"Whilst a diagnosis can help us access benefits/accommodations, we should not be living in a world where the resources we need to survive are dependent on a diagnostic label. We can find community & understanding outside of the labels used to pathologise & dehumanise us". - CPA

Many defend antidepressants by arguing they 'save lives'. But this crucial study in BMJ's (jech) found a higher suicide risk in patients exposed to any new-generation SSRI antidepressant (and no evidence that SSRIs protect against suicide). 🤨 jech.bmj.com/content/75/6/5…

In the month after stopping SSRIs there is a 8-fold increase in mortality compared to non-users bit.ly/4786NPo (see supp). As 72% of group had mild depression, 25% moderate and this is so quick after stopping very likely to be withdrawal effect.

Defending antidepressants with the general claim 'they are life-saving' is misleading. The evidence shows that most people experience no positive effects beyond placebo, with only a minority finding them "life-saving" and others reporting increased suicidality, suffering & harm.

“Doctors rarely understand how [drug company] influence really works. The result: an NHS bowing to the needs of big pharma.” theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

“The experience of speaking from the heart and being taken seriously builds the psychic architecture that supports the capacity to bear life.” - Nancy McWilliams

We must approach emotional suffering with non-fearful curiosity—What social, psychological or relational problem is the pain protesting against? What's going wrong? What human need is being left unmet? This inquisitive mindset should be introduced to every child from an early age

Just joined Bluesky, and will now be posting there as well. 👍 bsky.app/profile/drjame…

1. Our paper on lithium in drinking water and suicides in Switzerland was just accepted for publication. It is to our knowledge the first pre-registered study on this topic. We found a near perfect null-result.

It’s gratifying the see that Ofted’s neoliberal school surveillance system has at last been partly torn up. Now let’s go further and tear up the neoliberal assessment of academic labour with its punitive, infantilising and demoralising 4 stars grading system.

‘Capitalism doesn’t want your inner life to be completely fixed- it is happy for you to be a functional depressive or a functional alcoholic, because in both instances you are still a functional consumer’ #Sedated

"Pathologising young people is less effective than tackling the social causes of their worries, suggest clinical psychologists Dr Lucy Johnstone and Dr Helen Care." 👇 theguardian.com/society/articl…

"For those who hear voices, the ‘broken brain’ explanation is harmful. Psychiatry must embrace new meaning-making frameworks". Wonderful piece by the brilliant Justin Garson 👇 aeon.co/essays/how-the…

"...the past three decades have shown that psychiatry’s medical vision is neither scientifically credible nor morally sound." 👇 aeon.co/essays/how-the…

To think psychosis is a form neurodivergence is a terrible idea - as neurodivergence (& its associated experiences) is assumed to be a fixed & enduring neuro-disability (implying its associated experience are also enduring) -a terrifying idea for someone suffering from psychosis.

Rather than taking full responsibility for when it causes harm, bad psych further pathologises the harm to acquit itself.