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To state the obvious, this is an anti-psychiatry site, and as such it attracts a fair measure of impassioned comment – some favorable, some unfavorable. From time to time the site gets “bombed”, by which I mean that someone who opposes my ideas “sits” on the site and expresses profound disapproval of anything and everything that I write, and of any favorable material from other commenters. In my early days as a blogger, I routinely tried to engage these individuals in dialogue, but, as I became busier, I was unable to maintain this level of response. Today I respond to comments as time and energy permit, but as a general rule I do not respond to comments that are fundamentally dishonest. The classic in this regard is: “You say that brains can’t malfunction, that’s just plain stupid.” I consider this a fundamentally dishonest line of discussion, because firstly, I have never made a statement even remotely like this, and secondly, the statement is obviously false and silly. ...

On March 24, 2015, a twenty-seven-year-old German pilot named Andreas Lubitz flew an Airbus A 320 into a French mountainside, killing himself and the 149 other people on board. Mr. Lubitz was co-piloting the flight, and he caused the aircraft to crash by locking the pilot out of the flight deck and setting the autopilot to descend to 100 feet. During the descent, he was contacted by civilian and military traffic controllers, and by the crew of another aircraft, but he made no response. He also ignored repeated and increasingly urgent requests from the captain to be readmitted to the flight deck. ...

On February 22, Allen Frances, MD, published an article titled: Psychiatry and Anti-Psychiatry on the HuffPost Blog. The general theme of the article is that psychiatry may have some problems, but it is basically sound, wholesome, and necessary. Here are some quotes, interspersed with my comments: "Psychiatry used to be a biopsychosocial profession that allowed time to get to know the person, not just treat the symptom. But drastic cuts in the funding of mental health services have dramatically reduced the quality of the service they can provide. Psychiatrists are now forced to follow very large panels of patients. Most of the limited time they are allowed with each is spent discussing symptoms, adjusting the meds, and determining side effects. Little time is left to forge a healing relationship, provide support, and teach skills through psychotherapy. And patients usually get to a psychiatrist- if at all- as a last resort, only after other things have failed- and with the expectation by the patient and referral source that the main purpose of the visit is just to prescribe medication." ...

On February 1, Allen Frances, MD, published an interesting article on the Huffington Post blog. The article is called Do Antipsychotics Help or Harm Psychotic Symptoms?, and is a response to Robert Whitaker’s post of January 27: “Me, Allen Frances, and Climbing Out of a Pigeonhole. This post, in turn, was a response to Dr. Frances’s Psychiatric Medicines Are Not All Good or All Bad, which was published in the Huffington Post on January 15. Readers may remember that I published a critique of this latter article on February 9. ...

Last month (February 2016), the British Journal of Psychiatry published an online bulletin titled BASH: badmouthing, attitudes and stigmatisation in healthcare as experienced by medical students, by Ali Ajaz et al. Here’s the abstract: "Aims and method We used an online questionnaire to investigate medical students' perceptions of the apparent hierarchy between specialties, whether they have witnessed disparaging comments (‘badmouthing’ or ‘bashing’) against other specialists and whether this has had an effect on their career choice. ...

Readers may remember that a few weeks ago I became involved in an online debate with the very eminent and scholarly psychiatrist Ronald Pies, MD. That exchange was initiated by a post I wrote concerning a paper on the chemical imbalance theory that Jeffrey Lacasse, PhD, and Jonathan Leo, PhD, had published in the Behavior Therapist in October 2015. In that paper, Drs. Lacasse and Leo had drawn attention to certain aspects of Dr. Pies’ work, but they had also focused some attention on Daniel Carlat, MD, psychiatrist, and author of Unhinged: The Trouble with Psychiatry - A Doctor’s Revelations about a Profession in Crisis. ...

In their January 2016 issue, the journal Social Science and Medicine published Unequal depression for equal work? How the wage gap explains gendered disparities in mood disorders, by Jonathan Platt, MPH, Seth Prins, PhD candidate, Lisa Bates, PhD, and Katherine Keyes, PhD, MPH. All the authors work at Columbia’s Department of Public Health. Here’s the abstract: "Mood disorders, such as depression and anxiety, are more prevalent among women than men. This disparity may be partially due to the effects of structural gender discrimination in the work force, which acts to perpetuate gender differences in opportunities and resources and may manifest as the gender wage gap. We sought to quantify and operationalize the wage gap in order to explain the gender disparity in depression and anxiety disorders, using data from a 2001-2002 US nationally representative survey of 22,581 working adults ages 30-65. Using established Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition methods to account for gender differences in individual-level productivity, our models reduced the wage gap in our sample by 13.5%, from 54% of men's pay to 67.5% of men's pay. We created a propensity-score matched sample of productivity indicators to test if the direction of the wage gap moderated the effects of gender on depression or anxiety. Where female income was less than the matched male counterpart, odds of both disorders were significantly higher among women versus men (major depressive disorder OR: 2.43, 95% CI: 1.95-3.04; generalized anxiety disorder OR: 4.11, 95% CI: 2.80-6.02). Where female income was greater than the matched male, the higher odds ratios for women for both disorders were significantly attenuated (Major Depressive Disorder OR: 1.20; 95% CI: 0.96-1.52) (Generalized Anxiety Disorder OR: 1.5; 95% CI: 1.04-2.29). The test for effect modification by sex and wage gap direction was statistically significant for both disorders. Structural forms of discrimination may explain mental health disparities at the population level. Beyond prohibiting overt gender discrimination, policies must be created to address embedded inequalities in procedures surrounding labor markets and compensation in the workplace." ...

On January 15, 2016, Allen Frances, MD, Professor Emeritus at Duke University, published an article on the Huffington Post. The piece is titled: Psychiatric Medicines Are Not All Good or All Bad. The article denounces both the “medication fanatics” who prescribe psychiatric drugs when they are not needed, and the “die-hard anti-medication crusaders who try to persuade everyone, including those who really need meds, that they are globally unhelpful and globally harmful.” ...

I am a college student who has experienced several various mentally challenging roadblocks. My mental and health issues stemmed from a previous eating disorder. I have experienced stages of anxiety, depression and eating disorder relapses. My own self harm also resulted in medical conditions that I will live with and need to be treated for for the rest of my life. On days when I am feeling low, I like to write. I never usually share my writings but today, I feel that submitting the following passage will give me a sense of relief. I encourage others experiencing road blocks in their path towards recovery to write. Write whether you want to keep it for yourself or share it like I am. “Have you ever felt so ashamed and disappointed in yourself that you can not even face a mirror? Have you ever felt so engulfed in your own thoughts that you want to scream so loud that no one, except God, can hear you? Have you ever felt so alone that you contemplated contacting someone for hours, just hovering your finger over call or send. ...

I received my 'life sentence' from a Montana psychiatrist at the tender age of 22. I was diagnosed with Bipolar because I had what he called a 'chemical imbalance' in my brain and would need to take medicine to treat it for the rest of my life. At the time I was struggling to deal with the aftermath of two very violent rapes. One at the age of 13, the other at 19. I trusted this psychiatrist, never questioned him, or his authority. He was educated. I was not. Due to severe side effects, adverse reactions, and constant withdrawal symptoms from ALL the psychiatric drugs approximately 75 over time) I became 'stuck' in the revolving door of psychiatric hospitals, emergency rooms, ICU's, and jails for the next 35 years from psychiatric drug- induced: mania's, crippling depressions to the point of at least 15 suicide attempts - 2 resulting in coma, Klonopin induced anxiety developing into chronic panic attacks and finally full-blown agoraphobia when I've never experienced this before, excruciating migraines, self-hatred, social isolation, increased alcohol use to combat the akathesia, the loss of self, anger, rage, and violence. And then my Mental Healthcare workers told me it was 'just fine' to cold turkey from my Klonopin after 10+ years of use never mentioning one single withdrawal symptom I may experience. I was left to endure the mental torture of this withdrawal at my home, alone. I developed all the classic symptoms: light, sound sensitivity, hallucinations, sweating, anxiety/panic so extreme I didn't know the human mind could tolerate it or survive, heart palpitations, no sleep for 5 continuous days, psychosis so severe that I had no contact with Reality (at all) as I once knew it and seizures. I also became catatonic. I prayed for death every second of every minute of every hour of everyday for 6 weeks. I was denied access to my psychiatrist. Protocol was through our therapist who I tried twice only to be told "No, you have to wait until your next scheduled appointment". I told her I wasn't going to last that long, and I didn't. Due to the extreme psychosis I ended up in the psyche hospital and then the ER after being in this anxiety/pure panic/psychotic state of mind with no sleep for five continuous days my body began shaking uncontrollably and I didn't know how to get it to stop. I later filed a 'Recipients' Rights' case against them for 'neglect of care' which was DENIED because I signed a simple one-page Klonopin consent form the year before that didn't list any withdrawal symptoms. Because my Mental Healthcare wouldn't help me determine 'what the hell I just went through for 6 long horrific, torturous weeks' (my K-pin withdrawal - 50 symptoms) if it was Benzodiazepine withdrawal or Serotonin Syndrome I decided to get off my Effexor, Trazodone, & Lithium because I knew I would never, ever survive another 'what ever that was' again,and I believed it could be nowhere near as traumatic as my K-pin withdrawal. I was very wrong. Still no mention of withdrawal symptoms from workers I saw every week. Once again, the classic symptoms introduced themselves: brain zaps, severe flu like symptoms, every muscle in my being ached, chronic insomnia (2 hrs of sleep a night for 5 months. When I was able to sleep it was only terrifying nightmares.) the ungodly uncontrollable mental anguish of the 'crying spells' that pharmaceutical companies downplay for 5 long months, suicidality, mania, depression, compulsive-obsessive thinking, anger, rage, violence along with a host of other symptoms, but this is the most horrifying symptom I developed - homicidality. I sat at my kitchen table for months planning out this mass shooting that I knew I was going to die in. In fact, in my psychotic mind, it was not only OK, it was expected. I was a 57 year old grandmother of 9 grandchildren at the time. I should not have to know what it feels like to become a killer, let alone a mass killer. My brain became so impaired, disabled, and ragefully psychotic from these withdrawals that it's a miracle I didn't find a gun. I did put myself in a psychiatric hospital because of this where I begged them to treat me without using psychiatric drugs, only they didn't see it that way. I was 'Court Ordered' to take Risperdal, Cogentin, Neurontin & Ambien and in this drug induced mental state my house burns to the ground and I'm left homeless. It's been 2 1/2 years since my Klonopin withdrawal. 1 1/2 years since my Effexor, Trazodone & Lithium withdrawal so I'm off ALL psychiatric drugs although I do have extensive cognitive impairment, but I have my own feelings, thoughts and behaviors back. I literally started my life over at the age of 57. I am now 59. And isn't it amazing that since I stopped taking my medicine the revolving door into the psych hospitals, ER, the Intensive Care Units and jails has miraculously stopped - completely. Our psychiatrists have no idea how we suffer at their hands. They refuse to acknowledge us, listen to us, or even believe what we tell them because, after all, according to them, "What do we know? We're mentally ill." Sandra ...