How can people recover from serious drinking problems? Are 12-step and Alcoholics Anonymous programs right for everyone?

Anne Fletcher, author of Sober for Good: New Solutions for Drinking Problems, discusses how people successfully overcome alcohol abuse and regain control of their lives.

http://www.annemfletcher.com
http://www.parl.gc.ca/Content/SEN/Committee/371/ille/presentation/alexender-e.htm

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 52:15 — 47.9MB)

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Has society’s embrace of psychiatric medications led to recovery — or chronic disability? What would honest medical policy and treatment standards be if they were free of pharmaceutical company corruption?

Pulitzer Prize finalist Robert Whitaker, author of Mad In America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill, discusses medications as a failed paradigm of care, and imagines what a sane alternative would look like.

http://www.madinamerica.com

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 51:25 — 47.1MB)

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Do pharmaceutical companies control the social definition of normal? Can advertising and public relations campaigns turn acceptable personality differences into unacceptable disorders?

British-American literary critic and historian Christopher Lane discusses his book Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness, including the way politics and profits drive the bible of mental health treatment, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual.

http://www.christopherlane.org
http://blogs.psychologytoday.com/blog/side-effects

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 50:11 — 46.0MB)

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Blogger and former social worker Gianna Kali discusses her experience going into the mental health system after taking psychedelic drugs, spiritual emergence, decades of treatment with more than 30 different psychiatric medications, and the difficult process of coming off meds, drug withdrawal, and regaining her life.

Gianna is the creator of the Beyond Meds blog about mental health and coming off medications.

http://www.beyondmeds.com

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 56:09 — 51.5MB)

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Psychiatric survivor activism is a vital force changing American mental health care, leading the way in human rights reforms and challenging pharmaceutical company corruption long before the scandals of today’s headlines.

What is this history of the movement, what challenges does it face today, and are there dangers of cooptation and reformism? Join cultural anthropologist Gabriella Coleman to explore the lessons of the Mad Movement.

http://www.gabriellacoleman.org

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 49:14 — 45.2MB)

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UK clinical psychologist Rufus May descended into madness — convinced he was on a spy mission and that animals were robots, he even walked into a family gathering naked.

How did Rufus find meaning in these experiences, learn to live without medication, and become a successful psychologist and mental health advocate? Rufus was recently featured in the Channel 4 feature film The Doctor Who Hears Voices.

http://www.rufusmay.com

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 49:21 — 45.2MB)

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Is depression a result of poverty? How can community development and economic empowerment affect mental health?

Psychology professor Alisha Ali discusses the dangers of turning social problems into medical disorders, including bias in diagnosis, limits of “cultural competency” and “anti-stigma” initiatives, and the experiences of immigrant women.

http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/faculty_bios/view/Alisha_Ali

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 51:31 — 47.2MB)

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Labor doula and Icarus Project student organizer Annie Robinson talks about her experience in the mental health system as an adolescent, and how it led to her interest in changing medical birthing procedures and becoming a doula.

Annie discusses the trauma caused by doctor interventions in childbirth and its lasting effects on both children and mothers.

Anniewrobinson(at)gmail(dot)com
http://www.dona.org
http://www.motherfriendly.org

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 48:56 — 44.9MB)

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Internationally known advocate, psychiatric abuse survivor organizer, and clinical psychologist Ronald Bassman discusses and reads from his new book, A Fight To Be: A Psychologist’s Experience From Both Sides of the Locked Door.

Ron was diagnosed “paranoid schizophrenic” and left in back wards as a “chronic case,” but has gone on to become a leader in the recovery movement and an inspiring teacher and therapist.

http://www.ronaldbassman.com

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 53:05 — 48.6MB)

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Marykate Connor, founder of Caduceus Outreach Services in San Francisco, talks about her innovative work helping homeless people with mental health problems. She discusses the criminal justice system, the decline of services since the 1970s, medication policies, poverty, and what led her to create one of the most innovative and effective homelessness programs in the country.

marykate_caduceus (at) sbcglobal (dot) net
http://www.caduceusoutreachservices.org

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 53:08 — 48.7MB)

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Grace Guyol, diagnosed with bipolar disorder and author of Healing Depression and Bipolar Disorder Without Drugs: Inspiring Stories of Restoring Mental Health Through Natural Therapies, discusses nutrition, supplements, and holistic health care for helping people diagnosed with severe mental illnesses.

GGuyol (at) aol.com

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 55:30 — 50.9MB)

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Psychology professor Randy Frost, author of Buried In Treasures, discusses his work on hoarding, people who collect so much stuff excessively that it disrupts their lives or creates a health or fire hazard, including how to help people without risking adding to the problem through intrusive or drastic intervention.

rfrost@smith.edu

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 52:36 — 48.2MB)

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Editor Sabrina Chapadjiev discusses the new Seven Stories Press anthology Live Through This: On Creativity and Self Destruction, a rich collection of women artists sharing intimate accounts of cutting, alcoholism, suicide, abuse, madness and other self harm and how it relates to their creativity.

Authors include bell hooks, Bonfire Madigan Shive, Patricia Smith, Annie Sprinkle, Inga Muscio, Kate Bornstein, and Nicole Blackman.

http://sabrinachap.com/LTT

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 51:36 — 47.3MB)

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Advocate and bipolar survivor Steven Morgan talks about his experiences with spirituality and meditation, including healing through dream work.

Listen to the recent profile the New York Times did of Steven at http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/07/16/health/healthguide/TE_BIPOLAR_CLIPS.html and check out Steven’s writing at http://www.vermontrecovery.com

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 50:09 — 46.0MB)

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Long time Icarus Project organizer, open source computer software architect, and graduate doctoral student Jeffrey Goins discusses his psychiatric experiences and insights from the world of technology applied to the world of madness.

Topics include the Eli Lilly Zyprexa memos scandal and intellectual property rights; freedom in a surveillance society; prophecy and ancient wisdom, and the “end of forgetting.”

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 52:52 — 48.5MB)

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