Mad In America

Song of the Week: Paranoid by Issa Ibrahim

“Paranoid” came about while looking in the mirror while hospitalized and medicated, finally catching a glimmer of the illness that I’d been denying was there. In that momentary gaze I saw myself and became critical of myself and wondered what others thought of me, suddenly feeling that it was the world looking at me through my self-deprecating eyes, projecting everyone’s hatreds and problems that they have with me, on me, through me. Struck by this multifoliate mind game, I declared, “I’m Paranoid,” then sat down to write the song.”

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Featured Artwork: The Journey by Alemayehu Darsema

From Alemayehu: The artwork titled "The Journey," which I created as part of my Bachelor of Fine Arts graduation project, embodies the Healing Phase of personal transformation. The deliberate transition from dark greens to lighter hues symbolizes the journey from despair toward hope, capturing the essence of exploration and acceptance in healing.

Art gallery link in the comments.

Poem of the Week: A War Song to the Person Who Told Me to Die by Raine Ajani

Raine Ajani is a young student of the writing craft based in Portland, Oregon who hungers for growth. The daughter of an Ethiopian immigrant, she enjoys fantasy books, making jewelry, and exploring the nuances of the human experience through language and conversation.

Link to the full poem in the comments.

Getting Rid of the Pain Before Answering Its Questions: Psychiatry’s Damage to Self and Culture
By Bruce Levine, PhD

Had psychiatric treatment been more successful in getting rid of pain before its questions were answered, the struggle for authentic self and a healing culture could well have been lost; as it is, those of us who care about such are only losing the struggle, but we have not been completely defeated.

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From Mad in Italy: Before the era of modern psychiatric drugs, manic-depressive illness (the forerunner of "bipolar disorder") had an episodic natural history, with long periods of full recovery, low chronicity, and limited disability (Angst & Sellaro, 2000; Journal of Affective Disorders, 2009). Whitaker documents that its transformation into a chronic, recurrent, and highly disabling condition coincides with the introduction and spread of antidepressants, antipsychotics, and mood stabilizers (Whitaker, 2010).

From Mad in Greece: Manolis Nanouris’s Good Omen (2026) is a short novella from Kypseli Publications about involuntary psychiatric hospitalization. Above all, though, it is about how power is organized, how it imposes itself on the individual, and how it shapes that person’s identity. The book does not simply follow the protagonist’s entry into a closed institution where others make decisions for him. It traces his gradual shift from person to patient: from someone who is able to speak to someone whose words are turned into part of his symptomatology. The author’s first-person narration keeps us constantly close to the protagonist and his experience, through his daily life in the clinic, his relationships with others, and the way he perceives what is happening.

Fear, Mistrust, and Harm in Police-Involved Mental Health Crises
By Richard Sears

Studies highlight patient and community concerns about police responses alongside gaps in training, communication, and crisis alternatives.

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Meeting Persephone: A Katabasis of Bipolar Night
by Forrest Wolfe

Persephone, the dark queen whose memory must never die. No longer the woman I met, but a deeper metaphysical image of descent, metamorphosis and return. To use Simone Weil’s term, this descent “de-creates” me. I am undone and unwound. Only through this unmaking is my return to life possible.

Link in the comments.

From Efficacy to Non-Efficacy: Lessons from Pediatric Fluoxetine Trials
By Martin Plöderl, PhD

Fluoxetine is recommended as a first-line antidepressant to treat pediatric depression in major guidelines, and it is one of the most widely prescribed antidepressants for children and adolescents. However, modern studies find that fluoxetine has lost its efficacy and can now be considered clinically equivalent to placebo. In this piece, I will explain this puzzling phenomenon, which is also crucial for judging the efficacy of other common antidepressants. This issue has not yet been adequately addressed, which can lead to potential harm for young patients.

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The VA’s New Prescribing Safety Reforms Are a Start – Here’s What’s Still Missing
By Derek Blumke

After months of pressure from more than 30 veterans organizations and Congress, the VA will require written informed consent before prescribing high-risk psychiatric medications — but the reforms stop short of what the data, and the coalition, are asking for.

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