I was first diagnosed with PTSD and bipolar disorder, but later learned that I actually had borderline personality disorder—a condition that, like so many others, carries heavy stigma. What strikes me is not just the difficulty of navigating shifting diagnoses, but the way society layers shame onto mental illness itself. Instead of compassion and understanding, people living with these conditions often face judgment, stereotypes, and silence, which only deepens the struggle.
Read More »Unshrunk: Laura Delano’s breakaway from psychiatry
Unshrunk: A Story of Psychiatric Treatment Resistance is more than a memoir of Laura Delano’s journey through pain, survival, and recovery. It is a fearless, forensic examination of a psychiatric system that too often harms those it is meant to help.
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stablishment psychiatry has recently switched the biological cause of mental illness from a “chemical imbalance” to a “brain circuitry defect.” There is no more important institution in establishment psychiatry than the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), and in 2022, psychiatrist Thomas Insel, NIMH director from 2002-2015, stated in his book Healing, “The idea of mental illness as a ‘chemical imbalance’ has now given way to mental illnesses as ‘connectional’ or brain circuit disorders.”
Do Critics of Biological Psychiatry Have an Alternative to a Life of “Whack-A-Mole”?
About 60% of the authors had financial ties to industry, which are not disclosed in the DSM. Studies show that conflicts of interest lead to pro-industry decision-making.
Millions of Dollars of Pharma Money Went to the DSM-5-TR Authors
H/T: Unorthodox Truth
Previously:
Scientific Misconduct and Fraud: The Final Nail in Psychiatry’s Antidepressant Coffin
Psychedelic Drugs Are Rushing Towards Approval for Therapy. Here’s What’s Next
Yet one glaring problem remains. Despite promising clinical results, no one knows exactly how psychedelic drugs work in the brain. Examining their actions on brain cells isn’t just an academic curiosity. It could give rise to variants that maintain antidepressant properties without the high. And because hallucinogens substantially alter our perception [management?!] of the world, they could be powerful tools for investigating the neurobiology behind consciousness.
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This year, scientists found another common theme—psychedelics seem to “reset” the brain to a more youthful state, at least in mice. Like humans, mice have an adolescent critical period, during which their brains are highly malleable and can easily rewire neural circuits, but the window closes after adulthood.
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An earlier study showed that MDMA reopens the critical window in adult mice, so that they change their “personality.” Mice raised alone are often introverted and prefer to keep to themselves in adulthood. A dose of MDMA increased their willingness to snuggle with other mice—essentially, they learned to associate socializing with happiness, concluded the study.
It’s not that surprising. MDMA is well-known to promote empathy and bonding. The new study, by the same team, extended their early results to four psychedelics that don’t trigger fuzzy feelings—LSD, ketamine, psilocybin, and ibogaine. Similar to MDMA, adult mice raised alone changed their usual preference for solitude when treated with any of the drugs. Because habits are hard to change in adulthood—for mice and men—the drugs may have reopened the critical period, allowing the brain to more easily rewire neural connections based on new experiences.
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These are just early results. But psychedelic research is gaining a new ally—artificial intelligence. Algorithms that predict protein structure, combined with rational drug design, could generate psychedelics that retain their psychiatric benefits without the high.
H/T: The Most Revolutionary Act
Related:
Psychoanalytic roots of CIA psychoprofiling/pseudoscience
Meaghan thought psychedelic therapy could help her PTSD. Instead it was the start of a nightmare
Why is the American right suddenly so interested in psychedelic drugs
What if a Pill Can Change Your Politics or Religious Beliefs? (archived)
Do Psychedelic Trips Change Your Political Views? (archived)
The criminal investigation undertaken by the federal government against hundreds of participants in the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol is polarizing the country and shredding civil liberties.
Chris Hedges: Lynching the Deplorables
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
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