MIA Today

Unmedicated Clarity: How I Reclaimed My Voice After Psychiatry Silenced It

35
My healing didn’t begin with that pill. It began the moment I stopped handing over my truth for someone else to interpret.

Dreaming with Purpose: How the Mind’s Hidden GPS Can Guide Us Toward Personal and Societal Healing

4
By honouring dreams, we honour our innate creativity, our shared humanity, our capacity to reimagine reality.
Close-up of pill with smiley face on it. Woman's hand holding it toward the viewer

Behind the Smiles: Mental Health in South Korea’s High-Pressure Society

3
South Korea ranks among the highest in the world for suicide, and its people are turning to psychiatric drugs in record numbers.
Collage. A woman chained to a giant pill

Akathisia After a Five-Year Taper: Chained to an Antidepressant Forever

30
I have been on Cymbalta for 17 years now and am gutted that my five-year taper did not free me of the drug.
A woman and her child holding hands, walking in the dark toward a bright crack in the ground

The Mental Health System in the UK Failed Us

4
The whole system is broken and I pray for my friends in Great Britain. They need a reform, not cuts or euthanasia.
Pile of Scrabble letter blocks on wood background.

Lost in Psychobabble? Cut Through the Jargon for Real Mental Clarity

9
The key to healing is to recognize that you are not dealing with a broken brain, but unlearning survival habits that no longer serve you.

Art, Poetry, and Humor Galleries

View the artwork, poetry, and humor galleries and submit your work. Or visit the Arts Corner.

A black and white photo of what looks like an unhappy face on a piece of rock or concreteAnhedonia by M. U.

Voices by Russ Ballard

Better Mental Healthcare is seeking participants for the Survey on Shared Decision-Making in Mental Health. The survey gathers professional perspectives on clinical practices, challenges, and opportunities regarding shared decision-making, collaborative medication management, and respect for the autonomy of service users. It is intended for mental health professionals working in or familiar with the Spanish context, and the findings aim to contribute to the ongoing debate surrounding the new Mental Health Action Plan 2025–2027.
 
Dr. Morgan Shields of Washington University in St. Louis is conducting research on the experience of people utilizing behavioral health crisis services. They are recruiting people who have direct lived experience as patients/recipients or providers/clinicians and those with indirect experience as loved ones. If interested, take the 5-minute screening survey here.
 

Survivors And Families Empowered (SAFE) has developed a pilot project to work with caring families who have been stymied in their search for support and help. You can fill out their survey here.

Please join us on Saturday, May 10 at 10AM PST, 1PM EST, 5PM GMT, 7PM CET, for a private screening of the film Cover Me: The Path to Purpose, followed by a Q&A with Alison Perry Sower, producer and founder of the ranch featured in the film. 

The Failure of “Spit For Science”: No Genetic or Neurological Pathways for Substance Abuse

9
Despite finding no meaningful correlation between genes and substance use, high-profile geneticists misleadingly conveyed optimistic results.

Teralyn Sell and Jenn Schmitz: Breaking Out of the Prison of Prescribing and Finding...

7
On the Mad in America podcast, Brooke Siem talks with Teralyn Sell and Jenn Schmitz about their journey from working in the prison system to challenging conventional psychiatric narratives in their therapy practice and podcast, The Gaslit Truth.

New WHO Guidance Calls for Paradigm Shift in Mental Health Policy

29
The guidance emphasizes shifting away from institutional mindsets and practices, the biomedical approach, and the use of psychotropic drugs.

Psychology’s Small Stories and the Call of the Other: An Interview with David Goodman

11
Ayurdhi Dhar interviews David Goodman about his vision for a psychology grounded in care for the other, the risks of psychotherapeutic standardization, and why humility—and even embarrassment—may be vital to human flourishing.

Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics: End of an Era for Independent Journals? An Interview With Giovanni...

9
Giovanni Fava joins us to discuss the uncertain future of the journal 'Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics' which he edited for thirty years and which has been essential to our understanding of the impact of psychiatric treatments.
Illustration of a headstone reading "IN MEMORY OF PSYCHOTHERAPY AND PSYCHOSOMATICS 1992-2024"

The Editorial Demise of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics Is Bad News For Us All

28
Karger’s decision to replace the editorial leadership without consultation is extraordinary, abruptly ending decades of success and accumulated expertise.

EDITOR'S PICK

Insecure Attachment: What Can the Polyvagal Theory Add to Your Life?

0
What is the effect of experiencing safety and why can it be transformative for you as Dr. Stephen Porges describes? I hope to be able to take you along in this, for many, complex matter. This science is nice, but what can you do with this knowledge?

Government’s strategic plan PART 8: User influence – an illusion in...

0
Recently, the government has come out with two strategic documents dealing with 'mental health and suicide prevention'. Important documents for our future. One extends over the years 2025-2026. The other over the years 2025-2034.

Are antipsychotics effective against acute psychosis?

1
OVERESTIMATED BENEFIT: - If more than minimal improvement is required, a strikingly large proportion of patients do not receive a meaningful effect from antipsychotics. Trond Aarre (pictured) believes that the requirement of a high probability of effect of compulsory treatment according to the Mental Health Act is unlikely to be met.

Video Gallery

LATEST MIA PODCAST