Electroconvulsive Therapy …. What does Canada have to say?
Electroconvulsive Therapy, also known as ECT, shock therapy, and electroshock, is a psychiatric treatment that uses electricity to induce a seizure in the person...
What is “Psychosis”?
There are different hypotheses about what psychosis is. One hypothesis that has been repeatedly disproven is that of the medical model belief that psychosis...
No evidence of a chemical imbalance in depression
The serotonin theory of depression: a systematic umbrella review of the evidence.
Joanna Moncrieff and 5 colleagues undertook a systematic umbrella review of evidence aimed...
Thomas Insel Makes A Case for Abolishing Psychiatry
Thomas Insel’s book Healing: Our Path From Mental Illness to Mental Health is getting a fair amount of media attention, which could be expected...
Announcing Oral History Collection on Mental Health Activists in Manitoba
Stories are us. Finding ourselves in history, we figure out who we are and where we belong and how what we do fits with...
NEW VIDEO: Antidepressant Withdrawal Syndrome & its Management
The International Institute for Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal has released a new video: 'Antidepressant Withdrawal Syndrome & its Management"
From the IIPDW:
Stevie Lewis is a campaigner and...
Responses to the ‘No Chemical Imbalance Study’: A Long-awaited Watershed Moment?
Initial reactions to the 20 July publication of the Moncrieff et al. study have included widespread media coverage in some places, and the metaphorical...
Personality disorders? Please, tell us what you really think.
This week on Twitter, there was an uproar in response to a UK Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPUK) advertisement for a course on ‘personality...
When Tapering Antidepressants, is Going Slow Always the Best Strategy?
I start this blog with an apology. There may be people reading who, like myself, look back with frustration and despair that they cannot...
887 Deaths from Psychoactive Meds Reported to Health Canada in 2021
I guess I started seriously considering the potential of antipsychotics to kill after I lost my friend Cameron. Cameron Fray was a husband, father...
Antipsychotics Often Prescribed Without Informed Consent
This article was written by Samantha Lilly and originally published by Mad in America, March 23, 2022
New research reveals that patients are often not...
Rethinking Psychiatry …. Robert Whitaker Speaks in Montreal
Robert Whitaker, founder and president of Mad in America, gave a public lecture at Concordia University on November 10th. 'Rethinking Psychiatry: How the Failure to...
Review of the Conference on Withdrawal and Side Effects: IIPDW
The online conference Withdrawal From Psychiatric Drugs was held on Friday May 6th and 7th. An extremely important topic for us at Mad in...
Evidence of change?
Working outside the dominant biomedical narrative can feel perilous and sometimes even risky. Taking a critical perspective of psychiatry (mental health care more broadly),...
Loss, Grief, and Betrayal: Psychiatric Survivors Reflect on the Impact of New Serotonin Study
Loss, grief, and a sense of betrayal are felt deeply by many who have been affected by the myth of the chemical imbalance—a myth...
Fernando de Freitas: A “Dear Friend” Who Was a Warrior for Radical Change
Written by Robert Whitaker and posted to Mad in America on February 3, 2023
Over the past decade, the call for radical change in psychiatry...
Freedom To Be – Herstory Writing Workshop
Freedom To Be
A 15-week Herstory Writing Workshop for those harmed by being labelled BPD, hosted by Rebecca Donaldson & The Herstory Writing Network.
When: Sundays,...
New NICE Guidelines for ECT Are Dangerously Inadequate, Say 50 Patients and Professionals
While there has been little (if any) sign of interest in reviewing ECT practices and guidelines in Canada, a group in the UK has...
The WHO Calls for Radical Change in Global Mental Health
During the past decade, the World Health Organization has regularly promoted the goal of improving “global mental health.” While it has often told of...
The Best (and Worst) That Mood-Tech Can Be
When Ontario was first placed under lockdown in March 2020, I, like many other psych-service users found myself relying on Skype and phone sessions...
Voicing the Views of the Psychiatrized for 35 Years!
Our Voice is turning 35!
2022 marks an important milestone in the publishing of resiliency and plight from those of us who are living with...
“Global Psychiatry’s Crisis of Values”
American psychiatrist Awais Aftab, leads the series 'Conversations in Critical Psychiatry' for Psychiatric Times. His June 3rd installment, an interview with Dainius Pūras, MD,...
Bell Let’s Talk: Are These “New Conversations” Helpful?
January 26th is Bell Let’s Talk Day. From the Bell Let’s Talk website:
"In September 2010, Bell Let’s Talk began a new conversation about Canada’s...
The Ethics of Psychiatry
A government cannot legitimately own its citizens' bodies. Yet, under British Columbia’s (BC) Mental Health Act the BC government, not to mention governments around...
On “knowing,” activism and writing: Remembering Graeme Bacque
We owe a debt of gratitude to activists who over the years have written, recorded, created art and cultural work that exemplifies how, when,...
Remembering Don Weitz, 1930-2021
My hero, mentor, and very dear friend Don Weitz died comfortably, in his home, on the afternoon of September 1, attended by his loving...
Mental Health Advocacy and Activism: Perspectives from Living Experience-Based Practices
From Mad in America Continuing Education
Thursday, September 23rd, 2021. 1pm Eastern, 12pm Central, 11am Mountain, 10 am Pacific
Participants will be introduced to highlights of...
Will We Wake for Pity’s Sake
Suicide is the 11th leading cause of death in the United States. While antidepressants, and other psychotropic, mind altering medications, are designed to decrease...
Honoring Jane Whittington: 1950-2021
It’s with great sadness that I am writing of the sudden and unexpected passing of my former husband and best friend Jane. Many of...
RIP: Ed White – Advocate, Researcher and Supporter
To read the original of this post click here to go to the Mad in the UK site
By James Moore -17/10/2021
It is with great...