Humor Is the Best Medicine Mark A. Davis; Philadelphia, PA During your mental health care, have you often felt hopeless about your chance of getting better? Yes, back in the late 70s and early 80s Has a mental health provider ever told you that you could reach a personal goal despite your psychiatric diagnosis (for…
Mind, Body, and Spirit as a Unified Whole Glen Bushers; Sacramento, CA Have you ever taken a prescribed psychiatric medication? Yes In what ways have you found psychiatric medication(s) helpful, if any? Initially to manage depression symptoms so I could function on a daily basis. Medication in and of itself is not a cure for…
Stronger Because of the Path that I’ve Walked Liz Teska; Asheville, NC During your mental health care, have you often felt hopeful about your chance of getting better? Yes. I have had two different phases of mental health care. One was for poor people and recently I got a scholarship at an amazing healing community.…
Transformed Into a Different Person Michael Bilson; Manchester, NH During your mental health care, have you often felt hopeless about your chance of getting better? Yes. Providers insisted on denying and discounting the adverse impact of my long-term exposure to a series of acute and enduring psychosocial stressors, as well as the toxicity of most…
Identity Change: From Mental Patient to Teacher By Susan I was put in a psych hospital when I was 18, in 1980, for about 2 months. Again when I was 22, for 2 or 3 months, and the final time, when I was 25, for about 10 days. I was not violent, but was probably considered…
If They Could See Me Now! Kathleen Rhoads Merriam; Kaneohe, HI During your mental health care, have you often felt hopeless about your chance of getting better? Yes. I got sick at 17 and thought I was doomed for life. I remember my hopeless days very clearly. I can relate to my fellow consumers that feel…
Look Forward to Tomorrow By Sarah Wegner In what ways have you found psychiatric medication(s) harmful, if any? It can be a crutch. It can do a lot more harm than good also, when the doctor prescribing is more interested in keeping me out of their office, and less with actually helping. It can be…
Recovery, Healing, and Personal Evolution Are Possible Linda Simpson; Phoenix, AZ In what ways have you found psychiatric medication(s) helpful, if any? Taking psychiatric medication lessoned certain symptoms so that I had some ease and time to experiment with what else could be helpful and to heal. In what ways have you found psychiatric medication(s)…
Thank You, Saul Alinsky! Most people don’t remember Saul and his activism or the book he wrote “Rules for Radicals.” I learned about him not from graduate Social Work but through my time volunteering at a homeless women’s shelter in Washington DC (the time Reagan became president.) It is through the reading of his work…
Happy to Be a Rebel Joanna My name is Joanna and I am very happy to share my story with you. I am a 32-year-old Polish woman. I am a sociologist and work as a university lecturer. I began to hear voices last summer, when I was visiting a very close, much older (69 years…