FEATURED ARTICLE
The Impact of Casino Slots on Mood, Psychological State, and Overall Well-Being
Casino slots are one of the most popular forms of gambling worldwide. Their bright lights, engaging sounds, and the thrill of potential wins make them an enticing option for many. However, the effects of playing slots extend beyond mere entertainment. They can significantly influence a person’s mood, psychological state, and overall well-being, both positively and negatively.
The Rise of Digital Detox Retreats in Asia
In today’s hyper-connected world, the need to unplug and reconnect with oneself has never been more pressing. This has led to the rise of digital detox retreats, particularly in Asia, where ancient traditions and modern wellness practices converge to offer a unique escape from the digital grind. What is a Digital Detox Retreat? A digital detox retreat is a getaway designed to…
The Impact of Casino Slots on Mood, Psychological State, and Overall Well-Being
Casino slots are one of the most popular forms of gambling worldwide. Their bright lights, engaging sounds, and the thrill of potential wins make them an enticing option for many. However, the effects of playing slots extend beyond mere entertainment. They can significantly influence a person’s mood, psychological state, and overall well-being, both positively and negatively.…
From ‘user survivor’ to ‘person with psychosocial disability’: Why we are ‘TCI Asia’
Around 25 of ‘us’ came together for a significant meeting in 2013, in Pune, from four Asian countries – Nepal, China, Philippines and India.* We were people without an identity, along with our allies from the cross disability movement and other unidentified ‘supporters’. ‘Mad studies’ had occupied a niche and somewhat obscure domain in India, a country which lives in the postcolonial…
Dehumanization Linked to Poorer Mental and Physical Health
This piece has been written by Micah Ingle and was first published by Mad in America on November 15, 2019, and can be accessed here. A recent study published in the Review of General Psychology surveys existing research on the nature and effect of dehumanization in healthcare contexts. This includes both self-dehumanization, or self-objectification, and other-dehumanization. The…
No, Dr. Friedman: The Solution to Teen Suicide is Not So Simple
Note: This article, authored by Jacob Hess, was first published on Mad in America on January 8, 2020, and can be accessed here. In the largest newspaper in the world this week, one of the largest problems in the world was proposed as having a very simple solution. There are few problems more heartbreaking and excruciating than the growing epidemic of youth (and adults) taking their…
You Swipe Right
There is no woman who looks like you on Bumble. All the women on Bumble have eyelashes, you convince yourself. You can’t see profiles of women because you have opted to see only male profiles, but you know it! You know that every woman has thick, long and dark eyelashes except you. Just like the ones you’ve seen in the cartoons that you grew up watching. You have very carefully…
Climbing Through the Tunnel: My Journey in a Medical Coaching Institute
As coaching becomes a trend in India, thousands of students are getting themselves enrolled in coaching institutes. However, with that, comes a stream of psychosocial problems that have been consistently ignored. These institutes tend to handpick a few ‘intelligent’ students, create a separate group, and hone their brain for the toughest exam scenarios. Majority of students that…
Sitting on the fence, playing to the gallery of psychiatry: Clinical psychology disrupted
Psychology first lost its soul, then its mind, it still has behaviour of a sort. -Woodworth Clinical psychology is a core constituent of the mental health team in India along with psychiatric nursing, psychiatric social work and psychiatry. Synergy among these disciplines is paramount to implement a holistic, bio-psycho-social model of mental health care. However, in…
#WhatWENeed Campaign (2019)
This post was originally published on the #WhatWENeed Campaign official website on October 20, 2019. Transforming Communities for Inclusion of Persons with Psychosocial Disabilities – Asia Pacific (TCI Asia Pacific) is a regional Organization of Persons with Psychosocial Disabilities, with partner members in 21 countries in South Asia, South East Asia and the Pacific. TCI Asia…
Shouldering Scars — by Manjiri Indurkar
This post was originally published on Firstpost as Shouldering Scars: PTSD can Manifest in Mysterious Ways as this Author Found __ The sadness, said Van Gogh on his deathbed to whoever was listening, will last forever.* On both my shoulders I have red boil-like bumps. But they aren’t boils, they aren’t a curable infection. I know a boil when I see one. I have spent a life time…
Children are Experts of Their Own Lives– Let’s Listen!
This essay is the first in a three-part series on approaches and strategies in making schools safer through the varied applications of narrative practices in the school setting. You can read the second essay here and the third essay here. Last week, I pondered this article, as I walked around the annual exhibition of some brilliant works by students of Visual Arts in the school I…
Stoned, Shamed, Depressed by Jyotsna Mohan Bhargava: A Book Review
Never have two words changed a society, especially one like ours that resists change so intensely, as much as ‘social media’. For young people (and many of their parents), their existence begins and ends with social media. From sexting to hacking, the playground has morphed into a battlefield,” writes Jyotsna Mohan Bhargava in her new book of non-fiction titled Stoned, Shamed,…
Moving Global Mental Health “Outside Our Heads”: An interview with Dr. Derek Summerfield
As a part of Mad in America‘s ongoing podcast series on the “Global Mental Health” Movement, Justin Karter of the Mad in America team interviews Dr. Derek Summerfield . The original post can be viewed here on Mad in America. *** This week, MIA Radio presents the fourth in a series of interviews on the topic of the global “mental health” movement.” This series is being developed…
At the worst time of my life, I found the warm embrace of an open book
Ever had moments in the past that, when you revisit today, make your muscles tighten and your heart race? Ones that feel heavy and overpowering even years later? Three years have passed since the time my family first found out that their ‘over-sensitive’ child was, in fact, depressed. I still remember the day the sound of my wailing was so loud that my mother heard it from the other…
Alzheimer’s, Amma and I
One November day, Amma locked the house and went out. There was nothing strange in this as this was something that she did often. An independent woman like she had been, Amma was used to managing home and her professional world for years. However, that November day turned out to be different. She did not come back. We found her after forty-eight hours, a bit lost and disoriented.…
Bringing Human Rights to Mental Health Care
This article was originally published on Mad in America on May 27, 2020, and is written by Ana Florence. MIA’s Ana Florence interviews United Nations Special Rapporteur Dainius Pūras about his own journey as a psychiatrist and the future of rights-based approaches to mental health. Dainius Pūras is a medical doctor and human rights advocate. He is currently serving the final year of…
The Sanity of Insanity: Living with Lunatics in the City
When we were young, in our neighbourhood, in downtown Yangon, we often saw an insane man who walked on Yangon downtown streets. We gave him the nickname “Kyauk Khit Lu Thar/ Stone Age Man” because he was a person who wore only a loincloth around his waist and kept his chest bare. The Stone Age Man liked to carry rocks, heavy stones, gutter covers or heavy items when he moved around.…
INTERNATIONAL GROUP OF MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONALS DEMANDS A NEW LOOK AT PSYCHIATRIC DIAGNOSIS
An international Task Force of the American Psychological Association’s Division 32: Society for Humanistic Psychology has today issued a statement detailing concerns about major psychiatric diagnostic manuals. In an open letter already endorsed by leading international mental health organisations, the Task Force calls for significant changes to our diagnostic systems to combat the…
When you’re very, very tired, you can’t throw your tired away
This essay is written by Urvashi Bahuguna and was originally published on Skin Stories here. ‘Why do I always hear you saying you’re tired?’ asks my mother. Trace the word tired back to its roots and you will discover it once meant to fail. I watch my grandmother’s body fail in her seventies. Her hands shake when she counts notes for household expenses or reaches for a glass of water…
It’s Been a Decade: A Poem on Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)
Note from the author: ECT stands for Electroconvulsive Therapy; a form of medicalized intervention where a person is subjected to external electric stimulation on their adjacent temples/front-back of their brain. The electric waves (70 to 120 volts) pass directly through their brain, typically for 100 milliseconds to 8 seconds. Specifically, in severe cases of psychiatric illnesses,…
