We need to bring out into the open the ways that many of us or even all of us from time to time experience impairment or disability. What disability looks like from an experiential perspective – not labeling and how people are meeting those challenges. This is also where disability concepts like reasonable accommodation and accessibility can be helpful – at least to give people an idea that people with disabilities have a right to be treated with kindness and not cruelty in relation to any diversity or difficulty – it’s that basic.
I don’t think there is just a single Rosetta Stone for psychosis. I do think it is a language which can be understood through compassion.
Carl Jung, who broke with Freud, actually worked in a mental hospital and talked with patients. His autobiography discusses his own spiritual crisis. Many people agree that a breakdown is a spiritual emergency. I tend to think it is a crisis of mind, and possibly soul, which can lead to reorganization and transformation.
Treatment may interfere with the mental health recovery process, but society’s needs are part of the reason
The emerging research on Peer Support says it improves the quality of traditional mental health recovery services…. priceless stuff that works. And if you ask me that’s where the money needs to go as well… towards outreach, engagement, linkages, relating and building and enhancing relationships. That’s where prevention and intervention occur and its the least costly of all the things that could be done. Using peer support to improve mental health recovery gives big bangs for the bucks… the research is clear on that as well.
When you drill down into the literature, re: health, well-being, prosperity, joy, satisfaction, love,
What is the Best Method for Treating Situational Depression?
Anyone who has had any experience with the mental health care system will be aware of the enormous range of treatments and lifestyle recommendations made by doctors. Your doctor might be suggesting that you start taking medication for your depression or insomnia, but here are things doctors should tell you about antidepressants for treating situational depression. But some doctors don’t always even know these facts themselves.
If you have a good doctor for treating situational depression, it is likely that they will also talk to you about how diet and exercise will
I’m one of those mental health discussion weenies. I’m an advocate who pokes my head in a lot of corners because I learned a lot time ago that everything connects and makes sense. Really, mental health discussions, environmentalism, industrial food, transportation, water rights – all of the painful issues right now boil down to the same thing – there are some people out there making a lot of money off doing things in a way that doesn’t make sense. So inertia and lobbying money helps us keep doing things that don’t make sense instead of working to help the grass
This January I went to Cincinnati for a cluster of three business conferences, and to explore possible expansion of my online network to a satellite city. During the third conference, I got e-mail rejection notices for all the pending grants I had for my business, some of which I had thought were locked up. My friends helped me through it and suggested more networking and work on clarifying business missions. They also suggested I stay in touch for another event the next weekend.
Bridge shot in downtown Cincinnati. Riding across the grate freaked me out some.
Poetry for Personal Power is now Wellness Wordworks’ premiere program and is filing for it’s own nonprofit status if we get your help on our Indiegogo campaign. Last fall we wrote a blog explaining our approach to stigma reduction, and why social inclusion campaigns are so much better. The main idea is that we teach all of the most valuable lessons of the recovery movement, about peer support, building resiliency and finding our own strengths. But we’ve put them together in a very short and simple package that we can send out to brand new audiences.
Business Plan Updates from Corinna West, Wellness Wordworks, and Poetry for Personal Power:
We missed you over the winter: Corinna West, the founder of Poetry for Personal Power and Wellness Wordworks, has been out of full time entrepreneurship activity much of the winter due to a spiritual emergency. This involved her deciding to follow the Creator’s guidance on life choices and business pursuits. You can read about the first part of this journey on her personal blog, with more updates to come out soon about the second half of the journey. Also, our main blog editor and board chair, Ken Braiterman, was diagnosed
Easter is Sunday, March 31, this year. “Tonight marks a milestone. I’m setting up an Easter/spring display at the antique mall booth I’m opening. This outward display of rebirth represents substantial personal growth in the last year.
Easter basket
Last Easter, I had a relapse. Wellbutrin caused mental confusion; I got lost on a simple, route I know to a friend’s house. Her cell phone directions didn’t compute. I missed most of the dinner, after plans to come early and help set up and to give her a special hostess gift. My friend and her family graciously invited
One is just an intuitive, empathetic connection that sometimes happens when people understand each other.
I also believe we can cultivate an ability to listen and connect deeply, to set aside judgments about how other people express themselves or react to a situation. When I do that, it often makes a real conversation possible. I’m not always successful at it, but I keep trying to learn.
Programs that Help People Connect Deeply
Soteria helps people connect deeply.
Ombudsperson programs, Soteria, and Open Dialogue all seem like practices that have
Ever since the Facebook conversations about the chance that funding for Alternatives conferences might have gotten cut, I wondered if folks were still thinking about, and discussing this. It kinda dead ended when the funds were assured. I think your raising it newly, and your call to action are right on time.
The upshot of the previous conversation for me was the possibility of seizing upon the uncertainty to propose new ways to produce the conference going forward. The specter of vanishing funds is still very much present. The Alternatives conference today is totally
Passover begins at sundown, Monday, March 25, 2013.
Lissa Tanenbaum The Passover Seder
With the possible exception of Sabbath once a week, Passover (Pesach) one week a year has the most my has the most spiritual resonance, and has always been my favorite Jewish holiday. It celebrated the freeing of the Hebrew slaves from Egypt, as told in the Book of Exodus, and also the beginning of Spring, a second form of redemption.
It starts with a traditional ceremony and meal, called a Seder. at sundown March 25 this year. Jews who live outside Israel, in the
More than usual lately, I am thankful for my friends. The other day, when I as sick, I was surprised by housework help, and two Hershey’s Special Dark chocolate bars.
Peers “get by with help from my friends.”.
The quality of my life and stress level improved tremendously when my friends Becki and Todd did household chores which were overwhelming to me because of physical pain. A cold and/or inclement weather made vacuuming my stairs, taking out my garbage, and bringing my mail inside a strain for me.
NAMI started when it became too common to demonize parents for their children’s problems.
This originally came from a post on Mad In America, about Jani, a six year old with a schizophrenia diagnosis, who has gotten much media attention which was sought by her parents. The comments link to the parents’ admission of child abuse, which may have pre-dated the psychosis. But the question is, is it fair to publicly criticize these parents? Is it fair also to put a child’s health information online?
My blog is directed at parents, not ex-patients who are well-represented in the recovery
People need good information. and less fighting over medication..
Editor’s note: As the author says, Wellness Wordworks is for good mental health information, and truly informed consent regarding psych meds. That must include information about alternatives to medicine, and dangerous long-term side effects. IT MEANS TRYING ALTERNATIVES TO MEDICATION FIRST, NOT AS AN AFTER-THOUGHT.
We are against “diagnosis and medication first for everyone for life,” which is still standard practice in mental health today. We believe most so-called mental illness comes from previous trauma, isolation, invalidation, and loss, which are not diseases, and do not respond to psych
Connect with us!
Our social media sources: