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Two Tribal Nations Sue Social Media Companies Over Youth Suicides
From Native News Online comes this article on a new lawsuit, filed by the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin and the Spirit Lake Tribe in North Dakota, asserting tech giants like Meta are contributors...
Featured Articles
Giving Caregivers a Platform: Meagan, Mother of Matt
A mom describes her son's descent into the harms of psychiatry—and his way out. "It was really difficult to watch Matt decline. He had given up hope that he could get well."
Medical Journals Refuse to Retract Fraudulent Trial Reports That Omitted Suicidal Events in Children
The published articles underreported suicide-related events and provided false claims that the drugs were effective.
Charles Spencer’s Story of Boarding School Abuse Is Haunting
But parents are still sending children away to board, and it’s still dangerous.
"Mad in the Family" Podcast
Around the Web: Family
EDITOR'S CORNERS
Blogs & Personal Stories
A Felt Sense of Safety – From Disassociation to Embodiment
I know now that I can trust myself and listen to my intuition. Within the mental health system, I trusted everyone but myself.
Engaging Voices, Part 2: Working Our Way Toward Connection
Sam Ruck shares his fourth excerpt from his book Healing Companions, which describes his life with, and love for, his wife and her “alters.”Â
Giving Caregivers a Platform: Meagan, Mother of Matt
A mom describes her son's descent into the harms of psychiatry—and his way out. "It was really difficult to watch Matt decline. He had given up hope that he could get well."
Archives: Popular Posts from the Past
Editor's Corner
Coming May 4: A Second Panel on Ways To Support Extreme States
For all who couldn’t make Mad in America’s recent online discussion on extreme states, good news: a sequel is coming. “Part II: Supporting Extreme States, Dissociation, & Experiences Labeled as Psychosis,” set for 1 p.m. Saturday, May 4, will dive deeper into the subject with the same extraordinary panelists: Cindy Marty Hadge, Sam Ruck, and Olga Runciman, along with hosts Louisa Putnam and Kermit Cole. You can register right now at the eventbrite link. Tickets are $10 each, with a code provided—extremestates2—for anyone who can’t afford it.Â
This time, the participants will be discussing ways to be present and provide caring, conscious validation in the midst of these states, with real-life examples of approaches that can lead to genuine recovery—a concept too rarely considered viable in a paradigm that leans so hard on diagnosis, drugs, and pathologizing.Â
Once again, they’ll be speaking from vantages both personal and professional. Hadge is a Hearing Voices Network trainer with lived experience of extreme states; Runciman is a psychologist who specializes in them and has experienced them herself; Ruck is an MIA writer who has supported his wife through her dissociation; and hosts Putnam and Cole are therapists who moderate MIA’s US/Canada online parent support group.Â
Family Newsletter
Support Groups
MIA offers moderated, online peer-support groups for parents of both minor and adult children. The U.S./Canada group meets each Tuesday on a drop-in basis. The U.S./Europe group meets on the second Thursday of each month. Â Learn more and sign up here.
For info on other online and in-person support groups, including those for parents and families, click here. To suggest more for the list, please email [email protected].
Q&A: What Is Executive Function, and How Can Parents and Teachers Help Kids Focus? In her latest piece, author, teacher, and advocate Ann Bracken describes EF and lays out multiple approaches designed to aid teachers, parents, and teens themselves.
Do you have a question of your own? Submit it for an online reply. For past Q&As on a range of topics, check out the archives.
Psychiatric Drug Info
Did you know:
- That longer-term studies of children given a diagnostic label of ADHD have found worse outcomes for medicated youth?
- In a large NIMH study, researchers concluded that few youth “benefit long-term” from antipsychotics (neuroleptic drugs)?
- That use of marijuana, stimulants, and antidepressants increase the risk that a youth will receive a diagnostic label of bipolar disorder?
Research on psychiatric drug use in children and adolescents
- Stimulants for children with a diagnostic label of ADHD
- Antidepressants for children with a diagnostic label of depression/anxiety
- Antipsychotics (neuroleptics) for children with a diagnostic label of psychosis, bipolar disorder, and moreÂ
Research on non-drug treatments
- Non-drug approaches for ADHD
- Non-drug approaches for depression
- Non-drug approaches for psychosis, bipolar disorder, and more
Resources Information on withdrawal from psychiatric drugs. Directory of therapists/providers who support drug withdrawal.
