Tag Archives: Mental Health
Beyond the Mental Illness Industry: Healing Trauma with NARM and Interpersonal Neurobiology
After the psychiatric abuse of a “standard treatment” nearly killed me 8 years ago, I found the tools that made survival possible. This was at the intersection of the NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM) and Interpersonal Neurobiology. Unlike the mental illness … Continue reading
Signs of Recovery, an IPNB Perspective
The mainstream mental illness industry offers a symptom–management and pathology-reduction framework that reflects the incomplete biomedical model of mental health. That narrow framework treats progress as a set of isolated symptom-based milestones, focusing on controlling or managing parts of experience … Continue reading
Posted in Mental Health
Tagged Behavioral Health, IPNB, Mental Health, PTSD recovery, recovery, Relational Neuroscience, symptoms
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Profiteers of Human Misery: the Corporate Greed Behind Unchecked Psychiatric Abuse
In 2016, BuzzFeed published an investigative report that exposed widespread abuse within the psychiatric industry, specifically revealing Universal Health Services (UHS), one of the largest operators of behavioral health facilities in the U.S. The report uncovered disturbing practices, particularly the … Continue reading
Why I Quit Therapy
Over 6.5 years, I was traumatized by 13 therapists. Even the intake, first session, and attempt to explain my history put my nervous system back into the same defensive state. In session, I frequently encountered misattunement that prompted their disbelief, … Continue reading
Can Trauma Survivors Recover Even Without Access to Professional Help?
According to a 2021 study, “most states have fewer than 40% of the mental health professionals needed” and “more than half (51%) of counties in the United States have no practicing psychiatrists.” Even where mental illness industry practitioners exist, many … Continue reading
Posted in PTSD, Trauma
Tagged Complex PTSD, CPTSD, Medicine, Mental Health, Nervous System, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Psychology, PTSD, Regulation, Trauma
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The DSM Update: New Bells and Whistles on the Same Old Bunk
The American Psychiatric Association’s plan to revise its holy book, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), shoves a bunch of cosmetic and structural bells and whistles onto the same old diagnostic framework. They’re going to reorganize criteria into domains, talk … Continue reading
Fascism in a White Coat: The Authoritarian Regime of Mental Illness
If the mental illness industry were a government, it would resemble an authoritarian regime that maintains control through coercion, manipulation, and the suppression of dissent, while claiming to act in the people’s best interest. It enforces compliance through labels and … Continue reading
The Granddaddy Effect: Honoring Raxley Leonard Obarr on His 140th Birthday and the Neuroscience of a Life-Saving Connection
Today, March 13th, marks the 140th birthday of my maternal great-grandfather, Raxley Leonard Obarr, my Granddaddy. He was the only grandfather figure I knew. He was also a Knight Templar, a master of bird magic, a juggler, and the kindler … Continue reading
Posted in co-regulation, Family
Tagged activism, belonging, connection, Granddaddy, great-grandfather, justice, legacy, Mental Health, safety, well-being
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The DSM Misses the Mark: IPNB Offers a Humane and Scientific Understanding of Mental Health
Some trauma experts have said that if the psychiatric Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) acknowledged trauma, it would be a very thin volume because virtually everything else would fall beneath it. But from an Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB) … Continue reading
Posted in Mental Health, Psychiatry
Tagged Behavioral Health, DSM, illness, IPNB, Mental Health, mental illness industry, Nervous System, pathologizing, psychiatry, Psychology, recovery, Trauma, wellbeing
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The Gilded Age Values of the Modern Mental Illness Industry
The dominant culture continues to enforce many of the values of the Gilded Age, especially those related to economic inequality, individual responsibility, and the criminalization of marginalized groups. While there have been some advances in social justice, the structures of … Continue reading
Posted in IPNB of Hierarchy, Mental Health
Tagged Behavioral Health, Guilded Age, hirarchy, industrialists, Mental Health, mental illness, status quo
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