Tag: mental illness

Four-Decade Study in Denmark Shows Higher Suicide Rates Among Transgender People

A study in Denmark that spanned 40 years and included 6.6 million people found that those who identified as transgender have significantly higher rates of suicide and attempted suicide than others in the population. These results are similar to what research has found here, though the U.S. doesn’t collect the same level of data as Denmark which makes large-scale population studies like this impossible.

The Danish study included 3,759 people who identified as transgender. Among them, there were 92 suicide attempts and 12 suicides between 1980 and 2021. While these numbers seem small, they suggest that the rate of suicide attempts among those who identify as trans is 7.7 times higher than the rate of suicide attempts in the broader Danish population and the rate of suicide deaths is 3.5 times higher.

In addition, the researchers believe these numbers are an undercount because the records they used don’t always capture a person’s gender identity. The authors note that they only had data on gender identity for those who sought gender affirming care at a hospital or applied for a legal change of gender. Such data suggest that 0.6% of Denmark’s population identifies as transgender, but researchers believe the true number is much higher, which would mean the suicide rate would also be much higher.

The study can’t explain why trans people are at higher risk of suicide, but it seems clear that living in a society that is often unaccepting is a contributing factor. Previous research has found that 60% of transgender individuals in Denmark have experienced harassment and bullying and that 30% have experienced violence. Trans people in that country have also said they face discrimination in the healthcare system.

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Psychedelic treatments show promise for OCD while cannabis doesn’t, review finds

A recent review of alternative treatments for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) indicates that psychedelic treatments show promise for the disorder while cannabis does not.

Dr Michael Van Ameringen, a psychiatry professor at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada and lead author of the review published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, said that 40-60 % of OCD patients get either partial or no relief with available treatments, including SSRIs and exposure and response prevention therapy.

While psychedelics and cannabinoids have become part of the conversation surrounding OCD – a disorder characterized by intrusive, obsessive thoughts and/or compulsive behaviors – there is a much larger body of published evidence on the efficacy of these substances for more common conditions, like depression and anxiety.

“We wanted to hone down and really understand, is there evidence for these things that have been talked about to be used as the next step treatments?” Van Ameringen explained.

Given the paucity of existing literature, Van Ameringen said he didn’t know what to expect. To make up for the lack of published information, he included conference presentations and preliminary, unpublished findings in the review paper.

Upon compiling available evidence, Van Ameringen and his team found “stronger signals” for the efficacy of psychedelics, specifically psilocybin (the psychoactive component of “magic mushrooms,”) than for cannabinoids like THC and CBD.

Van Ameringen theorizes that the difference is related to how these substances interact with areas of the brain related to OCD. While cannabinoids activate the brain’s CB1 receptors, which regulate symptoms like compulsions and anxiety, available evidence shows they don’t offer lasting relief from OCD symptoms.

Psilocybin, on the other hand, can reduce connectivity in the brain’s default mode network, which “essentially is involved in self referential thinking and rumination. The default mode network is really activated in OCD”, he says.

A difference in the methodology of cannabis and psilocybin studies might also have contributed to the different results, says Dr Mohamed Sherif, a psychiatrist and computational neuroscientist at Brown University who will lead a future clinical trial on psilocybin for OCD. Psychedelic clinical trials, like the one Sherif is planning, tend to offer patients not only medication but also encouragement to frame their experience as a therapeutic “journey”.

“This was not done in cannabinoids [studies,]” Sherif explained.

Dr Terrence Ching, a clinical psychologist at the Yale School of Medicine, similarly wondered if the way people use cannabis versus psilocybin might explain the different outcomes. While people tend to use cannabis for temporary relief, psilocybin can help facilitate actual changes in the brain and in patients’ perception of their OCD.

“One could use cannabis for the same therapeutic reason, of confronting something deeper about their OCD or their obsessive fears. But conventionally, people tend to use cannabis for an avoidance function,” Ching explained.

Preliminary results from Ching’s clinical trial on a single dose of psilocybin for OCD were included in Van Ameringen’s review paper, and showed that psilocybin was effective for OCD symptoms compared to placebo. Ching is now preparing the results of the trial for publication, and planning a second clinical trial where OCD patients will receive two doses of psilocybin at different times.

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‘Obvious Mental Disability’: FBI Insider Raises Doubts About Man Charged As J6 Pipe-Bomber

An FBI whistleblower has come forward with perspectives that raise concerns that the bureau has charged an innocent person with planting bombs at Democratic and Republican headquarters on Jan 5, 2021, according to Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie. 

“The FBI employee disclosing this information to me doesn’t believe the FBI has arrested a person who is capable or motivated, or even interested enough in affairs outside of his own small world, to execute the J6 pipe bomb plot on his own,” wrote Massie in a Friday afternoon thread on X, noting that this was Massie’s “personal conclusion” about the whistleblower. 

Nearly five years after two pipe bombs were found at RNC and DNC headquarters on Jan 6, 2001, the FBI earlier this month arrested Brian J. Cole Jr. of Woodbridge, Virginia. He was charged with transporting an explosive device across state lines with the intent to either kill, injure, or intimidate, or to unlawfully damage property. He was also charged with attempted malicious destruction by means of explosive materials. The arrest came after mounting doubts that the FBI and other authorities were earnestly investigating the crime. Many theorized that, even worse than slow-rolling the probe, the feds were actively covering something up.  

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Hey, Why Was the DC National Guard Shooter Naked Except for a Pair of Socks?

The first photograph that circulated of Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who shot two National Guard members in Washington on Wednesday, murdering one of them, showed him lying on a gurney, naked except for a pair of socks. Initial reports took due notice of this odd fact, without making any attempt to explain it: the New York Post reported that “the suspect, who was reportedly shot four times, was hauled away nearly naked in an ambulance and acted alone.” 

All right, but why was he “nearly naked”? Did police take off his clothes, perhaps to make sure he didn’t have a bomb? Did they remove his clothes to determine the extent of his injuries from having been shot four times? Both of those explanations are possible, but plenty of people have been searched for bombs, or examined for injuries, without being stripped entirely naked (except for the socks). So it is entirely possible that Rahmanullah Lakanwal was apprehended while nearly naked for another reason: after he fired upon his victims, he took off his clothes.

Now, why would he do that? The answer lies in Lakanwal’s worldview and motive. The Post reported that “police have not revealed a motive for the attack,” but other reports say that Lakanwal screamed “Allahu akbar” as he fired upon the Guard members, and if politically motivated myopia and willful ignorance don’t get in the way, that’s ample indication of his motive. Lakanwal would then have been firing upon the National Guard members because he is an Islamic jihadi and viewed them as the forces of an enemy of Allah and Islam, the United States.

Those who think that Lakanwal could not possibly believe such a thing, because he worked for the CIA in Afghanistan and was therefore obviously a friend of the United States, are displaying a dangerous naivete. For many of those Afghans who aided American forces, it was just a job; others preferred the Americans to the Taliban, yet still hated the Americans. There is no reason why working for the Americans in Afghanistan would definitively rule out the possibility that Rahmanullah Lakanwal was a jihadi.

In fact, his being naked reinforces the likelihood that he was a jihadi. Islamic paradise is a physical place, where the blessed recline in “enclosed gardens and vineyards” (Qur’an 78:32), where there will be “fruit in plenty, neither out of reach nor forbidden, and raised couches” (Qur’an 56:32-4). On those couches, there will be “large-breasted women of equal age” (Qur’an 78:32-3). These are the famous virgins of paradise: “Indeed, we have created them a special creation and made them virgins, lovers, friends” (Qur’an 56:35-7).

These women are, according to Islamic tradition, waiting with tremendous enthusiasm for those who “kill and are killed” (Qur’an 9:111) for Allah, and are rewarded for doing so with an immediate trip to paradise. That is why 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta packed a fancy suit in his luggage (which was flagged, while he himself wasn’t) on that fateful day.

Atta was actually anticipating changing into this suit before he flew the plane he hijacked into one of the World Trade Center towers. He wanted to make this change so that he would turn up in paradise looking his very best for the heavenly virgins. According to a letter that was also in his luggage, Atta was looking forward to “marriage” with the “women of paradise,” whom he would encounter “dressed in their most beautiful clothing.”

In Boulder, Colo. back in March 2021, a Muslim named Ahmad Al Issa (which was how he himself spelled his name, although the establishment media, perhaps to obscure his Islamic identity, has consistently referred to him ever since as “Alissa”) was more direct. He walked fully clothed into a King Soopers supermarket in Boulder and murdered ten people; then he stripped to his shorts, which is all he was wearing when he was arrested.

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‘Slender Man’ stabber Morgan Geyser captured following nationwide manhunt

The nationwide manhunt for Morgan Geyser, the Wisconsin woman convicted in the 2014 “Slender Man” stabbing, has come to an end, authorities announced Sunday night.

The Madison Police Department confirmed Geyser was taken into custody in Illinois at approximately 10:34 p.m., ending the intense search.

Geyser escaped after she cut off her Department of Corrections monitoring bracelet and fled a Madison group home Saturday night, police said.

Madison police announced her escape in a social media post on Sunday.

“Morgan Geyser was last seen in the area of Kroncke Dr. around 8 p.m. with an adult acquaintance. Her whereabouts are unknown as of Sunday morning,” the department wrote.

“The Madison Police Department was notified of her disappearance Sunday morning.”

“A recent image of Geyser, captured on security video from this past month, is attached below. If you see her, please call 911,” police added.

In 2017, Geyser pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree intentional homicide in the violent stabbing of Payton Leutner, but claimed she was not responsible due to her mental illness.

She told investigators she tried to kill Leutner to please the horror character Slender Man and was ultimately found not guilty by reason of mental defect. 

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‘Slender Man’ stabber Morgan Geyser escapes group home, cuts off ankle monitor – 11 years after horrifying attack

One of the “Slender Man stabbers” — who viciously ambushed and hacked a classmate when she was 12 years old in an effort to please a made-up internet boogeyman — has vanished, and cops are hunting her.

Morgan Geyser, 23, cut off her ankle monitor and escaped from the group home where she was living — and she’s on the run, according to cops in Madison, Wisconsin.

“Her whereabouts are unknown as of Sunday morning,” police said.

Geyser, along with her friend Anissa Weier, lured a fellow sixth-grade girl into a Waukesha, Wisconsin, park in 2014 and stabbed her 19 times.

The attack was an effort to impress “Slender Man,” a supernatural character that rose to viral prominence on internet forums and was later the subject of a 2018 horror movie.

Miraculously, the victim survived the horrifying assault, crawling her way to safety until she was found by a passing bicyclist.

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UK woman said she wanted to be tortured and killed on fetish site — her body was found in shallow grave in the US

The boyfriend of a woman who allegedly paid someone to torture and kill her said that she had been suffering from mental illness before the shocking events, according to Florida authorities.

Sonia Exelby was reported missing in October before police were able to trace her to an Airbnb in Reddick and found her remains nearby.

Exelby boarded a flight to Florida and arrived on Oct. 10, according to an investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The FDLE said that Exelby posted on a fetish website that she was willing to pay someone to torture and kill her.

A week after she arrived in Florida, her remains were found in a shallow grave.

Investigators linked her to a man named Dwain Hall, who had used her bank card and tried to use her credit cards.

When they interviewed him, he gave conflicting accounts of how they met.

Police said they gathered evidence pointing to Hall as Exelby’s alleged killer.

Authorities said Hall purchased rope and gun cleaner among other items at a Walmart in Gainesville on Oct. 10. After that purchase, he made a second purchase of a shovel. He then allegedly went to pick up Exelby at the airport, and they both went to an Airbnb that he had rented.

The next day, he charged $1,200 to Exelby’s bank card.

Authorities said he recorded a video of Exelby showing her with cuts and bruises, and asking her to say that she consented to being stabbed.

Exelby sent a message to a friend via the Discord app expressing regret.

“I’m so, so scared. I’m so broken and in so much pain. … I thought he’d do it quick and not give my mind time to stew,” she wrote.

On Oct. 14, Hall allegedly sent a package to a friend that authorities said contained a knife that had traces of Exelby’s blood. It also had a bracelet with DNA from both Exelby and Hall.

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Covering Up the Behavioral Health Links to Mass Murders and Assassinations

When violent bloodshed occurs – a school shooting, an assassination, a sudden act of mass violence— behavioral health usually is behind it.

With so many of the nation’s most disturbing violent cases, too often the essential evidence remains sealed, unavailable for public review, like the diary belonging to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooter, Adam Lanza’s mother, and the reported manifesto of Nashville’s Covenant School shooter, Audrey Hale, (withheld and portions later leaked), plus toxicology reports, DNA and fingerprints and ballistic data necessary as physical evidence to identity the killer and motive.  This is done through meticulous forensic investigation, including how access to the crime scene was gained and whether accomplices were involved; the scientific analysis of toxicology reports, DNA, fingerprints, and ballistic evidence is absolutely essential, providing the objective, irrefutable proof necessary to identify the shooter and uncover the truth behind these senseless, horrific attacks.

Behavioral health “experts” frequently appear linked to suspects, but the exact affiliations and workplace connections rarely are disclosed. The parents of the accused Trump shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, from Butler, PA, are licensed by the state as “experts” in mental health, but whether the family has connections to Governor Shapiro’s agencies throughout the state or research grants with universities remains unknown.

Amber Robinson, for example, the mother of Charlie Kirk’s accused assassin, is employed by Intermountain Behavioral Health in Utah, which received a $750,000 grant under Utah Governor Cox. What other connections does the Robinson family have with the State of Utah and specifically Governor Cox administration?

Moreover, the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) utilizes psychiatric profiles to help solve crimes, but withholds raw data, physical evidence, and sometimes fails to release its own investigative reports, as is the case of the Butler PA attempted assassination of Donald J. Trump in 2023.

The BAU, as the psychiatric industry arm within the FBI, focuses on profiling the psychological mindset and motives behind these high-profile crimes. Yet, despite this focus, the BAU withholds then names of any behavioral health “experts” or their “treatments” that precede the crime and rarely solves these national mass killings.  The data is selectively and strategically dripped out to the public.

The federal law enforcement agency’s repeated failures raise profound questions about possible inside jobs or the possibility of cover-ups, protecting systemic issues in behavioral health and law enforcement.

These systemic flaws within the behavioral health industry and, especially, within law enforcement, allow well-coordinated access to vulnerable children, too often serviced by state mental health vendors that gain trust over many years—a network that may shield threats, inhibit transparency, and prioritize institutional preservation over safety.

The behavioral health system controls vulnerable youth, often medicated under opaque contracts with expensive but irresponsible mental health providers certainly capable of weaponizing developing minds. Montana’s outsourcing of child behavioral health contracts, for example, includes financial ties to China, revealing outside intervention in the nation’s mental health system.

The youth caught up in the mental health system, often are forced into state care and become disposable. Nikolas Cruz, The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter in Parkland FL., had been prescribed cocktails of psychiatric mind-altering drugs most of his young life. Henderson Behavioral Health, a Florida contractor exposed during the sentencing hearing was the behavioral health vendor paid to care for Cruz through the state behavioral health system. Yet the medical files, including mental health files, were sealed and, not surprisingly, Henderson Behavioral Health was never held responsible for Cruz’s  murderous actions, despite having been Cruz’s pill pusher for years.

The diary of Audrey Hale was obtained by Nashville Police on the day of the crime, March 27, 2023. Despite immediate possession, Hale’s “manifesto” remained sealed for more than two years. Only in May 2025, after expensive and lengthy legal battles, did the FBI disclose over 100 pages of shooter Hale’s manifesto. Withholding this data limited public understanding and fueled controversy about transparency and systemic concealment.

Despite early claims that Audrey Hale had not been prescribed psychiatric drugs, a Nashville police search warrant revealed prescriptions for Buspirone, Lexapro, Hydroxyzine, and others from Vanderbilt University Hospital. Blood tests conducted at autopsy did not test for therapeutic levels, leaving Hale’s medication status unclear, and fueling debate over the role of psychiatry and transgender care in the attack.  AbleChild helped secure in Tennessee a landmark law to test for therapeutic levels of psychotropic drugs in mass shooters.

In the case of Charlie Kirk’s death, limited information reveals that Lance Twiggs, the alleged romantic interest of alleged shooter, Tyler Robinson, underwent psychiatric experimentation akin to Utah’s Intermountain Trans care program—viewed as Utah’s Vanderbilt equivalent, where Audrey Hale received transgender psychiatric care.

Each incident repeats the cycle: public shock, managed narratives, and a wall of silence as records stay sealed. Until full disclosure, America’s violent crimes remain shrouded in secrecy.

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Psychotherapist Confirms TDS is REAL and Exploding — Patients Can’t Sleep, Travel, or Function Normally Because They’re “Triggered” by Trump

A Manhattan psychotherapist is confirming what conservatives have warned about for years: Trump Derangement Syndrome is real, it’s spreading, and it’s shredding the mental health of millions of Americans who can’t emotionally cope with the existence of Donald Trump.

During an interview on “The Faulkner Focus,” Jonathan Alpert, a well-known psychotherapist who practices in New York and Washington and writes for the Wall Street Journal, revealed that three-quarters of his patients are now suffering from what can only be described as a political obsession so unhinged it borders on clinical impairment.

Alpert explained that within five minutes of a session, many patients launch into rants about Trump. Not policy issues. Not debate. Pure emotional meltdown.

Harris Faulkner:
Jonathan is in focus with me now. So, first of all, identify it for us. You’re in a session, and you pick up on what?

Jonathan Alpert:
Well, Harris, it doesn’t take long for me to pick up on this. People are obsessed with Trump. They’re fixated — they’re hyper-fixated on Trump. And they talk about some of the features of this disorder: they can’t sleep, they feel traumatized by Mr. Trump, they feel restless. I had one patient who said she couldn’t enjoy a vacation because any time she saw Trump in the news or on her device, she felt triggered. So this is a profound pathology, and I would even go so far as to call it the defining pathology of our time.

Harris Faulkner:
These people come to you for the things that you described — can’t sleep, traumatized, perhaps depression. I don’t want to put words in your mouth, but at first you are there to treat an illness, a disorder of some kind, and what you figure out is that’s the trigger.

Jonathan Alpert:
Well, and Trump is the trigger for many of these people. To be that fixated on a figure — on a person — it’s simply not healthy. Our country has strayed so far away from where we once were. If you look at the ’80s, when President Reagan was shot, people were united. He famously said to the surgeons, “I hope you’re all Republicans.” The response was, “Today, Mr. President, we’re all Republicans.” But our country has lost that. We’ve strayed so far from that unity.

Harris Faulkner:
What do you see? Because you told me off camera that three-quarters of your patient load right now has what you’re calling this TDS.

Jonathan Alpert:
Well, three-quarters of my patients will present with a lot of these symptoms, and within probably five minutes of seeing me, their hatred for Trump comes up. So if you’re that hyper-focused on Trump, that’s an issue — and it’s worth being treated.

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Scandalous past of Lake Tahoe mayor who resigned after stealing $300,000 from church while claiming she had depression

The former mayor of South Lake Tahoe who resigned after admitting to stealing $300,000 from a church was previously accused of defrauding an insurance company.

Tamara Wallace had served as mayor of the California city since December 2024, and for one year in 2022, but resigned on Monday after admitting to the theft.

The scandal-plagued mayor sent a confessional letter to several local news outlets, blaming her struggles with mental health for stealing from the Presbyterian Church over several years. 

But Wallace also previously faced a lawsuit from Federal Insurance Company, now a subsidiary of insurance firm Chubb, for ‘theft of funds’ totaling over $100,000, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

The records reviewed by the outlet showed that Wallace agreed to repay the money after the alleged fraud was discovered in 2006, but then failed to repay the cash, prompting a second lawsuit from the firm in 2021. 

The lawsuits reportedly did not give details over how Wallace allegedly stole from the insurance company, however the first lawsuit was dismissed months after it was filed. 

The second lawsuit alleged that Wallace fraudulently received a payout of $122,193, but then failed to follow a payment plan that she had agreed to 15 years before when it was found to be erroneous. 

The company said Wallace agreed to pay just $200-a-month until the balance was paid off, but she stopped paying around February 2017, despite an agreement that she would be liable for the full amount if she ceased her payments. 

After Wallace was allegedly caught in 2006, she signed a promissory note acknowledging she owed the money and insisted she would pay it back, the company said. 

At the time she stopped paying, Wallace still owed more than $110,000, the Chronicle reported. 

In June 2022 Wallace was ordered by a judge to repay the company, and she signed a second promissory note agreeing to make $400 monthly payments, on top of a $2500 initial payment. 

The emergence of the alleged insurance fraud adds another layer to the political scandal which forced her to leave office earlier this month. 

Dana Tibbitts, a member of the El Dorado County Government Watch group, told the Chronicle after the scandal emerged, ‘the most important thing is that (the theft from the church) was not her first rodeo. 

‘She has been down this road a long time… and we probably don’t know the half of it.’ 

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