It was great and I would personally like to know more about the organization.

He sounds like an incredible person.

A fellow patient vanished from the locked ward. The police were alerted and interviewed the staff and his friends on the ward. They checked his family home, and the homes of acquaintances.

But noone had a clue where he’d gone.

The local TV and radio stations ran fear-mongering stories about him.

The news bulletins showed a dated photograph, and zoomed in on his eyes, as he was repeatedly described as a ‘dangerous mental patient’.

Viewers were warned that on no account should they approach him if sighted.

Even the local Labour MP – a hate-filled racist homophobe – wanted a slice of the action.

The MP whipped up a frenzied media campaign of hatred and hysteria towards psychiatric patients.

He told the press that he was going to demand action – “mark my words, security is going to be beefed up across the whole mental health system.”

By now, Patient X had been “on the run” for many months, and with the public growing tired of the story, the media eventually let it go.

The months past, and Patient X and his whereabouts remained unknown.

Spring passed, through to Summer, and onwards.

With the arrival of Autumn, the leaves started to fall.

As winter approached, and with the trees almost completely bare, the whereabouts of the elusive Patient X, at last, were revealed.

There he was, thirty or more feet in the air, hanging by a rope from a cedar tree, and barely a hundred yards from the hospital.

The hapless soul had been hanging there for more than six months.

The hate-filled MP never did offer condolences.

My issue exactly Jim. For consent to be truly informed options must be given.

I applaud your sense of responsibility and please feel free to share whatever insights you have on this blog any time you like.

My big complaint with mental health professionals is that the patient is seldom told that there are a variety of alternative treatments which have been proven to work.

I see it as my responsibility to my fellow humans to say that I once was very sick, but gained a measure of recovery with alternative methods. People suffering with mental illness need examples to show them that recovery is possible. When a possible alcoholic attends his first AA meeting, he/she is shown a room full of recovering alcoholics. I would like the same thing to happen with the mentally ill.
Jim S

giannakali (at) gmail (dot) com

The doctors all believed that I had to be heavily medicated all my life. I’ve been off of all meds for bipolar for decades. I’ve achieved many honors including Who’s Who in two different fields.

I do some yoga, lots of exercise, journal writing, and lots of volunteer work. As a recovering alcoholic, I try to help others. Recovery, inc taught me cognitive therapy.

However there are many many people who have found yoga and or nutrition to make a dramatic difference for even the most severe mental health diagnosis, including helping them return to “normal” living completely symptom-free. That’s not a fact that the pharmaceutical companies or medical establishment help people know about, but it is true.

It is important to not be dogmatic. I don’t believe one size fits all or any single approach will work for anyone. However many people like me have found holistic approaches helpful. Many people have not. Everyone should have the right and economic means to try alternative approaches.

In a world where doctors want to say that something is one way and there is one solution, the fact that everyone is individual and everyone will have individual solutions is a hard concept to grasp. I encourage you and everyone to experiment and see for yourself what works and doesn’t work, but to include holistic options as a possible way forward because they have been show to work for many people, not all, but many.

A resource that may be helpful is this Guide to coming off meds:

http://theicarusproject.net/HarmReductionGuideComingOffPsychDrugs

I wish a peaceful spirit, to you Gianna.

A great article, and a great discussion.

The “new” post you got, I’m guessing is the one that my subscription email account sent out. For some reason it sent out an old post from Oct. 16th yesterday. I don’t know why you couldn’t get to the whole post though. I know that others on my email list got to it okay.

In any case it was a glitch.

Hope to be back in the saddle soon, though I may take a weeks vacation where there is NO internet starting Monday. I really hope we get to do that, but it’s up in the air at this point. So I have no idea when I’ll get back to blogging.

be well.

A couple of weeks ago I ‘attacked’ a DNA professor at a conference on Bipolar for referring to it as an ‘illness’ … when the illnesses are depression and mania .. I also said that what he was seeing in the differences in the DNA was EVOLUTION and survival of the fittest … Darwin and all that … people who are hypomanic are the successful entrepreneurs .. rather than psychiatrists !!

HE did not even try to respond … in fact he did not have the courtesy to talk to me afterwards … he sulked off no doubt feeling very hurt .. as HE thought of himself as a renowned world ‘expert’ on his subject ….

there is a lot of evidence that much mental illness is trauma induced and can be healed in a multitude of alternative means to medication.

I’m quite familiar with the biomedical model and what it can do.

Are you actually familiar with the thousands of people who HAVE recovered from supposed entrenched mental illness?

I know of many people for which it has and does though. We are all different. Just because it didn’t work for you, you cannot deny that it works for some unless you call them liars.

See my about page for a few stories of recovery. I know of many others who have not documented their success.