Month: June 2018

News and the forgotten value of waiting

by PAUL WOODWARD People everywhere, but especially in America, have been conditioned to feel that there is no experience in life more intolerable than having to wait. To wait is to be tortured by a cavity that urgently demands filling. Waiting destabilizes the nervous system and seemingly the only way most people can prevent an imminent seizure or some other kind of systemic breakdown these days is by clutching the ubiquitous grounding device upon which everyone now depends: their smart phone — a grounding device that helps each user feel connected by disconnecting them from where they are.

Trilogy of the shadow child (parts)

Trilogy of the shadow child (parts) ~~ This poem was written in three parts in consecutive order over time. They represent a journey through time and psyche both.

This was written in three parts in consecutive order over time. I thought they should all appear together in one place as they represent a journey through time and psyche both.  ...  Trauma causes splits in the psyche. Working with parts or subpersonalities is one of the ways of healing such splits.

Mad Spiritual musings on diversity and inclusivity

a tree of life for Mad Spiritual musings on diversity and inclusivity

Update 2026: This project never came to be. Tragically my friend Ian Scheffel died before we could manifest our vision. Still as a piece of history on this path I've found myself in, I am keeping this all of this in the archives. The below video was a favorite of mine. I took it down for a few years along with all my other videos. This one I did put back up. I still have dreams for sucha world in which community would include all of us. We want to create community and support for all of us who've experienced madness as having significant spiritual significance. Whether we've been psychiatrized or not and whether we've considered madness in terms of the psychiatric labeling or not. That would include anyone labeled with psychosis, schizophrenia, bipolar, schizoaffective, or psychotic NOS. That would also include anyone who has had experience with altered states that have not been pathologized by psychiatry, by self or others.

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Stranger *** (inside the psych ward) By Steven Morgan

a psych ward hallway Stranger*** By Steven Morgan

By Steven Morgan - Tonight will be a Haldol night. The newly minted nurse will say, This is going to make you feel better, and I will duly reply, Ok, anything. She will tell me to lean forward over the table and pull up my gown. I will feel cold air crawl like fingers around my torso. She will tell me it’s going to feel like a prick, but only for a moment. I will feel the skin on my ass cinch around the needle. The tranquilizer will swim out the chute in a billowing yellow cloud. She will announce, Good job, jerking back. ....

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Creating Safe Spaces to talk about Suicide

forest canopy shot Creating Safe Spaces to Talk About Suicide

When suicide ceases to be taboo there will be less suicide. This is why it's critical that we create safe spaces to discuss suicide. Reaching out when suicidal isn't only hard because it's treated like a crime by the system (people get locked up for being honest about those feelings). Truth is few people anywhere actually want or are able to be with folks when they're in hellish realities. Seriously. I'm not always able to do that for others either and it's very familiar territory for me. So let's be honest about this.

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Breaking Free from Societal Expectations

Good advice from Erich Fromm: If other people do not understand our behavior—so what? Their request that we must only do what they understand is an attempt to dictate to us. If this is being "asocial" or "irrational" in their eyes, so be it. Mostly they resent our freedom and our courage to be ourselves. We owe nobody an explanation or an accounting, as long as our acts do not hurt or infringe on them. How many lives have been ruined by this need to "explain," which usually implies that the explanation be "understood," i.e. approved. Let your deeds be judged, and from your deeds, your real intentions, but know that a free person owes an explanation only to himself—to his reason and his conscience—and to the few who may have a justified claim for explanation.

Alan Watts – Tribute to Carl Jung

Alan and Carl: Two of my favorite contributors to our understanding of human consciousness.

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Ecstatic dance break

Dance and movement has been one of my most important tools for healing. Dancing is living well. We can do it seated or even laying down if we have to. Just move to the music and feel it.

Psych drugs harm. Let’s get high profile MDs and celebrities – spreading the message

There are quite a few relatively mainstream doctors now talking about the harms of benzodiazepines and anti-depressants on social media. As usual other psychiatric drugs (neuroleptics, anti-convulsants, -- called anti-psychotics and mood stabilizers, etc) are given short shrift. This is about informed consent. If people don't know about the very serious potential risks involved in... Continue Reading →

Chris Cole: Bipolar like Kanye West

In the latest episode of Waking Up Bipolar, Chris Cole speaks to the recent news of Kanye West coming out as bipolar, especially amid so much political and cultural controversy. ...

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