Psychosocial (Dis)Ability - Mindful Recovery

Several years ago I was a newbie in as many as a dozen internet support groups at a time, of which three were suicide groups. I do nothing in moderation!
I discovered that the most informative groups were peopled by those not looking for a quick “fix” to their problems in living (psychiatrically labeled mental illness) - out of recognition for the cultural deficits impacting against their capacity to cope. These groups were peopled by those who were actively seeking recovery from the disability forced upon them by the mental health industry itself. They were seeking to create systems change, a prerequisite being an illusive respectful dialogue between providers and consumers of services.
I no sooner entered a group when I very quickly hired myself out as internet peer councilor (without stating so). Each day I would spend my hours empathy-streaming with the various group members, the majority of whom were — seeking salvation in the next therapist or the next drug — and had joined the group to find their specific answers. At that time I had been suffering for a decade from extensive memory loss for life\'s experiences. Instead of abreactive, volatile memory recall erupting from the core of my being bringing with it alienating behavioural differences – I discovered that while empathy-streaming – feeling-memory returns in a normal fashion, albeit intensely painful. In consequence, I was able to “hang onto” these memories instead of returning to traumatic incident-induced memory loss for their occurrence (the psychiatric assault). Through these experiences I learned, first hand, the moral ethic in gifting. Each gift of self is a gift to self! Or To give is to receive! Or more succinctly, gifting out of one’s pain brings mind-healing and rediscovered spiritual strength or recovery of one’s sense of self.
Anyways! It has been a couple of years since I joined a group for personal support. I have grown past a self-identity as a c/s/x.
While in these support groups, I kept getting news items about the fraudulent mental health industry practices based in professional greed. These news articles prompted me to begin my personal researches into the industry, initially from a conflict theory (personal self-identity) and then from a perspectives analysis (community self-identity). Today, I self-identify as a Mental Health Industry Reform Activist. Because the psychic pain of my personal past (and present) difficulties in living have become so trivial to me -I don’t have any personal mental health industry experiences to share, but only the experiences of the ordinary and the mundane of the everyday “Mary Squashes” of this world.
The most informative groups that I found for sharing survivor stories are still to be found at: MindFreedom. They have several groups in this category! They also have a volunteer group that desperately needs people with Mental Health Industry user/consumer experience. The MindFreedom Volunteer group tries to speak with troubled membership in person and if not then at least by phone. Unfortunately, to truly do this we would need a member in every city in the world. As who can afford the phone rates otherwise?
To synopsize my personal experiences with the Mental Health Industry leading to my activism for Psychiatric Industry Reform … Interpersonal communication and dialogue is a creative process evolving self-support mechanisms of mental, intellectual and emotional healing and spiritual recovery, thereby reclaiming one’s self from Psychosocial Disability (an inability to function in the cultural status quo). Mental Health is discovered in any self-generated activity that provides a format for healing and growth experiences. This creative process re-connects us to the holism of self, to our unique internalized symbols, images and perceptions, thereby releasing feeling-memory and calming us through enhanced personal and community self awareness. So: It is by the practice of self-determination that we take the first step into our recovery - as we become mindful of what it is that we are seeking to escape from. In sum: It is for each of us to self-define the term – recovery – as a personally-felt relevant experience. By this action we uniquely re-characterize the language of our oppression from a medicalized, psychiatrized jargon.
Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. C.S. Lewis
Shine ON *
Katie

Author: Ranting OUt the Devil E-Book, Published by Chipmunka Publishing
Mental Health Industry Reform Activist: MindFreedom Volunteer, Soteria Network Member, and FreeSpeech Blogger
Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims
may be the most oppressive. (C.S. Lewis)