Ready to Quit Antidepressants? New Approach Helps Avoid Dreaded Withdrawal Symptoms
From Toronto Star: A growing number of people are choosing a “hyperbolic tapering” protocol, which takes into consideration how the drug actually works in the brain.
Patients at Greatest Risk of Self-Harm Right After Starting Antidepressants: Study
From Axios: It has been known since 2004 that antidepressants can increase suicidal behavior, but new research is clarifying when the threat is greatest.
Psychosis Is an Expression of Early Childhood Trauma | Daniel Mackler
From Daniel Mackler/Wild Truth: What makes psychosis confusing is that an eruption of infant trauma is expressing itself through the lens, the body, and the voice of someone who is now an adult.
Once Radical Critiques of Psychiatry Are Now Mainstream, So What Remains Taboo?
From CounterPunch: While it is not taboo to report psychiatry’s poor treatment outcomes, it is taboo to blame these poor outcomes on psychiatry.
Trauma Responses Are Conditioned, Not “Chosen”
From Dr. Glenn Doyle: From our nervous system’s point of view, if it had to wait around for us to think about everything that happens to us or "choose" a response, we’d have been eaten by sabre tooth tigers eons ago.
Interview with Robert Whitaker – How Psychiatry Lost Its Way
From Witt-Doerring Psychiatry: Robert Whitaker and Dr. Josef Witt-Doerring discuss what is wrong with the way psychiatry is practiced today, why there are so many problems and why they haven't been fixed.
Psychiatric Incarceration Isn’t Treatment — It’s Violence, Survivors Say
From Truthout: Sixty years after deinstitutionalization began, politicians and pundits across the political spectrum falsely declare it to be a failure — when in reality, the vision has yet to be funded or realized.
Eating Disorders Among Teens More Severe Than Ever
From NBC News: Since the pandemic, people are experiencing eating disorders at younger ages and in more serious condition, with both mental and physical symptoms appearing more urgent.
Joanna Moncrieff: “I’m Not Convinced Antidepressants Have Any Use”
From The New Statesman: The 'controversial' NHS psychiatrist and professor discusses taking on the pharmaceutical firms, and how Covid made it “OK to cancel scientists."
Amphetamines Are Often Prescribed Along With Depression and Anxiety Drugs
From NBC News: Drugs like Ritalin are being given off-label to counteract the side effects of psychiatric prescriptions, a study suggests.
Reading Books Is Not Just a Pleasure: It Helps Our Minds to Heal
From Psyche: Through my own struggles and in teaching bibliotherapy to students, I know that books can help to heal minds and hearts.
Federal Judge Finds Texas Use of Psychotropic Drugs on Foster Children ‘Appalling’
From KERA News: "These children are being repeatedly raped in [DFPS's] care," said Judge Janis Jack. "They’re being drugged in your care if they complain. If their behavior is not up to snuff, they’re getting psychotropic drugs. And that is not safe."
Governments, Treatment Providers Don’t Want to Expose “Dark Heart” of Mental Health System
From The Walrus: "People are suffering," said psych survivor and counselor Tracy Myers. "The idea that sticking them in a cell and giving them drugs is a solution for this is insanity."
Orlando Psychiatrist’s Practice Restricted After Sexual Assault Allegations
From Orlando Sentinel: Multiple women have accused Dr. Iftikhar Rasul, founder of Serene Behavioral Health, of groping them under the guise of a medical procedure.
She Redefined Trauma. Then Trauma Redefined Her.
From The New York Times: Dr. Judith Herman, who helped launch the field of trauma studies, has returned to publishing after a long, mysterious ordeal.
We Don’t Have a Health Care System. We Have a Medical-Industrial Complex
From John Abramson, MD/Hillsdale College: Instead of a health care system, we have a medical-industrial complex that is sucking America’s wealth away from the things that would actually make us healthier.
Patients Given Aripiprazole (Abilify) ‘Should Be Told of Gambling Addiction Risks’
From The Guardian: The UK's National Problem Gambling Clinic has observed growing numbers of patients who have developed a gambling addiction after starting to take aripiprazole.
Warning Over Antidepressants as Top Experts Say They May Raise Risk of Suicide
From The Daily Mail: A study examining almost 8,000 inquests which mentioned antidepressants shows the drugs may "not be having the intended effect on suicide outcomes," said researcher Mark Horowitz.
Indiana Jail Let Man ‘With Schizophrenia’ Starve to Death in Solitary, Lawsuit Alleges
From The Appeal: Sheriff’s Office employees locked a man having a psychotic episode in solitary confinement for three weeks—without mental health care or even toilet access—until he died of malnutrition.
One of America’s First Workplace Shootings Had an Unlikely Suspect: Prozac
From The Washington Post: Following a deadly 1989 attack in Louisville, survivors and victims’ families filed a suit against Eli Lilly, alleging that Prozac had contributed to the massacre.
Mental Health ‘Industry’ Issues Outlined in New Book About Forced Treatment in North America
From Ashland Source: "It is an industry — and it needs to be understood in that way," said Rob Wipond, author of Your Consent Is Not Required: The Rise in Psychiatric Detentions, Forced Treatment, and Abusive Guardianships.
Are We No Longer Just Consumers, but the Consumed?
From Gary Sharpe: Our purpose in life seems to have become not just to be consumers of, but to be consumed by, monsters of our making, such as "The Markets" and "The Economy."
Elon Musk and Others Call for Pause on A.I., Citing ‘Profound Risks to Society’
From The New York Times: A.I. developers are "locked in an out-of-control race to develop and deploy ever more powerful digital minds that no one – not even their creators – can understand, predict or reliably control," said an open letter signed by tech leaders and researchers.
How Awais Aftab and Institutional Psychiatry Sidestep the Challenges Put to Them
From ISEPP: Institutional psychiatry at its essence is fundamentally flawed. Thus it must resort to belittling and attacking its critics instead of answering their challenges honestly.
Open Letter Re: John Oliver’s ‘Last Week Tonight’ Episode on Psychedelic Assisted Therapy
From Psymposium: Last Week Tonight joined a long and growing list of media outlets that have added fuel to the hype of psychedelic medicalization by omitting its potential risks and actual harms.
