Pia's initiative

The petition for Gaderummet is an initiative of Pia Qu. Pia has nothing to do with Gaderummet other than that she's known the facility and its residents for quite a while. She's neither part of the staff nor user at Gaderummet, and has never been. Just as little as I.

I think, this is quite important, because it shows, that it's not only people who have the status of a resident, who involve themselves in the project, and support it.

Gaderummet stands for freedom of choice, for personal freedom, for the right to diversity and self-determination. Far beyond the limits of psychiatry/pedagogy. This matter is of everybody's concern. Tomorrow it may be you, who is exposed to the system's assault on your right to self-determination.

Personally, I've always believed myself secure from this kind of assault. I do live in a democratic country, that fully respects my human rights, not in one or the other totalitarian state, don't I? I got wiser...

"If you have a mind, you can lose it", Edward Podvoll says, concerning emotional crises. This is true for every aspect of life: what you have, you can lose. Also your personal freedom. Also in Denmark. One tiny slip, that breaks with society's unwritten laws for which is regarded acceptable, can be enough. There's not much room in the Danish streets. And it's becoming more and more narrow.

Pia has a blog here (Danish).

Open letter to Mikkel Warming, Mayor for Social Affairs at Copenhagen

I sent the below letter to Mikkel Warming today. Copies are mailed to the Ministry of Social Affairs and relevant local authorities at Copenhagen.

Dear Mayor Mikkel Warming,

it is with great disappointment and sadness that I see, that You obviously stop at nothing, in order to force the closure of "Gaderummet" through.

"Gaderummet" is the last refuge for many young people, who, without this facility, inevitably will end up in a mental health system, that has proven not to be of any help to them, or on the street, and extremely vulnerable to drug-abuse and crime.

May I remind You that "Gaderummet" is an award-winning facility, just because it has succeeded to provide need-adapted help to people, who otherwise would have been without any support. I speak from my own experience when I say, that far from everyone is helped by a mental health system, that only provides one single kind of help: the medical kind. As long as there is no scientific proof of any psychological or sociological problems to be of medical nature, it is simply undemocratic to try to force anyone to accept medical solutions to these problems. Apart from this and as a matter of fact, the mental health system, in stark contrast to alternatives like "Gaderummet", until today has failed to solve any of these problems. This said, to establish another facility, under close supervision by and in just as close co-operation with the mental health system, is no alternative. Such a facility can impossibly replace "Gaderummet".

To my conviction, the young people at "Gaderummet" are absolutely capable of making their own decisions. Just as anyone else, they have a right to determine on their own which kind of life, including which kind of help for their problems, they want. The closing-down of "Gaderummet" will leave them without any democratic choice. It will expose an additional number of young people to a life on the street, to drug-abuse and criminality. I can't believe that this is, what You want.

I will do whatever it takes to bring the matter to the attention of a broader international public.

Sincerely,
Marian B. Goldstein
Member of MindFreedom International

Gaderummet - Info auf Deutsch/Info in German

[For everyone who wonders: I've been talking to Mirko Olostiak from Radio Dreyeckland this morning (read about it here, listen to the interview here, both in German), and we agreed, that I'd post a translation of Gaderummet's petition and some more info here on this blog.]

Hallo und willkommen auf meinem Blog! Wahrscheinlich guckst du vorbei, weil du heute morgen Mirkos Interview mit mir auf Radio Dreyeckland gehört hast, und etwas mehr wissen möchtest über Gaderummet, und wie du uns helfen kannst, die Schliessung von Gaderummet zu verhindern.

Hier zunächst mal die volle Übersetzung von Gaderummets Petition, die du hier unterschreiben kannst.



"Gaderummet war durch 12 Jahre hindurch Tag und Nacht offen. Zahlreiche obdachlose und ausgestossene Jugendliche mit Problemen von sowohl sozialer wie psychischer Art sind angenommen worden und haben Hilfe bekommen. Im Gaderummet ist man nicht zu psychiatrischer Hilfe gezwungen, sondern kann selbst entscheiden, welchen Weg und welche Methode man anwenden möchte, um wieder sein Leben in den Griff zu bekommen, mit professioneller und menschlicher Hilfe. Und das hat geholfen!

Jetzt schliesst die Kommune Kopenhagen diese einzigartige Einrichtung, die ein gerühmtes und prämiertes sozialpsychologisches Projekt ist, aufgrund von Beschuldigungen über mangelnde Zusammenarbeit mit der Psychiatrie.

Helft Gaderummet und unterschreibt diesen Protest gegen die Schliessung - gleichzeitig stimmt ihr für:

Die Freiheit eine Behandlung mit oder ohne Medizin wählen zu können!
Die Freiheit seinen Behandelnden selbst wählen zu können!
Und nicht zuletzt - die Möglichkeit wählen zu können!

Füge deine Unterschrift hinzu

Fülle diese Felder aus, um deine Unterschrift zuzufügen:

Vorname ("Fornavn")
Nachname ("Efternavn")
Wohnort ("By", alternativ: Land)
E-mail

Roter Stern: obligatorisch
Blauer Stern: wird nicht auf der Website gezeigt"


Wie im Interview gesagt, hatte man schon im Mai 2007 Gaderummet die kommunale Unterstützung gestrichen, aufgrund der Aussagen des im Interview erwähnten Psychiaters, der meinte, Gaderummet auf der Basis seiner wenigen, 5 - 10 Minuten kurzen Besuche, genau zu kennen. Darüber hinaus wurde versucht, den Leiter des Projekts, Psychologe Kalle Birck-Madsen, durch einen mehr "psychiatriefreundlichen" Leiter zu ersetzen. Mit dem Ziel, Gaderummet in eine Institution zu verwandeln, in der junge Leute, statt alternative Hilfe für ihre Probleme zu bekommen, für psychiatrische Massnahmen visitiert werden konnten. Dem widersetzten sich sowohl die Angestellten wie die Bewohner Gaderummets.

Vor einer Woche ist es Gaderummet wieder gerade mal so gelungen, 25.000,- Dkr für die fällige Stromrechnung herbeizuschaffen. Kopenhagener Politiker reagieren nun auf den Überlebenswillen und Kampfgeist Gaderummets mit der Drohung, die Räumung der Gebäude per gerichtlicher Verfügung zu erzwingen. Das wäre dann das Ende von Gaderummet.

Hilf uns, dies zu verhindern! Du kannst die oben zitierte Petition unterschreiben, und du kannst auch eine Protestmail an den Kopenhagener Bürgermeister für Soziales, Mikkel Warming, senden, der direkt für Gaderummet verantwortlich ist. E-mail: Mikkel.Warming(at)sof(dot)kk(dot)dk, im Sinne MindFreedoms: Bestimmt darf es gern sein, aber bitte auch HÖFLICH! Eine Kopie kannst du an das dänische Sozialministerium, als Mikkel Warming übergeordnet, senden. E-mail: sm(at)socialministeriet(dot)dk

Am besten ist es natürlich, wenn du auf Englisch (oder Dänisch) schreiben kannst. MindFreedom hat hier u.a. einen Mustertext, den du benutzen kannst. Zur Not geht es aber auch auf Deutsch, denke ich. Die meisten Dänen haben Deutschkenntnisse.

Ein herzliches Dankeschön!!! an alle, und besonders auch an Mirko und Radio Dreyeckland für die Gelegenheit, auf unsere Situation aufmerksam machen zu können!

Recovery and community mental health care

Morgan W. Brown has recorded two videos about mental health care in Vermont/USA, and posted them on his Beyond Vermont State Hospital (VSH) blog:

"Don't send me to Waterbury" Report, a roundtable including Michael Hartman, Ann Donahue, James Leddy and Albert Galves, discussing recovery-orientated community care vs. hospitalization.

The Future of Mental Health Care in Vermont, a discussion about recovery, psychiatric medication, and alternatives in the community, with the participation of Mary Ellen Gottlieb, Albert Galves, Xenia Williams and Bill Newhall.

I found both videos highly interesting, although I live far from Vermont. The issues are global.

Watch the videos on Morgan's blog, or at Google Video (links at Morgan's blog).

Thanks to Morgan for the notification!

Gaderummet - petition

Below a translation of Gaderummet's petition. Sign and help save Gaderummet!


Gaderummet has been open 24/7 for more than 12 years, during which many homeless and marginalized young people with problems of both social and psychological character have been welcomed and helped. At Gaderummet you're not forced to receive psychiatric help. You're free to choose your own way and method to get in control of your life again, with professional and humane assistance. And this approach has been successful!

Now the local authorities of Copenhagen are closing down this unique facility, this appreciated and awarded project, on the basis of accusations about a lack of co-operation with the mental health system.

Support Gaderummet and sign this petition against the closing-down - at the same time you vote for:

Freedom to choose treatment with or without medicine!
Freedom to choose your own mental health supplier!
And last but not least - the possibility to choose!



Add your signature

Fill in the below spaces to add your signature:

First name ("Fornavn")
Last name ("Efternavn")
City ("By"; alternatively: country)
E-mail

(Click the "Tilføj"-button to complete.)

Red star = obligatory
Blue star = doesn't appear on the website

Save Gaderummet

Go here and see how you can help save Gaderummet!

Here you can sign Gaderummets own petition (I'll post a translation later today).

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

Mainstream psychiatry usually claims that people with diagnoses of major psychiatric disorders such as "bipolar" or "schizophrenia" are born with a "dysfunctional" brain, that it just needed a trigger for the "illness" to show. While the "illness" always had been there, although it needed some time to find expression. Likewise, it is claimed, that these "diseases" are chronic, that the changes in brain chemistry are permanent.

Personally, and diametrically opposed to psychiatry's view of the matter, I've always been convinced that the "abnormalities" scans and EEGs of psychotic individuals show, perfectly match the state of mind these individuals are in. That they do nothing but reflect on a material level what these individuals experience both intellectually and emotionally, actually being the brain's reaction/adjustment to what is going on in an individual's mind. A view, that is supported by findings about both talk-therapy and other approaches (such as meditation), that change an individual's scheme of things, being able to change brain functioning as well.

The following article by Steven Morgan, a member of Vermont Recovery supports my view furthermore. Thanks to Steven for his kind permission to post this excellent article on my blog! Unfortunately, Blogger doesn't fully support my Mac, so I wasn't able to keep the original formatting. I hope, both Blogger, Mac and I will be forgiven! Here's the article:


Rethinking the Potential of the Brain in Major Psychiatric Disorders

By Steven Morgan (steven(at)vermontrecovery(dot)com)

I. Questionable Theories
The human brain is likely the most complex structure in the Universe. Even though it produces our understanding of the world, we are still in our infancy of understanding it. Even so, technological advances in the past few decades have produced images that allow researchers to observe different parts of the brain reacting to stimuli in real time, and also to measure variations in brain structures to compare populations. Alongside these developments, the field of psychiatry has increasingly sought after and put forth biological explanations for psychiatric disorders. With the influence of billions of advertising dollars from pharmaceutical companies,¹ these theories have been simplified and sold to laypeople in the form of “mental illness is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain.”²

For someone who is newly diagnosed with a major psychiatric disorder, such an explanation can provide relief. It offers a reason for extreme behavior that s/he may find shameful or bewildering, and it assures family members that they are not at fault. Blaming the brain also discredits the self-denigrating notion that one’s inability to cope with psychological problems is connected to weakness of character.

Yet there are serious repercussions for endorsing these theories. People who believe that chemical imbalances underlie psychiatric disorders are likely to believe that medication must be used as a corrective measure, often for life. They are also likely to overlook the causative influence of socio-cultural factors and histories of trauma and abuse. Even when theorists do acknowledge that environmental stressors play a role in the development of psychiatric disorders, they often refer to them as “triggers” of the underlying biological problem. In other words, the problem still originates from and remains within the diagnosed person. Finally, according to a recent study,³ associating psychiatric disorders with faulty brain chemistry actually increases public stigma: “Biogenetic causal beliefs and diagnostic labeling by the public are positively related to prejudice, fear and desire for distance.”

Underlying the debate of whether brain-based theories are helpful or harmful are far more important questions to ask: Are these theories even true? Are psychiatric disorders caused by brain diseases and chemical imbalances? And if they are, can the brain change, heal, and grow out of them?

Answers to these questions deeply influence whether workers – especially psychiatrists and medically-oriented professionals – believe that people with diagnoses can make complete recoveries, and they equally influence the hopes and aspirations of people who are diagnosed. However, as a layperson, it can be extremely difficult to investigate such material. Most people are not educated in the neurosciences, nor do they have the will or resources to explore the vast research literature that informs psychiatric practice. Furthermore, since science is equated with truth in Western society, and since doctors are equated with science, many people are conditioned to entrust psychiatrists with providing accurate and tested information. Thus, questioning medical wisdom is somewhat deviant, and attempts at challenging psychiatric theories may be quieted by self-belittlement – “What do I know?” – or rejection from social groups who endorse the dominant paradigm – “Doctor knows best.”

Yet as the consumer/survivor/ex-patient movement increasingly demands that mental health workers perceive clients as harboring untapped potential, so must workers and clients make efforts to re-examine their assumptions about the brain.

II. A New Science, A New Brain

Traditionally, the adult brain was considered relatively hard-wired and fixed, a prognosis that lowered expectations about the possibility of curing the alleged brain problems that underlie psychiatric disorders. Thus, in the medical world, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder have been conceptualized as life-long, incurable brain pathologies that a person can learn to manage, but never completely resolve. However, these hypotheses have always been problematic, for longitudinal studies have demonstrated again and again that a significant amount of people diagnosed with schizophrenia completely emerge from psychiatric symptoms and no longer use medications.⁴ These individuals pose this challenge to neurobiology: if their previous symptoms were in fact due to a broken brain, are their brains now fixed?

The simple answer is yes, and a new area of science is explaining how and why. (It should be noted that scientists could obtain a wealth of information from comparing PET and fMRI scans of people who have completely recovered with people who are still experiencing similar psychiatric symptoms, but that more research is needed). This area of science is called neuroplasticity, and its findings are rapidly reversing old myths about the potentiality of the brain.

Neuroplasticity basically refers to the brain’s natural ability across the lifespan to form new connections and change its structure in response to experience. This means the brain can change itself physically and functionally at any age to compensate for injury and disease and to adapt to new situations or changes in the environment. Whereas the brain was once conceptualized as a machine, it could now be thought of as more like clay, both malleable and vulnerable towards positive and negative influences. Of course, there are limits to how much the brain can change, reorganize, and heal, but these limits are not as imposing as might be assumed. Indeed, harnessing the power of neuroplasticity, people are fully recovering from massive strokes and other head traumas, overcoming learning disabilities to leap ahead in reading levels in a matter of months, rewiring obsessive-compulsive behavior out of their brains, erasing the pain of phantom limbs, restoring memory acuity and cognitive processing during old age, learning to see without eyesight, strengthening muscles just by thinking about them, meditating to create lasting neurological states that are conducive to compassion and happiness, and on and on.⁵ ⁶

The message here is that the brain changes. This means that it is highly likely that whatever biological correlates underlie major psychiatric symptoms can change, too. For instance, trauma and chronic stress change your brain but the areas that are affected can be changed back or compensated for. More specifically, the amygdala involved in processing emotion and anxiety and shown to be affected by trauma can form new connections including to the prefrontal lobes which helps in controlling impulses and exercising restraint.⁷ Gray matter which has been shown to be less voluminous in people diagnosed with schizophrenia can thicken.⁸ Serum BDNF (Brain-derived neurotrophin factor) which has been shown to be lower in people diagnosed with schizophrenia bipolar disorder and depression can be raised.⁹ The hippocampus which is shown to have shrunk for people diagnosed with depression and PTSD can grow back¹⁰ and even produce new cells for the rest of the brain to make use of.¹¹ Certainly neurotransmission – the release of serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine etc. to allow communication between brain cells – is variable and can be altered by natural means ranging from sunlight to thinking positively. Even psychotherapy can significantly change the brain.¹²

One of the tenets of neuroplasticity is that in order for the brain to form new connections and change, it must be stimulated through activity. Whether this activity is external – such as playing a piano, or internal – such as imagining your fingers playing a piano sequence, an important factor in driving lasting brain changes is that you pay close attention to what you are doing. In fact, playing a piano and just thinking about playing a piano affect the brain in virtually the same way, as long as you are engaged. The importance of this point cannot be understated: if thoughts and imagination physically change your brain, you can therefore use your mind – especially through focused attention – to positively rewire it.¹³

Not suprisingly, this theme of mind over matter runs in recovery stories. Indeed, while people who recover often mention practical activities that helped them – such as eating well (which can even turn genes on and off¹⁴) and exercising (which produces new brain cells and has an anti-depressant effect¹⁵) – they also refer to the healing power of intangible experiences: spirituality, hope, human connection, having meaning and purpose in life, optimism, an undying will, and awareness. And it is likely that through the power of neuroplasticity, both the practical activities and the intangible experiences changed their brains.

To further illustrate this point, consider the experience of self-awareness, which seems to be particularly important for people who recover. Self-awareness refers to the awareness of one’s thoughts, behaviors, and actions, and how all of these are intricately connected with one’s environment. Though it is an incredibly empowering asset that most human beings – diagnosed or not – struggle to achieve, people who experience emotional and psychological turmoil may be at a unique advantage to master it, for their survival may depend on their ability to separate from and analyze the content of their minds. In any case, self-awareness requires deep attention. And deep attention to the present moment carves new pathways in the brain.¹⁶ Therefore, a person who engages in self-awareness techniques – be it meditation or another form of non-critical observation, is creating new brain states that overtime can replace or compensate for troubling brain states entirely.

III. Changing Attitudes

Taken together, the implications and discoveries of neuroplasticity challenge the traditional framework for understanding the role of the brain in psychiatric disorders. We can no longer perceive the brain as acting on its own predetermined accord in a vacuum to create experiences. Instead, we should conceive of the brain as fundamentally inseparable from experience, so that whatever happens to someone both externally and internally has the potential to significantly alter their brain. This means that people who recover can be thought of as having likely changed their brain chemistry and functioning, thus allowing for the possibility that the faulty biology allegedly behind major psychiatric disorders is reversible. In this regard, mental health workers should seriously consider eliminating talk about schizophrenia and bipolar disorder as incurable and life-long.

In fact, there are so many problems with making the simple statement, “Mental illness is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain,” that it should perhaps be discontinued altogether. Evidence that different structures and functions of the brain are pathological in psychiatric disorders is still highly contentious; it is also well beyond the scope of this paper. However, given the far-reaching influence of pharmaceutical companies who have a financial interest in promoting biological theories – after all, their medications are primarily justified by the claim that they “fix” biological problems – it is likely that reductionist statements of the brain will continue to prevail. Therefore, we should amend these statements. Here is an example of what a worker could tell a client: “Your brain changes in response to the experiences you have. Even though psychiatric disorders show up on the biological level as differences in the brain’s functioning, your brain is not set in stone. In fact, you can change it, though it will take time and effort. There is much reason to be hopeful.”

Recovery and hope go hand-in-hand, yet there is nothing more hopeless than believing your brain will forever malfunction without medication. There is also hardly a more misinformed declaration about the brain in light of recent science, and especially when considering the multitudes of people who have completely recovered.

If mental health workers can derive from neuroplasticity that complete recovery is a possibility given the right elements, then they will perhaps hold themselves more accountable for the outcomes of their services, as opposed to justifying poor outcomes by dismissing or subtly ignoring some people as chronic and hopeless. In this way, rethinking the potential of the brain in major psychiatric disorders improves the efficacy of mental health services, revives the energy and optimism of workers, and ultimately restores hope to the millions of diagnosed individuals who currently see no way out.

References

¹ Gagnon MA, Lexchin J. The Cost of Pushing Pills: A New Estimate of Pharmaceutical Promotion Expenditures in the United States. PLoS Med 5(1): e1 doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0050001, 2008

² Leo J, Lacasse JR. The Media and the Chemical Imbalance Theory of Depression. Society 45(1):35-45, Feb 2008.

³ Read J, Haslam N, Sayce L, Davies E. Prejudice and schizophrenia: a review of the `mental illness is an illness like any other’ approach. Acta Psychiatr Scand 114(5):303-18, Nov 2006.

⁴ Davidson L. Harding C Spaniol L (Eds.). Recovery from severe mental illness: Research evidence and implications for practice. Boston, MA: Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation Boston University, 2005.

⁵ Doidge, Norman. The Brain that Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science. Viking Adult, 2007.

⁶ Begley, Sharon. Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain: How a New Science Reveals Our Extraordinary Potential to Transform Ourselves. Ballantine Books, 2007.

⁷ Bernier PJ, Bedard A, Vinet J, Levesque M, Parent A. Newly generated neurons in the amygdala and adjoining cortex of adult primates. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 99(17):11464-9, Epub 2002 Aug 12.

⁸ Draganski B, Gaser C, Busch V, Schuierer G, Bogdahn U, May A. Neuroplasticity: changes in grey matter induced by training. Nature 427(6972):311-312, Jan 2004.

⁹ Merzenich, M. Brain plasticity-based “cognitive training” elevates BDNF. Message posted to http://merzenich.positscience.com/2007/04/05/brain-plasticity-based-cognitive-training-elevates-bdnf/, Apr 2007.

¹⁰ Bremner JD, Elzinga B, Schmahl C, Vermetten E. Structural and functional plasticity of the human brain in posttraumatic stress disorder. Prog Brain Res 167:171-86, 2008.

¹¹ Gould E, Graziano MSA, Gross C, Reeves AJ. Neurogenesis in the Neocortex of Adult Primates. Science 286:548–552, 1999.

¹² Bieling P, Goldapple K, Garson C, Kennedy S, Lau M, Mayberg H, Segal Z. Modulation of Cortical-Limbic Pathways in Major Depression: Treatment-Specific Effects of Cognitive Behavior Therapy. Arch Gen Psychiatry 61:34-41, Jan 2004.

¹³ Schwartz, Jeffrey M, Begley, Sharon. The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force. New York, NY: Harper Perennial, 2003.

¹⁴ Challem J. Feed Your Genes Right. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley, 2005.

¹⁵ Bjørnebekk A, Mathé AA, and Brené S. The antidepressant effect of running is associated with increased hippocampal cell proliferation. International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology 8:357–368, 2005.

¹⁶ Siegel, DJ. Mindfulness training and neural integration: differentiation of distinct streams of awareness and the cultivation of well-being. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 2(4):259-263, 2007.

Democracy - Danish

"Gaderummet" (a space in the street) is a community at Copenhagen, providing psychosocial help for young homeless people with existential problems who don't want the "help" of the system. The award-winning facility had been funded by the government, but the funding was withdrawn in May 2007 because the management of "Gaderummet" didn't want to "conform to the mental health system". Since May 2007 the staff and the users of "Gaderummet" have been struggling to keep the facility running in spite of a fundamental lack of money. The day before yesterday they succeeded only just to scrape up 25.000 Dkr to pay the electricity bill, that became due the same day.

The government considers now to summons "Gaderummet" in order to give notice to the lease, and by this means to get rid of "Gaderummet".

In a TV-news item on Thursday it is stated, that the government is willing to give the young people another place to be, instead of "Gaderummet". A place where, among other things, mental health staff has easy access, since, as a Danish politician is quoted, "some of the young people at 'Gaderummet' need medical treatment", which is exactly what many users of "Gaderummet" chose to do without, since they didn't experience psych drugs as helpful to them. Don't the politicians think, that those who WANT medical treatment will seek it themselves?? Personally, I know several young people who bought into the neurotransmitter-hoax, and, with pleasure, leave it to psychiatry to destroy their brains and lives. But sure, we need to get them ALL! EVERYone needs to toe the line! (Hey there, you missed ME! :) )

This is the Danish version of democracy. It can't tolerate ANYONE living a self-determined life, making their own choices, choosing to do without the system's dogmas and indoctrination. It can't tolerate people who think themselves, independently. Designer society's version of "democracy". Emotional and intellectual engineering. Brave New World or Big Brother???

This is the Danish version of democracy. Forcing people with existential problems to have them "solved" (if only the mental ILLNESS system was able to solve anything!) the only way accepted by the AUTHORITIES: the psychiatric way, using mind-altering drugs (in a psychiatric setting called "medicine", otherwise called "street drugs", note the hypocrisy!).

Obviously the Danish version of democracy doesn't rest before we all have been turned into "lonely robots".

Support "Gaderummet": Arbejdernes Landsbank reg.5361,account no.0415718, or: Danske Bank reg.0274, account no.0766399.

Information about "mental illness"

I went to the monthly meeting I use to attend, the day before yesterday. The topic "information" came up. Someone said: "They didn't give me any real information about my illness. Nothing really useful." 'No, of course they didn't', I thought (I didn't say it aloud, though). 'What information did you expect? The only real information, they could have provided, would have been: "Well, we don't know anything about this state of mind you're in. We have theories about illnesses, about genes and brain chemistry, which we usually tell people, so we can sell them the drugs. The drug companies appreciate that, financially. So we keep on doing it, even though we don't have a clue, really. No physiological tests, scans, whatsoever. No scientific evidence. Since there's no profit in it, not for us nor for the drug companies we depend on, we don't bother to obtain the skill to talk with you about the existential dimension of your experience. And since we don't want to seem as ignorant as we actually are, we simply avoid the subject by telling you that there is no existential dimension to your experience at all." '

Listening to people, calling themselves "ill", when there's no proof of any real illness, really makes me feel depressed. But, yah, for most people buying into the illness-delusion is the only way to get the recognition and appreciation of their suffering, they so long for. Since the mental illness system is the only place, where you can get recognition and appreciation, although it's nothing but a PSEUDO-recognition and a PSEUDO-appreciation. And it's pseudo-recognition and pseudo-appreciation maybe ARE better than nothing...? Maybe I just would have to accept that? Nevertheless, it made me feel sick to listen to that. So demoralizing and disempowering. And I wonder: what if the mental illness system wasn't a mental ILLNESS system (which it is, although it officially uses the term "health" instead of "illness"), but a mental WELLNESS system, telling people that what they're going through are meaningful and solvable existential crises, not physiological chronic illnesses, would people still refer to themselves and ask others to refer to them as "ill"?

At the end of her autobiography "Auf der Spur des Morgensterns", Dorothea Buck says, that she's pretty much aware of that there are a lot of people, who experience drugs as helpful. "But", she asks, "what would have happened if they, at the very first time they reacted with a psychotic experience to an emotional shock or existential crisis, had got help to understand and integrate the experience into their life, instead of splitting it off of themselves as purely 'ill'?"

"Monika and Filur"...

...is the title of a really beautiful video on YouTube, showing a student of Bent Branderup, Monika, riding his Knabstrup-stallion Filur in an outstanding way. A horse and a rider found each other. Enjoy!



I took the above picture in December 2003, while I was a trainee of Bent. It shows Filur doing the compliment in front of a dogcart. My co-trainee, Kristina, wasn't quite happy about having to join Bent for the ride this particular day, so I could take pictures. Was she afraid, that Filur might try to do the capriole as well??? ;)

A note from my ongoing PG-trip

Warning: I'll soon be back, posting here! Just need to finish some other things first, which don't leave me time to go about this blog.

Nevertheless, this is just too amazing to be allowed to pass unmentioned. And so is this. Well, at least if you're a PG-fan like me, and like (cultural) diversity at its best :)