incurable hippy is “celebrating” Blog Against Disabilism Day today. I’ve done no such thing, though I spent a lot of time trying to explain my insights among a bunch of mental health professionals in an email group I’m a member of. (I was at one time a mental health professional) I talked at length, in response to a post by several others, about how I went from respected and well-reputed professional to ignored once I came out as a psychiatric survivor—only to be broadly ignored in this particular professional group which imagines itself more enlightened then most mental health professional groups. I’m pretty much feeling like I wasted a ton of energy that could have been much better spent elsewhere.
In any case. Back to my role as survivor—I share with you a funny, but really not, excerpt from incurable hippies post on disabilism. I encourage you to read her whole post as it covers issues I generally do not but definitely feel some strong crossover with her ideas on this particular post.
I can’t say I share her attitudes in her Debunking Nonsense post if you should check her blog out further. Much of what she seems to call nonsense is keeping me alive as far as I’m concerned. And some of the blogs she supports would keep us heavily drugged on psych meds without a second thought. I’ve had an unfortunate interaction with one of those bloggers and their aggressive anti-alternative medicine readers once. I never went back. I hardly found them supportive of me or my predicament. And since she does seem to support our cause here by linking to Psychophobia 201, I’m a bit confused as to where she is coming from.
Anyway this is the piece I’m posting that I think a lot of us can relate to:
In order to assist you in getting the best possible care from your physician, we suggest you observe the following guidelines.
DO NOT EXPECT YOUR DOCTOR TO SHARE YOUR DISCOMFORT
Involvement with the patient’s suffering might cause him to lose valuable scientific objectivity.BE CHEERFUL AT ALL TIMES
Your doctor leads a busy and trying life and requires all the gentleness and reassurance he can get.TRY TO SUFFER FROM THE DISEASE FOR WHICH YOU ARE BEING TREATED
Remember that your doctor has a professional reputation to uphold.DO NOT COMPLAIN IF THE TREATMENT FAILS TO BRING RELIEF
You must believe that your doctor has achieved a deep insight into the true nature of your illness, which transcends any mere permanent disability you may have experienced.NEVER ASK YOUR DOCTOR TO EXPLAIN WHAT HE IS DOING OR WHY HE IS DOING IT
It is presumptuous to assume that such profound matters could be explained in terms that you would understand.SUBMIT TO NOVEL EXPERIMENTAL TREATMENT READILY
Though the surgery may not benefit you directly, the resulting research paper will surely be of widespread interest.PAY YOUR MEDICAL BILLS PROMPTLY AND WILLINGLY
You should consider it a privilege to contribute, however modestly, to the well-being of physicians and other humanitarians.DO NOT SUFFER FROM AILMENTS THAT YOU CANNOT AFFORD
It is sheer arrogance to contract illnesses that are beyond your means.NEVER REVEAL ANY OF THE SHORTCOMINGS THAT HAVE COME TO LIGHT IN THE COURSE OF TREATMENT BY YOUR DOCTOR
The patient-doctor relationship is a privileged one, and you have a sacred duty to protect him from exposure.NEVER DIE WHILE IN YOUR DOCTOR’S PRESENCE OR UNDER HIS DIRECT CARE
This will only cause him needless inconvenience and embarrassment.
Everything matters 
Nancy,
it’s pretty unlikely that 5-HTP would make you manic, but probably not impossible.
HOWEVER, if you’re on an SSRI or SNRI it CAN make you manic and it can also cause serotonin syndrome as the drug is serotogenic and so is the supplement…
If you are not on an SSRI or SNRI you should be okay but should start slowly and titrate up to full dose slowly…
also, personally, I would go with tryptophan, which 5-HTP converts to in any case.
best to you.
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you’re doing a great job gianna. don’t let the ignorant ones get you down. i signed up for the social network thing. i am trying to find info on 5htp. wondering if it can make me manic. i am sorry i can’t always keep up here. but every time i look, you are doing great work. peace and love, nancy
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Enlightened or not, as long as there are those who choose to call themselves “professionals”, “experts”, or whatever term of that kind, and as long as they do identify with these terms, they also identify as being superior to anyone else. Fine, when we talk motor mechanics, or even “body mechanics”: surgeons and other specialists in somatic medicine. Ruinous, when we talk individual human experience. No one else can be as much of an “expert” in my own human experience as I myself am. And anyone, who claims to know better than me, by calling themselves the “expert”, or “professional”, or or or, and me their “patient” (I’m not fond of “client” either, but it’s still better than “patient”, or “consumer”), objectifies me, and thereby dehumanizes me, deprives me of my right to my own individual human experience.
This is why I’d like to see “professionalism” and “expertise” vanish from the field of being (human). We’re all our own “professionals”, “experts”, whatever, when it comes to being (human), and no one can righteously claim to be an expert in someone else’s being, no matter how many years they’ve spent studying this or that at no matter how famous a university.
It seems to me, the people, you’ve corresponded with, maybe aren’t quite as enlightened, as they fancy themselves to be (?). – Ron: the exception proves the rule 🙂 – And btw me too, I think, you underestimate the impact your words have, here, or elsewhere.
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thanks Ron,
I just find it exhausting and someone else took the conversation “back channel” with me and simply kept missing EVERYTHING I was saying and concentrated on issues that to me had nothing to do with the meat and bones of what I was saying.
I’m physically unwell and dealing with some of my critics (and I get a lot of them that come out of the wood work because of this blog—often spewing hateful crap) gets very very old and wears me down.
I appreciate your support in any case and you certainly added a much needed voice of reason today!
thanks
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Hi Gianna,
I think you might be underestimating the value of your contribution to that professional group, of which I am also a member. I think you are reacting to comments made especially by one of the more “status-quo” members of that group, who certainly does not represent all of us. We do need to hear your point of view, and I hope you keep sharing it.
Ron
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“I talked at length, in response to a post by several others, about how I went from respected and well-reputed professional to ignored once I came out as a psychiatric survivor—only to be broadly ignored in this particular professional group which imagines itself more enlightened then most mental health professional groups.”
I could be cynical and say, what else do you expect! lol But I won’t be cynical and instead will say, don’t get discouraged. Every moment that you spend trying to educate ‘professionals’ about psurvivor experience is well worth the trouble; one day you will hit paydirt. And you never know, sometimes it takes people a while to digest information that they were not prepared to assimilate. In the US, in particular, the biomedical model is KING. A challenge to that super entrenched mindset is disorienting. It doesn’t occur to most people that other countries deal with mental health in completely different ways…our approach is a reflection of our cultural norms…Americans always want a quick fix…whether its a pill or an idea.
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