Doctor, please undiagnose me

I just had one of those, yes, yes, yes moments and for the first time it had nothing to do with sex. I read a blog entry by Corrina West who I discovered on the wonderful Mad in America website. She had written a piece called What a new role for psychiatrists would look like and it included a link for undiagn

Mad in America (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

ose me. This is what I found when I followed the link:

The UnDiagnosing Emotional Distress alternatives say:

Undiagnosing Emotional Distress. Sometimes it’s not genetic. Sometimes it’s:

• Past trauma experiences
• Lack of social connections
• Job fit or career goals
• Grief
• Loss of hope
• Disconnection with our creator
• Drug Use
• Nutrition, exercise, or sleep habits

I almost leaped out of my seat because everything she listed except for the thing about the creator matched the things I have experienced. In my earlier blogs about the onset of my distress, I talked about many of these things. I had lost hope, my sleep had been out of whack, I had used drugs and I had a mismatch of career choices. I was not good enough in doing the the things for which I had prepared in college and I needed to learn something new.

In my new role as a certified peer specialist I think back to the old Fleetwood Mac song Landslide. “I climbed a mountain and I turned around. ” The hardest part was convincing myself I wouldn’t start falling backward. I have begun handling the seasons of my life as I grow older. Can you imagine how refreshing and liberating it would be for a psychiatrist to talk with you about not being a patient but a fully emerged human being? I have an appointment scheduled next month at the VA  where I intend to give my psychiatrist an opportunity to do that very thing. Doctor, doctor, give me the news. I’ve got a bad case of doing well And I want some more.

Hypnotized (Fleetwood Mac song) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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On to the grassroots

Jim Doyle and Kelda Roys (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This afternoon I received  confirmation from the Grassroots Empowerment project that my registration was approved for Empowerment Days. This event is an effort to contact policy makers in Madison from April 29-May 1. I  went to Empowerment Days several years ago but this one will be my first major advocacy effort since I became a certified peer specialist a few weeks ago.

As such it is an important step forward. The last time I went, Jim Doyle was Governor and there were democratic party majorities in both houses of the legislature. Now things are radically different, with Scott Walker as Governor facing a recall election along with five  republican state senators. The republicans have instituted many policy changes that I don’t like, which is why I signed the recall petition against Walker. However, simply shifting back to democratic control will not automatically solve all of the problems for people with mental illness.

We need to expand the funding available for consumer run services, which was an issue that Jim Doyle inherited and failed to correct . Similarly, the problem of inadequate Medicaid reimbursements for dentists and psychiatrists developed over several years and many administrations. In addition, since Grassroots Empowerment Project is a non-profit organization, there is a possibility some of the participants in Empowerment Days will be republicans. Otherwise, they could run the risk of losing their tax exempt status. This non-partisan effort seeks support from across the political spectrum.

I’m going to Empowerment Days to make a difference in the lives of the consumers where I work. I want to see change because people can’t wait. We are in a critical time where the misplaced priorities nationally and statewide are damaging thousands of vulnerable citizens. In the days ahead, I will be blogging my observations from Madison. Always remember that the journey of a thousand miles begins with first step.

 In the days ahead, I

Recall Walker (Photo credit: marctasman)

The Free Dictionary: To take part in something: participated in the festivities. →

Mind freedom wins victory over forced electroshock in New York State

Update 18 April 2012

VICTORY!

Forced Electroshock of Glen K. in a
New York Psychiatric Institution Halted!

Within 48 hours of the launch of a MindFreedom International Alert Campaign, the Attorney General for New York State announced today that Glen K. will receive no more forced electroshock under his court order. Rockland Psychiatric Center was giving involuntary electroshock over and against Glen’s expressed wishes.

Glen has been told. He is thrilled.

He won! Thank you to everyone who spoke out for Glen!

Glen’s attorneys got a call from the NY Attorney General earlier today. Under the guise that Glen is doing so well, the Attorney General said they are no longer defending the court order to give Glen electroshock, and are withdrawing that order.

Glen won’t be forcibly shocked any more under this order.

Given this Attorney General decision, Glen may be creating an advanced directive to help protect him in the future.

MindFreedom contacted Mental Hygiene Legal Services, which has defended Glen and a number of other New York psychiatric survivors against forced shock. We spoke with Glen’s attorneys Dennis Feld and Arthur Bear, who made this public statement:

“We feel that our client has been vindicated, and what we thought was one of the most onerous for forced treatments we ever saw has now been nullified.”

And there’s no need to go to Brooklyn for Glen’s hearing tomorrow, 19 April 2012, because Glen won!

MFI director David Oaks said, “Thank you everyone for your quick response on this campaign. Keep contacting Governor Cuomo and ask him to issue a moratorium on all involuntary electroshock in New York State!”

BELOW are other updates from the last two days, including how to hear a brief recording of an interview with Glen conducted yesterday by MFI.

For live links and the original alert go to:
http://bit.ly/cuomo-forced-ect

~~~~~~~~~~

Updates from yesterday, 17 April 2012:

** You can now hear a nine-minute MP3 audio excerpt of a phone interview conducted today with Glen K., by MFI. You may also read the text notes of the interview. [Find links at http://bit.ly/cuomo-forced-ect

]

** The first 24 hours of Glen’s campaign already had an impact. MFI received a call from John Allen, director of Consumer Affairs for NY State Office of Mental Health, who claimed: “While we can’t comment on this individual case, we have suspended and are reviewing policy and procedure that would lead to these kinds of circumstances in the future.” While this is positive news, MFI will wait until Glen or his representative declare victory.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Update 16 April 2012:

Glen K. has reasonable objections to on his forced electroshock, and states:

“ECT causes profound memory loss, it causes universal brain damage , and it is a harsh, harsh treatment…”

~~~~~~~~~~~

BELOW is Excerpt from Original MindFreedom Alert that Apparently Helped Glen Win His Campaign to Say “No!” to Forced Electroshock

Thank you everyone! Congratulations Glen!

“No one is tired on victory day.” – ancient Persian expression

~~~~~~~~~~~

MFI News Exclusive

April 16, 2012

Your Tax Dollars At Work:

Does Governor Cuomo Know His NY State Institution is Forcibly Electroshocking Glen K.?

by MindFreedom International

It’s in the public record:

Glen K. is being forcibly subjected twice a week to electroconsulvive therapy (ECT), also known as shock treatment, in a New York state mental health institution – Rockland Psychiatric Centerphoto on right – where he is being held involuntarily. These shocks are administered to Glen K. over his clear and consistent protest, under the authority of a court order which authorizes a series of 120 shock treatments over a period of 12 months.

This order also authorizes the hospital to chemically restrain Glen K. with involuntary psychiatric drugs, when he refuses medical procedures in preparation for ECT. On many occasions, the hospital has also employed physical and chemical restraints to overcome his resistance to ECT.

FOR REST OF ORIGINAL ALERT, AND LIVE LINKS IN UPDATES, GO TO:

http://bit.ly/cuomo-forced-ect

 

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Finally! Somebody in India is reading me

Wednesday (Photo credit: Images by John 'K')

I was getting desperate. I’m one of those people who constantly checks site stats and happened to notice I had not a single visit today. Well, technically, today is still Wednesday here and plenty of people checked out what I said. But earlier today when Wednesday ended according to WordPress, I was on zero But somehow the at bailed me out. I understand that most cats don’t surf the Internet and check out their owners’ blogs, but I refuse to belive there could be any other explanation.

Riley checked out the blog through an IP address in India. She’s not just cute, but very smart. What a wonderful world..

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Local oddball told “don’t keep in touch!”

Nichelle Nichols Visits NASA Goddard for MLK/African American History Month Keynote Event (Photo credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)

Last week I appeared in front of Judge Luther P. Johnson regarding a restraining order that my supervisor at week had requested against me. All I thought I was doing was keeping in touch, which was what she had said that she needed. I know I can be a little bit of an odd duck. That’s what makes me interesting but I guess not everyone seems things the same way that I do.

I fry catfish on Mondays and that somehow makes me a little odd. Sometimes I read books from the end to the beginning. I even write letters to Congress, all things that seem a little obscure. The other thing I do is I contact supervisors. Particularly since last year when I was told repeatedly that I needed to keep in touch with her. So I started sending her a few emails, maybe tweeting her or leaving an occasional voice mail message at 1AM. So far, so good. She would tell me how amusing these items were, although my cat thought I should cool it. “Stop while you’re ahead, Kenyatta.” She’s just so practical.

But if she was such a smart cat, she would have been buying her own food. Just because she talks to me, she thinks she’s all that. Well, as it happened, I probably should have listened to her a little more. I was soon buying electronic devices to help reach out and touch. I would wake up in the middle of the night possessed by the idea that I needed to keep in touch. I would be on a date and then suddenly I had to send out a message.

I even sought out 12 step groups for men who are constantly keeping in touch with women but nothing helped. So now I here I sit with this huge restraining order against me. All my wonderful I-pads and smartphones have been seized. I’m a man without access. The last words of Judge Johnson: “Kenyatta, don’t keep in touch.” I was stunned but I will survive.

restraining order (Photo credit: @MSG)

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It wasn’t broken so they broke it. Grr!

SungYuri (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I have thoroughly enjoyed having wordpress host my blog since I started writing. One of the things I enjoyed most was being able to read other people’s blogs through a feature called “Read Blogs.” I reblogged some of those I found most insightful,

Reblogging helped drive traffic to my blog where people picked up on things I had written. It  was fast and fun and it wasn’t broken. Unfortunately, now it is.

At the wordpress log in there is only a continuous whirl, like the way you feel when a relationship keeps you going in circles. Yes, around and around I got. I’m strung out over wordpress.com. At first I thought t I was being targeted for all the snarky things I’ve said about ATT customer service. There’s some creepy guy in an an ATT trench coat following me on twitter. It sort of lends credibility to any kind of low level paranoia you may feel knowing that he’s out there.

However when I went to the wordpress forums I found other people were experiencing the same problem. They, too, were going in circles. Our formerly reliable host had given a zonk and the price was wrong. All those hundreds of millions of unique page views all lost. I may have to go back to reading the newspaper. Or maybe Commissioner Gordon will signal Batman to fix the problem that the engineers created. Until then, keep swirling, fellow bloggers.

 

Blog of the day once again (Photo credit: the Italian voice)

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Thanks for listening

Are You Listening? (film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Of of the skills I bring to being a certified peer specialist I believe that the most important is my willingness and ability to listen. I try to blot out whatever distractions may be present including the sounds of others in the room and offer my attention. And sometimes I’ll just keep listening as long as it takes without needing to say much. I always hate it when people impatiently say “hello” after I’ve been listening to them. As if they expected an instant response.

Recently I communicated with several friends concerning my misgivings regarding today’s colonoscopy and was grateful that three of them offered to take me to the veterans administration for the procedure. And some other friends offered reassurance. They “heard” what I was saying although I had not spoke a word. One of my friends is a blogger Jan Wilberg who writes Red’s Wrap and I left a note on her facebook page about how things have been going on her blog.Today her entry is a bittersweet tale of  not being heard. She wrote about experiencing hearing loss and being at an event where her husband was being honored.

Tonight I just told a very nice man whose name tag indicated to me that I ought to talk to him that it was not going to be possible to have a conversation.  I pointed to my hearing aids, waved my arms around the room filled with hundreds of chattering people, I’m sorry.  He looked at me like oh, ok, should I write you a note? But then he eventually wandered off to the next prospect.  It was then I decided to pack it in and come home.

I can just imagine how I would have felt in that  situation because I sometimes find that people I attempt to talk with at those types of gatherings are looking for someone else. They have mentally tuned me out because I’m distracting them from more productive mingling. In addition I sometimes miss parts of conversation and find it very isolating

It takes much more effort to listen and now that I have learned of my friend’s challenge I will seek out more alternative means to communicate. We need to engage everyone, not just those with normal hearing.

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Brothers and sisters, please rise up

African Peoples Socialist Party office, Oakland, California (Photo credit: Curtis Cronn)

Malcolm X (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Official photographic portrait of US President Barack Obama (born 4 August 1961; assumed office 20 January 2009) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Today I saw the inevitable. In a world filled with hateful people one hand rose out of the sewer to proclaim “niggers please die.” This was in response to a post regarding the murder of Trayvon Martin. But black people, African-Americans and Africans mixed or unmixed are not signing our lives away. In fact even as the hatred seeps across the internet it is clear more than ever that our survival depends upon one another.

It depends on the bus drivers, teachers, sanitation workers, electricians, peer specialists and others at work every day making a difference. It depends on our brothers  and sisters caring for their children. It depends on my nephews caring for their children and wives. It depends on President Obama becoming the President we voted for and not falling victim to war and fear. It depends on bloggers spreading the news and speaking truth to power. It depends on everyone of us writing and reading to be positive and and respond not by yelling back but calmly going about our daily tasks. Like so many leaders have encouraged us in word, deed and song that we must do.

No, dear hateful one, we are not going to kill ourselves for your benefit. In fact we grow stronger in courage and wisdom every day. Peace out.

 

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Respect Yourself

Trayvon Martin Protest - Sanford (Photo credit: werthmedia)

Malcolm X (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I ride the bus as my main means of getting around Milwaukee and all too often I heard through the earphones of young black passengers I hear people talking about “nigger this” and “nigger that” and then I hear on the other side of town about deaths. We have been focused in these last few weeks on 2 situations: that Trayvon Morris in Florida and Bo Morrison in Slinger, Wisconsin.

But what about the ordinary killers of African-Americans? Who is hunting them? Who is looking for the guy who killed his baby mama at 20th and Walnut after beating her with his bare fists? Will anyone find the foster children of Sara Ann, a young mother whose other children are in the foster care system? Will Sara Ann be reunited with her her children one more time? Will we learn about changes in the system after she is dead?

Who will indict and convict the sellers of candy band other killers of black people? Will we round up the grocery stores, gas stations, and crack heads who sell shit that winds up being sold for death in our communities? Will we wind up with over crowding the already full jails with even even more prisoners?

I blogged without end about George Zimmerman who should be facing life ion prison for murdering Trayvon Martin.  But the sad truth is that African-Americans, often friends or domestic partners of African-Americans are the ones who kill our brothers and sisters.

\The stories about murders by racists grab our attention because we have been so innoculated by the ordinary murders that take place around us that we have no idea that the guy upstairs putting his hands on that attractive young woman may end up killing her tonight. We need to stop murdering one another and start loving one another.

It begins with the Staples Singers and their song but it needs you to sing along. Pledge tonight that you will not kill anyone tonight.

African American members of ILGWU Local 222 picket outside. (Photo credit: Kheel Center, Cornell University)

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Trayvon Martin shot in Cold Blood and Geraldo said it’s the hoodie’s fault

Trayvon Martin Protest - Sanford (Photo credit: werthmedia)

Geraldo Rivera (Photo credit: Island Capture Photography)

It’s all so clear what Geraldo Rivera, former reporter means to say when he tells us that we have a totally one-sided view of the tragic killing of Trayvon Martin. For many of us, the word killing should be changed to murder. George Zimmerman, a  man armed with a gun and fueled by racist hatred stalked Trayvon as he walked down the street in his father’s neighborhood. Trayvon was considered dangerous and possibly on drugs, in Zimmerman’s eyes. Zimmerman was going to protect the community from this young boy wearing a hoodie.If black youths would just stop wearing those hoodies, things would be different and white men could see them differently.That’s what we are being told by an idiot with an audience. Like the commercial said, a mind is a terrible thing to waste and Geraldo  has wasted his. Geraldo’s son said it best when he declared he was ashamed of his father.

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Wikipedia: Y is the twenty-fifth letter in the ISO basic Latin alphabet and represents either a vowel or a consonant in English. →