Category: forced treatment

The shamanic nature of consciousness

The biggest problem in our society now for those who get diagnosed with any sort of “psychosis,” is that they are most often met by professionals that do not even believe that healing can occur, let alone deep transformative growth. Deep transformative growth, could be the norm, if those claiming to be healers actually knew what was involved in the individuation journey. Meeting the dark underbelly of the psyche as those of us who have been labeled psychotic at one time or another is a calling and an act of heroism. One that is rarely encouraged in society. … June 2015 Sign up for: Shades of awakening: integrate and claim your gifts from spiritual emergency (often mistaken for psychosis) a free series of interviews coming up soon -- [click on title for the rest of the post]

The apex and decline of evidence-based psychotherapy and psychiatry

By Brent Potter, PhD -- I am grateful to be alive during to see the apex and decline of evidence-based psychotherapy and psychiatry. Honestly, I didn’t think that I’d see anything like it in my lifetime. It was looking pretty daunting for a while, but we’re not only making substantial progress, but winning. -- Please don’t mistake me—we have plenty more to do. We’re not in the clear yet, but we’re light years ahead of where we were roughly 20 years ago. … [click on title for the rest of the post]

Breaking down in the service of breaking through: can madness save us?

by Paris Williams -- Over the years of my explorations into psychosis and human evolution a very interesting irony became increasingly apparent. It is well-known that people who fall into those deeply transformative and chaotic states typically referred to as “psychosis” often feel, at different points throughout their journeys, that they have received a special calling ...

Rep. Tim Murphy’s Bill Promotes Forced “Treatment” over More Effective and Less Expensive Voluntary Care

On June 4, Congressman Tim Murphy introduced legislation (HR 2646) designed to dismantle the federal mental health authority – the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) – which has successfully promoted recovery and community inclusion for individuals with serious behavioral health conditions for 25 years, as called for by President Bush's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health. The bill would replace SAMHSA with a new Office headed by a politically appointed government official, controlled by Congress and robbing people of their civil rights through forced treatment and increased institutionalization. … [click on title to read and view more]

Folk Counseling

Our modern forms of helping people in emotional distress (talk therapy and medications) have largely supplanted more traditional forms of healing. In some cases this is a continuation of oppression and colonization that has gone on for hundreds of years. -- Indigenous healing practices are denigrated and seen as unscientific, based on superstitions, or as an adjunct to the proper, modern way of helping people in distress. In this way, we have ignored and suppressed folk methods of healing that are often highly effective. … [click on title for the rest of the post]

The future of mental health care is now

Dina Tyler is making it happen in the system right now. This is what a peer specialist looks like. We are the ones who can make the system transform. We know, better than anyone, how to help one another and, more importantly, how to help ourselves.--Dina Tyler is working in the system. Anyone who thinks change cannot happen from within hasn't met people like Dina. I'm for change happening wherever the movers and the shakers dare to go. Inside and outside...there are no rules for us! The only rule is to deeply and profoundly become ourselves. -- She also makes it clear that in her life that resistance and non-compliance is what allowed for her recovery.… [click on title for the rest of the post]

Physician-caused death, illness, anger and despair? It happens. What to do.

There is an important read today at Mad in America by Bruce Levine about how to regain power from the medical establishment. Those of us who have been harmed and know just how serious it can be have an important role to play. ... [click on title to read more]

May 16, 2015 International Protest of Electroshock

Nancy Rubenstein speaks from her personal experience about why she is supporting this day of protest. Additional information and another personal story are included in this post. [click on title to read more]

Understanding our bodies…a skill to develop and trust. MDs often don’t support this.

This issue comes up again and again among the folks I frequently hang out with online. People so badly want to find the perfect doctor and get very frustrated when again and again they are disrespected and/or given treatments that further harm them. I figured out a long time ago that I understand my body far better than any doctor does and the only MDs I'll work with now (on an ongoing basis) are people who actually appreciate this. I never enter a new relationship with a health professional with any expectations as well. It allows for much less frustrating experiences. At the very best I'll find a partner in my care...not someone who will tell me what to do without regard to my own particular experience. … [click on title for the rest of the post]

Is This Depression? Or Melancholy? Or…

By Will Hall -- "Depressed." -- It's a word I put in quotes because, like so many words we use to describe our mental health experiences, it has as much power to confuse as it does to clarify. We live in a culture bombarded by media and sped up by rapid-fire social interactions. It's definitely useful to grab hold of a simple, short, sound-bite term, to quickly describe what we are feeling or suffering. "Depression" is such a word - it evokes and encapsulates, conjures the images of that ugly pit of despair that can drive so many to madness and suicide. Yet at the same time the words we use, strangely, become like those pens deposited in medical offices and waiting rooms around the world: ready at hand, easily found, familiar — and tied to associations, marketing and meanings we were only dimly aware were shaping how we think. … [click on title for the rest of the post]

Powered by WordPress.com.

Up ↑