Guest authors

This blog owes much of its success and influence to the great authors who chose to share their work here. Below are just a few of the more prolific contributors. There are links to their blogs or websites in the body of the posts where you can get more information about each author.

There were many more people who may have only contributed once or twice. Some of those people are represented on the Recovery Stories pages.

I will try to add to this list  as I have the time and energy as I’m sure I’ve left off many I’d like to include. The fact is if an article was on this blog I highly valued what that guest writer shared, whether it was a one time contribution or not. There are also well over 4,000 posts on this blog now, so digging through the archives is no easy task.

I’m sure I’ve forgotten great pieces. I’ve already added several people since I first posted this. It’s not because anyone is forgettable, it’s just the archives are huge and my brain is still hardly optimal. Please forgive me if I’ve left you off of this list. I will add people and articles as I remember them or am reminded by others.

Some folks have official relationships with Beyond meds.

The Scribes of Beyond Meds (click on the name to see their pieces)

•  ALT
•  brentpotterma
•  Georgi Y. Johnson
•  jesmith67
•  jonkeyes
•  Leah Harris
•  Will Hall
•  ronunger1
•  Russell Baugher
•  Will Meecham, MD, MA

Robert Whitaker has his own page and tab here with many articles and links to other works.

This is a link to a list of the pieces Will has contributed as co-editor. 

Altmentalities was another co-editor for a time and contributed many delightful articles that can be found here.

Jen Peer Rich

• No apologies for being sensitive to the earth and its suffering
• Violence
• I am the oppressor
• Who am I? Meditative self-enquiry
• A way to be on this earth and not shy away from the pain
• On sanity and self-inquiry

William Harryman

• The Abyss of Madness
• The Body Keeps the Score (part 1)
• The Body Keeps the Score (Part Two) — how trauma changes us

Rick Belden:

• “The cure for pain is in the pain.” My experience tells me that this is true
• Some thoughts on forgiveness
• A mini dreamwork primer
• Poetry on video: “body memory”
• The body is the gateway
• Are holidays with your family difficult? Some thoughts on self-care
• What If He Cries?
• Men and grief
• What do you need right now?
• “easter”

Laura K. Kerr:

• Compassion Fatigue And The Fear Of Being A Victim
• “Soul Repair” And Veterans Of Trauma
• CG Jung And The ‘Leap Of Faith’ Into Individuation
• “The Red Book”: A Primer For Healing Madness In A Mad World
• When Psychiatry Retraumatizes

Will Meecham: (most recent regular contributor)

• Biology, Spirit, and Transcendence
• “Uneasy in good times and overwhelmed in bad. This is the legacy of childhood trauma.”
• Let Your Body Seduce You
• Treat the Body, Treat the Mind
• “Meditating through my depression has shown me the universality of pain, and the availability of Grace.”
• When we feel depressed, anxious, or distressed, are we mentally ill? Or are we spiritually confused?
• Pills for the Brain or Respect for the Soul?
• The death of mental illness
• A Crazy Camp Idea
• The ‘illness’ metaphor as currently used robs hope from those suffering mental distress
• Do you feel anxious, hopeless, discouraged, or depressed? Break free!
• “Acceptance underlies most of my recovery from what was once diagnosed as bipolar disorder”

Alto Strata:

• Andrew Solomon, poster child for psychiatric misdiagnosis
• Alto Strata speaks at the Occupy Psychiatry Protest at the APA conference: psychiatric drug withdrawal
• What should I expect from my MD about psych drug withdrawal symptoms?
• Introduction to psychiatric drug withdrawal syndrome
• Psychiatric drug withdrawal: Why taper by 10% of your dosage?
• (Antidepressants and Talk Therapy Go Hand in Hand) — Really?
• Withdrawal syndrome vs adrenal fatigue
• Neuropsychiatry: Same baloney, different sandwich
• Protracted withdrawal from SSRIs and SNRIs antidepressants
• GABA/Glutamate cycle in withdrawal from psychotropics– SSRIs, benzos, and Lamictal

Bruce Levine:

• Mental health professionals along with police, teachers and the corporate press are the guards of the system
• Scientology vs. Critical Psychiatry
• Liberation Psychology for the U.S. – are we too demoralized to protest?
• Eli Lilly and the Case for a Corporate Death Penalty
• Revolutionary Road, A Beautiful Mind and Truthfulness
• Comment by Bruce Levine in response to Depression’s Evolutionary Roots
• Suicide in the military, increasing antidepressant use and can we trust NIMH Studies?
• Postpartum Depression: Cultural Disorder?
• Psychologists Profit on Unending U.S. Wars by Teaching Positive Thinking to Soldiers
• Activism necessary if we want the truth about psychiatric medications be heard

Al Galves:

• The Value of Depression
• The uses of anxiety and panic
• The purpose of psychosis

Paul Woodward:

• The pharmaceutical industry and the fight against gun control
• The language of life
• How Big Pharma profits from war
• We feel, therefore we are
• Ode to a flower
• Turning grief into a profitable disease
• What you are is what eats
• ‘We were part of each other’s fabric’
• Forced treatment isn’t the answer
• Medicated America
• The self-illusion
• Memorial Day: Among post-9/11 veterans, deepening antiwar sentiment and high rate of suicide

Leah Harris:

• From Self Care to Collective Caring
• Six Ways You Can Really Help Prevent Suicide
• Decolonizing Our Minds, Freeing Our Spirits
• Dharma not pharma
• Speaking with the “enemy” and speaking of recovery
• Parallels in obstetrics and psychiatry
• Beyond the dirty window — a powerful mini-documentary, memoir

Ron Unger:

• Trauma, Psychosis, and Spirituality: What’s the Connection? (part 2)
• An outline of how mental health system is biased toward medication
• A Guide for Therapists (and anyone interested in drug withdrawal)
• Recovery: Why is it being redefined to mean “doing better but still mentally ill”?
• Mental “disorder” or evolved mental strategy?
• Using acceptance to move through symptoms
• How to reduce deaths associated with neuroleptics (anti-psychotic) medications
• Talking to someone convinced mental distress is all biological
• Moving Beyond Clinical Recovery and Personal Recovery: Reclaiming the Possibility of Full Recovery
• Coping with intrusive thoughts, impulses, voices etc…
• Madness Radio: Cognitive Therapy Ron Unger

Steve Morgan:

• Neuroplasticity of the brain
• A letter to NAMI
• The Wind Never Lies – Steven’s personal and very inspiring story
• Indicator Species
• Questioning every instance of medication vs. drug free recovery

Giovanna Pompele

• Why Paul Steinberg Has It All Wrong (and Should Stop Seeing Patients)
• Daniel Carlat MD on Fresh Air — discussed by Giovanna Pompele

Grainne Humphrys

• The incarceration of John
• Exclusion, Trivialisation and Denial; Society’s refusal to Acknowledge, Honour and Integrate the trauma and human rights violations experienced by the psychiatric survivor.
• Hope, Time and Love; three guardian angels, Alternative Routes to Recovery
• Poem of madness
• Moving Away from the Psychiatric Paradigm: The Importance of Supports and the Emergence of the Wellness Models

Paula Caplan

• Healing Veterans: Paula Caplan
• Dr. Paula Caplan on how psychiatrists decide who’s normal
• What’s Wrong With This Picture? Psychiatrists’ Focus on Drugs and Emotional Distance: by Paula Caplan
• Emotional Healing Without Pathologizing or Drugging: a veterans day post
• Full Disclosure Needed About Psychiatric Drugs That Shorten Life
• Military families and psychiatry: what are we doing to the children of our military?
• What’s Wrong With This Picture? Psychiatrists’ Focus on Drugs and Emotional Distance
• Fattened by Pills

Vera Sharav

• Study shows 31 prescription drugs (mostly psychiatric) associated with reports of violence towards others
• In Medicine, The Power of No vs Psychiatry’s Massive Over-treatment
• Psychosurgery Promoted by the NYT — by Vera Sharav
• NAMI’s Betrayal of Its Constituency

Paul Levy:

• We are all shamans in training
• A family curse
• Possession — ideas inspired by Jung
• Psychiatry almost drove me crazy

Baylissa Frederick:

• When I think of my relationships I have no regrets
• “Wow, I survived. I made it. I am amazing. I can handle anything now.”
• Positives about withdrawal
• The aftermath: from windows to open door
• Benzo Withdrawal – Coping Tips

Grace Jackson MD

• Antipsychotic drugs, thyroid, and cardiac death — by Grace Jackson MD
•  Neuroleptics for everyone
• Drug induced dementia — the perfect crime
• Open Letter to the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research

Sheila Joshi

• The descent experience: metaphor for serious illness
• Psychiatric drug withdrawal, kundalini and shamanic initiatory illness

Daniel Mackler

• Finnish Open Dialogue: High recovery rates leave many psychiatric beds empty
• Eleven ways to be your own therapist

John Breeding

• Drug Withdrawal and Emotional Recovery
• My Views on Psychiatry and Mental Illness

Gwen Olsen:

• Drugging our children to death
• Pharma Not in Business of Health, Healing, Cures, Wellness

Diane D’Angelo

• An Unconventional Mother’s Day Tribute to an Unconventional Mom
• Apologies for Grown-ups

Mary Ackerley MD, MDH

• The Rise of the Psychopharmaceutical Industry 1987-2010

By an Anonymous Friend

• Life is Too Short to Hang Around with Emotional Chickens

Jayme Lynch

• How I deal with mental breakdowns — a simple but profound practice that amount to a spiritual discipline that anyone can apply to their lives, diagnosed or not.

Chris Kresser

• The chemical imbalance myth

Robert Masters

• Don’t give fear a thought

Toni Bernhard

• The Challenges of Living with Invisible Pain or Illness
• Other pieces that feature Toni Bernhard’s work here