New WHO Guidance Calls for Paradigm Shift in Mental Health Policy
The guidance emphasizes shifting away from institutional mindsets and practices, the biomedical approach, and the use of psychotropic drugs.
Akathisia After a Five-Year Taper: Chained to an Antidepressant Forever
I have been on Cymbalta for 17 years now and am gutted that my five-year taper did not free me of the drug.
Psychology’s Small Stories and the Call of the Other: An Interview with David Goodman
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.
Lost in Psychobabble? Cut Through the Jargon for Real Mental Clarity
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.
A Reflection on “Unshrunk: A Story of Psychiatric Treatment Resistance”
The act of diagnosis is so influential on a person’s sense of self that its limitations need to be repeated again and again and again.
Confessions of an Advertising Writer: How I Helped Pharma Sell Antidepressants
As a former pharmaceutical ad writer, I not only witnessed the explosive growth in antidepressant drugs, I contributed to it.
Antidepressant Trials Last Eight Weeks, So Why Do We Take Them for Years?
The studies are of short duration and are riddled with methodological issues like unblinding and failure to assess withdrawal.
The Mental Health System in the UK Failed Us
The whole system is broken and I pray for my friends in Great Britain. They need a reform, not cuts or euthanasia.
W.H.O. and U.N. Join Calls to Transcend the Medical Model
From Psychology Today: It will be harder for die-hard defenders of the medical model to dismiss such organizations as the UN and the WHO as extremist, anti-psychiatry radicals.
The New Opium of the People: Why Our Mental Health Sector Has Failed
From iai News: By sweeping the social causes of distress into the private corners of self, our mental health sector has helped stifle collective and community action.
Mad in Finland
The people who run Mad in Finland have experienced profound awakenings in the course of their lives, moments of awareness when they understood the failures of the psychiatric disease model and saw its harms.
Mad in (S)pain
A Q&A with the team members who edit and run Mad in (S)pain: "There must be a radical change in the way mental suffering is understood and cared for."
The Curious Case of Empty Asylums and the Birth of Psychiatry
Psychiatry has cut, burned, shocked, drugged, and subdued its way through history—leaving behind compliance, not cures.
What I Have Learned in Working With 300+ People in Their Journey of Tapering
Tapering is stepping into each individual’s complex world of biology, history, psyche, circumstance, and tolerance for discomfort.
Prescription Drugs Are the Leading Cause of Death
Overtreatment with drugs kills many people, and the death rate is increasing. Why have we allowed this drug pandemic to continue?
Antidepressant Withdrawal Symptoms Linked to Life-Altering Consequences, New Study Shows
A new study reveals that withdrawal symptoms from antidepressants can last years, disrupting lives and relationships.
Seclusion, Restraint and Coercion: Abuse ‘Far Too Common’ in Mental Health Services Across the...
From The Telegraph: The WHO has called for 'considerable' changes in countries of all income levels, citing widespread use of forced admission and treatment; manual, physical and chemical restraint; physical, verbal, psychological and sexual abuse; and unsanitary living conditions.
“Dad, Something’s Not Right. I Need Help”: Richard Fee on the Dangers of Adderall
In appointments that last five to seven minutes, all doctors do is push drugs—psychiatric drugs, ADHD meds, everything.
From Public Service to Private Practice: The Collapse of the Social Work Profession
Can we resist turning to private practices masked in social justice rhetoric as a substitute for genuine movement building and advocacy?
False Information in UK Package Inserts for Antidepressants About a Chemical Imbalance
To state something that is blatantly false is not a “paradigm,” it is a lie, plain and simple.
‘Prescripticide’: Short Film by ISEPP
From ISEPP: The International Society for Ethical Psychology and Psychiatry looks at the devastating consequences of the unchallenged use of psychiatric drugs.
When Narratives Clash: Unshrunk and The Cognitive Dissonance of the NY Times
For the mainstream media, reviewing Laura Delano's memoir "Unshrunk" is an exercise in cognitive dissonance.
Symptoms and Surface Psychology
Given the lack of objective signs, surface psychology can only ever be the treatment of subjectively distressing symptoms.
Caught in a Trap: Psychiatric Sabotage by Liam Kirk
From Asylum Magazine: Liam Kirk explains what happened when he took part in the RADAR trial to try to come off anti-psychotic medication.
As a Psychologist, I’ve Seen Many Children Misdiagnosed as Autistic—It’s a Clinical Catastrophe
The ASD diagnosis glosses over the many developmental specifics that might underlie a child’s challenges related to social communication.
