The best
Popular Psychology Psychopharmacology books:
Reddit reviews
From 3.5 billion Reddit comments
The best of Popular Psychology Psychopharmacology books by number of unique Reddit comments:
Top Reddit reviews mentioning Popular Psychology Psychopharmacology books:
Check out the book The Globalisation Of Addiction. It makes a strong case that addiction is a result of social disillusionment, which is in turn a result of market forces shaping our society. A very good read.
https://www.amazon.com/Globalization-Addiction-Study-Poverty-Spirit/dp/0199588716
In another life I studied Computer Science and Economics, aka learning about how systems work. I am now studying to become a Psychiatrist after some years in the "real world."
I recommend buying and reading this book.
Which is over 600 pages of learning how a dozens disorders have multiple systems that affect how the disorders work, how to treat the disorders, but also the side effects for treating the disorders in a specific way using that neurochemical target. This is an advanced text. Very complicated, but it is so good.
And while I recommend that book I recommend you do not start there but instead buy one of the 10 books the same author has in a different series.
Instead you should firsts read one of the Dr. Stephen Stahl Illustrated series such as reading one of their books on ADHD, Depression, Bipolar (2 books one for Antipsychotics one for Mood Stabilizers), Sleep and Wake Disorders etc. 9 different book topics that you can buy directly from this website or from Amazon, Google Play, etc
https://stahlonline.cambridge.org/stahl_illustrated.jsf?name=AntiDepressants&srcPage=SI
The difference between reading the Essential Psychopharmacology Series and the Illustrated Series is like the difference of reading The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien or reading The Silmarillion. Start with The Hobbit, then read LOTR, and only after you know enough of this world (you know the basics) do you tackle the advanced texts.
I would recommend psychologist of addiction Bruce K. Alexander's <em>The Globalisation of Addiction: A Study in Poverty of the Spirit</em>, where he debunks the disease model of addiction and develops his "Dislocation Theory" in its place, which holds that addiction is an adaptive coping mechanism for social dislocation and the lack of healthy psychosocial integration.
For an article summarizing this book's key points, check out Alexander's "The Rise and Fall of the Official View of Addiction."
> you could potentially say the same thing about cigarettes or alcohol
Are you also against responsible, recreational drug use?
Is there any pleasurable activity you don't oppose, or are you just some kind of dull ascetic?
> it's also easy to get addicted and do harm to your body with them.
Psychology major here. First, there is a difference between chemical dependency and addiction, the latter of which is thoroughly psychological. By no means does the mere ingesting of drugs guarantee either. Instead, whether people become addicted to particular drugs (e.g., alcohol, cocaine, methamphetamine) or pursuits (e.g., gambling, eating, rage) is case-dependent and, as psychologist of addiction Bruce K. Alexander demonstrates in <em>The Globalization of Addiction: A Study in Poverty of the Spirit</em>, largely determined by one's level of psychosocial integration. In other words, rather than being a mechanistic response to drug ingestion or participation in certain pursuits, addiction is a conscious, adaptive coping mechanism for social dislocation/alienation, meaning that people are neither equally at risk for addiction in general nor for particular drugs or pursuits. It is not nearly as "easy" as you figure.
Second, what "bodily harm" are you referring to with respect to masturbation?
It would be highly topical though!
The experiences documented in The Spirit Molecule involve aliens a lot of the time
https://www.amazon.co.uk/DMT-Molecule-Revolutionary-Near-Death-Experiences/dp/0892819278
No. No more drugs. If you want to read a good book on psychotropic medications read anatomy of an epidemic. I was blown away to see that these drugs do absolutely nothing but harm people. We've all bought into this idea that somehow there's better living through pharmaceuticals. Nope.
Doctors love antidepressants.
They love the money they make from prescribing them.
If you want to read an amazing book on the failure of these medications to produce results then check out Anatomy of an Epidemic.
This book also includes a section on benzodiazepines.
I have not read the Tibetan or Egyptian books of the Dead.
But I will recommend Rick Strassman's "DMT: The Spirit Molecule". It's more scientific than spiritual but has a good bit of both.
https://www.amazon.com/DMT-Molecule-Revolutionary-Near-Death-Experiences/dp/0892819278
I've also often seen recommended in this sub "Alien Information Theory: Psychedelic Drug Technologies and the Cosmic Game" by Andrew R Gallimore, which i've been meaning to check out myself.
https://www.amazon.com/Alien-Information-Theory-Psychedelic-Technologies/dp/1527234762
If you haven't yet, I would highly recommend this book by Rick Strassmann. He conducted some of the only clinical trials on the drug and his way of writing makes it very easy to understand and is actually quite fascinating.
http://www.amazon.com/DMT-Molecule-Revolutionary-Near-Death-Experiences/dp/0892819278
Antidepressants, when taken long-term, can increase a person's risk of significant side effects. Please see this excellent book.
If the antidepressant is helping you, feel free to keep taking it. If it's not helping, please strongly consider discontinuing it. You might want to first ask a doctor or pharmacist whether cold-turkey is fine or whether a gradual taper is better.
If we think of any other suggestions, do you want to hear them?
(I'm a psychology student, not a doctor or pharmacist.)
Why was this downvoted, it's on -1 as I write this.
Anyway, thats very interesting op. I'd say your more likely to get back to that 'place' with DMT rather than mushrooms. You probably need a lot of mushrooms to do so. Like at least 4 or 5g and up.
There's a book about this exact thing actually. Happy travels my friend, hope you get the answers your looking for.
> Wasn't it just recently found that antidepressant don't do what it was thought that they did?
The media widely reported on this finding recently, but we've known about it for a while. For instance, the Harvard psychologist Irving Kirsch wrote The Emperor's New Drug: Exploding the Antidepressant Myth in 2009, after publishing a scholarly article a few years prior that antidepressants only work due to the complex placebo response. He pointed out that antidepressants "worked" in about a third of patients who took them, regardless of whether those drugs increased, decreased, or did not affect serotonin, and that switching a nonresponding patient from one drug to another showed that same one-third "improvement."
The book is a great, morbidly fascinating read, and the whole antidepressant thing is a farce that has gone on for decades. Our medical establishments are virtually entirely corrupt, and we have every right not to trust what they want us to throw into our bodies.
"The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants: Ethnopharmacology and Its Applications: Rätsch, Christian, Hofmann, Albert: 9780892819782: Books - Amazon.ca" https://www.amazon.ca/Encyclopedia-Psychoactive-Plants-Ethnopharmacology-Applications/dp/0892819782
It's worth every penny absolutely love this book
I don’t have a link to a free version, just the book:
https://www.amazon.com/DMT-Molecule-Revolutionary-Near-Death-Experiences/dp/0892819278
Definitely a must read if one also cares about the science or psychedelics, not just the experience.
It also brings a clinical feel to the whole thing rather than a rebellious coolness to taking drugs. Some of the draw to taking these drugs is the culture and comradery involved. [I read this in the book by Bruce Alexander called The Globalization of Addiction]
I read it in a book called The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants.
Bipolar type 2 is a bullshit diagnosis. Anybody diagnosed as bipolar type 2 is misdiagnosed.You’re not bipolar. You’re depressed. That’s all. Read Anatomy of an Epidemic
Exactly! Thank you.
Thanks for the recommendation. Here's a really useful, academic level one: The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants: Ethnopharmacology and Its Applications https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0892819782
And if you look up the paper "Getting High witch the Most High" online, you will find a really good study on where they appear in the Bible.
here, friend. you're like me not that long ago.
These are bizarre books that I read long ago, that started me on this path. Legitimate scientists working with these chemicals before the government made them illegal.
It would be senseless for me to try to describe it. You're rational, you're going to need to read it yourself I think.
If you’re interested in shamanic plants there’s a brilliant book that you can use as a leap board to gain quite advanced knowledge pretty quick
The PDF is 2 minutes away on google, I had the PDF and just had to buy the book. It’s an 11 out of 10 for me
Most of the plants I wouldn’t touch, like datura. You don’t do datura datura does you. It’s for the most advanced shamans like many. Some of the plants are dangerous like transdermal absorption dangerous, just handling them can fuck you up. I have the utmost respect for plants, the true overlords IMo
There are many plants with active compounds mate
Carvacrol for example
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carvacrol
It’s in oregano oil in high concentrations, is an anti inflammatory that stops pneumonia taking over hint it’s useful to have in your cupboard
There are many papers which document the effects of countless compounds, MGO is another very interesting one
There’s books that are literally life changing the PDF of this is out there easy to find
Read Anatomy of an Epidemic and find a new shrink.
Seriously. That’s a must read if they’re trying to suck you into being a lifelong mental patient.
Anti-Psychiatry is becoming more and more popular on Reddit and it's very concerning to me. Anti-Psychiatry is almost entirely misinformation and prevents people from getting access to literally life-changing drugs.
/r/Psychiatry is mostly unmodded and has been taken over by the anti-psychiatry circlejerk.
The evidence-based consensus is that SSRIs are effective and very safe. The anti-SSRI stance is quackery.
That study is a fringe study with a conclusion against the evidence-based consensus. It was funded by an organization led by a guy who wrote this book
>DEADLY PSYCHIATRY AND ORGANISED DENIAL explains in evidence-based detail why the way we currently use psychiatric drugs does far more harm than good. Professor, Doctor of Medical Science, Peter C. Gøtzsche documents that psychiatric drugs kill more than half a million people every year among those aged 65 and above in the United States and Europe.
Which is just conspiracy theory garbage
You have been engaging in pushing disinformation recently under the guise of "just asking questions" so please stop.
You keep using these virtue signals about working people or socialist countries. This doesn't serve the purpose you want and frankly comparing them to some of the most wealthy forces of corporate colonialism is dubious and requires more than just virtue signaling. Furthermore, it ignores how western corporations intentionally dismantle other cultural alternatives in order to create new markets for their drugs, using the USs own failed mental health system as a model. It also fails to account for the doctors, anthropologists etc. who sell themselves out to corporations and help them achieve their goals.
This doesnt disqualify anything but the overzealous, dogmatic defense of overusing pharmaceuticals for mental health purposes and the denial that it doesnt help on population level studies and may have unforseen consequences. SSRI pharmaceuticals are not the totality of psycharitry or medicine, whats absurd is suggesting it is in order to save face for quackery.
Im NOT saying this to demand that people stop taking drugs that they believe are helping them. What im saying is that we dont know WHY it helps when it does and that predictably it is not helpful. This is why people have to try several drugs before thry find one that "works for them."
Idk how to upload a pdf from my phone because im a boomer so here are 2 books with bookstore links that ive read on the subject while in a class on global perspectives on mental health.
https://www.amazon.com/Anatomy-Epidemic-Bullets-Psychiatric-Astonishing-ebook/dp/B0036S4EGE
https://www.amazon.com/Crazy-Like-Us-Globalization-American/dp/1416587098
Also yes doctors in the US and corporate researchers are not the laboring wretched masses of the world, their social realtion to productivity is a reliance on the stolen spoils from imperialized nations. Stop white washing the proletariat.
This book will help you explore different alternatives to cannabis. I love this book.
Tom Schroder's Acid Test might be a good choice. It's a "lighter"/ written for a more mainstream audience book, that looks at psychedelics as clinical medicines for therapeutic healing, told through case-study biographies of a few individuals.
It includes some basic info and history, the "past fifty years of scientific, political, and legal controversy these substances have ignited," as well as current research on psychedelics from a clinical angle and the associated institutions working on studies. (like MAPS etc)
It's toned down enough, credible enough- while still being informal in its scientific jargon, IMO, to be given to more conservative parents who are open to learning more.
You're wise to taper, but you're tapering too fast.
> Is there a better way to taper?
Yes. Please see the comment by /u/One_Pianist_4114.
> I also have medical marijuana for anxiety and panic attacks and I worry that by using both I might be doing something wrong
If you take both cannabis and mental-health drugs, it's ideal to have one single doctor who prescribes both. If you don't have this, at least try to tell each doctor what the other doctor has been prescribing, and at what dose.
I don't think that SSRI drugs (e.g. fluoxetine) or benzodiazepine drugs (e.g. Valium, Xanax, clonazepam) are generally wise treatment choices for anxiety or panic attacks. See, for example, <u>Anatomy of an Epidemic</u> by Robert Whitaker.
A.) Have you tried CBT or any other psychotherapy?
B.) Do you exercise? If so, how often?
C.) If we think of any other suggestions, do you want them?
I believe one point is of great importance here:
The second study you are refering to was funded by the nordic cochrane centre. They were excluded by the international cochrane collaboration due to ”differences” with the head of the nordic centre Peter Goetzche.
Peter is the author of this book
https://www.amazon.com/Deadly-Psychiatry-Organised-Denial-Gotzsche-ebook/dp/B014SO7GHS, among others.
Anectdotal incoming: i’ve seen this man in a debate (ssri vs not ssri), aaaaaaaand he’s nuts. Conpletely. Severe narcisstic personality disorder. He claimed that ssri was so addictive that it has become ”a huge problem” at our nations capitols where kids are out on the streets trying to score ssri’s on the black market (SIC!). The fact that there were 50 or so senior consultans in addiction psychiatry present, all claiming that they’ve collectively never seen one single case of this, didnt perturb him the slightest. He just went rambling on with personal anectdotal evidence, including his daughters struggles with anxiety (bless her hart) were SSRI didnt improve her condition, but therapy did. Ergo all SSRI = bad.
The man is nuts. Dont trust anything coming out of the nordic cochrane center. Nothing.