Bloggers reflect individual views that are their own, and may be controversial. Spot a lapsed link? Please tell us. Find a relevant blog missing here? Please submit title, URL & brief blurb to us via our Contact Form.
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Anti-Psychiatry Web Log - Livejournal provides web space for a number of communities, in this case one calling itself “Antipsychiatry.” It’s entries are like a blog, along with other resources. This is from their self-description: “This is a community for people who are opposed to the practice and theory of psychiatry. It is a place for people to post information about patient’s rights, the dangers of psychiatric drugs, personal experiences, questions, and thoughts. Please stay on-topic, and please do not join or post if you are just going to laud the ‘benefits’ of psychiatry. There are plenty of communities for that already.”
- Asylum Squad Side Story
- “The Rants and Musings of a Psych Heretic.” A blog from a young artist with a psychiatric label, focusing on her comics. In her words: “This blog serves as a space to post text entries both related and unrelated to the subject matter my comics touch on.” A July 2010 post covers a Mad Pride event in Toronto.
- Beyond Meds
- From the blogger: “I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 1985 at age 19. I was medicated off and on from 1985 to 1988 and then medicated in 1992 to the present after having the daylights scared out of me by what I now see as ignorant doctors. About three years ago I started questioning the heavy drugging of my symptoms as well as the diagnosis itself. I began the slow and difficult process of withdrawing from my psych meds. I hope to share with the readers of this blog this journey as it continues. This journey includes my ultimate disillusionment of psychiatry and the pharmaceutical industry.”
- Beyond the Psychiatric Box
- The blogger writes, “I have created this site as a means of sharing my own trip through the [mental health] system with those who know the experience well, as well as those who don’t. Together we can get beyond the reductionism of psychiatry’s imposed parameters and find real understanding and healing for all.”
- Bipolar Burbles of Natasha Tracy
- Blogger Natasha Tracy describes Bipolar Brubles this way: “I’m an award-winning and influential writer, mental health advocate and professional crazy person. I write primarily about issues of mental health. This is my space online to keep people up to date on what’s going on with me, my memoir off-label: an unbalanced look at a bipolar life and other writing I do”
- Bitchmagazine Guest Blogger Anna Palindrome: “We’re All Mad Here”
- Guest Blogger ANNA PALINDROME has a theme called “We’re All Mad Here.” More than one blogger posting to “Bitchmagazine” is posting on this theme of “We’re All Mad Here,” and commenting on a wide variety of topics related to changed the mental health system. Look for these titles at the bottom of profile in “Recent Blog Posts.”
- Bitchmagazine Guest Blogger SE Smith on : “We’re All Mad Here”
- SE SMITH is one of the Guest Bloggers in Bitch Magazine on the theme of “We’re All Mad Here,” commenting on a wide variety of topics related to changed the mental health system. Look for these titles at the bottom of profile in “Recent Blog Posts.”
- Blog by Canadian journalist Rob Wipond
- Canadian journalist Rob Wipond of Canada has a blog on various issues, including monitoring analyzing current events, media coverage and scientific research surrounding ‘mental health’ issues in Canada and globally.
- Bruce E. Levine — dissident psychologist — blogs via Huffington.
- Bruce E. Levine, PhD has been a practicing psychologist for decades, and he’s a dissident. Perhaps it’s that Bruce was raised working class, but he connects the dots between social change and societal despair. Bruce has several books in the MindFreedom MADMARKET. Bruce blogs via Arianna Huffington’s site.
- Cape Town Mad Pride
- From the about page for this South African-based blog: “This is the website/blog for Cape Town Mad Pride, an annual event that joins the local and international Madness Network in festivities and activism around the issue of cognitive liberty, psychrights and an end to psychiatric oppression. We welcome (ex)users-survivers, patients, inmates, outlaws and all freedom-loving individuals everywhere to join us in a non-violent revolution against the Mental Health system.”
- Coalition Against Psychiatric Assault in Toronto, Canada
- From the blog: CAPA is an organization – a coalition of people – committed to dismantling the psychiatric system and building a better world through strategic activism. We see the very concept of mental illness as flawed. We object to incarceration, electroshock, and the vast array of brain-damaging drugs. We oppose the violation of human rights which is endemic to psychiatry. Currently, CAPA members are working on developing strategies and actions aimed at curtailing the use of psychiatric drugs and electroshock.
- Corinna West Blog
- Blogger Corinna West of Kansas is a Certified Peer Specialist and her blog focuses on changing the mental health system, and she is “actively working to transform the mental health system into a recovery-focused community of hope.” Corinna has an MS in pharmaceutical chemistry from the University of Missouri at Kansas City. She was on the 1996 Olympic Judo Team and is a three-time National Champion and silver medalist at the Pan American Games.
- David Oaks blog
- David Oaks is the former Executive Director of MindFreedom International and is a founding board member of Oregon Consumer/Survivor Coalition (OCSC), a nonprofit that is a “united voice for change” for Oregon’s mental health consumer/psychiatric survivor organizations.
- Different Thoughts
- This blog is in English though it originates in Denmark. From a quote by Jack Kerouac on the blog, “Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The trouble makers., The round pegs in square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status, quo. You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them, disbelieve, them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is, ignore them. Because they change things. They invent. They imagine. They heal. They explore. They create. They inspire.”
- Free your Mind Campaign Blog
- Blogger Nicole Edwards of London says, “This is the blog for my Free Your Mind campaign which aims to battle stigma towards mental illness through the use of music, art, film and culture.”
- Gábor Gombos in India
- Long-time psychiatric survivor and human rights activist Gåbor Gombos of Hungary spent last half of 2008 in India working with the MindFreedom sponsor group Bapu Trust coordinated by Bhargavari Davar. This blog is specifically about Gåbor’s experience traveling and learning.
- Holistic Recovery from Schizophrenia: A Mother and Son Journey
- Description by the bloggers, who are MFI members: “This blog started out as a way of documenting and publicizing the many alternative therapies that mother and son underwent to treat his ‘schizophrenia.’ The therapies range from your basic orthomolecular (vitamins) to the truly weird and wonderful (assemblage point shift, Family Constellation Therapy, sound therapy) with lots in between. As important as these therapies were in helping her son in his recovery, this blog also stresses the importance of learning to see your relative as insightful, compassionate, artistic, or simply ‘finding himself,’ in short, anything but mentally ill.”
- International Society for Ethical Psychology and Psychiatry Blog
- International Society for Ethical Psychiatry and Psychology [formerly, Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology (ICSPP)] is a network of dissident mental health professionals who challenge the current psychiatric system.
- Is Something Not Quite Right With Stan – A Mental Health Blog
- “Bipolar is mood disorder that has affected many others and my life in the most profound of ways! Through my experience within the constraints of these highs and lows of the expressed roller coaster life. The reflection of emotional rainbow colors twisted into both failures and successes. I live by a sheer gift of grace and hope as I come here to share my journey, articles, humor, and more.”
- Lunatick Fringe Blog
- Lunatick Fringe Blog is by Frank Blankenship, chair of MFI’s Affiliate Committee. He says, “What better way is there to express your mad pride than by turning up your nose at public opinion and expectation with just such an expression!” Lots of categories including ADHD, Alternatives, antipsychiatry, Biological Psychiatry, DSM, Electro-convulsive Shock. “This internet log is, if not daily, a regular account of the struggle for human and civil rights for people at the receiving end of the mental health system. Some of these people have had their rights violated and their lives disrupted by bad laws and psychiatric oppression. Vignettes, anecdotes, facts, figures, personal accounts, news stories, scientific treatises, art, poetry–all is permissable and allowed. Come back, and find out more about what’s going on in the movement to change the mental health system, and restore people to justice who have had their rights denied.”
- Mad In Vermont Blog: madinvt
- The blogger Jean, an artist, writes, “…my concept of the purpose and function of the blog is evolving so I’ll change this page as my ideas develop. I originally chose the name Mad In Vermont to mimic the title of the book by Robert Whitaker, Mad In America: The Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill.”
- Mental Health Reform in Ireland
- A blog dedicated to changing the Irish mental health system. From their about us: ” Mental Health Reform will post items relating to mental health services in Ireland. We hope that this blog will help stimulate debate about mental health and mental health services. The blog will feature items from Mental Health Reform Staff, the Director of Mental Health Reform and from guest bloggers including experts by experience and mental health professionals.”
- Naturalgal’s Weblog
- The motto is, “A journey away from medication and into healthy eating to stay sane.” The blogger describes her effort, in this excerpt from ‘About’: “After years of suffering from depression, I went to the medical doctors for help. I was told I had a biochemical imbalance. Since my family is in the medical field. I believed the doctors could help me. But with the medication, I only got worse. … A few years ago I decided I would use nutrition, supplements and other methods of self-affirmation to help myself. This blog will include updates on my eating, supplements and psychological efforts to help myself.”
- Patient Anonymous
- This Canadian blogger with diagnoses such as “ADD” and “bipolar” states that the blog covers “all things psych and neuro and medicine medicine.”
- Science is Golden
- Paula J. Caplan, Ph.D., is a clinical and research psychologist, author of books and plays, playwright, actor, director, and long-time supporter of MindFreedom International. Her blog is one of the leaders for a lot of change in the mental health system, including about vets and about psychiatric labeling with the DSM. She was born and raised in Springfield, Missouri, received her A.B. with honors from Radcliffe College of Harvard University, and received her M.A. and Ph.D. in psychology from Duke University. She is currently an Affiliate at Harvard University’s DuBois Institute, working on their Voices of Diversity project, and a Fellow at the Women and Public Policy Program of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.
- Psychiatry, It’s a Killing
- Another blogger recommended this site saying: “Written by a family member of a psych subject, this blogger has been blogging since 2008 about the injustices in the judicial system for psych patients and blows the lid of much of big pharma’s shenanigans. Tremendous amount of links are worth a look.“
- Rethinking Psychiatry
- Rethinking Psychiatry of Portland, Oregon is a sponsor group of MindFreedom International launched by parents of people in the mental health system. From their blog description: “This site is dedicated with love to our children in appreciation for the light their courage and integrity has cast upon the essential need for a more holistic, compassionate and effective mental health care system.”
- Rob Whitaker
- Author, journalist Robert Whitaker – who has skewered so many myths in the mental health system with his reporting – has a blog on Psychology Today.
- Ron Unger’s blog on recovery from what is called “schizophrenic” and “psychotic”
- Ron Unger is a full-time therapist in Eugene, Oregon and Coordinator of MindFreedom Lane County. From Ron’s blog description: According to what has been called the medical model, people who have been diagnosed with “schizophrenia” and with “psychosis” in general, have a brain disease or chemical imbalance… While the medical model can easily be criticized for lacking evidence, a perhaps more important criticism of it is that it lacks any model for how people recover! If people have a brain disease today, how could they go on to have highly successful lives later? And why is it that most of those who are doing best have all long ago quit their “medical” treatment, psychiatric drugs?
- Spit, Bristle & Fury
- Last post as of 2/2012 was 1/2011, but you can read past posts. From the “about” page: My name is Aaron Bellve… This blog will define itself over time but is intended to show my art and activism and what motivates them, which is often each other… The Action: I see our collective abandonment and frequent abuses of people labeled mentally ill as a social disease far more harmful than the perceived mental illness, creating a disposable class. I am increasingly active in a movement to bring to an end the era of forced and coerced psychiatry and to bring human rights into the mental health field, where they have somehow been allowed to remain absent since its inception. I am addressing the fact that millions have been imprisoned in institutions, forced to take drugs and undergo electroshock to quell everything from everyday sadness to radical thought — all on the basis of an unfounded theory of biological mental illness that changes as convenience and profit dictate.
- wildflowers movement blog
- From the “about” section: Inspired by The Icarus Project, MindFreedom, and other human/civil rights & alternative health groups, The Wildflowers envision a new culture and language by seeing ourselves in a new light. Self-acceptance is the key to recognizing who we truly are. Self-awareness and self-consciousness are to be cultivated daily in order to maintain our self-acceptance. This group is for people to come together, embrace mental diversity and learn from each others’ different views and experiences. Rather than seeing ourselves with a “disorder” needing to be “cured” or “overcome”, we accept ourselves as WE ARE. It is this idea that resonates with our actual experiences rather than trying to fit our lives into a conventional framework.The Wildflowers’ Movement also hopes to advocate mental health rights for all people who have been and are being affected daily by the outdated mental health care system which does not provide them with the alternatives necessary to seek therapeutic recovery.
- Will Brady’s Ruminations
- Long-time psychiatric survivor advocate Will Brady of Connecticut continues his personal blogging at this this new site. Only some of the items are related to mental health.
- Writhe Safely
- Watch for the Teddy Bears in strait jackets. From Robin the blogger’s self-described ‘awkward about us’: “I spent 10 years in commercial alt-rock radio before settling in Austin TX where I live on psych disability and legislative tracking when the patriarchs are in session. I’ve been a burden on the welfare state since the day I was born, have been assigned numerous psychiatric labels, and take the safety net very seriously. I’ve been self-publishing my exceptional life history since 1989. This portal leads to my online archive. I am Robin in the leather boots.”