Mind/Body

Robert Whitaker extended one of his core arguments from Anatomy of an Epidemic in a blog post last week. His argument revolves around the claim that psychiatric drugs are the principal cause of increasing psychiatric disability, as measured by U.S. social security disability claims. But does this really explain the rise in recipients of these SSI & SSDI benefits?

Amit Sood of the Mayo Clinic discusses his efforts to educate the public about building "mental health" through "creating intentionality" in one's thinking and attention.

Many of us spend a lifetime avoiding our emotional pain, and it does become more and more toxic as long as we keep it buried. It will literally make us ill, physically and mentally, as Bessel Van talks about in the book, The Body Keeps Score. The little quip, "What you resist, persists" has proven very true in my life. The only way out of that trap is to stop avoiding and learn in whatever way makes sense to us as individuals to feel once again and to embrace and absorb and therefore transform the pain of our lives. This is how I am healing.

Yoga helped me explore and reconnect with the body I’d abandoned and abused for years. My pain and sadness had me living exclusively in my mind, my body nothing more than a battleground for my inner wars. Through yoga and meditation, I slowly began to love myself again, learning to treat myself with care and respect. I felt a greater sense of self-awareness, and a sense of connection to something greater. This was a drastic contrast to the days when I felt as if god had forgotten about me, or like I was a mistake not meant for this world.

Scientific American reports on a Canadian study that found people with breast cancer who practiced yoga and mindfulness meditation maintained the length of their...

Humans aren't the only species to seek out and consume substances that they normally wouldn't eat, just to make themselves feel better, according to...

To this day I do not know how I found my way back. I think it might’ve had something to do with willpower, as I was NOT going to lose myself. I was NOT going to end up like those people who were living indefinitely in the hospital—those “chronic schizophrenics”, as they say. I was going to find my way back, back to myself.

Does depression make us lethargic, or does lack of exercise make us depressed? The Mental Elf tries to answer this question, and reviews a...

Neuroscientists have been able to consistently recreate in people the feeling of another person or ghostly entity hovering nearby, according to a study reported...

Catherine Kerr of the Contemplative Studies Initiative provides a critique of positive findings in her own area of research. "Is the general public overvaluing...

NPR Shots discusses a new study examining whether people struggling with schizophrenia sensory overloads can train their own brains to more effectively deal with...

Scientific American's Gary Stix has posted links to two video lectures about meditation and its effects on the human mind. Ricard Matthieu, a Buddist...

"Emodiversity," or living with a wide range of many different types of both very positive and very negative emotions, is strongly linked to overall...

Eighteen years ago, in the fall of 1996, I plunged into a major depression that almost killed me. Over the next eighteen years I took what I had learned in my healing and put together a mental health recovery program which I taught through my books, support groups and long distance telephone coaching. In the process, I counseled many people who were in the same desperate straights that I had been in. I shared with them what I had learned through my ordeal---that if you set the intention to heal, reach out for support, and use a combination of mutually supportive therapies to treat your symptoms, you will make it through this. And in the cases where people used these strategies and hung there, they eventually were able, like myself, to emerge from the hell of depression.

Technology journalist Shane Snow experiments with "Muse" for two weeks, a $300 high-tech headband that provides both relaxation exercises and real-time electroencephalogram readings of...

ACES Too High News takes an in-depth look at new findings by Temple University researchers showing that mindfulness techniques can help children who have...

US News interviews people who've been touched by tragedies, and then found ways to "embrace pain" and experience revelations about their lives followed...

Daniel Helman had a psychotic episode at age 20, but has been off all psychiatric medications since 2006 and is now 44. In Schizophrenia...

Two psychologists writing for Scientific American Mind review some of the evidence base for the impacts of mindfulness meditation on problematic psychological states. They...

NPR reports on veterans struggling with traumatic flashbacks who've found peace in exploring underwater. "I went through group therapies. I was actually institutionalized for...

On his blog Metaphysical Speculations, Bernardo Kastrup challenges conventional psychiatric assumptions that the brain produces and controls consciousness. Kastrup cites two recent studies published...

Nearly 150 people taking antidepressants had more robust alleviations of their depression after participating in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBTI), according to research...

Trees reduce anxiety, stress and distress, and improve memory and concentration, says an op-ed published in Business Insider that includes links to many other...

"If you’re feeling overwhelmed, there’s a reason: The processing capacity of the conscious mind is limited. This is a result of how the brain’s...

Britain's National Health Service is adopting a "lifestyle medicine program" that was developed in Australia for young people taking antipsychotics, according to The Guardian....