#psychiatrysky
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mindmender.bsky.social
#therapistsky #therapistsconnect #blueskytherapists #psychiatry #psychiatrysky #Mindfulness #TherapistLife #BurnoutResearch
July 20, 2025 at 5:02 PM
mindmender.bsky.social
#psychiatry #psychiatrysky
July 15, 2025 at 1:11 AM
sandyernestallen.bsky.social
I do increasingly think all #mentalhealth and #trans health professionals are somehow oblivious to your own susceptibility to abusive dynamics ...
Read: Your own biases.
Do you not receive, like, some #DARVO 101?
Hire me:
#psychiatrysky #therapysky #medsky #socialworkers #psychologysky #MSWsky
Consulting for media organizations and mental health professionals — Sandy Ernest Allen
www.sandyernestallen.com
July 2, 2025 at 11:52 AM
sandyernestallen.bsky.social
In our #madchat episode on #sixfeetunder, we touched on #ECT #electroshock, a topic I went long on for @thebeliever.net last fall (finally; also in my first book):
www.thebeliever.net/a-brilliant-...

#psychiatry #mentalhealth #mentalilness #bipolar #psychmeds #psychiatrysky #psychsky #therapysky
The only vaguely accurate portrayals of ECT itself tend to be of its use on willing and compliant patients. On Homeland, for example, the bipolar-­diagnosed CIA operative protagonist (Claire Danes) undergoes ECT voluntarily. She seems to do so, however, in order to forget her affair with the terrorist she’s fallen for, images of their moments together flooding her mind as she succumbs to the anesthesia prior to convulsing. On Six Feet Under, one of the show’s widowed matriarch’s new partners, George, depicted brilliantly by James Cromwell, is revealed to have had a trauma history and, triggered, falls into a psychotic episode. He then elects to undergo ECT treatments, which are shown to be challenging but ultimately helpful to him. It’s the sort of nuance often lost in any conversation about shock. One of the psychiatric survivor activists I’ve come to know once expressed appreciation of that Six Feet Under story line about George—its being pro-ECT notwithstanding—because of how it endowed these topics with complexity. Viewers see George as a boy as he witnesses his alcoholic mother’s suicide, which now triggers a present-day episode. But it is largely socially unacceptable to portray shock patients as aggrieved about what’s happened to them, however damaged they have been by it. One exception being the 2005 biblical­-monster flick Constantine, in which Keanu Reeves plays the titular chain-smoking demon slayer and shock survivor with a no-fucks-given attitude. In a flashback, an overhead shot depicts Constantine receiving ECT as a teenager. “My parents were normal; they did what most parents would do,” Constantine says in a voice-over. “They made it worse.”
June 30, 2025 at 1:50 PM
sandyernestallen.bsky.social
Anyway, listen to Mad Chat!

*Still* available ... on YouTube ...

(and only there ... for now) ...

#mentalhealth #depression #mentalhealthcare #psychiatry #trauma #addiction #alcoholism #therapy #therapists #socialworkers #psychiatrysky #mswsky #therapysky

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnxd...
Mad Chat Episode 1: BoJack Horseman (w/Hannah Giorgis)
YouTube video by Mad Chat
www.youtube.com
June 30, 2025 at 12:36 PM
sandyernestallen.bsky.social
My latest comprehensive synthesis of these issues re: #mentalhealth care and truth itself is my piece for the Believer on ECT / electroshock, which I'm often re-sharing:
www.thebeliever.net/a-brilliant-...

#psychiatry #psychiatrysky #disabilitysky #medsky #neurosky #psychsky #madsky #therapistsky
I feel it’s important to dwell for a moment on the science, its imperfect record notwithstanding, because there have been efforts to know what can be known about ECT. One British academic psychologist who’s focused on this, Dr. John Read, has performed reviews of recent scientific literature on ECT, meaning he’s evaluated the meta-analyses and determined what the record has shown. Having spoken with him and read his work and that of others engaged in similar efforts, I can tell you, in brief, that what we know about electroshock is overwhelmingly grim. It therefore becomes hard to write a piece about ECT that doesn’t seem to question what some readers will doubtless feel has been a useful medical intervention for themselves or a loved one. Available evidence supports the opinion, however, that these treatments essentially cause brain trauma, however severe. The impact of electricity to the frontal lobes is hard to predict, in part because patients receive different amounts of electricity and in different sequences. Therefore, ECT is a bit of a game of roulette: Some patients do feel ECT has helped them or even saved their life or that of someone they love. (For the record, I believe such people, too.) Some patients do not experience adverse effects. Others are moderately to severely harmed. People do die subsequent to ECT, though at what rate it is impossible, at present, to accurately know. Again, one cannot know exactly how common the use of ECT even is, though it appears to have become more popular for American hospitals to invest in ECT clinics in recent years. The medical explanation for why patients tend to be prescribed multiple rounds of ECT is because the apparent beneficial effect of the treatment has always been observed to be temporary. Meaning, for the severely depressed patient, for example, who feels a lift after a round of ECT, that effect tends to fade. To shock’s opponents, this is easily explained by the fact that a frequent temporary side effe…
June 23, 2025 at 12:19 PM
rothaiocht.bsky.social
As a patient, it was also fascinating to hear psychiatrists grapple with the failures of their professional model, where they’ve allowed themselves to become reimbursed prescribers, not physician-healers.

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/p...

#psychiatrysky
The Future of Psychiatry: Spravato, Vagus Nerve Stimulation, Trigeminal Nerve Stimulation, PRISM Neurofeedback, TMS and much more with Dr. Owen Muir | Episode 16
Podcast Episode · Psychofarm Podcast · 02/18/2025 · 1h 1m
podcasts.apple.com
February 28, 2025 at 10:42 AM
rothaiocht.bsky.social
These two Owen Muir talks on psychiatry innovations blew me away. People could get remission, not just some reduction in suffering?

He’s interviewed by skeptical practicing psychiatrists, so their questions go beyond Huberman-style influencer hype. #psychiatrysky

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast
TMS and The Future of Psychiatry, Part 1 with Dr. Owen Muir
Podcast Episode · Psychofarm Podcast · 02/04/2025 · 56m
podcasts.apple.com
February 28, 2025 at 10:42 AM