Nick Taber
@nicktaber.bsky.social
Thinking about authoritarianism in the school system, mental health industry, & families. Self-awareness & human potential. #TroubledTeenIndustry survivor.
https://imaginal-cell.org/about
https://imaginal-cell.org/about
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Nick Taber
@nicktaber.bsky.social
· Nov 19
Nick Taber
I offer personal development resources with an anti-authoritarian lens. On my channel, you can expect to find regular videos discussing:
- how to heal from the impact of authoritarian families, schoo...
youtube.com
My YouTube channel where I discuss:
- healing from authoritarian mental health institutions, families, and schools
- recovering your potential from the negative effects of conventional schooling
- the nature of rebellion in young people
youtube.com/@nicktaber29...
- healing from authoritarian mental health institutions, families, and schools
- recovering your potential from the negative effects of conventional schooling
- the nature of rebellion in young people
youtube.com/@nicktaber29...
I think people really underestimate how easily and frequently the mental health field gets weaponized. For example a really common, if not standard practice in residential youth mental health treatment is basically using peer bullying to break down kids/teens.
November 25, 2025 at 10:22 PM
I think people really underestimate how easily and frequently the mental health field gets weaponized. For example a really common, if not standard practice in residential youth mental health treatment is basically using peer bullying to break down kids/teens.
Perfectly stated
There is no denying that lack of access to resources can absolutely make trauma recovery exponentially harder-- & there's also no denying that the only real security we can count on in recovery comes from developing skills & tools NO ONE can take away from us.
November 25, 2025 at 2:53 AM
Perfectly stated
Diagnosing someone with ADHD isn’t inherently “helping them understand why their lives have been difficult”. I was diagnosed with ADHD and never liked that framework. If I’d bought into it, I wouldn’t have actually sought to heal the psychological/emotional wounds that were the real problem.
I have so much respect for people who are 60+ who seek ADHD assessments after a family history is discovered. These are some of my most gratifying assessments if I ever have the privilege of doing them. Helping people understand why their lives have been difficult beyond personal blame is humbling.
November 25, 2025 at 1:07 AM
Diagnosing someone with ADHD isn’t inherently “helping them understand why their lives have been difficult”. I was diagnosed with ADHD and never liked that framework. If I’d bought into it, I wouldn’t have actually sought to heal the psychological/emotional wounds that were the real problem.
I think intuitively many people sense that the massive phenomenon of kids labeled with ADHD, behavior problems and various disorders is really a story of marginalization, much of the time. They’re being mistreated.
November 23, 2025 at 11:57 PM
I think intuitively many people sense that the massive phenomenon of kids labeled with ADHD, behavior problems and various disorders is really a story of marginalization, much of the time. They’re being mistreated.
One of the cool things about developing self-awareness is you become harder to manipulate through fear, guilt, judgment, tribal identity etc.
November 22, 2025 at 7:30 PM
One of the cool things about developing self-awareness is you become harder to manipulate through fear, guilt, judgment, tribal identity etc.
A lot of what’s happening for many people who enter into the mental health system is they are suffering because they’ve been trapped in environments where their inner guidance got suppressed and broken down.
November 22, 2025 at 4:34 AM
A lot of what’s happening for many people who enter into the mental health system is they are suffering because they’ve been trapped in environments where their inner guidance got suppressed and broken down.
“We are coming to see ourselves as an unfolding and perhaps infinite potentiality…As a species, we are not a fixed point in the universe, but an upward trajectory.”
- Theodore Roszak
- Theodore Roszak
November 21, 2025 at 9:51 PM
“We are coming to see ourselves as an unfolding and perhaps infinite potentiality…As a species, we are not a fixed point in the universe, but an upward trajectory.”
- Theodore Roszak
- Theodore Roszak
One of the problematic things about putting kids/teens in the mental health system is that they likely internalize the coercive elements of that system. They start to think “I have to obey these people on many levels or else I could get locked up.”
November 18, 2025 at 5:50 PM
One of the problematic things about putting kids/teens in the mental health system is that they likely internalize the coercive elements of that system. They start to think “I have to obey these people on many levels or else I could get locked up.”
Learning is something that’s very much tied up with one’s emotional experience. If that dynamic is dysfunctional in a school setting (which it usually is IMO), many kids won’t learn much in that environment.
November 17, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Learning is something that’s very much tied up with one’s emotional experience. If that dynamic is dysfunctional in a school setting (which it usually is IMO), many kids won’t learn much in that environment.
Reposted by Nick Taber
Acknowledging something hurt exactly as much as it did is not a sign of "weakness."
It's a sign that a survivor is serious about reckoning with what actually happened-- & that our abusers' & bullies' attempts to get us to ignore & minimize their harm have failed.
It's a sign that a survivor is serious about reckoning with what actually happened-- & that our abusers' & bullies' attempts to get us to ignore & minimize their harm have failed.
November 15, 2025 at 6:22 PM
Acknowledging something hurt exactly as much as it did is not a sign of "weakness."
It's a sign that a survivor is serious about reckoning with what actually happened-- & that our abusers' & bullies' attempts to get us to ignore & minimize their harm have failed.
It's a sign that a survivor is serious about reckoning with what actually happened-- & that our abusers' & bullies' attempts to get us to ignore & minimize their harm have failed.
The idea that psychotherapy is this incredible advent of modernity really doesn’t hold up. It fails to consider the destructive potential in someone bringing their subjective interpretations (filtered through all their own unfinished business) to your vulnerability.
November 11, 2025 at 2:42 AM
The idea that psychotherapy is this incredible advent of modernity really doesn’t hold up. It fails to consider the destructive potential in someone bringing their subjective interpretations (filtered through all their own unfinished business) to your vulnerability.
The mass pathologizing of children speaks to how shame-based so many adults, family systems, and school cultures are. You’re not gonna be so trigger-happy in telling a child there’s something inherently wrong with them if you don’t believe the same about yourself.
November 10, 2025 at 9:26 PM
The mass pathologizing of children speaks to how shame-based so many adults, family systems, and school cultures are. You’re not gonna be so trigger-happy in telling a child there’s something inherently wrong with them if you don’t believe the same about yourself.
Let’s not forget though that a lot of “anti-psychiatry” is just people asserting their boundaries…against mental health professionals who stigmatize them, marginalize them, financially exploit them and their families, collude against them, put their fragile egos before their patients/victims, etc.
November 7, 2025 at 11:05 PM
Let’s not forget though that a lot of “anti-psychiatry” is just people asserting their boundaries…against mental health professionals who stigmatize them, marginalize them, financially exploit them and their families, collude against them, put their fragile egos before their patients/victims, etc.
Therapy and psychiatry suffer from many of the same problems.
1. They tend to individualize problems, essentially victim blaming (though often in different ways). This brainwashes people in ways that can be extremely destructive.
1. They tend to individualize problems, essentially victim blaming (though often in different ways). This brainwashes people in ways that can be extremely destructive.
It’s a mistake to assume that therapy is the answer to the problems in psychiatry. In both cases, they have a tendency to make the problem about individual pathology. In psychiatry, it’s about your biology, in therapy it’s about your psychology.
November 7, 2025 at 8:48 PM
Therapy and psychiatry suffer from many of the same problems.
1. They tend to individualize problems, essentially victim blaming (though often in different ways). This brainwashes people in ways that can be extremely destructive.
1. They tend to individualize problems, essentially victim blaming (though often in different ways). This brainwashes people in ways that can be extremely destructive.
I wonder why you hear less from the people harmed by therapy than those harmed by psychiatry?
My tentative hypothesis: Those harmed by therapy are more brainwashed and damaged by what happened to them.
My tentative hypothesis: Those harmed by therapy are more brainwashed and damaged by what happened to them.
November 7, 2025 at 8:30 PM
I wonder why you hear less from the people harmed by therapy than those harmed by psychiatry?
My tentative hypothesis: Those harmed by therapy are more brainwashed and damaged by what happened to them.
My tentative hypothesis: Those harmed by therapy are more brainwashed and damaged by what happened to them.
I think we need to move toward a synthesis that captures more of the full truth. The mental health field causes tons of harm and has severe, foundational limitations that haven’t been genuinely addressed. There really are many people who feel helped by psychiatric diagnosis, medication, therapy etc.
November 7, 2025 at 8:26 PM
I think we need to move toward a synthesis that captures more of the full truth. The mental health field causes tons of harm and has severe, foundational limitations that haven’t been genuinely addressed. There really are many people who feel helped by psychiatric diagnosis, medication, therapy etc.
This is so key.
CPTSD is going to try to convince you that your involuntary thoughts, feelings, & reactions "define" you-- but they don't. They are evidence of your conditioning-- no more, no less.
We are defined by our thoughtful, values-congruent choices, not our unchosen reflexes.
We are defined by our thoughtful, values-congruent choices, not our unchosen reflexes.
November 7, 2025 at 7:46 PM
This is so key.
“So these kids are opposing real things that the environment wants to reinforce. And so it speaks to a more fundamental disagreement between the kids and the adults.”
youtu.be/hO1LQLlCUwU?...
youtu.be/hO1LQLlCUwU?...
What's Behind Oppositional Defiant Disorder?
YouTube video by Nick Taber
youtu.be
November 7, 2025 at 7:44 PM
“So these kids are opposing real things that the environment wants to reinforce. And so it speaks to a more fundamental disagreement between the kids and the adults.”
youtu.be/hO1LQLlCUwU?...
youtu.be/hO1LQLlCUwU?...
It’s a mistake to assume that therapy is the answer to the problems in psychiatry. In both cases, they have a tendency to make the problem about individual pathology. In psychiatry, it’s about your biology, in therapy it’s about your psychology.
November 7, 2025 at 7:24 PM
It’s a mistake to assume that therapy is the answer to the problems in psychiatry. In both cases, they have a tendency to make the problem about individual pathology. In psychiatry, it’s about your biology, in therapy it’s about your psychology.
The Cost of Labeling Children with Mental Health Disorders
youtube.com/shorts/rDufu...
youtube.com/shorts/rDufu...
The Cost of Labeling Children with Behavioral Disorders #mentalhealthawareness #youthempowerment
YouTube video by Nick Taber
youtube.com
November 4, 2025 at 10:25 PM
The Cost of Labeling Children with Mental Health Disorders
youtube.com/shorts/rDufu...
youtube.com/shorts/rDufu...
1/ Hey friends, I’ll be speaking about The Medicalization of Childhood at the upcoming Inner Compass Initiative Conference on December 4th in
West Hartford, CT. I’d love to see you there.
West Hartford, CT. I’d love to see you there.
October 30, 2025 at 2:10 AM
1/ Hey friends, I’ll be speaking about The Medicalization of Childhood at the upcoming Inner Compass Initiative Conference on December 4th in
West Hartford, CT. I’d love to see you there.
West Hartford, CT. I’d love to see you there.
I honestly think a lot of what we call symptoms of things like ADHD in kids is really just resistance to institutional programming.
October 29, 2025 at 10:58 PM
I honestly think a lot of what we call symptoms of things like ADHD in kids is really just resistance to institutional programming.