Psychology Today

NOVEMBER 17, 2023

Consequences beyond the phone. It ian't all about the phone!

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Mad in America

NOVEMBER 18, 2023

A fter years of work involving hundreds of people in dozens of countries, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) have released their joint production, Mental Health, Human Rights and Legislation: Guidance and Practice ( WHO/OHCHR , 2023, referred to as the Guidance. The agenda of the launch event is here , and the full video here ).

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Genetics and mental health Biopsychosocial model Trauma and the brain Legal 145

Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research (ABMR)

NOVEMBER 30, 2023

We're excited to share the news about the 2024 International Behavioural Trials Network conference. Held from May 16 to 18, 2024 at UQAM, Montral. This event draws over 250 researchers and students from the field of behavioural medicine, from 28 countries and 62 institutions. It is an exceptional forum and valuable hub for the advancement of behavioural trials.

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Behavioral Health Center of Excellence (BHCOE)

NOVEMBER 26, 2023

The Behavioral Health Center of Excellence is pleased to announce the appointment of Anya Perea to the role of Chief Executive Officer. A social worker by early education and practice, Pereas dedication to and passion for empowering individuals advancing the mental health industry spans decades. She's been an operational and clinical leader in several positions and brings a patient-centered approach to all her work.

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Speaker: Simran Kaur, Co-founder & CEO at Tattva.Health

AI is transforming clinical trials—accelerating drug discovery, optimizing patient recruitment, and improving data analysis. But its impact goes far beyond research. As AI-driven innovation reshapes the clinical trial process, it’s also influencing broader healthcare trends, from personalized medicine to patient outcomes. Join this new webinar featuring Simran Kaur for an insightful discussion on what all of this means for the future of healthcare!

Healthcare

Dr. Deb

NOVEMBER 13, 2023

Catch my interview with Dr. David Van Nuys on Shrink Rap Radio Podcast as we talk about my latest book, mental health, the power of psychotherapy and wellbeing.

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Lawyers with Depression

NOVEMBER 11, 2023

True Stories is a series of guest blogs I am running on mental health in the legal profession. In this article, we explore the affect depression has on loved ones and their struggles to help. Katie has been married to her law student husband for almost four years. She has grown into a more compassionate and well-rounded Certified Health Education Specialist and Mental Health First Aid provider from her experiences with her husband’s mental health issues.

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Sleep and mental health Aging and mental health Self-awareness Education 52

Mad in America

NOVEMBER 16, 2023

T rauma is situational. The situation in which a human being is unable to wind down for a long time because it has been continuously subjected to aversive circumstances is likely to result in distress. There is a growing body of literature that supports this thesis today. Yet the biomedical concepts of mental distress still seem to prevail in the public discourse.

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Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research (ABMR)

NOVEMBER 17, 2023

This course will be open to scientists with an interest in behavioral treatment development to improve health behaviors. While applied behavioral and social scientists are the focus, basic scientists and methods experts are encouraged to apply as well. Any post-graduate investigator (doctoral or terminal degree received) in the medical, behavioral, social, and statistical/methodology sciences who has a demonstrated, pre-existing interest in contributing to investigator teams in developing and te

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Behavioral Health Center of Excellence (BHCOE)

NOVEMBER 7, 2023

The Behavioral Health Center of Excellence (BHCOE), through its quality measurement innovations, is pleased to announce the launch of the National Autism Data Registry (NADR), an online outcomes tracking system and value-based care enablement platform for individuals with autism across the nation.

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Credible Mind

NOVEMBER 6, 2023

In partnership with Sign Up Now NACCHO believes empowering communities to address behavioral health issues upstream, with a public health approach emphasizing early intervention strategies, is critical. We are excited to launch the Behavioral Health 360 partnership to help bring CredibleMinds digital self-care platform to communities, enabling our members to expand behavioral health access rapidly and effectively, while combatting the stigma often associated with mental health.

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Digital mental health Early intervention Self-awareness Education 52

Dr. Deb

NOVEMBER 1, 2023

In 1999, Senator Harry Reid, a survivor of his fathers 1972 suicide, introduced a new resolution into the US Senate. With its passage, the US Congress designated the Saturday before Thanksgiving as National Survivors of Suicide Day - an awareness day that reaches out to thousands of people who have lost a loved one to suicide. National Survivors of Suicide Day has evolved into a global awareness day called International Survivors of Suicide Loss Day thanks to the American Foundation of Suicide P

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Mad in America

NOVEMBER 4, 2023

W hat is madness? Is it merely a colloquial term for “mental illness,” one that is alternatively reviled and reclaimed? Is it merely the lack of reason? Or is madness a distinctive style of reasoning in its own right? Is it a distinctive mode of living and acting in the world, one with equal value to our exalted image of sanity? For that matter, what is sanity?

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Mad in America

NOVEMBER 13, 2023

Editor’s Note: Over the past several months, Mad in America has published a serialized version of Peter Gøtzsche’s book, Critical Psychiatry Textbook. In this last blog in the series, he presents his concluding thoughts and suggestions for the future of psychiatry. All chapters have been archived here. Final words about a specialty in ruins and what to do about it A mong the authors of the five textbooks count some of the most prominent professors of psychiatry in Denmark.

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Genetics and mental health Aging and mental health Manufacturing Education 142

Mad in America

NOVEMBER 24, 2023

“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.” —Paulo Coelho I never wanted to take psych drugs. I took them because I was desperate to get out of pain, but not the kind of pain most people associate with psych meds.

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Trauma and the brain Sleep and mental health Aging and mental health Genetics and mental health 142

Mad in America

NOVEMBER 2, 2023

T his past spring, the Hurdalsjøen Recovery Center in Norway, a private hospital that offered medication-free care to Norwegian psychiatric patients, had to close due to a governmental decision to stop public funding for private enterprises. Now, the medication free-ward in Åsgård Hospital in Tromsø is threatened with closure. This 6-bed ward had been the most visible example—perhaps anywhere in the Western World today—of inpatient treatment for psychotic and bipolar patients that promoted taper

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Hospitality 142

Mad in America

NOVEMBER 28, 2023

From Psychiatry Letter : “A decade ago, the fifth revision of DSM (the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual) was published by the American Psychiatric Association. This diagnostic system has been called the ‘Bible’ of psychiatry. The metaphor suggests some cultural realities. It tends to be worshipped; some view it as the literal truth; it can inspire, but it can be used to suppress dissent.

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Construction Hospitality 134

Mad in America

NOVEMBER 6, 2023

In a new study, researchers found that four of the five original studies on the effectiveness of alprazolam (Xanax) found it to be no better than placebo. Two of the negative studies remain unpublished, while two more were spun to appear positive in publication despite the drug’s failure to beat the placebo. Only one of the five studies considered by the FDA in approving the drug actually showed a positive result.

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Mad in America

NOVEMBER 30, 2023

M y wife J.A. was on the couch in the living room crying and writhing in agony. It was the late summer or early fall of 2014 and I had no idea what to do. I called her then-psychiatrist and explained that I was worried for her safety. “How many clonazepam do you have?” he asked me. J.A. had been taking a 1 mg tablet of the benzodiazepine every night at bedtime for sleep.

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Mad in America

NOVEMBER 7, 2023

From The Atlantic : “You have to admit, it seemed like a great way to help anxious and depressed teens. Researchers in Australia assigned more than 1,000 young teenagers to one of two classes: either a typical middle-school health class or one that taught a version of a mental-health treatment called dialectical behavior therapy, or DBT. After eight weeks, the researchers planned to measure whether the DBT teens’ mental health had improved.

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Dialectical Behavior Therapy Sleep and mental health Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Self-awareness 120

Mad in America

NOVEMBER 22, 2023

U pon the catastrophic failure of its economic policies, California has decided to systematically restrain, incarcerate, forcibly strip, and drug its now sizable unhoused population. Rent control , out of control zoning laws , and other red tape have plagued California’s housing economy for years, limiting housing supply despite high demand. The most vulnerable citizens have been pushed onto the streets, unable to find long-term housing options where they feel safe.

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Sleep and mental health Hospitality Healthcare 117

Mad in America

NOVEMBER 27, 2023

From The Real Truth About Health : “Join us for an eye-opening discussion with Mary J. Ruwart, Ph.D., Robert Whitaker, and John Abramson, M.D. as they uncover the intricate dynamics of the Medical and Pharmaceutical Industry. They delve into institutional corruption, misinformation, the shift from prevention to treatment, and the urgent need for healthcare reform.

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Pharmaceuticals Healthcare 112

Mad in America

NOVEMBER 25, 2023

From Gary Sharpe, PhD/Out-Thinking Parkinson’s : “In part one , we explored the basic concepts of personal boundaries, and violations or impingements of these. The following quote is from the summary of part one. ‘We have seen that early life experiences determine whether we have healthy, compromised, or non-existent personal boundaries as adults.

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Construction Education Healthcare 110

Mad in America

NOVEMBER 12, 2023

From Brickel & Associates, LLC : “When a child experiences neglect, anxiety, or danger repeatedly in a close relationship, that child often grows up with a sense that they are not okay. Psychology has a name for the longterm, consistent type of trauma that leaves a person feeling insecure, overwhelmed, and unsafe in the world: complex post-traumatic stress disorder, or CPTSD.

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Personality disorders 108

Mad in America

NOVEMBER 20, 2023

From Aeon : “‘A sense of special significance began to invest everything in the room; objects which I would normally accept as just being there began to assume some strange importance.’ ‘I became interested in a wide assortment of people, events, places, and ideas which normally would make no impression on me. Not knowing that I was ill, I made no attempt to understand what was happening, but felt that there was some overwhelming significance in all this …’ The first of these quotations

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Mad in America

NOVEMBER 16, 2023

From Jacobin : “Police violence and lack of access to essential care services have emerged as twinned hallmarks of American life. In a nation in which people with unmet mental health needs are 16 times more likely to be killed by police, about a quarter of all people killed by U.S. police since 2015 were suffering––or were perceived to be suffering––from a mental health crisis.

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Healthcare 104

Mad in America

NOVEMBER 24, 2023

From Mad in Norway podcast: Birgitte Valla from Mad in Norway interviews Robert Whitaker on the media in psychiatrist. English discussion begins at 4 minutes. The post Podcast with Robert Whitaker on the Media appeared first on Mad In America.

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Mad in America

NOVEMBER 1, 2023

From CNN : “People with severe psychological distress were more likely than others to have heard of 988 and to have used the lifeline, according to research published Tuesday in JAMA Network Open. But overall, only a quarter of people said they would be very likely turn to 988 in the future if they or a loved one were experiencing a mental health crisis or suicidality – and less than a third of people with severe psychological distress who had already tried the lifeline were very likely t

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Mad in America

NOVEMBER 14, 2023

W hy do some people experience severe withdrawal symptoms when stopping antidepressants, while others have few symptoms and some have none? Who are these “severe” people? Can we identify them before they start an antidepressant? With so much debate and discussion about “how many” (including the previous two essays in this series), it’s surprising that so little has been written about “why some and not others?

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Bipolar disorder Trauma and the brain 101

Mad in America

NOVEMBER 3, 2023

From Dr. Gary Sharpe/Out-Thinking Parkinson’s : “The running theme of many of my articles presents knowledge of our Nervous System, and how it responds under fear and stress, as a vital lens and toolkit towards not only understanding ourselves, and our suffering, but also for understanding the current problems in our society. However, there is so much to say about the topic which we seek to cover here, on the themes of boundaries, violations, abuse, and human suffering vs flourishing

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Mad in America

NOVEMBER 24, 2023

From Kindred Media : “Most philosophical positions are rooted in Western enlightenment assumptions of human superiority to and separation from nature, the notion of human cultural progress, and individualism—all part of what anthropologist Marshall Sahlins called the ‘Western illusion of human nature.’ Virtually all prior and contemporaneous cultures had a different orientation, one of human interconnectedness and partnership with the biocommunity and a cyclical panpsychism.

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Mad in America

NOVEMBER 21, 2023

P sychiatrists used to not put much effort into diagnosing. Instead, they focused on getting to and working on the issues in their clients’ lives that were upsetting them. But all that changed when the 1980 DSM came out. Since then, diagnosing mental disorders has been one of their main focuses (prescribing medicine being the other). People pay huge sums of money for psychiatrists’ expert opinions, and their diagnostic evaluations carry great weight in court, school, the workplace, a

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Mad in America

NOVEMBER 15, 2023

From Dr. Jonice Webb : “Why are Emotional Neglect and depression often experienced together? Let’s start with a brief refresher on Childhood Emotional Neglect (CEN), how it happens, and how it plays out through the neglected child’s adult life. Childhood Emotional Neglect happens when your parents fail to respond enough to your emotions as they raise you.

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Mad in America

NOVEMBER 28, 2023

I question am I the only one? With an unkind mosquito mind. My mental health is a sham. As I abhor who I am. My pseudo happiness, pretending I am blessed. Embalming my soul in binging alcohol. Over pleasing beyond reason. You must love me, as I do not. My blindness to my innate goodness is unsustainable. I need to begin to feel well. I have had a trillion thoughts.

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Mad in America

NOVEMBER 1, 2023

You never wanted to be the girl who cried wolf. How selfish it is to tell someone about the beast you hold inside when you rarely fear devourment. It stalks and growls but you pay it no mind, surely if it were a true threat it would have consumed you by now. You know you’re tempting its nature by spilling red from your carelessly curated yet carefully concealed lines.

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Mad in America

NOVEMBER 1, 2023

I’m right there with you so, let’s talk, in a way. We can start by talking to the air, since you and I can’t be here or there. It’s our usual way, having torn only what was once stunning, left to feel that we’ve been skipped of a high. We wake up grief to open inside, while it’s not easy, we’ve done it numerous times, transforming in crazy ways.

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Mad in America

NOVEMBER 1, 2023

And so Antilochus smote Echepolus, Thrusting a spear into his brain, the Trojan Gazing at the azure ether, then crashing Towards the dark; lunging at his foe, Diomedes Struck Phegeus, planting a lance into his heart, The white walls breaking, a crimson geyser in The rain; insensate burning, Menelaus downing Peisander with a thunderous blow, the lifeless Body crushed beneath the raging of the charger.

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