Mad in America

APRIL 24, 2025

Antidepressants are Americas first-line treatment for the most common mental health problems, e.g., depression, anxiety, and insomnia. When the Covid-19 pandemic brought its cascade of anxiety, trauma, and grief, many Americans turned to antidepressants for relief.

Neurotransmitters and mental health 131

Neurotransmitters and mental health Trauma and the brain Aging and mental health Pharmaceuticals 131

Mad in America

DECEMBER 9, 2023

To understand mental illness, we first need to understand what a person really is. Science has a pretty good grasp of how the body and brain work, right? Psychologists help people who feel bad and doctors prescribe medicine for broken brains with a lack of one or another neurotransmitter. W hat is a human being?

Neurotransmitters and mental health 101

Neurotransmitters and mental health Poverty and mental health Trauma and the brain Pharmaceuticals 101

Mad in America

SEPTEMBER 20, 2024

I didn’t know Wallace was a poster boy for antidepressant withdrawal because I didn’t know that antidepressant withdrawal was common, or that I would be experiencing it myself and understanding firsthand the hellish bodily and mental feelings that make one long for death, for everything to stop.

Aging and mental health 138

Aging and mental health Neurotransmitters and mental health Genetics and mental health Trauma and the brain 138

Mad in America

MARCH 15, 2025

Joanna Moncrieff, Chemically Imbalanced (2025) E stablishment psychiatry has recently switched the biological cause of mental illness from a chemical imbalance to a brain circuitry defect. Challenging the biological model of depression feels like a game of whack-a-mole: as soon as you put one theory to bed, another one sprouts up.

Neurotransmitters and mental health 139

Neurotransmitters and mental health Trauma and the brain Manufacturing Pharmaceuticals 139