In a lot of the withdrawal groups 18 months is held up as the average time those of us with heavy withdrawal syndromes can expect recovery. It has always seemed rather an arbitrary and meaningless marker to me. Many people recover fully well before that time, others don’t experience any illness at all. I’m not sure how that number came to be, but I really don’t think it means anything at all.
On hearing voices…
August 8, 2011 By
There was a great and inspiring article in the New York Times yesterday entitled, Learning to Cope With a Mind’s Taunting Voices. I read it in the morning and was very moved by it but had no commentary for it so thought I’d wait to see if something arose to introduce it with. When I [...]
What happens to sexual development in adolescents who’ve grown up on psychiatric drugs? (and how these drugs stop normal bonding in ALL people)
August 7, 2011 By
What happens when the normal drive for sex and orgasm and romantic love is muted or altogether absent because the kids are on SSRI or SNRI antidepressants? My friend talked with a adolescent counselor and she’s noticed that these kids are strangely uninterested in romantic love and sometimes even appear to be asexual. That is ALARMING and it’s right in line with what my speculative fears suggested. I don’t have much more to say about the topic but would like to raise the issue that more people may start to think about this very serious problem a far to large percentage of our population is now facing.
Saturday (not so) mellow
August 6, 2011 By
I used to do lots of “just for fun” videos. This one is Ok Go – This too shall pass
“The chemical imbalance theory of mental disorders was disproven long ago”
August 5, 2011 By
In their letter, Dr. Friedman and Dr. Nierenberg acknowledged that the chemical imbalance theory of mental disorders was disproven long ago.
That, in fact, is true. But of course it begs a question. Why then has the American public regularly been told for the past two decades that psychiatric medications fix chemical imbalances in the brain, like “insulin for diabetes?” Why was it okay for the profession to tell society that falsestory?
Anatomy of an Epidemic now available in paperback
August 4, 2011 By
Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America – now paperback If you’ve not purchased Robert Whitaker’s book it just became much more affordable. The paperback can also make a good gift. I’m including a brief introduction Whitaker wrote for this blog when the book was first [...]
Sleep, insomnia and iatrogenic injury – an update
August 3, 2011 By
The underlying issue is autonomic destabilization, which can be caused by any psych drug. They all act on the CNS, no matter what their micro-action. The neurotransmitters involved are almost irrelevant except, I believe, when they’re GABA. I’m no benzo expert but I suspect benzo withdrawal causes a different kind of autonomic destabilization because the GABA system lacks the redundancy of the others and when GABA is knocked out, recovery paths are more limited. (My suspicion is that simultaneous withdrawal from benzos and other psych drugs might be the worst.)
Slow mood manifesto…
August 3, 2011 By
We are taking it slow. Slowly learning to feel our inner states. Slowly developing the cognitive tools needed to make healthy decisions for ourselves, our communities, and our world. Slowly learning to expand our emotions and connect with other people as people, not functions. These things can’t be given to us instantly. We have to build these things for ourselves, over time.
We do not fear our own thoughts or moods. We feel them out. We examine them, without guilt. We ask ourselves where they come from, why they are within us. We find friends who are good listeners, and we share.
Template issues
August 2, 2011 By
I’m sorry. I’m having serious template issues. I switched to a new template which is not working out for various reasons. I realize that load time has gotten worse and that the blog is more difficult to navigate in various ways. I’m trying to fix this as soon as possible. If I’m not able to [...]
“I am not in the manifesting-your-dream business. I am in the waking-up-from-your dream business”
August 2, 2011 By
An exerpt from Karen Maezen Miller’s blog post from a couple of days ago. Where are you? Readers are almost never where I am, sitting side-by-side with me in a Zen retreat, using the medicine for human ills prescribed by Buddha 2500 years ago. But the distance between us still compels me to try. I [...]
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