Why Is Child Sexual Abuse So Common in Institutions?
Where ableism and adultism allows disabled children to be seen as unreliable narrators of their own experience, sexual violence in institutions will continue to be pervasive.
Johann Hari: Stolen Focus – Why You Can’t Pay Attention
Johann Hari joins us to talk about his latest book Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention, in which he examines the reasons behind our inability to focus and seeks to understand how this crisis affects our wellbeing and society.
‘Please Don’t Murder Me’: PETITION & SHIELD ALERT for Pa. Elder David Italiano
MindFreedom International and Roads to Freedom Center for Independent Living are attempting to locate and establish the well-being of Mr. Italiano, who has ‘disappeared’ and is being denied outside contact by a government-funded agency.
Home Alone: Finding Connection During the Pandemic
This wave of emotional distress is a perfectly reasonable human response to living our lives in an increasingly isolated and uncertain world.
Professor John Read: Antidepressants & Withdrawal Research
Medicating Normal speaks with the psychologist and chair of the International Institute for Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal on topics ranging from deprescribing to attachment and child development.
Grief: A Shamanic Perspective
From a shamanic perspective, the biggest mechanism for soul retrieval is not anything mystical at all. It is something with which any adult is familiar. It is grief.
Understanding the Youth Mental Health Crisis: An Interview with Elia Abi-Jaoude
The child psychiatrist talks about the importance of seeing the big picture and why parents shouldn't "be afraid if their kid is in distress."
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.
New NICE Guidelines for ECT Are Dangerously Inadequate, Say 50 Patients and Professionals
An open letter from patients, psychiatrists, and professors calls on NICE to rewrite the new ECT guidelines to avoid putting patients’ safety at risk.
Opioids Feel Like Love. That’s Why They’re Deadly in Tough Times.
From The New York Times: America can’t arrest its way out of a problem caused by the fundamental human need to connect.
Fireside Project: Peer Support for Psychedelic Experiences
A new nonprofit support line takes a harm-reduction approach and helps people process their psychedelic experiences.
Suicide, Indian Farmers, Indigenous North Americans… and the Shame of Shrinks | Bruce Levine,...
From CounterPunch: Mental health professionals must do their part to foment rebellion against the sociopolitical status quo, rather than enable it.
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.
Change.org: Coalition Against Coercive Psychiatry in Germany – Non-Violent Psychiatry Now
From the International Association Against Psychiatric Assault: The two Germany-wide "user" and survivor organizations, the BPE and die-BPE, have launched a joint campaign for a "violence-free psychiatry."
“Mental Health” Is a Euphemism for Policing Social Deviance
"Mental health" discourse conceals the fact that mental illness is still treated as a social deviance by the authoritarian institution of psychiatry.
Love Can Fuel the Deep Empathy Needed to Understand Psychosis
From Psyche: Understanding, being understood and sharing a meaningful life are central to feelings of belonging, which in turn are fundamental to wellbeing and recovery from mental health problems.
Critical Psychology for a Better Society: An Interview with Sebastienne Grant
Micah Ingle interviews Sebastienne Grant about her work developing a critical psychology program to reimagine and restructure social systems.
The New School: ‘CRAZYWISE’ Film Screening Feb. 2 with Dr. Gabor Maté, Phil Borges
From The New School for Social Research: The panel will explore finding meaning through suffering, how indigenous cultures identify 'psychotic' symptoms as an indicator of shamanic potential, and the growing severity of the mental health crisis in America dominated by biomedical psychiatry.
Guardianship Destroyed My Family
People who can’t take care of themselves need support and protection, but guardianship provides neither. I know: I've lived it.
SSRI Antidepressants Do Not Improve Depression After a Stroke
A study in JAMA Neurology finds that antidepressants do not reduce depression symptoms more than placebo in patients recovering from a stroke.
Reducing Mental Health Detention of People with Autism and/or Learning Disabilities
From Doughty Street Chambers: People with learning disabilities and/or autism who have experienced and survived institutionalisation often carry the psychological scars for many years.
‘Our Son Has Been Locked Up Like an Animal for 21 Years…for Being Autistic’
From The Daily Mail: Families give shattering testimony of their battle against a hidden injustice in the British care system.
Interview: Abuse and Neglect at Private “Troubled Teen” Centers
Parents, beware: Disability rights lawyer Diane Smith Howard shares disturbing findings on conditions at youth residential treatment facilities.
Unscientific Diagnoses Medicalize Normal Human Experiences
In this 30-minute podcast, Peter Simons reports on the latest scientific articles in psychiatry.
Addressing the Social Determinants of Mental Health—or Perhaps Not
An article by the APA president merely pays lip service to the psychosocial causes of mental health problems.
