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]
In the video below Dr. Russell Razzaque shares what he learns about the psyche when he starts meditating. He is surprised when he comes to recognize many states he experiences in meditation to be similar to states that are pathologized in psychiatry. He sees them in his patients and recognizes them in his own experience when meditating. I've certainly found meditation to be a way to learn how to recognize and integrate many parts of my psyche. … [click on title for the rest of the post]
I no longer believe that I “lost” my life to drugs. This is, as Mary Oliver, puts it, my “one wild and precious life.” Yes, this is it and so I celebrate it. … [click on title for the rest of the post]
Wonderful talk on the holistic nature of reality and how we so often deal with the pieces rather than understanding the whole. How do we come to know and not know in the context of this reality. A reality that is dependent on a multitude of relationships with all the multitude of parts. How do we hold this all together? What does it mean to think differently? … [click on title to view more]
By Jon Keyes - Herbal medicine, Extreme States and Transformation. The idea that extreme states are something that requires medical intervention is a relatively new one. Generally indigenous and folk cultures throughout the world have employed a wide variety of interventions that include spiritual, shamanic, herbal and dietary techniques for working with people in crisis and spiritual emergence.
By Ron Unger ... a video has just become available which, in 5 minutes, very coherently explains how a compassion focused approach can completely transform a person's relationship with their voices and so transform the person's life! … [click on title to read the rest]
Again and again I am told the ‘severely mentally ill’ are impaired and incapable, not quite human. I am told they are like dementia patients wandering in the snow, with no capacity and no cure, not to be listened to or related to. I am told they must be controlled by our interventions regardless of their own preferences, regardless of the trauma that forced treatment can inflict, regardless of the simple duty we have to regard others with caring, compassion, and respect, regardless of the guarantees of dignity we afford others in our constitution and legal system. I am told the “high utilizers” and “frequent flyers” burden services because they are different than the rest of us. I am told the human need for patience doesn’t apply to these somehow less-than-human people. And when I finally do meet the people carrying that terrible, stigmatizing label of schizophrenia, what do I find? I find – a human being. A human who responds to the same listening and curiosity that I, or anyone, responds to. … [click on title to read the rest]
Neuroplasticity: enormous implications for anyone who has been labeled with a psychiatric illness -- That's us, the readers of this blog...going against paradigm and healing ourselves with openness and conscientiousness. These are qualities that can be contagious. Right now we operate in a society telling us we don't know what we're doing...or that what we are doing is "woo." Just think what happens when people start understanding what is possible. Others will start to open up and see the possibilities too. This is why education and sharing our journeys are both critically important. None of what we do is unscientific by the way, it's just that science doesn't know how to measure what we're doing...
By Ron Unger As we struggle to invent a humane approach to the extreme states that get called “psychosis” or “madness” or “schizophrenia,” it may be helpful to investigate some of the better approaches developed in the past. While these approaches are not without their flaws, they are often surprisingly insightful. (It can also of... Continue Reading →
A theory that is wrong is considered preferable to admitting our ignorance. – Elliot Vallenstein, Ph.D.
Beyond Meds and anyone who’s actually paid attention to the science for the last many years has known that the serotonin myth about depression and how antidepressants work has no evidence to back it up whatsoever.
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