Author: ronunger1

What to do when children hear voices

Rather than viewing voices (and visions) as the product of psychiatric illnesses, the authors, and the voice hearers and family members whose stories are told in the book, find ways of making sense of them in terms of what is going on in the child’s life. Factors such as conflict, bullying, grieving, abuse, and not being able to relate to particular emotions are all found to be possible triggers for voices, and learning how to deal with these issues successfully is found to be related to voices fading away or at least becoming innocuous.

Trauma, Psychosis, and Spirituality: What’s the Connection? (part 2)

It is not always clear what sort of experiences are best called “psychosis” and seen as bad, or what kinds of experiences are best called “spirituality” and seen as good. Instead it seems there is a realm of experience that is outside of our cultural norm, that we might call mystery, where people have experiences that are challenging, with a possibility of being seen as either bad or good, and of resulting in life outcomes that may be either bad or good in the conventional sense.

An outline of how mental health system is biased toward medication

It has become apparent that huge numbers of people are receiving more medication, over longer periods of time, than what is optimal for their long term mental health.(Whitaker, 2010) What are the factors in the current mental health system that biases it toward greater use of medication than what is optimal? It is important that all of these areas be identified, since efforts to achieve medication optimization are likely to achieve only partial success at best if significant areas of bias remain unchallenged.

Coping with intrusive thoughts, impulses, voices etc…

woman looking dismayed Coping with intrusive thoughts, impulses, voices etc…

It is common for human beings to experience things in their mind that they didn’t expect or want.  These might appear to be coming from outside the person, as “voices” commonly do, or they might be more obviously coming from somewhere inside the person, as do unexpected and/or unwanted thoughts, impulses, images, feelings, emotions, memories, etc.  (All of these are called “intrusions” by psychologists, because they seem to intrude into one’s consciousness.)

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Moving Beyond Clinical Recovery and Personal Recovery: Reclaiming the Possibility of Full Recovery

By Ron Unger:  this article was first posted on his website. I recently read a very interesting and mostly helpful document by the UK charity Rethink, 100 ways to support recovery.  However, I had some reactions to their approach to defining recovery, and I thought I would share them here. According to Rethink “Clinical recovery is... Continue Reading →

Talking to someone convinced mental distress is all biological

Talking to someone convinced it's all biological By Ron Unger Many people are still convinced that the “scientific” understanding is that if a person is diagnosed with a “mental illness” such as “schizophrenia” then this means they have a genetically determined brain dysfunction that has nothing to do with what happened to the person. Of... Continue Reading →

How to reduce deaths associated with neuroleptics (anti-psychotic) medications

By Ron Unger At least here and there, mental health authorities are recognizing that it is a problem that people in the public mental health system are dying 25 years earlier than the average person, and they are starting to talk about it. (For more information on these death rates, see this power point presentation)... Continue Reading →

Using acceptance to move through “symptoms”

Ron Unger again contributes a piece today. Changing focus is a key part of recovery: to recover from a “symptom” it is often necessary to quit focusing on trying to get rid of the symptom, at least in any direct way! This is true of a great many kinds of mental health “symptoms.” The problem... Continue Reading →

Mental “disorder” or evolved mental strategy? — by Ron Unger

By Ron Unger -- first printed on his blog. In the mental health field currently, when people experience intense anxiety and depression, and when they experience mania and/or psychosis, the experience is understood to be a “disorder” or a “biological dysfunction” that is of no use and should “corrected” by any means that might be... Continue Reading →

Recovery: Why is it being redefined to mean “doing better but still mentally ill”?

This is a piece by Ron Unger. It was first published on his blog which I highly recommend. Thoughts on the concept of recovery in mental health circles: A lot of efforts to transform an often oppressive mental health have focused on “recovery” and making the mental health system more “recovery focused.” Many agencies have... Continue Reading →

A Guide for Therapists (and anyone interested in drug withdrawal)

I added a blog to my blogroll today called "Recovery from "schizophrenia" and "psychotic disorders." It's written by Ron Unger, a therapist who has also had a "psychotic" event of some sort that inspires his work. He has a page on his blog that I want to call attention to that is written for clinicians,... Continue Reading →

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