Doomed: A Psychiatry Comic By Sunny Strader www.madinamerica.com/2026/03/doom...

AI Chatbots in Mental Health: Promise, Dependence, and Growing Concerns By Richard Sears New research explores the growing role of AI chatbots in mental health care—highlighting their therapeutic potential and links to adverse outcomes, including suicide and psychosis risk. buff.ly/vkRU99Q

Mental Health and the Assault on Autonomy in the New America By Nancy Burke Quietly, our country is moving, state by state and executive order by executive order, towards policies that all but dismantle the rights of those deemed mentally ill. buff.ly/brEmF6Y

This Isn’t the Place: Counselor Education in a Time of Fear by Tahira Lopez Benevelli, MA buff.ly/Iuo1ItA Counseling has never been abstract for many of us. It is braided with survival, with family history, with the right to exist without fear.

DSM-6 Will Be Structured Around Biomarkers—Despite Acknowledgment There Aren’t Any by Peter Simons The subcommittee was created to use biomarkers to reorganize the whole project. The problem? They acknowledge that such biomarkers have not yet actually been found. buff.ly/vtgqFfz

The Compliance Machine: How ADHD Habit-Tracking Apps Enforce the Disease Model By Sabry Ali We have been using shiny wording like “self-improvement,” “building better habits,” and “personal growth”; however, the reality is “comply.” buff.ly/MeqyiSB

Undisclosed Industry Payments Found in Top Psychiatry Journals By Richard Sears Undisclosed payments to psychiatry journal authors raise concerns about bias in clinical trials and gaps in conflict of interest transparency. www.madinamerica.com/2026/03/undi...

Belief in a Fair Economy Linked to Greater Mental Health Stigma, Study Finds By Richard Sears Belief in economic fairness may fuel mental health stigma, with people showing more tolerance towards wealthy individuals with mental health struggles. www.madinamerica.com/2026/03/beli...

Studies Link Psychiatric Labels and Drugs to Obesity and Diabetes Risk Factors, Yet Screening Falls Short by Richard Sears Research connects psychiatric diagnoses and medications to obesity and metabolic risk, yet people with mental health diagnoses receive less diabetes monitoring. buff.ly/WVrk9uk

Why Mental Health Is Not the Same for Everyone By John T. Maier One person might want a mind that is a place of tranquility and ease. Another might want a mind that is full of tumult and excitement. Neither one is right or wrong. They just want different things for their minds.

Join MIA online or in person (if you happen to be in New Jersey) for a panel discussion and Q&A about mental health, cultural stigma, and human rights following the screening of the documentary The Woman of the Stars and Mountains. buff.ly/NtUP3XU

Mourning on Schedule: How Grieving Became a ‘Mental Illness’ by Steve McCrea buff.ly/jjGaDn4 My wife died ten months ago. In another two months, I will have a new mental disorder: “Prolonged Grief Disorder.”

No Attention Deficit in ADHD—Stimulants Promote Wakefulness by Peter Simons on the Mad in America Substack This could blow apart the whole diagnosis of ADHD, according to the senior author. In a Medscape interview, he asked: “Do kids with ADHD even have an attention deficit?” buff.ly/JK9N2V6

Susanne Paola Antonetta joins us to discuss her book The Devil’s Castle, Nazi Eugenics, Euthanasia, and How Psychiatry’s Troubled History Reverberates Today "We live in a time and in a culture where the idea of normality is so constricted." Read or listen here: buff.ly/ksQPXFY #podcast #eugenics

ChatGPT is Psychology’s Marlboro Man By Chris Dabbs & Audrey Scaer Big Tobacco drafted the plays that Big Tech is enacting today: manipulating public opinion by partnering with the medical field. www.madinamerica.com/2026/03/chat...

Informal Coercion Linked to Reduced Autonomy By Richard Sears A new Japanese study finds that informal coercion applied during psychiatric hospitalization resulted in less autonomy for people diagnosed with schizophrenia. www.madinamerica.com/2026/03/info...

With AI Chatbots As Therapists, We Can All Be Patients. By Zoe Cunniffe Chatbots, with constant availability and user-centric conversation style, are widening the reach of “therapeutic culture.” buff.ly/w6SvJza

Farewell to Suicide By Seth Allard The conditions required for suicide to happen are the same conditions required for dysfunctional leadership, toxic organizational culture and communication, counterproductive policies, and deadly practices to thrive. buff.ly/B5kJZXf

Racial Discrimination Linked to Mental Health Risks and Increased Psychiatric Detention By Richard Sears Mad in America's Weekly Research Digest: From hiring discrimination to involuntary hospitalization, new research highlights systemic racial inequities. www.madinamerica.com/2026/03/raci...

When a Radical Feminist from South Korea Became a Psychiatrist in the US by Wonyun Lee, MD

As a Doctor, I Felt Compelled to Agree to ECT—It Nearly Ruined My Life By Cathy Wield Despite surviving, I’m utterly horrified by my experience of ECT. www.madinamerica.com/2026/03/as-a...

Is Focusing on Screen Time Diverting Us From the Real Drivers of Youth Distress? By Abby Cartus Given how harmful we know social media is for young people’s mental health, banning social media for kids may be a helpful step, unless the implementation is seriously mismanaged. buff.ly/zX2ru9R

Poem of the Week: Madness by Peter Hobden buff.ly/TtKYkdA

Featured Artwork: Nostalgia by Rebecca Gonzalez "This work is a part of a series about my childhood, my time in the psychiatric system, and recovery. If you look closely at each piece, you will see representations of innocence, trauma, and resistance." buff.ly/Vj4xBLe

Psychobabble of the Month: Jealousy Is Now a Mental Illness In an article published in top psychiatry journal JAMA Psychiatry, researchers David Mataix-Cols and Johan Åhlén argue that doctors should be on the lookout for a new diagnosis: obsessional jealousy. buff.ly/f4qyvWB

Weekly Research Digest: Art Therapy Shows Promise in Clinical Trials and Lived Experience by Richard Sears This week Mad in America examines three studies around art therapy and art-based interventions for mental health issues. buff.ly/UcaKuvR

There Is No Over- or Under-diagnosis of ADHD or Autism, Just a Confused Cacophony of Opinions By Sami Timimi, MD Assessments for these conditions rely on subjective interpretations. There is no blood test or brain scan. There is no neuro in neurodiversity. www.madinamerica.com/2026/02/the-...

What Isn’t Broken, Part 3: Spiritual Rebirth by Jasmine Marshall buff.ly/CyjBsFt The first time ‘it’ happened — my first awakening — was on my 22nd birthday, just a few months after having quit psych drugs cold-turkey.

What Isn’t Broken, Part 2: The Descent by Jasmine Marshall

Is Psychiatry’s Myth of Mental Health as Damaging as Its Myth of Mental Illness? By Bruce Levine, PhD Only a profoundly uncritical thinker would celebrate adjustment in of itself as "mental health" without a critical analysis of the dehumanizing society one is adjusting to. buff.ly/9ZHR1Sw

Weekly Research Digest: Peer Support Strengths, Challenges, and Co-option by Biomedical Models By Richard Sears New research on peer support focuses on trauma-informed programs, workplace challenges, and concerns about professionalization undermining core peer support values.

What Isn’t Broken, Part 1: A Temporary Fix by Jasmine Marshall buff.ly/vH5yajX The diagnosis I had sought to help me would instead betray me, blame me, scapegoat my faulty biology. Yet at the time, I naively believed that it would make my pain “valid.”

Elizabeth Cotton joins us on the Mad in America #podcast for part 2 of our discussion in which she traces how digital therapy can block the very thing people come for: a stable, human relationship that can hold fear, dependency, and ambivalence. #ubertherapy #enshittification ➡️ buff.ly/lEhWRYW

Facing Existential Challenges, WHO Shuts Down its Policy, Law, and Human Rights Unit By Leah Harris Global activists react to the news and vow to keep up the fight for human rights in mental health. www.madinamerica.com/2026/02/faci...

Patriarchy Leads To Insanity by L.S. buff.ly/z0C5vwG

Are We Allowed to Criticise Mental Health Professionals? By Bella Jackson While on nursing placements and then again while trying to write it all down, I attempted to make sense of why some staff had lost their empathy or dissociated. Why some were even rude or cruel or abusive.

Weekly Research Digest: Adolescent Suicide, Debt, Cannabis, ACEs, and Psychiatric Hospitalization by Richard Sears Studies on debt, financial stress, adverse childhood experiences, bullying, cannabis use, and psychiatric hospitalization leading to suicidality and self-harm. buff.ly/vKJwvOP

The FDA Allows Ineffective Devices to Come to Market By Peter Simons An FDA-cleared brain stimulation device for ADHD doesn’t work, according to new evidence. But it will likely remain on the market and even provide a pathway for future approvals of similar ineffective devices. buff.ly/sjqOuTA

When the Government Becomes the Source of Trauma for Children By Dr. Cheryl Aguilar & Dr. Vanessa Joachin Liam’s and Chloe’s stories are not outliers, they reflect the lived experiences of children whose lives have been upended at moments when they should feel safe. buff.ly/WF0Fusf

Elizabeth Cotton joins us on the Mad in America #podcast to discuss the rise of digital therapy platforms and the gig-economy playbook approach to psychotherapy. #ubertherapy #psychology #enshittification Full interview here ➡️ www.madinamerica.com/2026/02/uber...

Song of the Week: Still Hunting by Lala Buckstar

Featured Artwork: Inwardly by Thomas Riesner To see more of this artist's work: buff.ly/28MrNKd View our art gallery and share your artwork here! buff.ly/B1cW3Wm

What 776 ECT Recipients Want You to Know By Sarah Price Hancock Now that ECT recipients have been given a voice, is the general public prepared to listen? Devastating costs and inconsistent, unreliable benefits lead me to wonder what we must do to protect vulnerable fellow humans. buff.ly/dM1hB1d

Visual Snow Syndrome: Can SSRIs Literally Change How You See the World? By Richard Sears New research suggests SSRIs may be linked to visual snow syndrome, a poorly understood condition that can persist after antidepressant use and profoundly affect daily life. www.madinamerica.com/2026/02/visu...

What Do Psych Survivors Want Instead of Psychiatric Coercion? By Laura López-Aybar One does not simply forget the dehumanization of coercion in psychiatric practices. It is traumatic and detrimental to recovery. How is another distressing experience therapeutic? buff.ly/J4GPAtw

Weekly Research Digest: Psych Drugs Linked to Poor Heart Health and Gastrointestinal Bleeding By Richard Sears buff.ly/YEYMmNi

The Digital Therapy Boom Has a Research Corruption Problem By Richard Sears COVID-19 deregulation accelerated the rise of internet-based mental healthcare, but a new meta-analysis finds industry funding may inflate reported benefits.

Winning Mad Liberation with a New Strategy: Solidarity By Will Hall Today the real push for forced psychiatry abolition, as small as this push is, is happening among the activists in the prison and police protest movements. buff.ly/vCxnFPr

Poem of the Week: Rain by Nikhil Bajaj buff.ly/QpaMfyY

None of the 22 FDA Approvals for Psychiatric Drugs in the Last Decade Were “Clinically Useful” By Peter Simons Established drugs were repurposed, “me-too” drugs were approved, and even the few new biological approaches lacked clinical utility. buff.ly/GuxR2bM