The Danger of Marginalizing People
Instead of increasing understanding of our differences, the mental health system contributes to the marginalization of people it classifies as mentally ill.
Roll-out of 988 Threatens Anonymity of Crisis Hotlines
Even after their own advisory committee criticized call tracing, leaders of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline have been lobbying government for cutting-edge mass surveillance and tracking technology. Privacy experts are raising concerns.
Why Is Psychiatry So Defensive About Criticism?
Although I disagree with much of Dr. Aftab's article, it is, nevertheless, a courageous piece of writing. He calls out many of psychiatry's contradictions and errors.
Feds Open Investigation of SC Group Homes for Adults With ‘Mental Illness’
From The Post and Courier: "Most of them, they’re horrible. It’s nowhere that you would ever want your family member to be," said Kimberly Tissot, executive director of Able SC.
When It Comes to Mental Health Problems, The Disability Framework Fails: A Response to...
A response to the thought-provoking comments and concerns on the previous blog, furthering the discussion about disability and mental disorder.
For Life: Opera on Psychiatry and Its Drugs
An interview with composer Dawn Sonntag and librettist Kermit Cole about their new opera about the harms that can come from psychiatric drugs.
When Tapering Antidepressants, is Going Slow Always the Best Strategy?
Do we take enough account of total drug exposure time when devising antidepressant tapering strategies?
Dear Doctor (Unsent Letters) by Rose Y.
Dear Doctor,
Can we please rewind,
slip back in time?
To the first time that we spoke.
You say you don’t remember me
It’s no trouble,
Let’s refresh your memory
I’m...
Tragic Schoolboy Was Prescribed Huge Increase in Anti-Depressants
From Belfast Telegraph: Johnny Shields, 14, who tragically took his own life had been prescribed up to a 700% increase of controversial anti-depressant drugs in the months leading up to his death.
How Emotions Affect Our Cognitive Functioning | Gabor Maté, MD
From Gabor Maté, MD: Nature has given us the capacity to tune out or dissociate as a survival mechanism to escape overwhelming stress.
Art-Making as an Alternative Philosophy of Care During Emotional Crisis
From National Empowerment Center: MIA Arts Editor Karin Jervert gives a talk on the role of creativity in the healing process as part of the "Compassionate Approaches to Crisis" webinar series.
No More Tears: In Memory of Kathleen Fliller
My friend Kathleen Fliller ended her life last month. She had written a chronicle of her struggles with psychiatric drug withdrawal and akathisia, which she asked me to share with Mad In America to be published in hopes that it might help others not feel so alone.
Institutionalized 18 Years Ago, I May Never Be Released
Bill Sutherland took a plea deal for a crime he says he didn't commit. Almost two decades later, he was still being held in a psych unit.
He Cheered on Britney Spears—While Fighting a Guardianship Battle of His Own
From The Washington Post: The aftershocks of #FreeBritney could continue to rattle the American legal system long after Spears’s victory.
Break Down. Wake Up. podcast – 007 – Questioning Primary Beliefs to Reconnect with...
How an unexpected business rejection launched a quest for a successful entrepreneur to understand his personal pain and protective strategies.
Renee Schuls-Jacobson – Psychiatrized: Waking up After a Decade of Bad Medicine
We interview Renee Schuls-Jacobson about her book Psychiatrized: Waking up After a Decade of Bad Medicine which details Renee's experiences being prescribed the benzodiazepine clonazepam (Klonopin) for seven years.
“Floss on the Waves”: My Sister’s Journey
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.
Childhood Gaslighting: When Difference Receives a Diagnosis
Aside from the home, school is typically where we learn our worth or lack of it. We learn what we are taught, and how we are taught is often what we are taught.
To Minimize Medication Withdrawal, Taper Slowly
From Psychiatric News: “There is an urgent need to develop official guidelines for how to safely taper psychotropics”—for both patients and physicians, says Mark Horowitz, MD.
RIP: Ed White – Advocate, Researcher and Supporter
It is with great sadness that we write about the loss of one of our colleagues from the psychiatric drug withdrawal community; Doctor Ed White.
Postpartum Anxiety, Psychiatric Drugs and Paternalism
My postpartum anxiety diagnosis became subsumed by an arbitrary diagnosis of depression. And this diagnosis has followed me for 30 years and counting.
Restoring ‘Respect & Dignity’ to 777 Souls Who Died at Delaware Psych Hospital
From WHYY: "When you see it for the first time, it stuns you, but that’s the way these people were regarded...There’s no names there. Just these little blocks with numbers," said Dennis O'Connell, whose grandmother is buried there.
RIP: Scottish Psychiatric Survivor Activist Chrys Muirhead
When Mad in America was launched nearly a decade ago, Scottish psychiatric survivor and activist Chrys Muirhead was one of the first bloggers on our site.
NGRI: The Gilligan’s Island of the Criminal Justice System
I approached the NGRI system with the belief that my commitment would be short and sweet and that in less than one year I would be back to living in the community. That year turned into nearly two decades.
Anatomy of an Industry: Commerce, Payments to Psychiatrists and Betrayal of the Public Good
Pharmaceutical companies paid psychiatrists $340 million from 2014 through 2020, corrupting every aspect of the testing and marketing of new psychiatric drugs.
