Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Mental Health”
Today, one in eight American children is diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In 1987, when ADHD made its debut in the American PsychiatricAssociation’s diagnostic manual (DSM-III-R), the authors estimated that only 1 in 33 children had the condition. This number included children with known central nervous system disorders like cerebral palsy, encephalitis, and epilepsy—diseases that were known to cause hyperactivity in children. Before …
Over the years, I’ve probably received more mail about Mutiny of the Soul than any other essay I’ve written. The idea of the article has been hugely validating for many readers: that depression, ADHD, anxiety, etc. aren’t chemical malfunctions of the brain, nor spiritual malfunctions of the mind; rather, they are forms of legitimate rebellion against life structures that are unworthy of …
America, the land with the freedom to pursue happiness, isn’t exactly happy. Americans are stressed, burned out and depressed. Americans spend more time at work and less time on vacation compared to most other Western countries, which may contribute to the tremendous depression statistics. There is no surprise that depression affects approximately 15 million American adults(link is external), or about 6.7 percent of the U.S. population …
What if the cure for your cold was opening a door for a complete stranger? Or watering your neighbor’s roses while they are away on vacation when you notice them wilting? How about stopping your headache by putting some spare change in someone’s parking meter when it is about to expire? Or, reversing inflammatory joint pain by letting someone cut in front …
It’s become normal for Americans to demand—and receive-a professional assessment of the physical health of the candidates for president—just as they expect updates on the medical state of the president himself. After all, there have been many infamous cases of presidents, from Franklin Roosevelt to Jack Kennedy, who secretly endured serious debilitating illnesses. Thus, the current crop of presidential hopefuls …
Americans are dead set on finding a magic-bullet solution for addiction. And the leading experts in the field, including pharmacologists, neuroscientists, psychiatrists, and psychotherapists—adding their voices to the 12-step movement—are all clamoring to be recognized as the true messiahs leading us to this promised land. But the new magic bullets are no better than the old AA one. To demonstrate …
PRINT E-MAIL It’s an age-old quandary: Are we born “noble savages” whose best intentions are corrupted by civilization, as the 18th century Swiss philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau contended? Or are we fundamentally selfish brutes who need civilization to rein in our base impulses, as the 17th century English philosopher Thomas Hobbes argued? After exploring the areas of the brain that fuel our …
Psychiatry is notorious for saying “oops!” for a long history of abusing patients with pseudoscience-driven treatments and its shameful lack of diagnostic rigor. From the1949 Nobel Prize for therapeutic lobotomy to theRosenhan experiments in the 70s which exposed the invalidity of a psychiatrist’s clinical judgment (hospitalizing and treating actors feigning psychosis), the field is in crisis. The New Biology of Mental Illness My …
Doctors at a health clinic in Lowell, Massachusetts, had a problem: Their exam rooms reminded refugee patients of torture chambers. The stethoscopes, the blood pressure cuff squeezing your arm—they looked like the torture devices used on their families, during Cambodia’s genocide. Sonith Peou was just 24 when the Khmer Rouge pounded on the door of his family’s home, and took …
Here’s a question for you: If you dramatically scale up schools in which students have fewer rights than students who attend traditional public schools, with what do you end up? If you answered “more students with fewer rights,” congratulations — you have won the opportunity to learn more on this important, yet little discussed topic. Dr. Preston Green [3] is a professor …
