Bad mental health information does real damage. It delays treatment, it sells supplements to people who need therapy, and it tells someone in crisis that they should be able to think their way out of it. This explains how TrashyMinds Com fact checks what it publishes, and how you can judge any health article for yourself.
How TrashyMinds Com Fact Checks, in Five Steps
- Start at the source. Claims are traced to the original research, guideline or agency page — not to another website’s summary of it.
- Prefer the strongest evidence. A systematic review or a clinical guideline outranks a single small study, however striking the headline on that study was.
- Check the population. A finding in 40 university students is not a finding about everyone, and we say which group was studied.
- Name the uncertainty. Where evidence is thin or mixed, the article says so rather than picking the tidier answer.
- Link it. The source goes in the sentence, so you can check the claim in one click instead of trusting us.
The Sources TrashyMinds Com Fact Checks Against
Mostly the same handful: the National Institute of Mental Health, the CDC, SAMHSA, the World Health Organization, and peer-reviewed journals indexed in PubMed. Where a professional body has published a guideline, that guideline is used in preference to a press release about it.
If an article cites something weaker than that, it is because nothing stronger exists yet, and the article tells you so.
What TrashyMinds Com Fact Checking Rules Out
- Claims that any single food, supplement or app cures a mental illness
- Statistics without a named source and a date
- Before-and-after stories presented as evidence
- Headlines the article itself does not support
- Advice that would delay someone seeking professional care
We also do not write articles that diagnose. An article can describe what a condition commonly looks like; it cannot tell you whether you have it, and pretending otherwise would be the most harmful thing a site like this could do. The boundary is set out in the medical disclaimer.
Corrections
When something is wrong, the article is corrected and a dated note is added at the point of the change. Nothing is quietly deleted to make the archive look cleaner. If you have spotted an error, tell us through the contact page — corrections from readers are welcome, not treated as complaints.
How to Fact Check Any Health Article Yourself
The same four questions work anywhere, and they take about a minute:
- Who wrote it, and are they named?
- When was it written or last reviewed?
- Does each number link to a source you can open?
- Does it sell something that happens to be the answer?
An article that fails the last one is usually marketing. That test alone filters out most of what is wrong online, and it is worth applying here as much as anywhere else — see how to judge a mental health website.
Questions About How TrashyMinds Com Fact Checks
Who does the checking?
The editor, who also writes the articles. That is a real limitation of a small publication and we would rather name it than imply a review board — see the editor.
Are articles medically reviewed by a clinician?
No, and we do not claim they are. Articles are sourced to clinical guidance rather than reviewed by a clinician, which is exactly why nothing here replaces talking to one.
Do you use AI to write articles?
Not for the reporting. The sourcing, judgement and words are the editor’s, and the byline is a real person’s.
What if the evidence changes?
The article is updated and the change is dated. Mental health research moves, and an article that never changes is not more reliable, just older. The full process is in the editorial policy.