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Self Stolen: How ECT Fried My Brain

Mad in America

I was diagnosed with Bipolar II at age 12 and attempted suicide at age 13. 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.

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Exploring the Connection Between Bipolar Disorder and Anxiety Disorders

Dr. Sagnik Mukherjee Blog

Exploring the Connection Between Bipolar Disorder and Anxiety Disorders As a parent, caregiver, or even a concerned family member, have you ever wondered whether the mood swings you witness in your loved one could be more than just emotional highs and lows? However, it’s not just about mood swings.

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Searching for the “Psychiatric Yeti”: Schizophrenia Is Not Genetic

Mad in America

This paper is surprising since Torrey has long argued that schizophrenia is a brain disease to be treated biomedically. Torrey is a psychiatrist and a researcher on schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Fuller Torrey. Nor have any new treatments become available from this research.”

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Who Do We Leave Behind When We Ignore the Body? Why Critical Neuroscientists and Mad Activists Must Work Together

Mad in America

A recent Neuroscience News article is titled “ Bipolar disorder can be detected with blood test. ” 1 This is one of many recent, oversimplified headlines that encourage us to think we are on the brink of discovering the next biomarker that will scientifically validate biomedical psychiatric disorders.

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Irrational Polypharmacy: How Integrated Mental Health Treatment Can Help

Mad in America

This includes treatment of negative symptoms of schizophrenia and the depressive phases of bipolar disorder, despite the fact that SSRIs can sometimes trigger manic episodes. C urrently, antidepressants are among the most commonly prescribed drugs for a wide range of diagnoses, not just depression and anxiety.

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Why Do Only Some People Experience Severe Antidepressant Withdrawal?

Mad in America

The idea comes from 20+ years of experience working with people with complex mood disorders. Can we identify them before they start an antidepressant? With so much debate and discussion about “how many” (including the previous two essays in this series), it’s surprising that so little has been written about “why some and not others?”

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Giving Caregivers a Platform: Meagan, Mother of Matt

Mad in America

By late November, 2018, Matt found a psychiatrist who diagnosed him with Bipolar 1 disorder after one visit, prescribed Latuda, tapered him off Prozac, and practically sentenced him to be medicated for life with an overall “fair” prognosis. The ER physician had given him Prozac. I could see his lifeless eyes.