Mad in America

MAY 12, 2025

It was written by David Hansen, a crisis worker at a person-centred, survivor-led mental health crisis service. I have tasked myself with mapping out my understanding of how therapy and mental health relate to politics. Mental health is also political. Is therapy political? Of course it is.

Trauma and the brain 114

Trauma and the brain Poverty and mental health Pharmaceuticals Genetics and mental health 114

Mad in America

MAY 13, 2025

I n the clean hallways of today’s mental health centers, a quiet change is taking shape. You won’t see big protests or new laws, but more people are starting to see that the main way we treat mental healthfocusing on chemical imbalances and managing medshasn’t helped many folks who need real healing.

Trauma and the brain 111

Trauma and the brain Poverty and mental health Childhood trauma Self-awareness 111

Mad in America

NOVEMBER 6, 2024

Pure portrayed Rose’s autobiographical account of finding that she had OCD, a “mental illness”, and the breakthrough that this medical framework provided her. In this interview, Cartwright charts her journey of painful and lonely disillusionment with the “mental illness” framework. Listen to the audio of the interview here.

Trauma and the brain 125

Trauma and the brain Poverty and mental health Psychedelic therapy Mental health advocacy 125

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 103

Neurotransmitters and mental health Poverty and mental health Trauma and the brain Pharmaceuticals 103

Mad in America

MAY 17, 2025

However, mental disorders are not concrete things that can be found with a brain scanner or treated with medication like a bacterial infection with antibiotics. Much has already been written about these points, for example in my book on mental health and substance use (open access).

Genetics and mental health 125

Genetics and mental health Poverty and mental health Trauma and the brain Autism spectrum 125

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’. I was forced to self-medicate by experimenting with various combinations and quantities of drugs and alcohol to ease what I thought was the decline of my ‘mental health’.

Trauma and the brain 145

Trauma and the brain Poverty and mental health Autism spectrum Anxiety disorders 145

Mad in America

JUNE 29, 2024

The theme of the conference was public mental health. Elites of the global mental health movement such as Vikram Patel were also present and so were eminent Indian psychiatrists, especially from public sector teaching hospitals. This is known as the Movement for Global Mental Health.

Global mental health 131

Global mental health Poverty and mental health Sleep and mental health Trauma and the brain 131