Mad in America

DECEMBER 29, 2023

A traumatic brain injury in 2002 didn’t help anything. I tried going back to school after the brain injury, but between the bipolar disorder and the head trauma, I couldn’t handle the stress and pressure anymore. I was in ICU for 11 days, and on a ventilator for four of those days. My IQ tested at 144.

Trauma and the brain 144

Trauma and the brain Bipolar disorder Construction Education 144

Critical Psychiatry

OCTOBER 8, 2024

Terry Lynch , who wrote a chapter for my Critical Psychiatry edited book, has posted a video asking why doctors pay so little attention to trauma in the lives of people with psychiatric diagnosis. The belief that primary mental illness is brain disease clothes psychiatry with an aura of factuality, even though that belief is incorrect.

Trauma and the brain 130

Trauma and the brain 130

Mad in America

FEBRUARY 9, 2024

My family life growing up was a good period for me, and I have no complaints, yet there seemed to be something in the way my nervous system was wired, a leftover of birth trauma perhaps, that meant that relaxation and physical comfort weren’t part of my being. Perhaps broken open a bit, but in a good way.

Trauma and the brain 103

Trauma and the brain Hospitality Education 103

Mad in America

FEBRUARY 24, 2024

P sychiatry’s serotonin-imbalance theory of depression, long discarded by researchers, was finally flushed down the toilet by psychiatry and the mainstream media in 2022. And psychiatrists’ primary treatments for depression—their so-called “antidepressants”—are now circling the drain. 2) What approach to depression makes sense? Genes and depression?

Poverty and mental health 145

Poverty and mental health Childhood trauma Neurotransmitters and mental health Trauma and the brain 145

Mad in America

JANUARY 20, 2024

This paper is surprising since Torrey has long argued that schizophrenia is a brain disease to be treated biomedically. T he decades-long attempt to locate the gene or genes for schizophrenia has failed, according to a new article in Psychiatric Research by prominent schizophrenia researcher E. Fuller Torrey.

Genetics and mental health 145

Genetics and mental health Bipolar disorder Poverty and mental health Trauma and the brain 145

Mad in America

DECEMBER 1, 2023

“T he only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,” said Edmund Burke. This is as true on a world stage as in a playground setting, where the bully holds sway over numerous kids who are too afraid to challenge their behaviour. It is how and why the tyrants prevail.

Hospitality 145

Hospitality Trauma and the brain Personality disorders Pharmaceuticals 145

Mad in America

JANUARY 13, 2024

Her story confirms the pernicious and long-term effects of intergenerational trauma, alcoholism, and divorce on everyone in a family, especially “the identified patient.” So as a longtime reporter on her case , I was eager to read her autobiography, pointedly titled The Woman in Me. And it isn’t pretty. Spoilers ahead.)

Trauma and the brain 145

Trauma and the brain Legal Aging and mental health Family dynamics 145