Mental Health

Lisa Becker Has Patience for the Patients

The bipolar activist wants to cure OC's problem with the homeless who are mentally ill

Octomom Nadya Suleman Blows Off Kids, Rehab for Tennessee Music Video Shoot

This is for all you mothers out there: if you were in rehab for 30 days, wouldn't your babies be the first people you would want to see? How about if it was after a few days inside or overnight? Same deal, right--if a therapist cleared you to return to your family, of course. Well, Octomom Nadya Sul ... More >>

Christian Legal Eagles Vow to Fight Enacting of State Law Ending "Pray the Gay Away" Therapy

Governor Jerry Brown over the weekend signed a bill championed by the LGBT community that make California the first state to outlaw therapy to "pray the gay away." "We're grateful to Governor Brown for standing with California's children," reads a statement from Chad Griffin, president of the Human ... More >>

[UPDATED with Documents Released] Mental Health Activists Still Waiting for Fullerton Police to Respond to their Public-Records Request

UPDATE JUNE 6, 9:23 P.M.: For the better part of 17 business days, Megan Osborn of Mind(ful) Liberation Project had heard nary a peep from the city of Fullerton. The organization sought to obtain, through public records requests, police training manuals and other documents related to mental health i ... More >>

'My Husband Turned Alcoholic'

[Ask Exene] Exene Cervenka gives advice

Great Western Wanderlust

Hunger Artists Theatre Co.

Jason Redmer Dies at Problem-Plagued West Coast Detox Center in Surf City Neighborhood

"West Coast Detox and Treatment was created to provide a safe place in which recovery from alcohol and drug addiction could take place," reads the Huntington Beach rehab's home page.Tell that to Jason Redmer.The San Juan Capistrano 28-year-old was found dead Monday morning at the facility housed in ... More >>

Edgar Antonio Lucha Admits He was the Nude Druggie-Burglar of Westminster

When Westminster police caught up with Edgar Antonio Lucha in September 2010, he was in a Compton drug rehab. But, according to the state crime database, the 25-year-old's fingerprints matched those a naked man drugged out of his mind had left under a 10-year-old boy's bed a few nights earlier.Last ... More >>

When a Mentally Ill Child Becomes a Mentally Ill Adult

OC parents find they are out of care options unless Laura's Law is adopted

[UPDATED with Teen Found, Jailed:] Matt Hoff is Off His Meds and Missing After Being Kicked From OC Jail

​UPDATE, FEB. 22, 8:03 A.M.: Since Matt Hoff's disappearance was publicized in the media and on social networking sites, the bipolar 18-year-old was reported spotted in Brea, Lake Forest and Laguna Beach. However, the Ladera Ranch man was found Tuesday evening in Santa Ana, not too far from the ... More >>

New 'Lifetime' Series Spotlights Anorexia, First Episode, Filmed in OC, Airs Tonight

flickr user marinacoenen​It was the late 80s, and a young girl battling anorexia had her face plastered on TV screens around the country. That girl was Tracey Gold, the child star who played Carol Seaver on The Growing Pains. Growing up in show business, the concept of anorexia was never ... More >>

Could Laura's Law Have Prevented The Seal Beach Shooting?

Scott Dekraai​The list of local tragedies that might have been averted by Laura's Law is growing. Yesterday's post focused on a county-drafted and rather negative report on Laura's Law, which was thrust into the spotlight after the tragic beating death of Kelly Thomas, who suffered from ... More >>

OC Sheriff's Officials Undergoing 40-Hour Training on How to Interact With the Mentally Ill

​After Kelly Thomas, a schizophrenic man who lived on the streets of Fullerton, died at the hands of Fullerton policemen in July, there was one thing just about everyone--the victim's family, protesters, the city council and law enforcement officials--agreed on: Law enforcement could use more trai ... More >>

[UPDATED with Woman Reunited with Family:] Erika Lopez is Missing and Off Her Meds

​UPDATE, SEPT. 19, 6:08 P.M.: The Newport Beach-by-way-of-Boston woman who had been missing since Aug. 23 was found Monday in Irvine and reunited with her frantic family. Many feared the worst because Erika Lopez was alone, homeless, without a car and off her medication for schizophrenia and bipol ... More >>

Hoshang Pormir, Yorba Linda-Based Doctor, Gets Two Years Probation, Gave The Wrong Drugs To Four Elderly Patients

​In the wake of his "gross negligence" when treating elderly patients, the state medical board put a Yorba Linda-based doctor on two years probation, which took effect last week.Dr. Hoshang Pormir can't practice medicine again until he pays for, and completes, a 40-hour clinical training program. ... More >>

Are OC's Cops Minding the Community?

The death of Kelly Thomas has put a spotlight on how cops treat the mentally ill

State Funds Classes To Teach Law Enforcement How To Interact With Mentally Ill, Majority Of Officials In OC Haven't Taken It

​​As the Kelly Thomas beating death in Fullerton has put interactions between law enforcement and the mentally ill under a microscope, we wondered just how well-prepared OC's cops were to deal with such situations. Turns out that California's Mental Health Services Act funds a two-day train ... More >>

Elizabeth Loftus and Roxane Cohen Silver, UCI Psychology Heavyweights, Look at 9/11 a Decade Later

Loftus​UC Irvine Distinguished Professor of Social Ecology Elizabeth Loftus has long captivated OC Weekly writers (not always in positive ways), and now she's weighing in on this generation's Pearl Harbor moment: the 9/11 attacks that forever changed life as we know it.Loftus, who specializes in ( ... More >>

[UPDATED with Stellar Author, Contributors:] Kids of Stressed-Out Moms Age Faster: UCI Research

​UPDATE, AUG. 2, 5:24 P.M.: Dr. Pathik D. Wadhwa (pictured here) was lead author of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences paper describing UCI's research into stressed-out moms and their faster-aging children. It's a wonder Wadhwa has time to write anything given all he specializes i ... More >>

Foot-In-Mouth Disease

[Hey, You!] Put a sock in it, lady, we're getting foot massages here!

Listening To Music All Day Linked To Depression: Here's Five Songs to Get Your Mope On

Jezebel yesterday published a story saying kids who listen to music are most likely to be depressed, while kids who read books were least likely. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine studied 106 teens, 46 of whom were clinically depressed, over five weekends, and surveyed ... More >>

Detox Massive

Galaxy Theatre

OC Jail Deaths: One Family's Story

Keith Eric Files' family and friends say they know why he died while in county custody

Shock the Junkie

A hallucinogen called ibogaine has helped addicts kick heroin, meth and everything in between. Is it the trip that does the trick?

Taxpayer-Funded Mental Health Conference Blasted for Denying the Mentally Ill Exist

​The Alternatives 2010 conference that began Wednesday at the Hyatt Anaheim is billed as a celebration of "Mental Illness Awareness Week" and gathering of "consumers and survivors of mental health services." But an advocate for the seriously mentally ill complains the government-funded conference ... More >>

Gettin' Made: And Gettin' Happy

Get yourself to Anaheim tomorrow night for the opening of the MAOI: An Anti-depressing Art Show at Rothick Art Haus- you'll be happy you did! "Modern Therapy" mixed media piece by Ryan Clemens​ After the jump, more details about what this fun art show is about and when you can check it out ... More >>

Shift

The Crosby

'Third Tree on the Left' Breaks Through the Stigma of Mental Illness

Tales of a Local "Pregorexic" Mom

The other day at yoga class I, (and several other students), couldn't help but furtively glance at a brittle young woman (we're talking bones where hips once were) committing fragile downward dogs and back bends on her mat in a back corner. She clearly had, or is slowly recovering from, a severe eat ... More >>

[Game On] You Down With OCD? Yeah, You Know Me

Nurse Says Her Efforts to Improve the OC Jail's Women's Infirmary Have Broken Her, Haunt Her Dreams

Adderall Treats ADHD But Can Lead to Addiction. One Clinic Tries to Help OC Kick 'College Crack'

Rocc & Roll

J-Rocc

How Robert Zilliott's alcohol-monitoring anklet led to a painful run-in with Laguna Beach cops

Under Wraps

Many of Dr. Brian West's patients didn't know he was in the state medical board's substance-abuse-diversion program. At least six of them claim they're paying the price

Don't Know Smack

Down from the mountain, a softly lit Heath Ledger cant save this by-the-numbers Aussie drug flick Candy

'You Can't Call 911 When You're Dead'

County officials tell a mother they can help her troubled kidbut only after he kills her

Finding a Scapegoat

Nick Schou's Kill the Messenger

Drugs Did Danny

Smith: Sad (AP) Hot off the Associated Press: Anna Nicole Smith's 20-year-old son died from a lethal combination of methadone and two antidepressant drugs, a U.S.-based pathologist who conducted a private autopsy said Wednesday. Toxicology tests showed Daniel Smith had methadone, Zoloft and Lexap ... More >>

What The Devil Told Joe Parker

Nobody paid much attention to the terrifying voices Joe Parker heard until he slashed his way through an Irvine supermarket.

George Bushs Joint

Rebecca Schoenkopf takes on the presidents drug war

Home Sweet Headtrip

U.S. GIs will confront their toughest enemies here: psychiatrists

Home Sweet Headtrip

U.S. GIs will confront their toughest enemies here: Psychiatrists

The Force Is With Him

In a department once noted for its cruelty toward the homeless, Santa Ana cop Randy Beckx produced a revolution

Lemony Fresh

Working hard to reduce stress

Daddy Dearest

My father, publisher of herointimes.com

Buck Up

Notes from the West Coast Puke-Haters Convention

Daddy Dearest

My father, publisher of herointimes.com

Shakin Like a Leif

Kicking smack with Leif Garrett

Rich People Are Bad

But Ultrathin are phat