of sound mind…

I cried when I read the following story online today about a women who is schizophrenic being ordered by the court to have an abortion against her will and also be involuntarily and forcibly sterilized…simply because she is mentally ill. Yep, it’s 2012 and it might as well be the middle ages in terms of the ignorance and stigma around mental illness.

Disabled patients’ wishes ignored – Advocates find disturbing trend

by Peter Schworm , Boston Globe, January 22, 2012

The wishes of individuals declared mentally incompetent often go unheeded in family court, lawyers and social workers say, costing them control over the most personal decisions.

In light of this month’s stunning family court ruling that a woman diagnosed with schizophrenia should undergo an abortion and be sterilized, mental health specialists say the case, while an extreme example, casts light on an often unsettling reality for those deemed unable to make decisions for themselves.

Even when individuals voice opposition to a course of treatment, from antipsychotic medication to hospitalization, the courts often rule otherwise, lawyers say.

Read entire story here

Help to Stop Ruminating!

Following is an exercise from my friend, psychologist Dr. Alice Boyes, to help us all stop ruminating:

“Here’s an idea for a behavioral experiment for people who ruminate (passively & repeatedly think about the causes or consequences of problems without moving to active problem solving. Often involves self-criticism).

Prep:If you have a smart phone, you might find this easiest to do using your phone to record (you could use a basic note taking app or your calendar app, or whatever suits you).

Or, you could just use a piece of paper/notebook.

Record: each time you notice yourself ruminating (as it happens)

You might do this by noticing
- when you are lost in thought,
- thinking about the past or the future, or
- when you are feeling negative emotions.

Any of these can act as triggers for you to ask yourself “Am I ruminating right now?” Or “Was I just ruminating?”

Record approx how many minutes you were ruminating for.

At the end of each day, record:any incidents of rumination that led to useful problem solving i.e., you took a specific action.”

Find the rest of the exercise on Dr. Boyes’ blog

Coming Out as Bipolar, Redux

With my memoir coming out in September, I am coming out , too. Coming out further, I mean, because I am already out–as a lesbian and also as bipolar. The lesbian part I have down, I’ve been out of the queer closet since I was 18, that’s 30 years ago. I was diagnosed with BPD only 11 years ago, and have been public about it for probably only half of that.

It supposedly gets easier…hmmm, it does, but I feel sweaty and nervous every time I post or talk about BP. I came out to the last of my co-workers last week. I come out every day to someone new either in person or online, I ask my editors to feature me in the September issues of the magazines and websites I write for, I post on this blog and Tweet this information, Facebook and Google+ it, etc.

I totally plaster my BPD business all over the WWWeb, so my coming out as bipolar should be no surprise to anyone, really, but sometimes it is and I find myself taken aback at the ignorant and bigoted reactions of people I once held in some  sort of regard.

More TK.

Ditching the DSM

I am reposting an article by RONALD PIES, M.D. entitled “Why Psychiatry Needs to Scrap the DSM Systesm: An Immodest Proposal” and linking to the piece below…  I have my own thoughts on the DSM, which I will write about in a subsequent post, but meanwhile, here is Dr. Pies:

“Most psychiatrists, and many patients, sense that psychiatry is in trouble these days. The reasons are complex, but boil down to a crisis of confidence: many in the general public — if they ever had faith in psychiatry — have begun to lose it.

Many psychiatrists who, like me, began their careers with hopeful idealism are now expressing pessimism or cynicism. Here, too, the reasons are complex, and have much to do with the sense that psychiatry has drifted away from its core values and central mission: the relief of human suffering and incapacity. Of course, the corrosive influence of “Big Pharma” and the gradual decline in the use of psychotherapy have contributed to this down-beat attitude.

And the highly-publicized dust-up over revision of psychiatry’s diagnostic classification — the DSM-5 (what the media love to call, “Psychiatry’s Bible”) — has certainly not filled psychiatrists with joy.”

Here is a link to the entire story

Beautiful Wreck slated to be published September 2012

FYI, my memoir, Beautiful Wreck: Sex, Lies & Suicide, will be published this September. Check back in the coming months for news about a book launch party in NYC and appearances around the country!

Here is a summary of the book:

In my darkly humorous and sometimes perverse memoir, Beautiful Wreck: Sex, Lies & Suicide, I chronicle 20 years of misadventures as a transplanted Midwestern lesbian with undiagnosed Tourette Syndrome and Bipolar disorder in turn-of-the-millennium New York City. I detail the psychiatric underworld—first as a staffer at a homeless shelter on Ward’s Island working with mentally ill men and years later as a patient on a locked ward at Jersey City Medical Center. The fifteen-plus years in between are the substance of my book, a raw account of my life both marred and informed by mental illness.

After arriving in Manhattan at age 25, I was swept up in the zeitgeist of the Big Apple: Living on the Lower East Side during the Tompkin’s Square riots; attending law school during the OJ Simpson trial; co-parenting a child I never wanted in the early days of the “gayby” boom; and subletting a Tribeca loft when Robert DeNiro’s neighborhood was still affordable. I maneuvered my way through the urban jungle, climbed up and down the corporate ladder, stumbled though the Manhattan real estate racket, fell in and out of love affairs, and skirted incarceration in loony bins.

Rushing manically through my 20s and 30s, delving into New York City’s sexual underbelly and participating in the online dating frenzy of the late 90s were just a small part of my wild rollercoaster ride of what I did not then know was classic manic-depressive cycling. And, no one around me seemed to notice anything out of the ordinary. Even while I lived through devastatingly dangerous depressions, my coterie of family and friends simply found me a pleasant eccentric. But, underneath my charming exterior, I was wracked with immense mental and emotional pain. By age 42, I had attempted suicide three times.

My memoir is ultimately the tale of an unsinkable survivor who still struggles to find her own voice as a writer, lover, sister, friend and daughter.

Everything in moderation

I just found out about The Center for the Study of Empathic Therapy, Education and Living. This nonprofit organization, says the website, was “founded by Peter R. Breggin MD for professionals and non-professionals who want to raise ethical and scientific standards in psychology and psychiatry.” Dr. Breggin is a “reformer” of psychiatry and an evangelist about the harm of psychiatric medication.

I’m quite interested to read more about the good doctor and his organization, but from the little bit I’ve glanced at thus far, it seems very extreme in nature. You know I’m a strong advocate for medication combined with psychotherapy, at least for myself, because it works very well for me. Any extreme position, theory or advocacy always sends up a red flag for me.

I’m interested to know if anyone reading this has experience with Empathetic Therapy and what it has done or them. Please use the comment section to tell us. Thanks!

Beware Sellers of Instant Mental Health/Stress Relief

I am followed on Twitter by plenty of snake oil salespeople claiming to help instantly assuage  my mental illness and all attendant issues. The most recent offer was the following:

If stress, anxiety and depression still plague your days, join my free Magic of Depression webinar for a life of passion, purpose & power.

Magic of Depression – WTF? I have a full life that includes passion, purpose and power. I realize a lot of us, perhaps everyone (me included), struggle with all three of those pursuits, but I doubt that this person’s Webinar can help me find fulfillment in any of these areas.

This sort of crackpot nonsense is only to make money for the purveyors of this stupid, cult-like  garbage that often seems to speak to a part of us needing some soothing and TLC, but is really meant to make us more anxious and stressed out so we keep following these false “healers” and pay for their other offerings, which are never free.

Beware of false gods, prophets and snake oil salespersons.

New Years Eve Day, 2011

My gal and I are weekending in Ocean Grove, New Jersey with another lesbian couple who live here. They’ve got a cute little two-story bungalow-style home with a wrap-around font porch and a side deck. It’s close to the water and the weather is very mild. My girlfriend and I took a walk into Main Street at 8am to get a cup of coffee then went down to the water to sit on a bench and drink it.

We watched joggers, dog walkers and random fishermen all go by. We talked of our year past and what might (or might not) lie ahead. My girl is looking for a better job. I, as always, am seeking peace: peace of mind as well as world peace.

Reflecting on the year past and the year to come, I’d say I’ve accomplished quite a bit in the realm of peace of mind. I’ve got my medication regime back on track (and speaking of back, just had my first chiropractic visit to work out some kinks in my neck and back), have developed a nice casual give-and-take schedule with both my psychiatrist and psychologist. I now get all my meds free from the pharmacy and  I feel totally in control of my life. We were talking, my girl and I, about something or another on that bench by the water and I made the distinction or pre- and post-conizence: 2006 is when I began taking control. It’s now almost 2012 and I am in complete control.

Happy New Year To All – May 2012 be the year we all gain control!   

Being Authentically You!

The Ultimate Gift – Giving the Gift Being Authentically

You

By Athena Staik, Ph.D.

Being authentically you is perhaps one of the greatest gifts you can give, not only to those that mean the world to you, but also to the people in your life in general – and especially to yourself.

What does it mean to be courageously and authentically you, and why is this a precious gift?

Authenticity is the permission you give yourself to be real, to be who you are, aware of warts and graces. This permission frees you to give and to live in relation to your self and others, especially key others, from a place of love, and not fear.

It’s precious because how you relate – give and receive – directly impacts the balance of your life and relationships.

And, speaking of fears, our deepest fears are not about spiders, snakes or bridges, which are surface fears in comparison. Our deepest fears have to do with intimacy and our deepest yearnings for meaningful connection, contribution, and relationships; they are matters of the heart.

To choose to live authentically is to choose to love authentically, a conscious way of feeling safe enough to love – give – with your whole heart.

Read full post by Athena Staik, Ph.D. here

Madness as natural part of evolution?

“Let’s imagine, momentarily, that there is more to the cosmos than the material realm. It could be, after all, that mystical forces affect our lives. In which case we might expect that some of our qualities result from influences other than competitive insemination and over-protective child-rearing. We might have lessons to learn, for instance. Maybe some human qualities arose to help us evolve in the spiritual rather than biological sense.

So could it be that mental health problems are serving a higher purpose? Just possibly, the pain of psychiatric distress serves to break down egos and open minds to realms beyond the physical. Maybe “mental illnesses” are not as disastrous as many believe. Maybe they are Grace in formation.

If that were true, and I admit to wild (creative?) speculation here, we would be completely misguided in trying to suppress such conditions. By doing so, we would be robbing people of their chances for growth. We’d be better advised to help the potent energies of psychiatric distress play out in safe and instructive ways.

Unfortunately, the choice in current society is all-too-often between medication and alienation. Or between hospitalization and jail. Inner turmoil no longer has any chance of creating shamans or prophets, because we drug down or lock up anyone who deviates too far from the claustrophobic modern mold.”

Read Evolved Madness post here