How Psychiatry Works

JULY 1, 2025

Let's review: New Learning: As described by Pavlov and well known to all of us, conscious awareness and experiential practice lead gradually to adding new behavior patterns to our repertoire of available responses. Readers of this blog will recognize three clinical requirements that universally explain what all therapies need to accomplish.

Trauma and the brain 52

Trauma and the brain Self-awareness Cognitive Behavioral Therapy 52

Mad in America

NOVEMBER 24, 2023

I had headaches, brain fog, and fatigue. Being a brain doctor, he focused on the headaches. “Maybe the journey isn’t so much about becoming anything. Maybe it’s about unbecoming everything that really isn’t you, so you can be who you were meant to be in the first place.”

Trauma and the brain 143

Trauma and the brain Sleep and mental health Aging and mental health Genetics and mental health 143

Mad in America

JUNE 17, 2024

But by the end of 2018, life started to become overwhelming. M y brother Jesse sat next to me on the couch in my living room. Two police officers stood inside my entryway, watching us. My mind raced. I believed my brother’s life was in danger. I believed I was the only person who knew it and only I could save him. Instead, they were about me.

Trauma and the brain 132

Trauma and the brain Sleep and mental health Aging and mental health Self-awareness 132

Mad in America

FEBRUARY 24, 2024

P sychiatry’s serotonin-imbalance theory of depression, long discarded by researchers, was finally flushed down the toilet by psychiatry and the mainstream media in 2022. And psychiatrists’ primary treatments for depression—their so-called “antidepressants”—are now circling the drain. 2) What approach to depression makes sense? Genes and depression?

Poverty and mental health 145

Poverty and mental health Childhood trauma Neurotransmitters and mental health Trauma and the brain 145

Mad in America

AUGUST 5, 2024

Editor’s Note: Mad in the UK and Mad in America are jointly publishing this four-part series on neurodiversity. The series was edited by Mad in the UK editors, and authored by John Cromby and Lucy Johnstone (with part three written by an anonymous contributor). The series is being archived here.

Trauma and the brain 139

Trauma and the brain Genetics and mental health Self-awareness Personality disorders 139

Mad in America

MARCH 30, 2024

But the combined intelligence and cognitive awareness of Matt and his mother’s tenacity for answers undoubtedly gave him a second chance on life. I knew in October of 2018 that Matt was in trouble during a phone call, when he told me in a cheerful voice that he had been to the ER for “mental health reasons” but was “fine.”

Sleep and mental health 128

Sleep and mental health Trauma and the brain Bipolar disorder Aging and mental health 128

Mad in America

SEPTEMBER 27, 2023

In 2018, he was awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship to research PTSD treatment in military veterans and continues to teach workshops for people with trauma-affected sleep. A lucid dream is any dream where you’re actively aware of the fact that you’re dreaming as the dream is happening. Charlie Morley: Thank you.

Trauma and the brain 94

Trauma and the brain Childhood trauma Self-awareness Mindfulness practices 94