What’s worth remembering?
On the penultimate page of Rob Delaney’s grief memoir, we get a summary of the story so far: Our boy got sick We went to a lot of doctors, trying to find out what was wrong with him. We found...
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Depression is probably not caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain – new study
For three decades, people have been deluged with information suggesting that depression is caused by a “chemical imbalance” in the brain – namely an imbalance of a brain chemical called serotonin. However, our latest research review shows that the evidence...
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Un-care-able
Stories of self-harm and the impossibility of care In 1987 renowned psychiatrist Armando Favazza, in his field-defining book on self-injury Bodies Under Siege, declared (with remarkable confidence) that “no one loves self-mutilators” (244). In fairness to Favazza, he makes the...
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Help-seeking: where’s the help?
Please note: This piece contains mentions of self-harm and suicide When I [Veronica] present my work, I often begin with statistics highlighting the disparity between the prevalence of self-harm and rates of help-seeking. It often feels that this disparity communicates...
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Scandi noir or Nordic utopia? State mental health care in Scandinavia
In the UK, we tend to be horrified at the lack of state mental health care in the US: My biggest hang-up isn’t even the orange nightmare you’ve somehow let into the White House—it’s the fact you seem totally fine...
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In lockdown with depression
let’s not pass the buck onto families in the aftermath of COVID-19 Commentators are beginning to suggest that in the aftermath of COVID-19, we face a pandemic of mental illness. Countering this call to arms for psychiatry, others have emphasised...
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A room without books…
“A room without books is like a body without a soul.” Marcus Tullius Cicero Reading books is good for our health. Particularly our mental health. Alongside improving literacy, knowledge about the world around us, emotional intelligence and providing relaxation, studies suggest...
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Are cities bad for our mental health?
Are cities bad for our mental health? The question of cities and mental health was once a key topic for sociologists and psychiatrists. In the 1930s, sociologists Faris and Dunham argued that the prevalence of schizophrenia in Chicago was caused,...
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Joker
May Contain Spoilers In the same week as World Mental Health Day (10th October) the blockbuster, from the DC Comics’ Batman series, “Joker” was number one in both the UK and US box offices. While the various Batman movies, and...
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Anti-stigma campaigns in mental health: what gets left out?
Over the past two decades, stigma for people with mental health problems has become an increasing concern for researchers, practitioners, service users and politicians. This has led to several international government funded campaigns to increase public awareness of the realities...
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The Fragility of the Enterprise
I’m at a medium-sized conference, one I’ve attended several times before and I am in a deep depression*. An anthropologist I don’t know is looking at me, intently. She has just told me that she’s especially interested in what I...
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Scales of failure: mental health services and self-harm