When Youth Get Mad Through a Critical Course on Mental Health

Abstract

Mad is a political, reclaimed term that is used by people who have experiences of mental distress, disconnection, diagnosis, and treatment. The Mad Movement is an international political entity composed of those who self-identify as Mad as well as those who may identify as patients, clients, survivors, and consumers of the mental health system seeking better care, support, and recognition. Adolescence and emerging adulthood are considered the peak periods for the onset of mental ill-health with 75% of all adult diagnoses starting before the age of 25 years. However, given the historic reliance on 'paternalistic' diagnosis and treatment, it follows that youth/young adults in my classrooms have been diagnosed with depression, anxiety, ADHD, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, and schizophrenia. Nonpsychiatric forms of knowledge about 'mental health' have been disqualified too. Mad Studies is the field of study and scholarship by mad people. It is a reclaiming of a term used to hurt. Mad Studies thus became one of but not the only critical approach to 'mental health' centered in the course. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)