I think this is the same guy who called schizophrenia and bipolar disorder "end stage" illnesses. End stage means terminal, as in you are dying. I don't think this guy cares much for psychiatric patients as a group. I think he is an unfortunate choice for a director of NIMH and I hope Obama's folks bring in someone new.

"The same day there was a small flurry of visits to this site from nih.gov and I never heard back from NIMH."

No offence intended whatsoever Philip, but if I were in charge of communications for this guy and I was using your site as a guide as to whether or not I should let you talk to him, I'd turn you down as well. Not for the content, or the things you've written. But while they were surfing through here I'm pretty sure they would have read the comments as well. And you do get some... "harsh" ones.

Allowing you interview this guy, from a communications/PR perspective, would be a total lose lose. Not to say you shouldn't keep trying, however.

I've actually been wondering why you don't keep a second blog strictly for the news stuff, and another for the personal stuff and the personal interpretation of the news stuff.

interesting points gabriel, but the reality is nih knows i am a legit journalist and govt agencies shouldn't be allowed to pick and choose who they disseminate info to and who they don't. of course they do that all the time, but the broader point is that that's not proper since they are taxpayer funded.

yes the comment threads do get quite heated around here, but any smart flack should know that i don't write them.

personally i think some people in the mental health establishment have decided that i am either an anti-psychiatrist or a scientologist and have written me off. interestingly, i am neither an anti-psych or scientologist.

When I was reporting and someone asked for samples of my work before they'd "allow" me to interview them or their client I'd mostly suggest they to go smell some flowers, then I'd call the competition or another source. The main reason I hated freelancing was, without a "name" behind me, I had to constantly justifying myself to PR people.

For whatever it's worth I've never thought you were an anti-psych activist or a supporter of the Co$, or even particularly anti-med. And it honestly weirds me out when I find your research being used to support the views of people who are either one or all three.

You're a reporter, and an excellent researcher, and you do a solid job of covering specific issues which need the exposure. But isn't it possible, because there are a number of people taking advantage of your hard work who are anti-psych and pro-Co$, it almost becomes a guilt by association thing?

I had a friend who also covered Internet security issues, but where I was doing the government privacy policy issues he was writing mostly about the "black hat" 'Cult Of The Dead Cow' stuff. After a while he couldn't get anyone in legit computing to talk to him because he was "hacker boy".

I've seen my own work used for some pretty bizarre things, I've even seen my articles rewritten by PR people before being posted on company sites so it better reflected their clients products. I never could figure out how to stop people from doing that, so I'm not offering you anything more than a possible reason why people in the industry may not be calling you back.

I do suggest you keep kicking at the bags of shit... they'll empty out sooner or later.

thanks gabriel. i'm not sure to what degree my work gets used by others who openly hate psychiatry, so i don't know what impact there is there. the reality i've run into with some establishment types is that anyone who questions anything about psychiatry and meds instantly gets branded as an enemy, even when that questioning is pretty much evidence based. i've written before that some in the mental health establishment are completely religious in their views and i do mean it--there's a lot of faith-based stuff out there being called science and then given to children and adults.

as for bags of shit, i usually have my boots on.

steel-toed boots are the best for kicking these doors down, if i remember correctly.

keep pushing because i truly believe that the people you ask for interviews et al, do not want the truth to be out there. don't give up.