The Fight Against Involuntary Commitment: Are Protection & Advocacy Organizations Fulfilling Their Mission?

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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?

Teralyn Sell and Jenn Schmitz: Breaking Out of the Prison of Prescribing and Finding...

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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.

“Dad, Something’s Not Right. I Need Help”: Richard Fee on the Dangers of Adderall

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In appointments that last five to seven minutes, all doctors do is push drugs—psychiatric drugs, ADHD meds, everything.

The Mad in the World Network: A Global Voice for Change

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Mad in Ireland is the newest Mad in America affiliate. The network of affiliate sites is becoming a global voice for change.

Mad In South Asia

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While conducting research in rural Northern India, Ayurdhi Dhar spoke to a woman whose mother had vivid visual hallucinations of Indian wedding processions. When...

When Narratives Clash: Unshrunk and The Cognitive Dissonance of the NY Times

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For the mainstream media, reviewing Laura Delano's memoir "Unshrunk" is an exercise in cognitive dissonance.

Do Critics of Biological Psychiatry Have an Alternative to a Life of “Whack-A-Mole”?

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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.
Illustration of a headstone reading "IN MEMORY OF PSYCHOTHERAPY AND PSYCHOSOMATICS 1992-2024"

The Editorial Demise of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics Is Bad News For Us All

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Karger’s decision to replace the editorial leadership without consultation is extraordinary, abruptly ending decades of success and accumulated expertise.

Embracing the Shadow—Charlie Morley on Lucid Dreaming as Therapy

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On the Mad in America podcast, we hear about the potential of lucid dreaming therapy to aid those struggling with post-traumatic stress.

Exploding Myths About Schizophrenia: An Interview with Courtenay Harding

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The Vermont Longitudinal Study, led by Courtenay Harding, belied conventional beliefs about schizophrenia by showing remarkably good outcomes for patients discharged in the 1950s and '60s.

Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics: End of an Era for Independent Journals? An Interview With Giovanni...

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Giovanni Fava joins us to discuss the uncertain future of the journal 'Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics' which he edited for thirty years and which has been essential to our understanding of the impact of psychiatric treatments.
woman rejecting mask held by psychiatrist

Should You Ever Ask Someone “Are You Suicidal?”

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For every person “Are you suicidal?” may assist, there are many more of us who are scared into silence when those words are uttered. Why? Well, “Are you suicidal?” is, in fact, the king of the suicide risk assessment questionnaire. “Are you suicidal?” has become the red, neon, flashing sign that screams “Stop! Don’t talk to me!” Perhaps this might just explain why suicide risk assessments are well known not to work.

Kids Are Not the Problem: An Interview With Gretchen LeFever Watson

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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...

An Atheist’s Prayer by Morgan Stewart

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Psychiatry is an atheist’s prayer, absolving the faithful of human desire It is miracle cures, sinners who have lost their way, and a holy book...
mania

Antidepressant-Induced Mania: When My Mind Became a Literal Hell

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The amount of anxiety I felt on these medications — and for a couple of years after — was unfathomable. I felt as though I was trapped in an air-tight vat, constantly gasping for breath. And my thoughts were guided by my state of constant worry and panic.

The “Sick Enough” Paradox in Eating Disorder Treatment

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I had internalized that not only would I be socially rewarded for starving myself, but also that I could only earn care by proving that I was sick enough to meet their criteria.
suicide attempter attempt survivor

Hegemonic Sanity and Suicide

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The “good” suicide attempt survivor wakes up in a hospital bed bathed in beautiful natural light, surrounded by the people who love them most, and they realize that their thinking was flawed and all those unsolvable problems can actually be solved if they are just compliant with medication and therapy. And then there's the “bad” suicide attempter who is angry that they lived, who challenges the status quo.

A Short History of Tardive Dyskinesia: 65 Years of Drug-Induced Brain Damage That Rolls...

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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.

The New York Times Is Now Engulfed in the STAR*D Scandal

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The New York Times published yet again the fraudulent result from the STAR*D trial. Will the mainstream media ever tell of this scandal?

Anders Sørensen – Tackling Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal Through Research and in Practice

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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 Dying of the Light: Norway’s “Medication-Free” Services for Psychotic Patients Are Fading Away

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Despite their successful outcomes, Norwegian non-coercive and medication-free programs are being threatened with closure.
three identical strangers

“Three Identical Strangers” and the Nature-Nurture Debate

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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

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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.

Suicide in the Age of Prozac

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During the past twenty years, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and American psychiatry have adopted a "medicalized" approach to preventing suicide, claiming that antidepressants are protective against suicide. Yet, the suicide rate in the United States has increased 30% since 2000, a time of rising usage of antidepressants. A review of studies of the effects of mental health treatment and antidepressants on suicide reveals why this medicalized approach has not only failed, but pushed suicide rates higher.

Everyone’s Afraid of an Angry Woman: Honoring Sinéad O’Connor

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In her tragic passing, I choose to honor her by raising up these words she said, by hearing and believing them.