Becky Brasfield has emerged as a formidable advocate for change in the complex landscape of mental health care. A certified recovery support specialist and policy researcher at the Human Services Research Institute, Ms. Brasfield has dedicated her career to elevating the voices of service users and dismantling systemic inequities. Her lived experience with psychosis, combined with her leadership in peer support, has made her a powerful critic of traditional psychiatric models that often marginalize those they aim to help. Her resume includes service as president of the NAMI Illinois Alliance of Peer Professionals, the state’s first peer professional association, and recognition as one of Crain’s Notable Black Leaders and Executives. She has been a fellow with both the IL Care and HSRI Behavioral Health Policy programs and was appointed Commissioner of the Southeast Expanded Mental Health Services Program. But Ms. Brasfield’s work is as personal and political as it is professional. In this interview, she speaks with Mad in America’s Ayurdhi Dhar about her path to recovery, the harmful impacts of medical gaslighting, and why the future of mental health justice depends on centering the expertise of those with lived experience. *** Thank you for being with us to listen to the podcast and read our articles this year. MIA is funded entirely by reader donations. If you value MIA, please help us continue to survive and grow. https://www.madinamerica.com/donate/ To find the Mad in America podcast on your preferred podcast player, click here: https://pod.link/1212789850 © Mad in America 2025. Produced by James Moore https://www.jmaudio.org

Susan Grundy is an author who writes about the weight of emotional distress and an easier way of being. Her book, Mad Sisters, is a highly personal account of her caregiving journey for an older sister diagnosed with schizophrenia at the age of 13. When not at her writing desk, Susan can be found walking in nature towards a café. She divides her time between Montreal and London. *** Thank you for being with us to listen to the podcast and read our articles this year. MIA is funded entirely by reader donations. If you value MIA, please help us continue to survive and grow. https://www.madinamerica.com/donate/ To find the Mad in America podcast on your preferred podcast player, click here: https://pod.link/1212789850  

Ellen Vora is a board-certified psychiatrist, acupuncturist, and yoga teacher. She's the author of The Anatomy of Anxiety and takes a functional medicine approach to mental health. She considers the whole person and addresses imbalance at the root. Dr. Vora received her BA from Yale University and her MD from Columbia University. *** Thank you for being with us to listen to the podcast and read our articles this year. MIA is funded entirely by reader donations. If you value MIA, please help us continue to survive and grow by becoming a subscriber. https://www.madinamerica.com/donate/ To find the Mad in America podcast on your preferred podcast player, click here: https://pod.link/1212789850 © Mad in America 2024. Produced by James Moore https://www.jmaudio.org

Rose Cartwright is a screenwriter and the author of Pure, a hugely successful memoir which was then turned into a series for Channel Four. She is also a writer and producer on Netflix’s 3 Body Problem. Pure portrayed Rose’s autobiographical account of finding that she had OCD, a “mental illness”, and the breakthrough that this medical framework provided her. This was short-lived. In her new book The Maps We Carry, she writes about the dawning realization that the “illness” story she had believed in and publicly advocated for, was wretchedly incomplete and often dangerous. In this interview, Cartwright charts  her journey of painful and lonely disillusionment with the “mental illness” framework. She talks about understanding the place of her own childhood trauma and also the limitations of simplistic trauma narratives. She speaks about the place of psychedelics and meditation in helping her uncover her disconnection, eventually to realize the importance of trusting relationships and communities. In this brutally honest book and interview, Cartwright reflects on the importance of holding all our understandings around mental health and suffering, lightly. *** Thank you for being with us to listen to the podcast and read our articles this year. MIA is funded entirely by reader donations. If you value MIA, please help us continue to survive and grow. https://www.madinamerica.com/donate/ To find the Mad in America podcast on your preferred podcast player, click here: https://pod.link/1212789850 © Mad in America 2024. Produced by James Moore https://www.jmaudio.org

Dr. Paul Andrews is an Associate Professor of Evolutionary Psychology in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour at McMaster University. His research focuses on understanding the evolution of depression, which he argues may be an evolved emotional response for understanding and solving complex problems. Dr. Andrews is also concerned with the evolution of the serotonin system and the effects of antidepressants on mental and physical health. His research has shown an increased risk of cardiovascular events, as well as death among those who use antidepressants. *** Thank you for being with us to listen to the podcast and read our articles this year. MIA is funded entirely by reader donations. If you value MIA, please help us continue to survive and grow. https://www.madinamerica.com/donate/ To find the Mad in America podcast on your preferred podcast player, click here: https://pod.link/1212789850 © Mad in America 2024. Produced by James Moore https://www.jmaudio.org

In this interview, Brooke Siem, who is the author of a memoir on antidepressant withdrawal, May Cause Side Effects, interviews her mother, Dee Barbash, to discuss the circumstances that led to Brooke being prescribed a cocktail of antidepressants at the age of 15. Today, her mother is a therapist who helps her clients taper from psychiatric medications – a profession that she took up after she came to understand the harms that Brooke suffered from having been prescribed these drugs for 15 years. *** Thank you for being with us to listen to the podcast and read our articles this year. MIA is funded entirely by reader donations. If you value MIA, please help us continue to survive and grow. To find the Mad in America podcast on your preferred podcast player, click here © Mad in America 2024. Produced by James Moore

Daniel José Gaztambide is an assistant professor of psychology at Queens College and the director of the Frantz Fanon Lab for Decolonial Psychology. His research and clinical work focus on Puerto Rican and Latinx populations, ethnic minority identity, psychotherapy, and the social determinants of health. Daniel is the author of A People’s History of Psychoanalysis: From Freud to Liberation Psychology and the newly published Decolonizing Psychoanalytic Technique: Putting Freud on Fanon’s Couch. He earned his doctorate from Rutgers University, where he specialized in multicultural psychology, anxiety, and trauma. Beyond his clinical practice, Daniel is deeply committed to addressing racial injustice through his writing and activism. He has served as a liaison to the American Psychological Association (APA) on racial and ethnic minority issues and contributed to the APA’s 2020-2021 Taskforce on Strategies for the Elimination of Racism, Discrimination, and Hate. In our conversation, Daniel highlights the importance of cultural humility and understanding the impact of marginalization across race, class, gender, and ability on psychotherapy. His latest book provides a blend of clinical techniques and political strategies to address these complex issues through a decolonial psychoanalytic lens. *** Thank you for being with us to listen to the podcast and read our articles this year. MIA is funded entirely by reader donations. If you value MIA, please help us continue to survive and grow. To find the Mad in America podcast on your preferred podcast player, click here © Mad in America 2024. Produced by James Moore ***

Our guest today is Banning Lyon, author of The Chair and The Valley: A Memoir of Trauma, Healing, and The Outdoors. An account of the abuse he suffered after being hospitalized in a psychiatric facility at age 15 and the long journey toward joy and awe that followed, his memoir was published this spring by Penguin Random House. He first wrote about his experiences in 1993 for The New York Times and, more recently, for the Washington Post.  Based in California’s bay area, Lyon is an outdoor educator and backpacking guide whose engagement with nature was a key force in his recovery. His website is banninglyon.com.  *** Thank you for being with us to listen to the podcast and read our articles this year. MIA is funded entirely by reader donations. If you value MIA, please help us continue to survive and grow. To find the Mad in America podcast on your preferred podcast player, click here © Mad in America 2024. Produced by James Moore

Jazmine Russell is the co-founder of the Institute for the Development of Human Arts (IDHA), a transformative mental health training institute, and the host of the Depth Work Podcast. As a writer, educator, and scholar, Jazmine works at the intersection of mad studies, critical psychology, and neuroscience. Her work is deeply informed by her lived experiences surviving complex trauma, psychosis, and an autoimmune disease. Jazmine's focus extends to the intersection of mental health and chronic illness, particularly exploring the overlap of psychosis, trauma, and autoimmunity. This has led her to bridge critical neuroscience communities with the mad movement. In addition to her scholarly pursuits, Jazmine continues to see clients as a trauma-informed holotropic breathwork practitioner. She is also a co-editor of the forthcoming Mad Studies Reader: Interdisciplinary Innovations in Mental Health (Routledge, 2024). Today, we will delve into her background, her journey to co-founding IDHA, her current work and podcast, and the insights she offers in the upcoming Mad Studies Reader. *** Thank you for being with us to listen to the podcast and read our articles this year. MIA is funded entirely by reader donations. If you value MIA, please help us continue to survive and grow. To find the Mad in America podcast on your preferred podcast player, click here © Mad in America 2024. Produced by James Moore

In this interview for MIA Radio, Brooke Siem speaks with David Taylor and Mark Horowitz about their publication of the Maudsley Deprescribing Guidelines, which is of particular note since the Maudsley Prescribing Guidelines is a leading text in medicine worldwide. David Taylor is the Director of Pharmacy and Pathology at Maudsley Hospital and a Professor of Psychopharmacology at King's College in London. He is also the editor-in-chief of the journal Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology. Beyond academia, he contributes significantly to public health policy as a member of the United Kingdom's Department of Transport expert panel that introduced drug-driving regulations. He is also a current member of the UK government's Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs and is the only pharmacist to have been made an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. David is the lead author of the Maudsley Prescribing Guidelines, a role he has held since their inception in 1993. The Maudsley Prescribing Guidelines have achieved significant success, with over 300,000 copies sold across 14 editions and translations into 12 languages. David has also authored 450 clinical papers published in prominent journals such as The Lancet, BMJ, British Journal of Psychiatry, and Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. His work has been cited over 25,000 times. Mark Horowitz is a clinical research fellow in psychiatry at the National Health Service (NHS) in London. He is a Visiting Lecturer in Psychopharmacology at King's College London and an Honorary Clinical Research Fellow at University College London, in addition to being a trainee psychiatrist. Mark holds a PhD from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience at King's College London, specializing in the neurobiology of depression and antidepressant action. He is the lead author of the Maudsley Deprescribing Guidelines and an associate editor of Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology. Mark co-authored the recent Royal College of Psychiatry's guidance on stopping antidepressants, and his work has informed the recent NICE guidelines on the safe tapering of psychiatric medications, including antidepressants, benzodiazepines, and z-drugs. He has collaborated with the NHS to develop national guidance for safe deprescribing for clinicians and has been commissioned by Health Education England to prepare a teaching module on how to safely stop antidepressants. Mark has published several papers on safe approaches to tapering psychiatric medications, with contributions in The Lancet Psychiatry, JAMA Psychiatry, and Schizophrenia Bulletin. His interest lies in rational psychopharmacology and the deprescribing of psychiatric medications, which is deeply informed by his personal experiences of the challenges associated with coming off psychiatric medications. *** Thank you for being with us to listen to the podcast and read our articles this year. MIA is funded entirely by reader donations. If you value MIA, please help us continue to survive and grow. https://www.madinamerica.com/donate/ To find the Mad in America podcast on your preferred podcast player, click here: https://pod.link/1212789850 © Mad in America 2024. Produced by James Moore https://www.jmaudio.org