The Summer 2026 Issue of the @asylummagazine.bsky.social is out Thank you for your contributions and your support 😊 Special thanks to Nicola Field and Max Pogrzeba for their help with the design & the overall look of the magazine 💜❤️

📚 Someone actually tried to ban a book because it promotes the “ideology” of… coming out Yes, apparently, being honest about who you are is now a dangerous political agenda Truly, we are living in the golden age of nonsense

We know that this conversion practices are being built into the pathways for trans youth via the Cass model, via mandatory psych evaluations before allowing any referral, via the incorporation of conversion therapists and training materials.

Excellent programme - but media coverage, so far, is erasing the fact that this cruel 'treatment' was used to convert people's gender expression as well as their sexuality. Trans erasure 🙄 www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

LGB+T folk were subjected to cruel & harmful aversion therapy. Survivors demanding justice www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

We couldn't be in better company! @asylummagazine.bsky.social 😊

'The technocrats / are taking over the asylums...' I am very glad my poem 'A psychiatric hospital is not a factory' is in the new issue of Asylum. Big thanks to @hspandler.bsky.social & all at @asylummagazine.bsky.social for supporting my work & for campaigning so consistently over so many years ❤️❤️

Pleased to have a chapter about mental health activism in this exciting new book about Ambivalent Activism. Out now! bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/ambivalent-a... @brisunipress.bsky.social

"Ambivalence is pervasive in #Activism but has far too long been neglected by scholars. This important and original collection explores the potential of ambivalence in a wide range of contexts." - Silke Roth, University of Southampton

Amazing issue of Asylum Magazine out just now. So much valuable insight within its pages. If you don't experience mental illness, reading Asylum is one way to approach understanding it a little more. The only mag I subscribe to anymore. @asylummagazine.bsky.social

www.thenorthernrose.com/p/the-northe... With a focus on the situation in Manchester, this podcast discusses how austerity in the UK has systematically decimated inpatient and community mental health care

"Machines have no empathy" (Sherry Turkle) But if people say ChatGPT is kinder than almost every clinician they have come across, this says a lot about the quality of therapeutic alliances nowadays Brilliant blog by Wren Avez www.psychiatryisdrivingmemad.co.uk/post/chatgpt...

Attacking the rights of a marginalised group isn’t a win for feminism. Demanding that women be defined by our biology isn't a win for feminism. The people driving this are not acting in the interests of women. They're taking us all backwards and ushering in the far right.

Important thread "For as long as critical psychiatry fails to engage with critics, it can & never will be different" So many survivors are saying this. Its time to be taken seriously.

A disabled art activist has sent a powerful message to Labour over its DWP benefit cuts Dolly Sen is sending Labour a clear, and harrowing message that its DWP cuts will lead to countless more deaths of disabled people. www.thecanary.co/uk/news/2025...

Wherever we sit on the psychiatric culture wars, I think psy professionals & academics need to admit we've collectively failed to create a compelling, compassionate & unifying narrative about mental suffering (regardless of what damn words you use to describe it). Shame on us! 😟

How many times do we have to say it? *Austerity doesn’t work*. More cuts to public spending is economically illiterate and morally indefensible - people didn’t vote Labour to get more Tory austerity. FFS tax extreme wealth, don’t slash public services @patmillsuk.bsky.social

Professionals using their platforms to legitimise government oppression, whether deliberately or not, are a part of the problem rather than part of the solution.

Richly well deserved 👏 If you haven't listened to this, I'd thoroughly recommened it

The good news is there is already a team of actual interdisciplinary experts putting together detailed advice around data collection on sex and gender, informed by medical science as well as feminist and trans perspectives. They are the MESSAGE project and you can learn more here:

Good to see a more nuanced approach to simplistic & dangerous "overdiagnosis" debates www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

US study on sustainable menstruation products cancelled cos it *mentioned* that trans folk menstruate too. www.advocate.com/news/usda-sc...

Co-authored a chapter on ambivalent mental health activism for this new book which will be out soon. Looks great. Looking forward to reading all the other chapters. bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/ambivalent-a...

Do join us tomorrow, if you want to know more about @StopOxevision or just hear some mad poetry come along. Register here us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

This is a truly terrifying take on #MAGA, but despairingly plausible ...

"We mustn't let the narcissism of small differences prevent us from uniting to do what is required of us at this crucial historical juncture...Whether we will, as a society, choose solidarity or abandonment & whether we will meet suffering with care or with cruelty" newrepublic.com/article/1918...

Asylum has landed with subscribers! @asylummagazine.bsky.social @stopoxevision.bsky.social

I sense this issue will be as popular as our special BPD issue we published over 20 years ago & still coveted @stopoxevision.bsky.social @nsunnews.bsky.social @asylummagazine.bsky.social

Using zines in critical mental health education Open Access paper www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Online launch of Spring issue of Asylum mag. It's gonna be another cracker..👍🏼🧨🎆 Hear from guest editors & contributors @stopoxevision.bsky.social Supported by @nsunnews.bsky.social @asylummagazine.bsky.social Register here for joining link: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regist…

A group of Kosvan mental activists inspired by @asylummagazine.bsky.social translated our first ever issue into Albanian. Chuffed to bits! 🤗

Excited for this to be out in the world! Please do subscribe to Asylum magazine to receive this special edition We will be at the launch event too!

Spring issue of Asylum out soon! Special issue on surveillance guest edited by Stop Oxevision. @stopoxevision.bsky.social

We are Mad Youth Organise, and we demand: 🚫An end to fossil fuel extraction 💰Shell and Big Oil pay for the damage they’ve caused—including funding youth mental health care 🌱A just transition to community-owned green energy 🏛️A government that protects people, not polluters

I've been harmed by both critical + standard psychiatry. Might I suggest rather than arguing about ideology, we focus back on the human suffering? Here's my wishlist: 1. Treat me as human 2. Be kind 3. Believe me & my experiences 4. Value my knowledge 5. Respect me 6. Honour my wishes

💡 Good point! A name is identity, dignity & self-respect. For trans people, chosen names matter. Funny how Trump is obsessed with renaming the Gulf of Mexico but won’t respect trans people’s own names. Priorities. 🙄🏳️‍⚧️ #TransRights

Total respect and admiration for the 3 brilliant survivors here, please share widely. It took huge courage #solidarity

More no shit sherlock cos y’know, being killed is kind of unacceptable. Wanna know more- Deaths by Welfare deathsbywelfare.org The Department by @johnpring.bsky.social www.plutobooks.com/978074534990...

"When the choice is between coercion and abandonment, it is unsurprising that many choose incarceration for their loved ones, but our collective inability to think beyond this dichotomy is an ethical, social, and clinical failure". We can do better.

A new parliamentary inquiry into the state of community mental health services is requesting written evidence from individuals and organisations by 4th February. Find out more about the committee and inquiry and access support on submitting evidence 👇 www.nsun.org.uk/news/inquiry...

I made a blog post about the conference that @drrobertchapman.bsky.social is organizing for June 2025. biopoliticalphilosophy.com/2024/12/19/c...

An even-handed, transparent & humane approach to trans health care. Thank you Awais 👏

A group of Kosvan mental activists inspired by @asylummagazine.bsky.social translated our first ever issue into Albanian. Chuffed to bits! 🤗