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The Fallacy of Modern Psychiatry: Treating Symptoms, Ignoring Causes

Mad in America

From the safety of ones surroundings to access to proper nutrition, sleep, and social stability, the circumstances of life have a lasting biochemical effect on the brain. These areas of the brain impact how a person reacts to the world. Those with high ACE scores have brains physically different from those with low or no ACE scores.

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Human

Mad in America

Perhaps if I took a different prescription or combination of prescriptions, my brain would magically adjust and rid me of my alleged ‘chemical imbalance’. My brain sat in my skull like a dead goldfish. I had been diagnosed with numerous ‘disorders’ because I had a traumatic childhood. I was severely unwell. I was disgusted.

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The Anatomy of Anxiety: An Interview With Ellen Vora

Mad in America

She’s the author of The Anatomy of Anxiety and takes a functional medicine approach to mental health. She considers the whole person and addresses imbalance at the root. Dr. Vora received her BA from Yale University and her MD from Columbia University. The transcript below has been edited for length and clarity.

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One Person’s Journey from Celebrity Medical Model Advocate to Skeptic: An Interview with Rose Cartwright

Mad in America

She talks about understanding the place of her own childhood trauma and also the limitations of simplistic trauma narratives. She talks about understanding the place of her own childhood trauma and also the limitations of simplistic trauma narratives. She is also a writer and producer on Netflix’s 3 Body Problem.

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Doctors Are Not Trained to Think Critically

Mad in America

I was still only 17 years old but it was a great relief after the horrendous years I had spent at an all-girls boarding school. My fellow students and I started our first year ‘pre-clinical’ training with 4 ½ days a week of lectures. Those who failed would have one chance to re-sit and if unsuccessful, they would have to leave medical school.

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On Not Becoming David Foster Wallace

Mad in America

A dozen years ago I created a website, now extinct, called ‘Five Years’ From the David Bowie song of the same name (“We had five years left to cry in”). The idea was to see how my attitudes evolved over the coming five years: toward optimism, toward pessimism, or same-same. I was told, and believed, that I would be on this drug for life.

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A Case for Parallel Mental Health Care

Mad in America

The real question is whether the “brighter future” is always so distant. When mundane events increasingly take on the character of the surreal or the apocalyptic, what does it mean to be normal or sane? I believe these kinds of questions will shape our understanding of the future of mental health. Yet these things are not acts of God.