Your Vagus Nerve Is Not in Control: The Problem with Polyvagal Theory
In addition to being scientifically incorrect, there’s no reliable evidence that PVT works to relieve people of their symptoms or distress.
Psychiatry’s Attack Dog Is at It Again
Robert Whitaker responds to Awais Aftab's inaccurate smear campaign toward Mad in America and other critics.
Autism and Psychiatry: A Dangerous Mix
I am still trying to recover from all the damage psychiatry did to me and I am seeking therapies that work, with mixed results.
Faith, Culture, and Coercion: An Interview with Cultural Psychiatrist G. Eric Jarvis
Cultural psychiatrist G. Eric Jarvis discusses religion and mental health, the social determinants of psychosis, and how coercive treatment can deepen mistrust in psychiatric care.
Rearranging Deck Chairs While the Titanic Goes Down—The American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology Issues...
Clinicians seeking practical guidance about how to deprescribe in a safe, pharmacologically rational manner will find little here to assist them.
On the Autistic Spectrum or a Camus Anti-Hero? Rebellion Obtuseness in Psychiatry
There is much that human beings rebel against, and there are various forms of rebellion, many of which psychiatry pathologizes.
The Bargain
On my chest, I have a tattoo. It's the pagan symbol of Mephistopheles — the mark Faust signed with when he made his deal.
The Keto Diet + Drug Tapering: What Are the Possibilities?
The Accord program in Arlington Massachusetts will provide a test of whether an intensive ketogenic program, when combined with drug-tapering support, can lead to robust recovery over the long term, with diminished use--or no ongoing use--of psychiatric medications.
Forty-two Days on a Finnish Psychiatric Ward
I can not say for sure at what point I finally realised that I was a patient in a mental hospital.
Kindling Our Inner Fire: A Residential Program Where Drug Tapering is the Norm
Robert Whitaker interviews Beatrice Birch, Founder and Director of Inner Fire, a residential program in rural Vermont.
With Veterans Demanding Action, Bipartisan Support Emerges for Written Informed Consent Bill
On the morning of April 29, representatives of 35 veterans’ service organizations (VSOs) gathered under cloudy skies on Capitol Hill for a press conference...
Not Serotonin Deficiency: A Veteran’s Story of Misdiagnosis and Medication Harm
When my experience did not match what I had been told to expect, it was minimized and dismissed.
The Madness Pill: How Psychedelics and Stimulants Shaped Biological Psychiatry — An Interview with...
Justin Garson joins us to talk about the work of Solomon Snyder, whose discoveries ushered in the era of biological psychiatry.
“It Was Like They Crushed a Beautiful Flower”: Families Speak Out on the Harms...
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a controversial practice, with recent research finding harm, as well as a lack of efficacy and informed consent. A new...
From Hyde Park, London, to a Global Movement: Marking Stolen Lives on Prescribed Harm...
On 29 July, Prescribed Harm Day, we are inviting individuals and communities around the world to host their own Stolen Lives gatherings.
What I’ve Learned from My Son’s Unusual Mental States
Distress can take many forms, and most people with mental health challenges or substance use challenges carry deep unaddressed wounds.
The Madness Pill: One Doctor’s Quest to Understand Schizophrenia
Sol Snyder burned this medical vision so deeply into our collective consciousness that it’s almost impossible to see outside of it.
Desperate Cries for Help and the Copper Toxicity Doctors Missed
Although there is a known correlation between estrogen and copper, mainstream doctors don’t test copper levels or estrogen-dominance.
Finding God and Leaving Psychiatry: An Interview With Kelsey Osgood
Kelsey Osgood joins us to talk about her new book Godstruck: Seven Women's Unexpected Journeys to Religious Conversion and her experiences with anorexia and psychiatric drugs.
Which Would You Prefer: Electroshock or a Safe Taper?
Imagine you’ve spent your entire life as a healthy person, seven decades in fact, and suddenly being recommended ECT by the psychiatry department of a prestigious university.
New Research Links Psychotropic Drugs to Heart and Pancreatic Risks While Keto Diet Shows...
This week Mad in America examines three studies related to the adverse effects of psychotropic drugs and one that investigates the effect of keto...
Initiation or Psychosis? My Descent Into the Underworld
If my nervous system opens wide, if I descend into underworld states, it is not to glorify them. It is to return with language.
Fighting Psychiatric Subjectivation and Helping Others Along the Way: An Interview with Prateeksha Sharma
Prateeksha Sharma reflects on her own experience of recovery from psychosis with the help of music, family, and dogs, sheds lights on the treatment harms that often go unnamed and thus unnoticed, and discusses how to claim narrative, dignity, and voice.
Research Reveals Pharma Profits Outweigh Anti-Kickback Penalties
The pharmaceutical industry has a well documented history of corruption and placing profit above public health. A new research letter published in JAMA Open...
What If the Problem Is the Lens?
The very phrase "mental health" implies that our emotional life is organised along a continuum of health and illness, like physical disease.
