A couple of days ago (on October 11, 2026) - I crossed the 4 million reads mark on this blog. That means I got 1 million reads in just the past 7 months. I posted one of those dashboards above that shows a monthly read rate of 90-100K per month. When I crossed the 3 million mark 7 months ago, I clarified with Google that this figure was real and not an artifact. My concern at the time was that there was a wide adoption of VPNs and that was leading to lower page read numbers than total reads. Looking at the total number of posts it could also be a scaling effect. When there are close to 1,000 posts, even small numbers of reads per post can lead to aggregate large numbers.
In my subsequent investigations with Google they do suggest that automated traffic or robots may be a factor in as many as 50% of these reads. The patterns they suggest to look for like a sudden burst of reads on very old posts or a sudden burst in general does not seem to be a big factor but it is possible. They point out that their statistical system is fairly basic and encourage the use of Google Analytics. I discovered that it was easier to setup a Cloudflare dashboard to accurately measure reads. Using this approach cut the actual reads down to about 300 - 500 per day. I say about because even though Cloudflare analytics is supposed to be better in terms of counting reads versus bot traffic - the 24 hour count runs as a continuous block and daily counts are not separated out. Given the duration of the blog that means total reads could be as few as 1.5M to 2.7M rather than 4 million. That still seems like a lot of room for error on the upside. I will point to some some early controversial posts that had tens of thousands of reads before bot traffic was a problem. Regardless of the numbers - I appreciate anyone who takes the time to read what I write.
In the general scheme of things, I don't know if the number of reads for this blog is good, mediocre, or poor. I just thought it would be a good idea to let people know if they are reading these posts - they are not alone. I am very pleased that people are reading what I write. I think it is unique because I consciously try to present real information in the least provocative way - even when dealing with provocative topics. It is very disappointing to see psychiatry portrayed in an unrealistic light and I hope to be able to continue to interject realism.
Part of my process is to avoid reading blogs or essays that I think are intentionally provocative for a couple of reasons. First, I immediately get the point and I don't need a long explanation about how all psychiatrists (or schools of psychiatry) are wrong about something. Secondly, I don't want to give this blog the appearance of either simply being reactive to others or getting my ideas from other sources. Third, these are almost always old or in some cases very old arguments that have been refuted and now are simply being repeated. Fourth, it invariably involves rhetoric often disguised as philosophy that seems to leave a lot of people spellbound. I am not spellbound by either rhetoric or philosophy and am amazed about what gets published in psychiatric journals. Finally, and most importantly – I have respect for my colleagues. I do not think that I know more than they do, have more success treating patients, or that I am morally superior. I do not see myself as a Messiah that needs to lead them out of the wilderness. Those are prevalent attitudes that you can see many times a day without too much effort. Psychiatry this and psychiatry that – typically written by people who clearly don’t know a thing about the field. But there are a few who do. The title of this blog reflects the efforts of a dedicated group of about 40 thousand psychiatrists in the US, who go to work every day – in many cases under the most adverse of circumstances, and are generally very successful in helping people.
I also hope to continue to improve upon my writing and what I cover on this blog. I think the blog contains information that you will not see anywhere else. I will be working on ways to present more of it. Just recently I altered the code on my template so that all of the images will extend across the entire frame on my posts. That has generally worked well, but in some cases the final image looks blurred. You can get around that by clicking on the image and seeing it displayed in its original size. I have not had time to look at all of the images with the new code, but if there are images that seem indecipherable let me know and I will see if I can correct them.
In the meantime my usual qualifiers are the same. This blog is and always will be free. You do not have to subscribe or send me any information but I greatly appreciate the 264 followers that have varying degrees of anonymity. It is strictly not-for-profit and it costs me to produce it - largely in the form of purchasing rights to use copyrighted materials, personal subscriptions, and book purchases. Feel free to suggest topics and leave comments. I am open to suggestions for collaboration. I am a very good collaborator and have a broad knowledge of medical, psychiatric, and biological research and clinical practice.
My plan for the coming years is to try to come up with an interesting post at the rate of one post per week. I am more productive in some months compared with others, but so far have been keeping up with that schedule. So apart from the numbers, I hope that you find what I am writing interesting and a solid way to move away from the old arguments about psychiatry.
George Dawson, MD, DFAPA
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