Month: June 2014

Depression is a disease of civilization: we are disconnected from who we are in multiple ways

"The health of the society and the health of its individuals are inextricably linked. To end the worldwide epidemic of depression, we must combine individual psychological therapies with new social and economic systems that respect the earth and more fairly distribute the worlds resources. Such models already exist. What we need is the political will to implement them. If we can do so, we will be able to create a more equitable culture that optimizes the mental and emotional health of each of its ciitizens." … [click on title for the rest of the post]

Rethinking depression

People often want to believe that depression has some distinct pathology. It does not. Clinical depression is very much a garbage pail term for feeling shitty and that may manifest in a large number of ways and have many different combinations of etiologies.

Trauma Change Resilience: there is a drive to not only survive but to thrive

Trauma can be incurred in many different ways. This is only now becoming understood. Our culture has trauma and abuse that is often not recognized. There is, of course, too the sort that is obviously heinous and ugly. It can all impact the general well-being of those subjected to it.
As a social worker working with “the seriously mentally ill” for many years, I never came upon someone who didn’t have fairly severe traumas in their histories. Yes, I can say those who I encountered who were in that particular labeled segment had a solid 100% rate of trauma in their histories. Mental illness in large part is a reaction to trauma. It’s quite simple really. When we start listening to people’s stories of pain rather than numbing them out and effectively silencing them with neurotoxic drugs we will start healing them. Until then people will remain broken. One of the most basic needs for a wounded human being to heal is to be seen. Recognized. Validated. Yes. … [click on title for the rest of the post]

Freaking out therapist types: on being subject to the clinical gaze and the conditioned mind

An important thing to remember is that we’re always dealing with fear when we are confronted with disbelief about our lives free from psych meds. They are afraid of what we have accomplished and they are afraid of what we know. They are afraid that our message will harm people. Harm only comes if people are coerced. People need to do what they need to do wherever they are on their own self-directed path. That includes taking meds if that is what they are resonant with at any given time. That is the key thing to understand. Those of us who were harmed have largely been denied our experience and often forced to get treatment we knew we should not be getting. Folks who find psychiatry helpful have a hard time understanding that we’ve had a radically different experience. Many of us too have a hard time believing some folks have benefitted from what has so gravely harmed us. We must embrace our differences. .… [click on title for the rest of the post]

keep trying

Saturday Mellow: Album : Out Here in There Artists: Sidsel Endresen & Bugge Wesseltoft Track: Try The lyrics: Keep on looking you keep on searching you keep on moving and you get a little further you keep on trusting you keep on hoping you keep on facing your faith just to keep on growing just... Continue Reading →

I know nothing

Above all we have to go beyond words and images and concepts. No imaginative vision or conceptual framework is adequate to the great reality. — Bede Griffiths

Precisely why I borrow from numerous traditions (religious and spiritual) as well as the sciences to point towards that which is. … [click on title for the rest of the post]

Cold turkey withdrawal from psychiatric drugs

The most important thing about cold-turkey to understand is that just because you've heard of someone that managed to do it successfully (or you are the one who did it successfully) doesn't mean it's a generally safe thing for others to do. The risk involved if things go wrong are potentially radically life-changing in the extreme negative so it's simply not a risk worth taking unless one is faced with an immediate life-threatening side-effect from the drugs. That is the only time that cold-turkey is appropriate and wise...in that instance one should have easy access to emergency medical services. … [click on title for the rest of the post]

The normality trap

A lovely and thoughtful essay. Thank you Vaughan Bell.

(as a side note) I don’t like the word stigma. What we’re dealing with is prejudice and bigotry and I like to call it what it is.

Mind Hacks

I remember taking a bus to London Bridge when, after a few stops, a woman got on who seemed to move with a subtle but twitchy disregard for her surroundings. She found herself a seat among the Saturday shoppers and divided her time between looking out the window and responding to invisible companions, occasionally shouting at her unseen persecutors.

By East Street, the bus was empty.

You’ve probably encountered fellow travellers who are strikingly out of the ordinary, sometimes quite distressed, scattered among the urban landscape where they seem to have a social forcefield around them that makes crowds part in their presence.

If you’ve ever worked in a hospital or support service for people with psychological or neurological difficulties, you’ve probably met lots of people who are markedly out of step with the mundane rules of social engagement.

They seem to talk too loud, or too fast, or too…

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believe and know… (IT GETS BETTER)

If I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning. -- Mahatma Gandhi

That is certainly how recovering from the heinousness of the iatrogenic injury of psychiatric drug withdrawal syndrome has worked for me!! -- my unrelenting determination to find a way through the maze of autonomic nervous system chaos has, indeed, brought me many gifts and continued healing...and it's not done yet! … [click on title for the rest of the post]

Energizing yoga: start the morning right

This is the most vigorous video I've posted. As I get better I'm able to do more and more. On good days some of the yoga classes I go to in the community are really quite advanced. Still I always need to listen to my body/mind/spirit and I often leave classes early. My nervous system (and a lot of my readers who also have protracted withdrawal issues) is very delicate and so it's not so much about strength of my muscles...it's about some sort of threshold that is reached in my nervous system. When I get to that point I need to stop doing yoga. Period. And it's often when I'm doing seemingly gentle stuff too. In fact sometimes I find that the most vigorous yoga triggers me less. It's always a mystery...the moment. What will my body/mind/spirit be up to today? … [click on title for the rest of the post]

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