Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Top Mental Health Blogs?
I have an upcoming talk to give on blogging as a form of advocacy and education in the mental health field. I'd like to know which psychiatry and mental health blogs (aside from ours, which we know you love the best ;-) you all find the most valuable. Please leave us a comment with your choices and what it is, in particular, that makes them valuable to you. I'll make a list later for everyone and find some way to organize the results.
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34 comments:
John Grohol's "World of Psychology" blog is good. It's at: http://psychcentral.com/blog/
From the client's perspective, there's:
http://www.mentalhealthnotes.com/
And, well, I like my blog, too:
http://www.katiemalinski.com/blog
;^)
I like thelastpsychiatrist.com, and you already have that listed on your site.
Psychology Today has a group of very interesting bloggers, with new posts daily (blogs.psychologytoday.com). Peter Kramer is included there and his posts are reliably intriguing.
If we're allowed to plug ourselves, I wouldn't mind attracting a few readers to my new and admittedly rather unconventional and speculative blog at arspsychiatrica.blogspot.com. Thanks!
Maria's @ Intueri - although she's on hiatus right now - http://www.intueri.org/
I agree about Psychology Today - lots of amazing stuff there.
My blog (from the patient's prospective) is usually ok, but I'm going through a bit of writer's block, coupled with... well, negativity.
rblsc2006.blogspot.com
~Rach
Hi Roy,
Thanks for asking. My choices aren't going to be popular on this blog but you asked for opinions so here goes.
1. http://www.furiousseasons.com
At this link, http://www.furiousseasons.com/about.html, he writes:
I am concerned about the state of mental health care in America and elsewhere. We simply are not getting the kind of results that patients, myself included, were promised 20 years ago at the dawn of the psychopharmacological revolution. Yet that's not what you'll read in the American media and it's not what you'll hear from researchers, most advocates and the pharmaceutical companies. What's more, there isn't much of a free market of ideas in the mental health world--it's pretty much the mental health establishment versus the anti-psychiatry movement. Let me stress that I am not a member of the latter movement.
I couldn't have said it any better as one who is tapering off of psych meds due to side effects such as a hearing loss and worsening of LD symptoms.
As an FYI Philip is now completely off of his meds and is doing well.
2. http://bipolarblast.wordpress.com/
Discusses viable alternatives to meds
3. http://bipolarwellness.blogspot.com/
Another site that discusses viable alternatives to meds
AA
Well, yours is the best...
...and you can quote me on that. :)
My list (minus blogs already on your sidebar):
The Secret
Life of a Manic Depressive
Finding Your Marbles
Storied Mind
The Trouble with Spikol
Anxiety Insights
Furious Seasons
All of them are top notch.
Yours is the only blog I read though I tried others. I DO like Peter Kramer VERY much when I remember to go there. I read one of his books and find him very insightful and intelligent.
I occasionally do read what is going on at:
http://www.mindfreedom.org/
which is perhaps one of the anti-psychiatry groups previously mentioned.
I am pro-psychiatry so I don't feel completely comfortable there, but at least I can see that there are people "out there" who are against involuntary Electro-convulsive Shock Therapy (which is allowed here in California) and who see the benefit for some people of not being on psych meds for the rest of their days.
I am interested in checking out anon.'s recommended websites.
I love Soulful Sepulcher at http://bipolarsoupkitchen-stephany.blogspot.com/ I don't know how to summarize the website...you just have to read it. I can't think of a mother who has fought harder for her daughter than Stephany.
Two other favorites are:
1. Furious Seasons
2. Clinical Psychology & Psychiatry: A Closer Look
http://clinpsyc.blogspot.com/
I like the last 2 because they take people to task when their research is shoddy. They both make me think, which can be good & bad, lol.
Shrink Talk
The Trouble with Spikol
Everyone Needs Therapy
No doubt, hands down, The Secret Life of A Manic Depressive.
http://thesecretlifeofamanicdepressive.wordpress.com/
Some stuff is about the NHS, but other than that, it is really amazing. Her guides to depression,mania, psychosis, your psychiatrist appointment...wonderful.
I also like The Last Psychiatrist as someone already mentioned, since I tend to agree with him on a lot of psychiatric dogma and he is extremely eloquent about phrasing things (try his posts about Borderline, Narcissism (esp the one on Saddam Hussein and narcissism)).
There are a couple of British psychiatry residents with bipolar who are interesting as well. Trick Cycling for Beginners, Stranger's Fever.
For a good blow-by-blow of therapy, there's always Vicarious Therapy as well.
That's just my personal and idiosyncratic opinion.
One more:
Though it's not a blog, The Bonkers Institute for Nearly Genuine Research definitely deserves a shout out.
Thanks for the great blog tips. Spikol and Furious are blogs I like, also, even though they are critical of psychiatry (well, more so, Furious Seasons), but I feel it is important for us to have this rational criticism (I say "rational" as opposed to the zealots who appear to be anti-psychiatry just to be anti).
Keep 'em coming.
Also, can I mention Crazy Meds... It's also not a blog, but I think it's quite empowering.
www.crazymeds.us
I am a grad student studying clinical psychology and my blog asks for professionals in the field to share their insight and wisdom with students like me:
www.fortherapistsonly.blogspot.com
My nominations for entertaining reads are -
http://lakecocytus.blogspot.com/
http://thesecretlifeofamanicdepressive.wordpress.com/
And for information -
http://www.healthcentral.com/bipolar/c/15/
E.
For an informed, family perspective that is accurate, intelligent and compassionate: www.katemclaughlin.net
For up-to-date political and advocacy info: www.nami.com or www.nimh.org
The Carlat Psychioatry Blog
OK it is mostly about education and the influence of the drug companies but it is an important topic, regadrs Dr Shock
The Neurocritic is another suggestion.
And Vicarious Therapy is very good blog from a patient perspective. She writes very good and insightful about having to live with a mood disorder.
regards Dr Shock
Lake Cocytus but it has been mentioned before
How about Clinical Psychology and Psychiatry?
http://clinpsyc.blogspot.com/
Seems to have lots of interesting, topical articles.
Peter D. Kramer
In Practice
A Practicing Doctor's Views on Psychiatry and Contemporary Culture.
By Dr. Peter Kramer
Hi Roy,
Of course your blog is up there at the top! I'm just beginning to get a sense of the blogosphere and there are too many good ones that i've come across to do them justice. So i'd probably mention a few starting points. The Carlat Psychiatry Blog is the one with a quest - to delink pharma funding and medical funding. There are a few that include posts critical of pharma - Furious Seasons and Psychcentral (the latter focusing on psychological approaches). Curiously I haven't yet found many blogs to counterbalance these. Psychiatrist posts include the Last Psychiatrist, Frontier Psychiatrist and The Psychiatrist Blog. Mental Nurse looks at psychiatric nursing and includes links to other blogs amongst which are those written by people about their illnesses (including Furious Seasons above). Mind Hacks is predominantly psychology based, frequently updated and informative. Brain Blogger is another high quality blog with a magazine-like feel to it and includes the Brain Blogging Carnival. The Neurocritic looks at psychiatry related studies from a neuroscience perspective and provides clear, incisive analysis.
Justin
"For up-to-date political and advocacy info: www.nami.com or www.nimh.org"
Actually, it's www.nami.org
Drs Blogs:
- My Pdoc's (but I do not want to disclose his address)...but it is very helpful
- Yours
- Dr Shock: www.shockmd.com: Great blog about ECT, Treatment Resistant Depression, Psychiatric studies and every once in a while...choclate. I love his blog. It is stimulating and 'chock' full of information. Pun intended.
Patient blogs:
- www.polarbearblog.blogspot.com: Polar Bear is so open about her feelings and experiences working through Borderline Personality Disorder. Love it.
jcatandthebigbbadwwolf.blogspot.comShe seems to go through unrelenting cycles and episodes of treatment resistant depression like I do. I relate to the difficulty continuing the struggle. She's very honest and open, which has helped me see I'm not the only one. Great blog.
sanitariumletters.blogspotcom (Letters from the Sanitarium)HBW A.K.A. James lives with schizoaffective disorder. He is a very good writer. When he is having difficulties we can literally feel his pain in his writing.
I enjoy your blog as well as this one:
http://drdymphna.wordpress.com/
I have a friend...no, actually, I have a blog, http://ClinicallyClueless.blogspot.com, that I would like to recommend.
It highlights my journey of severe and chronic child abuse from both myself as a patient and my experience working in the mental health field for 20 years. It is graphic, includes fingerpainting as one of my ways of communicating, past journal entries, current journal entries. All of my journal entries were read to my therapist. I also include topical information such as major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, and borderline personality.
I also like
Blooming Lotus ~ Journey to Recovery from Childhood Abuse
Catatonic Kid ~ A Mind Boiling Over
change therapy ~ making lives better, making better lives
Crackers and Juice boxes ~ Tempy
justAna ~ Mental Health blog
Is it too late to add a blog to the list? Just found this one recently, and really like it... a little bit of everything, some stuff aimed at clients, other stuff aimed at professionals.
Everyone Needs Therapy
Oh, nevermind. I see someone already listed it.
My favourite is www.shrinktalk.net because it's funny, has swearing in it, and just makes shrinks sound so human.
I like The Amazing World of Psychiatry a lot, though I have discovered it some time back only. The link is http://theamazingworldofpsychiatry.wordpress.com/
My blog too has a lot of interesting posts especially regarding Schizophrenia and Autism connection. The link is http://the-mouse-trap.blogspot.com
A couple that I didn't see:
http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy
http://scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily/
http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen
Also, I just started blogging myself - so let me offer a shameless plug for:
http://www.intuitmind.com
Cheers,
Jon
The Recovery Online Toolkit at http://www.auseinet.com/toolkit/index.php has lots of very useful, free to access resources. (It's not a blog but it does have a discussion forum).
I'm biased, of course, but check out Postpartum Progress. http://postpartumprogress.typepad.com
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