What's New
Untold—an excerpt from “Shut up and keep taking the pills!”
Featured Articles
Charles Spencer’s Story of Boarding School Abuse Is Haunting
Engaging Voices, Part 1: Validating The Arrival of My Wife’s First ‘Alters’
My Lived Experience Helps Others Heal: Working with Families on the Path to Recovery
"Mad in the Family" Podcast
Around the Web: Family
EDITOR'S CORNERS
Blogs & Personal Stories
Engaging Voices, Part 1: Validating The Arrival of My Wife’s First ‘Alters’
My Lived Experience Helps Others Heal: Working with Families on the Path to Recovery
Reflections on the Silicon Valley Teen Suicides-by-Train: Fifteen Years Later
Archives: Popular Posts from the Past
Editor's Corner
People with Lived Experience, Family Members: ProPublica Wants Your Voice
So many of us in the Mad in America community feel and express frustration with mainstream coverage of mental health, which too often falls in line with the drug-focused disease model and its “chemical imbalance” falsehoods. As a longtime journalist, I know how hard it is to report and write on deadline—but I also know how critical it is to dig deeply and widely in an effort to uncover the truth, asking those affected to share their insights.
This is why ProPublica’s open call-out seeking personal experiences is such a significant move, inviting both people who work in mental healthcare and those who receive it to offer their perspectives. As it explains at the top of the page, detailing the effort and the form to be filled out: “ProPublica’s reporters want to talk to mental health providers, health insurance insiders and patients“—bold italics here and below are mine—”as we examine the U.S. mental health care system.”
Further, the reporters write, “If you have tried to navigate this system, either by yourself or on behalf of a friend or family member, we hope to learn from you too. Your insights help us understand the consequences of the structure and delivery of mental health care today.”
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. 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 more
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.