Groups, charities and organisations set up by people with lived experience of distress and suicide do what other services can't or won't. If you do one thing this #WMHD2019 , listen to Joy Hibbins on using lived experience to set up Suicide Crisis /1 soundcloud.com/user-773133516…

'We suggest that in the absence of convincing proof of a pathological process, it is more likely that depression is part of the range of emotional reactions to the circumstances of life that are typical of humans'. nature.com/articles/s4138…

Beware the 'chemical imbalance' narrative pushers.

This please

‘“We agree that mental activity arises from brain activity, but it seems more likely that depression is the result not of a faulty brain but rather a normal brain responding to stress or adversity: in other words, a behavioral state best understood at the level of the mind (that…

“Difficult lives explain depression better than broken brains”

At least 2 problems follow from this
1 no money for greedy pharmaceutical industry
2 politics must adjust its policies(regarding poverty, housing,working conditions,)instead of blaming the 'disease' of the individual

Mad In America “There is abundant evidence that it is the context of our lives and not the balance of our chemicals that offer the most insight into depression.”
#TheLinkIsWhatYouThink

In inflation-adjusted dollars, health insurers pay psychologists ~75% less today than 1980

No other healthcare specialty has seen this decline
Others have kept pace with/exceeded inflation

No wonder people can’t get quality psychotherapy
No wonder the profession is in free fall

A man reported his identity stolen. A judge locked him up in a psychiatric hospital due to his 'delusional belief' that he was someone else. It only took the psychiatrists 3 years to figure out their patient was, in fact, a victim of identity fraud.
dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1…

Our words, actions, and symptoms hold 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴. These meanings can be explored and understood, to our benefit. This is the essence of psychoanalytic psychotherapy
👇

'Growing up, I was sold the idea that the only way to get people to take your mental struggles seriously is to call them illness. Paradoxically, it was only when I abandoned this idea that I reached a deeper appreciation of the seriousness of my suffering...'

'Sexual side-effects of psychotropic #medication are very common, cause distress, and can persist even after the medication has been withdrawn.'
magonlinelibrary.com/doi/full/10.12…

#PsychiatricMedication #SSRI #SNRI #Withdrawal

Heavy Metal Therapy is a peer-led support and community psychology project for people who find heavy or extreme music beneficial for their wellbeing.

Heavy Metal Therapy and 'Anti-wellness' by Kate Quinn
asylummagazine.org/2021/06/heavy-…

Section from yesterday's really powerful The Guardian article,

'I was the poster girl for OCD. Then I began to question everything I’d been told about mental illness.'

amp.theguardian.com/society/2024/a…

In 1800s, medicine didn't understand MH symptoms as psychological. They were seen as nervous diseases

Freud’s breakthrough was recognizing they’re problems of the 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥—& can be helped via self-understanding

Now ppl want to “calm their nervous system”
Are we in 1800s again?

'One hallmark feature of mental illness is mistaking our models of reality for reality itself. Interesting that it’s also a hallmark feature of our mental healthcare'.

theguardian.com/society/2024/a…?