If you are experiencing mental illness or care for or about someone who does, read this.
Dear Person With Mental Illness
Reasons Not To Give Up
Veronike says this as well as its ever been said.
Why Kindness Heals – By James R. Doty, M.D.
Kindness heales – yes it does. Now, can we give our healers the luxury of time to be kind?
As a physician specializing in neurosurgery at an academic medical center, I appreciate the unhappiness many patients have with the present healthcare delivery system that is rushed, bureaucratic, non-caring and technology-focused.
In the U.S. we spend more per capita than any other industrialized country, yet the outcomes are some of the worst in the world, with the highest levels of patient dissatisfaction.
What is the solution? Francis W. Peabody, M.D. said in 1925 that,
“the secret of the care of the patient is caring for the patient.”
These words are even more true today and are now backed by an ever enlarging body of science that demonstrates that kindness, compassion and empathy have a profound effect on healing. This new body of evidence spanning psychology, neuroscience, and even economics reveals that as a species our default mode is not one of self-centeredness but that we are wired…
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Coping with Voices & Psychosis
Lots of good tips and strategies.
The word psychosis is a very clinical term that basically means hearing voices and having other hallucinations, having delusions which are basically false beliefs that are not based in reality. For example The FBI is monitoring me or demons are taking over my body and things like that. Also psychosis may include feelings of paranoia or like someone is watching you, following you or out to harm you. All of these things describe the word psychosis. I am diagnosed with Bipolar 1 and I have clearly dealt with psychosis and voices during my extremely high manias. The voices have said bad things and they have also said good things. The most stressful thing about them is that you cannot control what they say to you. I am a person who is a perfectionist and usually feels more comfortable when I have everything in my control. So regarding the voices for…
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Once Upon a Random Film Search, I Stumbled Upon a Magnetic Film Called “Dream Boy” by Christina Noel
Christina Noel tells an important story. There are possible triggers re: abuse.
A lot of people would disapprove due to its subject content – it’s a story about the friendship between two teenage boys, which becomes something more with disastrous consequences. The reason I chose the film was because in its blurb it talks about the reactions of the people around them to the situation, and I have a weird geeky fascination with people’s reactions to things. I had no idea that God was going to reveal something to me in this random film.
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DISSIPATION – 12/87
I was reminded of this piece by an article posted recently on Face Book about the relationship between childhood abuse and trauma, and addiction.
What is this “dissipation” thing? Well, first, the setting. a long-term (18-24 months) substance abuse rehab program for teen-agers based on the Treatment Community model. The residents, 10 boys and 9 girls, were all placed by the juvenile court and probation. Most had failed in other, shorter, programs, or re-offended, or relapsed, or violated probation. Some, if they failed there would face incarceration until they aged out of the juvenile system. In background they ranged from a young man whose father was a vice president of a Fortune 500 company, to second and third generation addicts and gang members from some of the worst neighborhoods around the San Francisco Bay.
Dissipation was a marathon group process with periods of group process and individual work in a variety of modes. Some type of art work was usually included, and music was a major part of the process. Much of the work, by plan or stories just coming out was about abuse and trauma in childhood or in their using carriers, or all through their lives to then. It was an intense journey into the heart of pain and back out again. After one I wrote this:
As you might guess, greeting that sunrise was part of the process.
LOVE IS FOUND
When Hasty writes of love it is felt.
Written by: Hastywords
And this is my blog 🙂
We look for love
Inside lines
And rows
Of prose
And poetry
It speaks
Beautifully
Fluently
In many languages
Sometimes lyrical
And often in rhyme
Eloquent words
Strung passionately
Across the wires
Caressing the heart
Feeding the soul
But it’s only fuel
The match waiting
To be struck
The kindling
Full of energy
Patiently waiting
To carry the flame
For love is deeper
Than the words
It’s found beyond
Inside the exchanges
Words can’t touch
It’s found in the miracle
Embodied inside
A simple hug
Or a simple kiss
Love is found
In the quiet pauses
The silent spaces
Love is found
In the smiles
And the laughter
Love is inside the magic
Of sight
Of sound
Of scent
Of touch
Of touch
Of touch
How the Police can Benefit From the Uncanny Power of Courtesy – By Mark Gosson
Oh, if only, what a difference.
I was just traveling throughout Europe and I found myself paying attention to how the police interact with people there.
Part of this is certainly just my tendency to rubber-neck but with all the media attention that American police have received this year I also found myself comparing these interactions. I noticed that they do something that I don’t think I have ever seen happen in America and I was overwhelmed by the power of this simple thing: courtesy.
Police abroad would introduce themselves and extend a hand out in friendship. “Hello, I’m officer Polansky (the officer extends his hand). May I ask your name?” The natural interaction of two people should begin with courtesy and mutual respect.
Whether the person is an innocent citizen or a criminal, we all would like to be met cordially.
Imagine if the police did this in America. Starting the interaction off in a…
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Why I Won’t Be Taking Shots On My 21st Birthday (Drinking Responsibly)
This is an important story.
Today is my 21st birthday, a day I have been looking forward to for quite some time now.
Due to an event that happened about six months ago I will not be taking birthday shots and getting wasted tonight. Instead I plan on having dinner and maybe a glass of wine with my closest friends and family.
I am writing this because I didn’t realize the importance of drinking responsibly until I was waking up from a coma, and I don’t want anyone to go through what my family and I went through. I ask that you share this with your friends, family or anyone who may benefit from reading this. If I can help just one person by sharing my experience, then I will be absolutely ecstatic.
Reno, Nevada- July 26, 2015: A photo from the emergency room an hour after I arrived at Renown hospital. At this point…
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Music: My Gift, My Poison by Neesa Suncheuri
A remarkable account of coping with schizophrenia from Neesa Suncheuri,
Music is a talent that I have had since early childhood, having studied the violin and viola from age five through college. But it is also a terrible poison for me. When I perform with my violin, or with an electric guitar adjusted just so…I experience schizophrenia. Racing voices in my head telling me that I am a demon. That I am sinning against some deity because I’m expressing myself. That I’m using the wrong chords, specific chords that are evil. Or that my lyrics are akin to spells…satanic, backward, and reversed. My mind believes it all, and I become convinced that I am the Antichrist.
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cabbagesandkings524 