How Psychiatry Works

DECEMBER 17, 2024

This post is built on what I often say to adult clients with ADHD. ADHD has advantages as well as challenges We start by countering the negatives about ADHD. This form of neurodiversity comes with definite advantages along with the challenges. The motivational factor is the reason why others’ suggestions usually don’t work.

Trauma and the brain 52

Trauma and the brain Pharmaceuticals 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

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. It is now common knowledge that there is no reliable biological test, or biomarker, for any of the hundreds of disorders in the DSM-5. I assume that our mind is embodied, yes.

Genetics and mental health 124

Genetics and mental health Poverty and mental health Trauma and the brain Autism spectrum 124

Mad in America

OCTOBER 21, 2023

In these interviews, I have talked about the components of the psychiatric-pharmaceutical-industrial complex, along with how psychiatry meets the political needs of the ruling class and dysfunctional families. 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

JUNE 13, 2024

I was still only 17 years old but it was a great relief after the horrendous years I had spent at an all-girls boarding school. My fellow students and I started our first year ‘pre-clinical’ training with 4 ½ days a week of lectures. Those who failed would have one chance to re-sit and if unsuccessful, they would have to leave medical school.

Trauma and the brain 145

Trauma and the brain Hospitality Pharmaceuticals Sleep and mental health 145

Mad in America

SEPTEMBER 10, 2024

A bout five years into my career in the mental health field, I began to truly realize the depths of corruption involved in the pharmaceutical industry. My eyes were first opened during a clinical psychology internship at a local psychiatric hospital. 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

NOVEMBER 20, 2024

She’s the author of The Anatomy of Anxiety and takes a functional medicine approach to mental health. She considers the whole person and addresses imbalance at the root. Dr. Vora received her BA from Yale University and her MD from Columbia University. The transcript below has been edited for length and clarity.

Genetics and mental health 110

Genetics and mental health Sleep and mental health Trauma and the brain Nutrition and mood 110

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

DECEMBER 1, 2023

“T he only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,” said Edmund Burke. This is as true on a world stage as in a playground setting, where the bully holds sway over numerous kids who are too afraid to challenge their behaviour. It is how and why the tyrants prevail.

Hospitality 145

Hospitality Trauma and the brain Personality disorders Social Services 145

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

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

Mad in America

OCTOBER 11, 2023

B radley Lewis works at the intersections of medicine, psychiatry, philosophy, the psychological humanities, mad studies, and disability studies, balancing roles as both a humanities professor and a practicing psychiatrist. Additionally, he serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Medical Humanities. Listen to the audio of the interview here.

Aging and mental health 140

Aging and mental health Trauma and the brain Self-awareness Healthcare 140

Mad in America

SEPTEMBER 20, 2024

A dozen years ago I created a website, now extinct, called ‘Five Years’ From the David Bowie song of the same name (“We had five years left to cry in”). The idea was to see how my attitudes evolved over the coming five years: toward optimism, toward pessimism, or same-same. I was told, and believed, that I would be on this drug for life.

Aging and mental health 137

Aging and mental health Neurotransmitters and mental health Genetics and mental health Trauma and the brain 137

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 141

Neurotransmitters and mental health Trauma and the brain Manufacturing Pharmaceuticals 141

Mad in America

FEBRUARY 12, 2025

Robbins is one of those rare thinkers who makes psychology feel alivenot just a collection of theories and data, but a field full of urgent, deeply human questions. Hes a professor of psychology and the director of the Psy.D. He earned his Ph.D. He earned his Ph.D. On a personal note, Brent has played a foundational role in my own journey.

Genetics and mental health 142

Genetics and mental health Aging and mental health Trauma and the brain Mental health advocacy 142

Mad in America

JANUARY 14, 2025

Such a man is in a permanent state of trauma, since his superego wants him to be heterosexual while his libido insists that he is homosexual. This paranoia accentuates the trauma that one constantly feels and leads to a full-blown schizophrenic psychosis. Most people grow up in religions that condemn homosexuality.

Trauma and the brain 105

Trauma and the brain Hospitality Pharmaceuticals Bipolar disorder 105

Mad in America

JUNE 29, 2024

L ast year I attended a prestigious international psychiatric conference at PGI Chandigarh, India, a medical school of considerable reputation in South Asia. The theme of the conference was public mental health. It was held over three whole days; 900 people from across the world had registered to attend, both face to face and virtually!

Global mental health 126

Global mental health Poverty and mental health Sleep and mental health Trauma and the brain 126

Mad in America

DECEMBER 17, 2024

If I am correct in saying that exile can cure someone of schizophrenia, then I have proven that psychiatrists are wrong in claiming that mental illness results from a chemical imbalance in the brain. I know very well that my psychosis was a consequence of numerous traumas that had nothing to do with the chemicals in my brain.

Trauma and the brain 98

Trauma and the brain Aging and mental health Hospitality Bipolar disorder 98

Mad in America

MAY 9, 2025

The woods swallowed the headlights that swept the trees, burning a negative image on the mens brains. W hen Polly left home, she wore a straitjacket over a light cotton housedress of pale yellow scattered with wildflowers. My mother wore that dress when she disappeared from my life for the first time shortly after my second birthday.

Hospitality 75

Hospitality Sleep and mental health Trauma and the brain Manufacturing 75