Change, transformation and growth

I found a link to the below video at one of Patricia Lefave's new sites, CounterPsych. In the video John Breeding talks about "Helping People w/ Psychology Issues & Mental Health Problems", about Loren Mosher and Soteria, about how "everything eventually changes and transforms" ("This, too, shall pass.") if only it is allowed time and a safe space "to be and express itself", about how important it is "to stay in present time, in space, to not let our fears and reactivity run us", about how important it is "to bring yourself into this space of calm and relaxed confidence", especially for those, who want to help people in crisis.

He also talks about the devastating effect of concepts like "permanent conditions", "permanent mental illnesses and stuff, as a condition, a state that you have and will have", that "makes it impossible to change, and transform, and grow, because it is a negation of reality, and it puts a fear..., and it puts a false premise, a big lie, in there, that there's this brain disease, when there's not."

Now some people may wonder: "Well, isn't there? I've always been told it were a brain disease." The concepts of biological, genetically predisposed, and permanent brain diseases are altogether believe-it-or-not concepts. No scientific evidence has yet been found to prove any of these concepts right, as this article by Steven Morgan, that Gianna posted on her blog yesterday, once again makes clear. On the contrary, as Steven's article states, every circumstantial evidence points towards (childhood) trauma to be the cause of existential crises.

The video in many ways can stand as a response to Sean's video on crises, supporting his views, just as it at the same time clearly contrasts with Torben Schjødt's views, indeed, exposes these as the big lies, the negation of reality, that, come into existence out of fear and reactivity, make change, transformation and growth impossible ("Many of the patients Torben Schjødt has met have never overcome their illness completely.").



Thanks to Mike (PsycheTruth), John Breeding, Steven, Sean, Patricia, Gianna... to everyone out there in the blogosphere, at YouTube, in cyberspace, making an amazing contribution to bring about change, transformation and growth, and for all the positive energy that keeps coming from you!

Did you know about NIDS?

Curious as I am, after listening to Larry Simon's interviews with Grace Jackson, I of course went on a Google search - and found this transcript of a lecture Dr. Jackson held at Birmingham City University in 2004.

Scary stuff, presented in a very intelligible way, and with just the right amount of - black - humour ("It’s probably such a long word that this is why the doctors don’t often say it!", "But these are what doctors frequently don’t tell their patients about, or perhaps they think it doesn’t happen so often.") to make it a treat to read, in spite of the "message".

Putting together a reply to a mail, I'd just been thinking about "informed consent", and the National Health Service of Denmark's recent statement that full information to patients on side effects wasn't always appropriate and desirable, since it might cause patients to refuse medical treatment, before I came across this transcript. Well, as I wrote in my mail reply, I can vividly imagine which are the medications the least information on side effects will be provided for, or, to put it in another way, who are the people, who will be least informed... Also in future.

Frankly speaking, this is totalitarian to me. Especially since it is a proven fact, that anything else, even no treatment at all, actually has better long-term outcomes than medication when it comes to emotional crises.

So, go and get informed, and think twice before you say "yes" to any psychotropic drug you're offered! If you're given a choice, that is.

(Geez, since we apparently don't have any professionals with the same expertise as Grace Jackson - or should it be that they just don't want us to know??? - I will have to do something about this, at least summing it up somehow in Danish, one of these days.)