Category: psychosis

Madness, Possession and Transformation: A Personal Narrative of Healing

By Jon Keyes In the early 90′s, I went through a profound experience of psychosis, a complete and radical change of my consciousness from a state of relatively normal perception and comprehension to a state of deeply unsettling confusion, anxiety with a persistent altered mind frame. Thoughts were easily jumbled. I alternated between periods of frenetic excitability and then spiraled into deep despair and hopelessness. Social interactions could often be torturous to the point where isolation often felt like a good answer. I felt like I was cracking, coming apart. On a deeper level, I believed something had happened to me, changed me; that something possessed me. … [click on title for the rest of the post]

Talk To Me: Loving Your Evil Side

drawing from the red book A Red Book Dialogue for Talk To Me: Loving Your Evil Side

During the dialogue, inspired by The Red Book image shown here, Harvey commented on an inborn hatred of our physical selves, saying that humans are in “a boat of meat that is now exploding,” and the struggle we all go through in acknowledging and loving the evil that’s within all of us. … [click on title to read and view more]

Communicating With Psychosis | Dina Tyler: Madness Radio

Are there ways to reach people in states of madness? How do talking with ghosts, hearing voices, and seeing visions – as well as enduring family turmoil – relate to psychotic crisis? When Dina Tyler discovered the meaning of life in an altered state, the treatment she received only inflicted further trauma. Dina instead embraced her madness as a guiding force for recovery, and found a way to leave labels and medications behind. Today she works as a counselor to youth experiencing psychosis, communicating across different realities with people driven away from traditional care. … [click on title to read and view more]

Drug-Induced Dementia: a Perfect Crime

cover of the book drug induced dementia by Grace jackson

This is not the first time psych drugs have been linked to dementia, but it's certainly not something we hear about often enough. With an aging generation of people who've been on psych meds for their entire adult lives it's an issue that needs to be faced. It's yet another serious adverse effect that psychiatric drugs can cause. In this current NBC piece they are speaking only about benzodiazepines. All psych drugs have been associated with various sorts of mental decline, however.

Does long-term use of “antipsychotic” drugs cause more disability & more psychosis?

by Ron Unger
This sounds like a weird question – everyone knows that psychosis is often very disabling, and antipsychotic drugs are widely recognized for their effects in reducing psychosis in at least most people, and most often taking effect in just a few days. And when people become psychotic again, it’s often understood that it’s because they “weren’t taking their meds.”

But what if it’s trickier than that? What if “antipsychotic” drugs make things better in the short term, but make long term problems worse? How would we even know? … [click on title to read and view more]

Online Conference: Therapy on the Wild Side – Depathologizing and Working with “Psychosis” and Extreme States of Consciousness

This is a sticky post, see below for new posts.

CEU's available for professionals.

Thanks to the work of those who have recovered from extreme states of all sorts and also to those who have assisted them on their journey's, there now exists an ever growing resource of humane and humanizing strategies that can allow us to help folks who often have psych labels in ways that bring all of their uniqueness and personhood into the world – without stigma and without pathologizing. … [click on title for the rest of the post]

OPEN DIALOGUE: the complete film now online for viewing (alternative healing for psychosis)

Mackler's work has been featured here on Beyond Meds many times. For more information his website is here.

OPEN DIALOGUE: 74-minute documentary film on the Western Lapland Open Dialogue Project, the program presently getting the best results in the developed world for first-break psychosis -- approximately 85% full recovery, a far majority off antipsychotic medication. … [click on title for the rest of the post]

Psychosis or Spiritual Awakening: Phil Borges at TED

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. …

the voices in my head

eleanor Longden on stage the voices in my headthe voices in my head

She did it! And now it's available for viewing! She learned to listen to her voices and now asks anyone (who might end up in the mental health system) not "what is wrong with you" but WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU? Yes, what happened to you?

Psychosis, healing and rebirth

People can heal the sensitivity to become psychotic by becoming AWARE...that is a growth and maturation process...when one matures enough to become an observer of their thoughts and become discerning about the content of their thoughts psychosis pretty much goes away...

Psychosis is, among (many) other things, also, quite often, a deep attachment to one's (not consensually reasonable) thoughts and beliefs. To be clear much of what is consensually and widely believed in society and the mainstream is also delusional. It's just generally accepted. R.D Laing has much to say about the "normal" human being. Let's just say that real clarity and lucidity is not normal. … [click on title for the rest of the post]

Madness as a reckoning of one’s own psyche. Yes.

Faith has abandoned her old diagnosis of bipolar 1, severe with psychotic features, in favor of a holistic understanding of madness. She deeply values the human right to define one’s own experiences in ways that encourage wisdom, gratitude, strength, and possibility. ... Faith's experience is much like mine. I just love this video. She articulates the dilemma with brilliance. This is a very good way to spend a little more than six minutes. … [click on title to read the rest]

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