to my birthday.
I am going to the beach.
silly animated gif:
Tag Archives: Uncategorized
MindFreedom News Release
NEWS RELEASE – 4 March 2008 – PsychRights – MindFreedom
Media contacts: Daniel Hazen – 315-528-3385 dan@psychrights.org
Krista Erickson – 541-345-9106 krista@mindfreedom.org
More info & download PDF of news release:
http://www.mindfreedom.org/shield/psychrights
~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Forcing Psychiatric Drugs Can Increase Violence,” Warns
New Task Force on Mental Health Legal Advocacy & Activism
Promising to fight what they call pervasive and harmful violations of
mental health clients who are involuntarily drugged and
electroshocked in the United States, The Law Project for Psychiatric
Rights (PsychRights) and the MindFreedom Shield Campaign announced
today a joint Task Force on Mental Health Legal Advocacy & Activism.
The new partnership of law and nonviolent direct action has an
initial focus in the states of California, Massachusetts and New York.
PsychRights’ President Jim Gottstein declared, “People’s rights in
forced drugging proceedings are ignored as a matter of course,
resulting in great harm to them and decreased public safety.” David
Oaks, Director of MindFreedom International (MFI), noted, “Violence
by a few individuals labeled ‘mentally ill’ has led to a backlash
calling for a massive increase in forced psychiatric drugging.”
Mr. Gottstein added, “Contrary to public perception, forcing people
to take psychiatric drugs can often increase violence, rather than
decrease it. If people were warned that both taking and withdrawing
from these drugs can at times contribute to committing terrible acts,
they and their loved ones can be alert to the possibility and
tragedies averted.”
Krista Erickson, MFI board member and Chair of the MFI Shield
Campaign, said, “I’m excited about MFI and PsychRights expanding our
partnership and focusing the combined power of legal advocacy and
activism on specific cases.” The MFI Shield Campaign supports the
wishes of a member to be free of involuntary mental health
intervention with an international “Solidarity Network” of advocates.
The new Task Force plans to use both the court of law and the court
of public opinion.
Task Force organizers say the combination of PsychRights’ expertise
for strategic litigation and the “people power” of MindFreedom
activists around the country will bring a synergy and geographic
reach to their demands for people’s legal and human rights. Daniel
Hazen, Northeast Coordinator with PsychRights, added, “In the United
States the ‘mental health’ industry is a labeling system that often
dismisses self- determination, legal capacity and alternatives.
‘Treatment’ can be forced through the court systems. People ought to
‘have their day in court’ but this is often far from what actually
occurs.”
MFI is an independent nonprofit coalition defending human rights and
promoting humane alternatives in mental health. The Law Project for
Psychiatric Rights is a public interest law firm devoted to the
defense of people facing what they call the “horrors of unwarranted
forced psychiatric drugging and other forced psychiatric procedures.”
PsychRights office is in Anchorage, Alaska: http://
www.psychrights.org. The MFI office is in Eugene, Oregon: http://
www.mindfreedom.org
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Update
Things have been a little overwhelming and I’ve had some psychiatric symptoms complicating things. It’s all okay, though. I’m going to be fine. And I know how to cope. I’ve been through worse.
Snook Fire/ Disaster News-
As you may already know, I was laid off 3 days after losing our home to fire. It hasn’t been a very good year so far. Except, I must say, for the support we have received from friends- that has been a blessing.
It’s been tough on Matt (our 18 year old- he was very attached to some stuff that was lost in the fire- things from when his sister was alive- he has a touch of OCD when it comes to things he associates with Erin).
The animals are mostly accounted for and safe. My sister is sitting for the two white cats (Blizzard and Annie). The humane society is boarding Mike and Noel. Daisy is being cared for by some neighbors who are “bird people” and don’t seem to mind her at all. Ruth has gone missing- cabn’t find her- but she’s probably around the old house somewhere, just freaked out.
Many people have helped us move stuff into storage and helped with clean-up and disposal of our former possessions. Julie has been working mostlyt and we both have been searchging for a home every spare minute. Matt is back to work at WallMart as of today.
We found a place to live- It’s a townhouse/ duplex near 122nd and Holgate. It has 2 bedrooms and a lot of stairs. It’s the first place where they didn’t tell us to take a hike (losing a job is not a good start to getting a rental).
We have a trustee account set up but the bank doesn’t want us to post it on the internet. If you can help, write me a comment or email me at dwellintheheart@yahoo.com or call me.
May T., Clerk of Oversight Committee at the Multnomah Monthly Meeting is the trustee- she’ll be able to access the funds for things we need like-
moving costs- deposits, getting utilities set up again,
replacing stuff we lost (e.g. Julie’s and my bedroom was gutted),
misc. expenses hard for us to pay because I just got laid off
moving costs- deposits, getting utilities set up again,
replacing stuff we lost (e.g. Julie’s and my bedroom was gutted),
misc. expenses hard for us to pay because I just got laid off
(Re getting laid off- if anyone has a digital copy of my resume that would be great, because my copy was on the basement computer that was where the fire started.)
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Burning down the house!
My house burned down last night. No shit. Everything goner in a matter of minutes. Makes you think about what’s important. (Everybody’s okay- even the damn bird.)
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Happy Sunday
Here is a page with a nice collection of space pictures:
http://heritage.stsci.edu/gallery/gallery_category.html
Some interesting medical animation:
An animation I made back when W was running for president:
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Not my best week
I haven’t much to say. What I do have to say, I don’t want to talk about it.
So, here arte some links to things I’ve been reading:
Two articles about trauma from the National Empowerment Center
http://www.power2u.org/articles/trauma/coping-tragedy.html
http://www.power2u.org/articles/trauma/ment_cope.html
And a link to Car;l Sandburg’s Rootabaga Stories
http://www.josephperry.net/rootabaga/
Have a nice weekend. Here’s a cute kitty (thanks, Nyomi):
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Mad news and views
This reprinted from Ron Unger’s blog today:
Posted by Ron Unger on January 31st, 2008
Below is the first paragraph of an exerpt from a recent book review, followed by some of my thoughts about the problems caused by looking at experiences as the result of an “illness” rather than as the workings of a mind that could eventually be better understood and worked with until they become something positive: Book Review Essay: An exploration of manic depression. Bipolar Expeditions: Mania and Depression in American Culture By Emily Martin Princeton University Press, 2007. Reviewer: Sander L Gilman The Lancet 2008; 371:293-294Emily Martin is “mad”—she uses this term in the preface of her book to
provide a context for her account of bipolar disorder/manic depression
in the USA today. Clinically diagnosed as bipolar, in this serious and
engaging book she repeatedly documents the symptoms of her illness.
Martin has hallucinations, including that of the “sinister figure, a
cold gray gargoyle, perched tenaciously on my shoulder, looking at
what I was writing…and muttering a devastatingly negative commentary”,
which haunted the very act of her writing. What that “cold gray
gargoyle” is reading over her shoulder is her study of “mania…a new
continent with a distant frontier, whose receding horizon invites
exploration and development”. My comments:
provide a context for her account of bipolar disorder/manic depression
in the USA today. Clinically diagnosed as bipolar, in this serious and
engaging book she repeatedly documents the symptoms of her illness.
Martin has hallucinations, including that of the “sinister figure, a
cold gray gargoyle, perched tenaciously on my shoulder, looking at
what I was writing…and muttering a devastatingly negative commentary”,
which haunted the very act of her writing. What that “cold gray
gargoyle” is reading over her shoulder is her study of “mania…a new
continent with a distant frontier, whose receding horizon invites
exploration and development”. My comments:
My comments:To me, “illness” is an inadequate metaphor to describe what goes on with depression and mania and creativity etc. It just seems inadequate to describe say the “cold gray gargoyle” as being sourced in an “illness” – mood and imagination involve so much more than that. Instead, I tend to see it as about self regulation – creativity involves going out of control to some extent but those who are successful with it learn how to make their way around in that world, to make their way back if they get “too far out” in any particular direction. So if they create a cold gray gargoyle, they also find their way to a counter-figure or some resource that allows them to deal with it, and overall they eventually end up enriched instead of oppressed. Rather than let their creativity ruin their life as some do in mania, they rein it in when necessary, but also let it take them to the edge or even a bit over at times so they find new worlds.
The sad thing about teaching people to think of themselves as having “bipolar disorder” or other such things is that they learn to think of the less ruly parts of their mind as an illness, a defect, rather than as a resource which they could possibly learn to use. We seem to have no notion within psychiatry about the development of wisdom, so the idea that one could learn to have better judgment about when to take those “manic” risks doesn’t occur to us. Nevertheless, despite official denials that any such thing is possible, it isn’t that hard to find people who have been told they were “bipolar” (or schizophrenic, or schizoaffective) decades ago and yet they are doing fine now, without medications. (I know, ” but they still could relapse in the future.” Hey, even many of us who never had a manic episode might still have one in the future, but the existence of this possibility does not justify diagnosis of an “illness.”)
From MindFreedom International:
Save the Date!
Free Panel and Public Forum in Portland, Oregon, USA on:
Forming a New State-Wide Coalition in OREGON
of Mental Health Consumers and Psychiatric Survivors!
All are welcome and invited!
~~~~~~~~~~~~
DATE:
Friday, 15 February 2008
~~~~~~~~~~~~
TIME:
3:00 pm to 4:30 pm
~~~~~~~~~~~~
WHERE:
Main Public Meeting Room
Multnomah County Central Library
801 S.W. 10th Avenue
Portland, Oregon, USA
~~~~~~~~~~~~
WHO:
A panel will speak briefly about how mental health consumer/
psychiatric survivor groups can work together in Oregon and
throughout the USA.
Then we hear from YOU in a moderated public forum — your questions,
comments, experiences, input!
PANELISTS:
* DAN FISHER, MD, PhD. of Massachusetts.
After a diagnosis of schizophrenia and psychiatric
institutionalization, Dan became a psychiatrist. He now directs the
National Empowerment in Center in Massachusetts which he co-founded
in 1992. Dan helped launch The National Coalition of Mental Health
Consumer Survivor Organizations. About half of USA states now have
state-wide organizations that belong to this new coalition.
* DAVID OAKS of Eugene, Oregon
David directs MindFreedom International which unites 100 grassroots
groups in an independent coalition to win human rights and
alternatives in the mental health system. David is a psychiatric
survivor.
* ROLLIN SHELTON is a long-time leader for transformation in the
mental health system who has been diagnosed with a psychiatric
disability. Rollin is director of the nonprofit organization Peer
LiNC Oregon (formerly OCTA)/MHAO based at Portland State University’s
Regional Research Institute.
* AMY ZULICH of Multnomah County, Oregon
Amy develops self-directed supports and planning for mental health
consumers. She works as a mental health peer advocate and program
coordinator for Empowerment Initiatives (EI). EI currently serves 25
people annually with brokerage-style self-directed supports. EI is in
the process of helping people with mental health labels transfer out
of group homes and foster care homes into more independent living.
Amy identifies herself as “a person who has experienced psychiatric
labels.”
* YOU! All are invited! Mental health consumers, psychiatric
survivors, mental health workers, family members, advocates and
concerned members of the public. Your questions, feedback, concerns,
ideas are welcome.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
WHY:
It is time for mental health consumers and psychiatric survivors to
unite for a strong state-wide voice!
It is time to support the principles of empowerment, self-
determination, recovery, human rights and a full range of
alternatives and choices for our well being throughout Oregon!
It is time for all who care about these important issues to support
this voice!
One year ago a number of mental health consumer and psychiatric
survivor groups supported the adoption of a mission statement and
tenets for an Oregon Consumer/Survivor Coalition (OCSC).
A dozen groups have joined, OCSC is now incorporated, and draft
bylaws are being prepared, all without funding from the State of Oregon.
This year it is time to launch OCSC. Let us hear your ideas,
enthusiasm, suggestions, feedback and questions. Bring a friend!
~~~~~~~~~~~~
MORE INFO:
Free. Wheelchair accessible. Free refreshments.
For more information about OCSC contact Mark Fisher at mfisher88@msn.com
See web folder:
http://www.mindfreedom.org/as/act/us/or/ocsc
To receive updates about OCSC please join this free, private, one-
way, no-spam e-mail announcement list:
http://www.intenex.net/lists/listinfo/ocsc-news
For more information about the 15 February 2008 meeting contact the
MindFreedom Oregon office at (541) 345-9106 or lane@mindfreedom.org.
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Oregon State Hospital Caught with it’s Pants Down
SALEM, Ore. — The U.S. Department of Justice has found numerous civil rights violations of patients at the Oregon State Hospital. In a report released Wednesday, federal investigators listed inadequate conditions and practices at the mental hospital ranging from life-threatening use of restraints to widespread patient-on-patient assault. Federal law entitles patients to certain standards of care. State health officials say many improvements have been made since the investigation took place in 2006, but acknowledged problems still exist. “The conditions reported on … are completely unacceptable,” said Dr. Bruce Goldberg, director of Oregon’s Department of Human Services. “It’s unacceptable as a state and its unacceptable for us as a state hospital for the health and well-being of our patients.”
The Oregon State Hospital is the state’s primary psychiatric facility for adults, which has a main hospital in Salem and other satellite facilities. Officials found violations in Salem and at its smaller Portland campus, which is used for psychiatric rehabilitation. Some of the cases highlighted in the 48-page report include:
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Post MLK Day post
This in from David Oaks:
Repeatedly, in the last two decades of his life, Rev. King said in
speeches and essays that he was proud to be “psychologically
maladjusted” to oppression, war and poverty.MLK said the “salvation of the world lies in the hands of the
maladjusted!”More than 10 times MLK said the world desperately needed a new
organization, the International Association for the Advancement of
Creative Maladjustment (IAACM)!As far we know, the IAACM never officially formed. Time Magazine
called it a “half joke.”
But last year, in 2007, MindFreedom International helped launch the
IAACM at its international conference as part of the “Mad Pride”
movement that celebrates the right to be nonviolently different, odd,
crazy, nuts, strange, weird, or whatever term society would like to
toss our way.
Who else could have intentionally and consciously formed the IAACM,
in reality, other than psychiatric survivors?
The Mad Pride movement asks you a simple question:
By MLK’s 80th birthday in 2009, what action will you take to show
your “creative maladjustment”?
For a decade “Mad Pride” celebrates each and every human being’s
creative uniqueness and right to be nonviolently different, including
we people who have survived the psychiatric system. Like Gay Pride,
Mad Pride events have included parades, theater, “bed pushes,”
concerts and more.
From the Inside Out:
In Portland we are fortunate to have a group called “From the Inside Out”. Led by Cathy Clemens, FTIO provides workshops and produces community events using interactive theater to explore issues and solutions related to mental health and it’s accompanying stigmatization. Based on the techniques of Theater of the Oppressed as developed by Augusto Boal, Interactive Theater participants create small plays that engage the audience in creatively changing the outcomes through active involvement with people who have mental health issues.
I will try to keep FTIO events posted as they come up. The group is currently working on planning for the coming year.
Reminder:
Mad Liberation by Moonlight is coming this Friday night, 1:00 a.m. PST on KBOO radio, 90.7 on your FM dial (to the left of NPR). Also streamed live on KBOO.org- set your alarm. This time your radio really is talking to you.
Martin Luther King on “Normalcy”:
“The only normalcy that we will settle for is the normalcy that
recognizes the dignity and worth of all of God’s children.
“The only normalcy that we will settle for is the normalcy that
allows judgment to run down like waters, and righteousness like a
mighty stream.
“The only normalcy that we will settle for is the normalcy of
brotherhood, the normalcy of true peace, the normalcy of justice…
“We must come to see that the end we seek is a society at peace with
itself, a society that can live with its conscience. And that will be
a day not of the white man, not of the black man. That will be the
day of [hu]man as [hu]man.”
-from MLK’s 25 March 1965 speech in Montgomery, Ala.
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moon soup 