Mental Health

Does Toby Keith Need an Intervention? His Top 5 Drinking Songs

Rocks Off was excited to hear that Toby Keith is scheduled to make an appearance at next year's RodeoHouston. We just hope he makes it here. Rewind: Saturday Night: Toby Keith at The Woodlands You see, we're starting to worry a little about Toby Keith's health. Not about the health of his career ... More >>

Female Veterans Needed for PTSD Study

The Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center and Baylor College of Medicine are seeking female veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder for a study that might hopefully lead to a new medical treatment for the condition. The study is aimed at the role played by a neuropeptide called corticotropin-re ... More >>

Hoarding & Clutter In The Burbs: Viruses, Fires...When Will It End?

The hot new sydrome these days is hoarding -- people can't get enough reality TV shows about poor idiots who can't throw anything away, even if those people watching have to shove aside three boxes of 11-year-old Fuddrucker's receipts just to see the screen. But things have gotten real, hoarding-wi ... More >>

Will You Turn into a Hoarder? See What the Stars Have to Say: Astrology Signs, Ranked for Hoardiness

Will you turn into a hoarder? Let's see what astrology says, courtesy of our favorite local astrologer, Figgy Jones. Here's what she told us: On June 11, the big ol' jolly planet of abundance and goodies, Jupiter, moves into the sign of Gemini -- the most garrulous sign. Gemini is ruled by Mercury, ... More >>

Combat Veterans Fall Prey to Gambling Addictions at an Alarming Rate

where's the military when the chips are down?

Reality Bites: Hoarding: Buried Alive

​​There are a million reality shows on the naked television. We're going to watch all of them, one at a time. Are you not entertained? The overwhelming majority of reality shows -- like, for example, Ghost Adventures -- positively beg for ridicule. The participants usually run the gamut from a ... More >>

Down the Hatch

The Texas Attorney General's Office says a drugmaker lied in order to push an antipsychotic on foster children. So why are kids as young as three still taking the drug?

Shock the Junkie

Is ibogaine really an addict cure-all?

Mental Cases

Philip Grantham counts on his meds and his MHMRA doctor to stay straight. Too bad Texas is slashing funding.

Texas Monthly Looks At (Most Of) Houston's Mental Health Issues

There's at least one local program for mentally ill people that shouldn't be affected by the state's proposed budget cuts. ​This month's Texas Monthly features a "Letter from Houston," which focuses on the city's mental health services, primarily the Houston Police Department's Mental Health Unit, ... More >>

The Case of Blue October

Readers take both sides.

Little Boy Blue

Ask Justin Furstenfeld if he's really mentally ill and be prepared to ride the whirlwind.

Houston's Craziest

In a one-of-a-kind short list, HPD names the 30 most troubled mentally ill in the city.

The 30 Craziest People In Houston: An Official HPD List

Photo by Chris Curry Travis Bonser is one of Houston's 30 craziest people. Travis Bonser learned how to shoot heroin from his mother. It happened when he was 14, after his mom became too fat to tie her own arm or leave the house to pick up the dope from her dealer. It wasn't long before Bonser was ... More >>

Is Harris County Jail the Place for A Mentally Troubled Teen?: Mind-sets

Not everyone buys into crisis intervention for the mentally ill

Is Harris County Jail the Place for A Mentally Troubled Teen?

Laura Howard got tossed into a jail treatment program, but it was the wrong one for someone whose mental health was in tatters

Free Housing For Mentally Ill Inmates Proposed

Gone to Hell: Mental Illness and Harris County Jail

Even though Alexander Hatcher is bipolar and schizophrenic, he wasn't given his meds for his first three months in jail. He got in fights with the guards. Now he's sentenced to prison for a long, long time.

FotoFest: "Independent Documentary Photography 1985-2008"

Lu Nan is a camera-wielding humanist

Baby Blues

Lisa Collins took the Paxil her doctor prescribed. There was supposed to be no problem with her continuing it during her pregnancy. Now, it seems, there was.

Against All Odds

A group of unsupervised mental patients running from Katrina made it from New Orleans to Houston. Victor Fruge led the way.

Insanely Guilty

A mother sets out to save her children, by killing them. Texas usually jails such women, but that may be changing.

Beggars Can't Be Choosers

Parents plead with the state not to shut down the state schools for the mentally retarded. But it looks like a done deal.

Getting Out

Too scared to leave her house, Sandy has one last chance: a county crisis team that will come to her

A Hanging Offense

Did the Devereux Treatment Center provide the care Cecilia Garrett needed or did it drive the young teenager to her death?

Deal of a Lifetime

Drug addicts can get hard cash to be sterilized or go on birth control. Is it ridding the world of unwanted babies -- or just ducking the underlying problems of abusers?

Judging Rory

Jurist Rory Olsen can put you in a mental institution and cost you hefty court fees. Critics wonder whether he can handle the job. Big deal -- he's a bottom-of-the-ballot Republican.

Reality Check

Houston is scrambling for psychiatric and emergency medical services. But hoping for better state funding is just another psychotic episode.

Common Cents

Area housing for the mentally ill remains deplorable, but a state subsidy might improve conditions

Sick Kids

For many mentally ill teenagers in Texas, the only way to get treatment is to get arrested.

Best Consumer Advocates

Houston Area Mental Health Advocates

Rx for Failure?

MHMRA restricts Medicaid services at mental health clinic pharmacies

Mental Lapse

Increasing deficits cause MHMRA to close a new treatment clinic

Super Vision

By keeping a constant eye on its mentally ill clients, an ACT team heads off all sorts of troubles

Hands On

When the sickest of Harris County's mentally ill break down, an ACT team is there to pick up the pieces and put them back together again

Upstairs Down - and Out?

A money-starved mental health treatment unit may die in its infancy

The Way Back

Funding cuts kill work programs as well as treatment services

Future Shock

Can the system keep up with the evolution of mental health?

Catch Us If You Can

Steve Chesser went to MHMRA for help. Sent home from its emergency clinic without medicine or therapy, he shot his and killed himself. Diagnosis: A mental health care system in free fall.

Tackling the Taboo

Despite suicides and inner strife, Asian-Americans resist psychotherapy

Nowhere to Land

Crisis care for the mentally ill crumbles under the weight of not enough money, too much beauracracy

Board and Care(less)

When it comes to housing the mentally disabled, is better-than-nothing good enough?

Real Life

The Scrunchie Skirmishes. On the Cinco Ranch High School drill team, winning -- and weight -- is everything

Downing

Texas Lottery. Let's buy our tickets and bet on the day that Robert Arthur Pearson finally kills himself in public while we all watch

Dangerous Deficits

Mental health cuts may come back to haunt the public

Downing

Quiet Rage: Insurers and the state have given up, but parents are battling to get help for their severely troubled boy

Trouble in Mind

Texas's mentally impaired used to go to treatment centers. Now they go to prison.

Press Picks

Diagnosis

After being drugged, hypnotized and bound by restraints, the patients of Judith Peterson say they came to believe they had multiple personalities or had belonged to satanic cults. So, apparently, did their therapist.

Psychotic Reaction

Need emergency psychiatric care in Harris County? Have a seat. Or call a cab.