Mad in America

NOVEMBER 8, 2024

I haven’t had a psychiatric hospitalization in 15 years. I was trying to recover from a mild traumatic brain injury. I was having nightmares and flashbacks from childhood trauma that I had successfully hidden in the recesses of my mind until that time. I raised all three of my children as a single mother. I wanted the support.

Childhood trauma 140

Childhood trauma Trauma and the brain Hospitality 140

Mad in America

NOVEMBER 6, 2024

She talks about understanding the place of her own childhood trauma and also the limitations of simplistic trauma narratives. She talks about understanding the place of her own childhood trauma and also the limitations of simplistic trauma narratives. She is also a writer and producer on Netflix’s 3 Body Problem.

Trauma and the brain 118

Trauma and the brain Poverty and mental health Psychedelic therapy Mental health advocacy 118

Mad in America

JUNE 17, 2024

I was grappling with the pressures of balancing the needs of my teenagers, who were struggling in different ways, and my two preschoolers with developmental delays that no professional could explain — all while attempting to manage and overcome my own trauma from military service. Two police officers stood inside my entryway, watching us.

Trauma and the brain 132

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

Mad in America

JANUARY 6, 2024

I’ve spent my life creating compassionate alternatives to the traditional mental health system because my hospitalization was really bad. I would never ever want to seek help in a psychiatric hospital ever again. Even today, right now, there are people being traumatized in psychiatric hospitals right here in the Bay Area.

Sleep and mental health 118

Sleep and mental health Trauma and the brain Hospitality Legal 118

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.

Genetics and mental health 145

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

Mad in America

JANUARY 31, 2025

Our destinations were psychiatric hospitals or wards within general hospitals where my blood pressure and pulse could be brought down. Our destinations were psychiatric hospitals or wards within general hospitals where my blood pressure and pulse could be brought down. She took me to three in the city, big ones.

Sleep and mental health 109

Sleep and mental health Self-awareness Hospitality Legal 109

Mad in America

FEBRUARY 7, 2024

A new review published in CNS Drugs analyzes the current available treatment guidelines for monitoring the potential negative side effects of clozapine. Shockingly, based on their inclusion criteria, the authors only found one existing guideline.

Trauma and the brain 113

Trauma and the brain Childhood trauma Education Hospitality 113

Mad in America

FEBRUARY 6, 2024

I can’t continue being in and out of the psychiatric hospitals while I raise him, and, unfortunately, with a psychosis, going to the hospital is the only choice, at least where I have been living, in Belgium, the Netherlands and England. No, my psychoses have been beautiful experiences in their majority. It’s all real.

Trauma and the brain 121

Trauma and the brain Hospitality 121

Mad in America

AUGUST 10, 2024

Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared on Mad in the UK. The author, Catherine Heseltine, is a psychiatric survivor, a mum to three wonderful children and a political activist in London. I want to start my story at the end. This holiday has been amazing. How heaven could possibly be more beautiful than this island I can’t imagine!

Sleep and mental health 120

Sleep and mental health Aging and mental health Trauma and the brain Social Services 120

Mad in America

DECEMBER 15, 2023

Scuffling whispers echoing in the hall and in my brain halted, followed by a brief but sacred silence. Nevertheless, like USS Arizona and Utah, I lay immobile from what felt like a sneak attack. In the dim quiet of the calculatingly sterile room I was alone, awash with discouragement and sunken in the icy depths of depression.

Aging and mental health 121

Aging and mental health Trauma and the brain Hospitality Construction 121

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

APRIL 12, 2024

A nutrition geek and nature fanatic who loved learning about the healing power of food, I could not wrap my mind around how I needed prescriptions to balance my brain. Years later, my youngest brother was hospitalized for type 1 diabetes. It was the perfect way to start my senior year of high school. Everyone participated in some way.

Sleep and mental health 128

Sleep and mental health Nutrition and mood Aging and mental health Trauma and the brain 128

Mad in America

JANUARY 8, 2025

I was hospitalized two or three times in a psychiatric unit. But my lived experience goes back to childhoodIve dealt with trauma, major depression, suicide attempts, some addiction problems, and night terrors. B ecky Brasfield has emerged as a formidable advocate for change in the complex landscape of mental health care.A

Poverty and mental health 129

Poverty and mental health Trauma and the brain Global mental health Hospitality 129

Mad in America

OCTOBER 20, 2023

There appears to be more dopamine uptake due to the antipsychotic-induced brain compensatory mechanism as a response to the suppressed blockade state in an effort to achieve energy equilibrium. A fter 22 years and many attempts I finally stopped taking antipsychotics.

Neurotransmitters and mental health 105

Neurotransmitters and mental health Trauma and the brain Self-awareness Healthcare 105

Mad in America

FEBRUARY 1, 2024

Editor’s Note: This blog is also being published on our affiliate site, Mad in the UK. T he one-size-fits-all autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis, as configured in the Revised Fifth Edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM- 5-TR), is a clinical catastrophe. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Autism spectrum 133

Autism spectrum Trauma and the brain Education Hospitality 133

Mad in America

JANUARY 12, 2024

I was experiencing my first manic episode, brought on by a traumatic event. I reacted to my emotions with the weight of stress on my chest. I was assaulted, by someone who was supposed to love and protect me. I confided in my mother, who seemed to believe me at first. I struck out in a place of fear, anger, and pain. They didn’t listen to me.

Sleep and mental health 112

Sleep and mental health Trauma and the brain Hospitality Aging and mental health 112

Bullet Psych

FEBRUARY 22, 2025

Alcohol is reinforcing because it increases dopamine release in the brain's reward system, particularly in the mesolimbic pathway, leading to feelings of pleasure, relaxation, and euphoria. Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is the most common substance use disorder , affecting millions worldwide. Highest rates in ages 1829.

Genetics and mental health 52

Genetics and mental health Neurotransmitters and mental health Trauma and the brain Aging and mental health 52

Mad in America

MAY 3, 2025

Thus, establishment psychiatry is unthreatened by the idea that trauma and adverse childhood experiences are a cause of emotional suffering and behavioral disturbancesas long as these conditions are medicalized. F or the institutions comprising establishment psychiatry, self-preservation means maintaining legitimacy as a branch of medicine.

Trauma and the brain 137

Trauma and the brain Aging and mental health Genetics and mental health Bipolar disorder 137

Mad in America

APRIL 25, 2025

Together in a dorm room, a group of us dropped the mushrooms. Multicolored chewable candy masked the earthy aftertaste. Post-shrooming, we roamed along the trail by the campus creek. A thick blanket of snow obscured the land. The brisk air, coupled with a pressing need to pee, spurred my withdrawal from the group. I received a mission from beyond.

Trauma and the brain 88

Trauma and the brain Hospitality Pharmaceuticals 88

Mad in America

APRIL 28, 2025

Jo: Hi Cathy, thanks for joining me to talk about your new book Unshackled Mind: A Doctors Story of Trauma, Liberation and Healing. But within a year of publication, I was back in hospital, relapsed apparently. Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared on our affiliate site, Mad in the UK. I thought I had recovered.

Trauma and the brain 83

Trauma and the brain Childhood trauma Self-awareness Hospitality 83

Mad in America

MARCH 6, 2025

T his historical record of Oregons first state hospital, the Oregon State Insane Asylum, from its opening in 1883 until the mid-1950s, will focus on the experiences of patients there. The guiding principle for the hospital during these seven decades, whether recognized or not, was Everything About Us Was Without Us.

Hospitality 89

Hospitality Trauma and the brain Aging and mental health Self-awareness 89

Mad in America

JANUARY 20, 2024

This paper is surprising since Torrey has long argued that schizophrenia is a brain disease to be treated biomedically. T he decades-long attempt to locate the gene or genes for schizophrenia has failed, according to a new article in Psychiatric Research by prominent schizophrenia researcher E. Fuller Torrey.

Genetics and mental health 145

Genetics and mental health Bipolar disorder Poverty and mental health Trauma and the brain 145

Mad in America

DECEMBER 23, 2023

They were shatteringly vivid then—usually involving fleeing from hospital staff who wanted to lock me up and inject me with sedatives. S everal weeks after being committed under the Mental Health Act, still dopey from mandated antipsychotics, I had a dream. But this dream was different, and it turns out, not so far from a possible reality.

Aging and mental health 139

Aging and mental health Trauma and the brain Hospitality Construction 139

Mad in America

DECEMBER 1, 2023

The whole of my family had suffered horrendously during the seven years from 1994, when I was repeatedly hospitalized as a psychiatric patient, drugged, and given ECT. The whole of my family had suffered horrendously during the seven years from 1994, when I was repeatedly hospitalized as a psychiatric patient, drugged, and given ECT.

Hospitality 145

Hospitality Trauma and the brain Personality disorders Social Services 145

Mad in America

JUNE 13, 2024

By the time we got to our clinical studies and spent most of our time rotating around the various specialities in the local hospitals, we were well used to being subjected to belittling treatment at the hands of our superiors. The prospect of spending time in the large institution, Springfield Psychiatric Hospital in Tooting, was scary.

Trauma and the brain 145

Trauma and the brain Hospitality Pharmaceuticals Sleep and mental health 145

Mad in America

NOVEMBER 15, 2023

She earned a PhD in English literature at the University of Maryland, College Park. She now teaches a course on U.S. history at Mount St. Mary’s University. It was named a New York Times Editors’ Pick and will be the focus of our conversation today. She lives in Hanover, Pennsylvania. The transcript below has been edited for length and clarity.

Trauma and the brain 142

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

Mad in America

SEPTEMBER 10, 2024

My eyes were first opened during a clinical psychology internship at a local psychiatric hospital. I was a research coordinator for an inpatient hospital involved with clinical research trials bringing depression drugs to market. I was completely shocked at what I witnessed in the industry-sponsored research trials.

Trauma and the brain 128

Trauma and the brain Genetics and mental health Pharmaceuticals Aging and mental health 128

Mad in America

DECEMBER 5, 2024

Astor’s commercial goal was composed of two parts: an ill-fated seagoing venture which sent a crew around the tip of South America, and the Overland Party, the one with which Pelton and Day were connected—each in different ways, but with similar experiences of trauma. There are lessons in the accounts of both men.

Trauma and the brain 110

Trauma and the brain Hospitality Construction 110

Mad in America

FEBRUARY 9, 2024

My family life growing up was a good period for me, and I have no complaints, yet there seemed to be something in the way my nervous system was wired, a leftover of birth trauma perhaps, that meant that relaxation and physical comfort weren’t part of my being. Perhaps broken open a bit, but in a good way.

Trauma and the brain 108

Trauma and the brain Hospitality Education 108

Mad in America

MAY 21, 2025

Kirmayers scholarship on narrative, metaphor, and cultural psychiatry aligns with ongoing efforts by Indigenous psychologists and anthropologists to reframe trauma and healing through culturally grounded practices, as reflected in recent collaborative work calling for a decolonial turn in psychology.

Trauma and the brain 52

Trauma and the brain Poverty and mental health Aging and mental health Resilience and coping 52

Mad in America

SEPTEMBER 13, 2024

Perhaps if I took a different prescription or combination of prescriptions, my brain would magically adjust and rid me of my alleged ‘chemical imbalance’. My brain sat in my skull like a dead goldfish. I had been diagnosed with numerous ‘disorders’ because I had a traumatic childhood. I was severely unwell. I was disgusted.

Trauma and the brain 144

Trauma and the brain Poverty and mental health Autism spectrum Anxiety disorders 144

Mad in America

JUNE 28, 2024

A few months ago, I attended a live Zoom event on Guidely with Dr. Gabor Maté, author of The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness & Healing in a Toxic Culture. He was talking about being abandoned for a month at the age of one because his mother was protecting his life during the Nazi occupation of Hungary. Is that even possible?

Trauma and the brain 133

Trauma and the brain Aging and mental health Genetics and mental health Autism spectrum 133

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 145

Trauma and the brain Genetics and mental health Self-awareness Personality disorders 145

Mad in America

OCTOBER 21, 2023

H ow can psychiatry maintain its authority and influence despite its repeated scientific failures and lack of progress—now even acknowledged by key members of the psychiatric establishment and the mainstream media? In 2023, Time reported , “About one in eight U.S. As of late 2022, just 31% of U.S.

Technology 144

Technology Genetics and mental health Pharmaceuticals Sleep and mental health 144

Mad in America

MARCH 30, 2024

Thankfully, from my work as a music college professor, I understood the connection between music and the brain. This led him to his initial treatment and drugs, which led to more, then more, then more, evolving into a long and arduous cascade of psychiatric harms. The ER physician had given him Prozac. I could see his lifeless eyes.

Sleep and mental health 126

Sleep and mental health Bipolar disorder Trauma and the brain Aging and mental health 126

Mad in America

DECEMBER 30, 2023

New Study Finds Connection Between Childhood Trauma and Psychosis In December, Ashley Bobak wrote about a new study which sheds new light on the profound impact of childhood trauma in the development of psychotic symptoms, particularly in treatment-resistant cases of schizophrenia.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy 145

Dialectical Behavior Therapy Trauma and the brain Childhood trauma Sleep and mental health 145

Mad in America

OCTOBER 22, 2024

The real question is whether the “brighter future” is always so distant. When mundane events increasingly take on the character of the surreal or the apocalyptic, what does it mean to be normal or sane? I believe these kinds of questions will shape our understanding of the future of mental health. Yet these things are not acts of God.

Trauma and the brain 126

Trauma and the brain Self-awareness Legal Technology 126