Featured

Our new discussion series aims to explore what we do and don’t know about safe withdrawal from antidepressants, antipsychotics, benzodiazepines and stimulants. We will seek to present and explore new understandings emerging from professional and lived-experience communities. We will discuss the knowledge, skills and experience necessary to support those having difficulty getting off psychiatric drugs.

I ended up admitted to a psychiatric hospital without being involved in that decision. At a time of stress and vulnerability I expected genuine support. Instead I had the police on my doorstep and I was locked into a building for three weeks. Forced hospitalisation was a serious trauma and I continue to suffer post-traumatic stress over a decade later.

Every year thousands of medical students go through and we explain to them the risks associated with certain drugs. Why is it now when I am saying that maybe my colleagues are underestimating those risks, I’ve been pulled up with complaints?

The use of five words — depression, anxiety, guilt, bullying, and microaggression — has skyrocketed in print, in media, and among both professionals and laypeople, and this is causing harm.

Although the so-called mental disorders undoubtedly have a biological correlate, their nature goes beyond the body involving social, cultural, and psychological dimensions. More often than not our suffering is the result of how we organize our affairs on a collective level