Are Alternatives conferences obsolete?
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 codependent.
Continue reading By Clif Wright – Why Alternatives Conferences are Obselete
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
Continue reading A Spiritual Awakening Around Passover
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.
How My Friends Got Me Through a Bad DakotaWinter
Recently,
Continue reading By Liza Casey — “I Get By With “a Little Help From My Friends”
Millions of native English speakers think they can’t write. Yet they generate thousands of clear, original sentences every day in conversations and e-mail. So why do so many clear, intelligent thinkers panic, and become illiterate, when asked to write their thoughts down?
Modern word processopr
Most were simply taught wrong, told to follow writing rules that are not even writing rules because they have nothing to do with clear, When they broke writing rules, the teacher scribbled all over their ideas in red ink, and deducted points from their grade. When the poor kid grows up, and has to
Continue reading Writing Rules andTips for Our Bloggers
I mean to be helpful, clumsily sharing some of the most powerful things I know:
1) that its all about personal responsibility 2) that everthing we need to deal with whatever is challenging us is alresdy there,and 3) the “focus on problems” conversation we’re having mostly keeps us from the power to solve problems
I’m certain now that people most readily believe what they come to discover for themselves.
I’ve discovered (been shown) that the usual conversations we have about the biggies we face are usually circular or dead end debates, mostly about whose right, who’s or wrong, etc. –
Continue reading Clif Wright – Mental health talks that just focus on problems limit us
Editors’s note: Many people think that building websites and computer programming is hard. Most programmers say that anyone can do what they do. But then why aren’t we doing it? Well, it does take some time to learn. These are questions and ideas to keep in mind if you are planning to hire a computer programmer or take a programming class. This was taken from an email to us by a volunteer programmer who helped us at Startup Weekend.
I would definitely encourage you to attend a conference on computer programming.. Even if you never personally utilize the technical information,
Continue reading How to Talk to Computer Programmers
PRO: What most mental health advocates usually say.
This was taken from a local NAMI person in an email on a listserv:
Surely those who encourage and care about you change lives best, whether they are a peer or not. Some people are indeed lucky to have caring and talented professionals and other recovery helpers. I think this happens much more than we realize.
The reason I say that is stigma is still so pervasive. I believe we meet folks every day who are closet consumers. In my work and private life, I’ve met countless individuals who have a serious,
Continue reading Does Coming Out About Mental Illness Reduce Stigma?
By Ken Braiterman, Wellness Wordworks Board Chair
I came out to my family and trusted friends right away, when I was diagnosed in 1977, not with people who only knew me a short time, or at work. I didn’t want them to think about my mental health history if I got angry, tired, or frustrated like everybody else.
What I told myself determined what I told other people. That evolved in stages.
I thought in 1977 that I had a chemical imbalance in the brain, a no-fault disease controllable with medication. That was a new idea then. If enough people
Continue reading My Experience of the Three Phases of Internal Stigma Reduction
Editor’s note: This is a discussion that came from our UnDiagnosing Emotional Distress Facebook group.
Ken Braiterman: I think psychiatrized is when mental health professionals turn normal human feelings and behaviors that they would have themselves into symptoms of a psychiatric disease. It’s their way of not dealing with WHY you’re angry or depressed, and calling the anger and depression your “sickness.” It’s thinking all your problems come from a “chemical imbalance,” and psychiatric chemicals will make you well.
JF: The use of the medical profession to deal with non-medical problems of life. Denying women’s issues and instead applying derogatory
Continue reading Discussion: What Does “Psychiatrized” Mean?
I went to a social messaging conference and learned once the difference between behavior change and policy change. Most stigma reduction programs are run as policy change program when they need to targeted instead toward kids that are really in need:
“Cool” kids have different needs than preppy kids:
Al Cunningham sticks his head into the penguin tank we toured at the Atlanta aquarium after learning about stigma reduction at the Health Care Messaging Conference
One of the most well thought out and researched programs presented at the 2011 Health Care Messaging and Media conference came from Jeff Jordan.
Continue reading The Difference Between Stigma Reduction and True Social Inclusion
Editor’s Note” This incident between a dissed fan amd the K.C. Chiefs on Twitter has gone viral on the Internet. Don’t be nasty or sarcastic on social media;
Dissed Fan Travis Wright Gets Revenge
An executive with the Kansas City Chiefs professional football team decided to diss, in a sarcastic, dismissive way, a lifelong Chiefs fan. He sent a Twitter message to a disgruntled fan who had vented about the team’s ownership on Twitter.
It all started on Monday, when decades-long Chiefs supporter Travis Wright (pictured at right), who uses the Twitter handle @teedubya, was texting with a
Continue reading Dissed Fan Teaches NFL Team: Don’t Diss Fans on Twitter
From Monetizing Social Neworks by David Silver. This book tells me how to make our online psych survivor community economically self-sustaining. — Corinna West
“In a capitalistic society, everything eventually becomes a derivative,” Karl Marx wrote in Das Kapital.
We have seen that in the financial market with credit default swaps. And heck, what is a share of common stock anyway?
Now, we see Farmville, a social media game, grossing an estimated $200 millian a year in revenues from the sale of synthetic currency used to buy tractors, goats, sheep, cows and chickens. Yet social games like this are purposeless
Continue reading By David Silver – Social Media Games Divide; Rituals Unite
One of my friends had a hard time putting links into a blog of his, so these are some suggestions for people learning more about blogging or new to computers. I’ve also noticed that some academic writers want to put their references at the end like a paper publication does, yet putting links inside blog posts is a much better way to do this online.
Suggestions for high quality links inside blog posts.
1. First the mechanics. This is how you do it with a WordPress blog, but most other platforms have a similar process. Pick five or six words
Continue reading Do’s and Dont’s for links inside blog posts
Editor’s Note: As a mental health consultant with lived experience, I identify with this piece by Corinna West. More often than not, invitations from mental health providers to keynote conferences, advise on projects, and serve on committees do not include payment for our time, expertise, and experience. It’s as if they think we have nothing else to do, and the honor of having them listen to us should be all the reward we need. I was once asked to keynote a conference out of state, and pay my own air fare and hotel bill. “We don’t have funding to pay
Continue reading What to Say When Peers Are Asked to Work for Free
The one thing we know for sure about psych meds is that nobody knows anything for sure about psych meds. Everyone reacts differently to every difference drug, and most of what people say is based on their own experience, good or bad, or their personal ideology. Scientific experts and studies disagree as much as advocates and lay people do. That’s why this website requires documenting medication claims and opinions.
Citing authority won’t resolve any conflicts, but documenting medication claims will at least show that the blogger did some research, bases his opinion on something, is not shooting from
Continue reading Why We Insist on Documenting Medication Claims and Opinions
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