drugs. This film is imperfect, but its importance can’t be ignored.
Making Peer Counseling Radically Accessible
I imagined a world in which anyone can hit a button on their phone and be connected with a compassionate and empathetic listener, 24/7. So in 2019, I founded Peer Collective. Today, there are 30 peer counselors on the platform offering 30-minute counseling sessions for just $14.
Andrew Scull—Desperate Remedies: Psychiatry’s Turbulent Quest to Cure Mental Illness
Sociologist and author Andrew Scull discusses the history of psychiatry's "Desperate Remedies," from lobotomy and the asylum to the failures of today's drugs and the fads of ketamine and deep brain stimulation.
Screen Time for Children Under Three: A Trigger for Virtual Autism?
"A Stone Unturned" weaves together the research and stories of autism symptoms reversed by removing screens and adding more parent engagement.
Is Madness an Evolved Signal? Justin Garson on Strategy Versus Dysfunction
Philosopher Justin Garson discusses the potential benefit of looking at madness not as disease or defect, but as a designed feature.
“Three Identical Strangers” and the Nature-Nurture Debate
Three Identical Strangers is a riveting film describing the story of identical triplets separated at six months of age and reunited in early adulthood. Their story provides no evidence in support of the genetic side of the nature-nurture debate, but it does supply some evidence in favor of the environment.
My Story and My Fight Against Antidepressants
I’d like to share a bit about what happened to me after being placed on these medications, and how I successfully got off. Until recently, I was embarrassed to talk about my personal experiences publicly, as I’m a professional who specializes in anxiety and depression. Today, medication free, I feel better than ever before, and I am now on a mission to help my current clients get off medications, and to inform others through my writing about the dangers and pitfalls of starting antidepressants.
Everyone’s Afraid of an Angry Woman: Honoring Sinéad O’Connor
In her tragic passing, I choose to honor her by raising up these words she said, by hearing and believing them.
A Short History of Tardive Dyskinesia: 65 Years of Drug-Induced Brain Damage That Rolls...
Psychiatry has long turned a blind eye to the full scope of harm associated with TD. New TD drugs "work" by further impairing brain function.
Why Does a Parent Medicate a Child? An Interview with My Mother
When Brooke Siem was 15 years old, her father died. Her mother, Dee Barbash, sought help for her daughter that led to a prescription for a psychiatric drug. In this interview, they look back on that fateful decision.
Teralyn Sell and Jenn Schmitz: Breaking Out of the Prison of Prescribing and Finding...
On the Mad in America podcast, Brooke Siem talks with Teralyn Sell and Jenn Schmitz about their journey from working in the prison system to challenging conventional psychiatric narratives in their therapy practice and podcast, The Gaslit Truth.
