[AeonDM]

People can recover from mental illness
By Daniel Fisher, M.D., Ph.D. and Laurie Ahern

Research carried out at the National Empowerment Center has shown that people can fully recover from even the most severe forms of mental illness. In-depth interviews of people diagnosed with schizophrenia have shown that these people are capable of regaining significant roles in society and of running their own lives. Though they have recovered from their mental illness they, as everyone, continue to heal emotionally. In most cases they no longer need medication and use holistic health and peer support to continue their healing. Our findings are consistent with long term studies carried out in this country by Dr. Courtenay Harding and colleagues, and in Europe by Dr. Manfred Bleuler and Dr. Luc Ciompi...

http://www.power2u.org/articles/reco...eople_can.html

For your reading pleasure. You can give comments and share your opinions, but try not fight or argue over someone's opinion you disagree. Try not to turn it into a battle field.

[Mara Mountain]

without meds or alcohol?

[AeonDM]

Believing you can recover is vital to recovery from mental illness
By Daniel Fisher, M.D., Ph.D.

In our last newsletter I highlighted the importance to recovery of having people in your life who believe in you. I pointed out that these people affirm our deepest self and have confidence in our ability. What I should have made clear is that they believe that we can recover. I was reminded of the importance of this belief in our recovery by a letter recently sent to me by a reader. She was prompted to write me because she could personally relate to my article in a previous newsletter, "Recovery is Real." She had read about my experience of my recovery being denied by a psychology professor and was amazed to see how similar that attitude was to one she had been subjected to. She wrote:

"I had suffered from severe mental illness in my mid-20's and early 30's (I am now 53). Then, through the grace of God, I was able to find my way out of this debilitating condition and make a full recovery. A few years ago I had the opportunity to work in a mental health agency as secretary to the Executive Director. Unfortunately I didn't realize that his mindset was like those you describe in your article - he needed me to either deny that I had ever been sick or otherwise go back to the 'consumer mode.' Eventually that stigmatizing attitude surfaced and I was forced to leave the job." She also sent us a letter to the editor she had published in her local paper which elaborated on this theme...

http://www.power2u.org/articles/recovery/believing.html

[Anika.]

Thanks for sharing this, I know I am experiencing this myself and can relate to the disbelief my treatment providers had in me or recovery. I do believe we can fully recover from mental illness. I have no reason to believe that is impossible.

Now I don't know what to call you..Christian, Aeon, or which you would prefer?

Some of us have been advocating this for what seems like an eternity. Of course people can recover. The latest discoveries about sensitivity to grains containing gluten (and an ingredient in gluten) have dramatic effects on schizophrenia, wide mood swings (which are characteristic of Bipolar Illness) and many, many other effects, including Dementia! The brain, lungs, digestive system, skin, and other organs may be harmed.

I think the ingredient in gluten (which has not been proven injurious yet because little research has been done on it) is Exorphin (sp?). It acts on the opiate centers of the brain causing addiction, and it is addictive. The good news is that most people can
withdraw from it without too many difficult side effects usually within a week. The
addiction causes cravings which the victim gives way to every two to three hours for more ingestion of wheat--and that really puts the weight on!

I think the most that Dr. Williams had ever seen in withdrawal symptoms lasted no
longer than about a month, while most were fine within a week or so.

I'm reiterating that this new work will probably lead to additional research on
the subject of the dangers of the "Dwarf Wheat" genetically engineered by agricultural scientists. It is 99% of the production of wheat throughout the world now.

It has a much heavier content of gluten (which causes lighter doughs) and makes wheat more appealing, but it's a product that the human being has not evolved in its
digestive system to manage. It's 20th century scientific alterations in gluten in
wheat for massive production of grain-bearing capacity.

Included in the sensitivity are other grains that have gluten in them which would
be barley, rye, and perhaps oats. Corn has a different substance called zien (sp?)
which can cause trouble for those sensitive to it.

I recommend that we all read Dr. David Willaims' New York Best Seller entitled
Wheat Belly. It is a reinforcement of an idea I read years ago by a doctor who said
that Bipolar patients have an extreme sensitivity to grains. That was long before
the story began to emerege about conditions occurring in 2013 with increases
in Bipolar Illness, heavy weight gains among some people who are addicted to wheat,
etc., etc.

Thanks for this thread.

[AeonDM]

A New Vision of Recovery:
People can fully recover from mental illness; it is not a life-long process
By Daniel Fisher, M.D., Ph.D.

These days people are talking about recovery from mental illness. This is a great step forward. Even using the word recovery in a field too long dominated by the goal of stabilization is refreshing. But whose vision of recovery are people talking about? I thought we were all talking about the same view of recovery. I see two distinctly different visions of recovery emerging, however. We will call these the Rehabilitation and Empowerment views of recovery. It is especially important to clarify what recovery means in each model because many states and counties nationally are proposing to create recovery-centered policies and services. Distinctly different policies would result depending on whose picture of recovery those policies are based on...

A New Vision of Recovery:
People can fully recover from mental illness; it is not a life-long process
By Daniel Fisher, M.D., Ph.D.

[AeonDM]

A New Vision of Recovery:
People can fully recover from mental illness; it is not a life-long process
By Daniel Fisher, M.D., Ph.D.

These days people are talking about recovery from mental illness. This is a great step forward. Even using the word recovery in a field too long dominated by the goal of stabilization is refreshing. But whose vision of recovery are people talking about? I thought we were all talking about the same view of recovery. I see two distinctly different visions of recovery emerging, however. We will call these the Rehabilitation and Empowerment views of recovery. It is especially important to clarify what recovery means in each model because many states and counties nationally are proposing to create recovery-centered policies and services. Distinctly different policies would result depending on whose picture of recovery those policies are based on...

http://www.power2u.org/articles/reco...ew_vision.html

[Anika.]

Originally Posted by Mara Mountain

without meds or alcohol?

Sure why not? Alcohol has never been proven to benefit mental or emotional problems, can't tell if you are just kidding. But meds have not proven to give recovery either.

[AeonDM]

Originally Posted by Anika.

Thanks for sharing this, I know I am experiencing this myself and can relate to the disbelief my treatment providers had in me or recovery. I do believe we can fully recover from mental illness. I have no reason to believe that is impossible.

Now I don't know what to call you..Christian, Aeon, or which you would prefer?

I prefer christian, but if you are uncomfortable you can call me Aeon.

[AeonDM]

Daniel B. Fisher, M.D., Ph.D.

Executive Director

Recovery From Mental Illness and Becoming a Commissioner - Dan is a person who has recovered from schizophrenia. He was hospitalized several times prior to becoming a psychiatrist. He is one of the few psychiatrists in the country who publicly discusses his recovery from mental illness. He is a role model for others who are struggling to recover, and his life dispels the myth that people do not recover from mental illness. His recovery and work in the field were recognized by his selection as a member of the White House Commission on Mental Health.

Education and Practice - Dan received his AB from Princeton University, his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin and his M.D. from George Washington University. He is a board-certified psychiatrist who completed his residency at Harvard Medical School. He is presently Executive Director of the National Empowerment Center.

Speaker/Teacher/Researcher - Dan travels to all parts of the country to conduct workshops, give keynote addresses, teach classes, and organize conferences for consumers/survivors, families, and mental health providers to promote recovery of people labeled with mental illness by incorporating the principles of empowerment. He has been featured on many radio and television programs, including CNN Special Report. In addition he is a researcher having carried out research into neurotransmitters at the National Institute of Mental Health and on the ways that people recover. Along with Laurie Ahern, he developed the Empowerment Model of Recovery and the PACE/Recovery program to shift the system to a recovery orientation. He was recognized for this work by being selected for both the Clifford Beers National Mental Health Association Award and the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law's Advocacy Award.

Author - Dan has written chapters in many books, as well as a number of articles in professional journals such as Hospital and Community Psychiatry and the Psychosocial Rehabilitation Journal. He has produced a video and booklet about important aspects of recovery, "Recovery is for Everyone" as well as a video on "Consumers Working as Providers."

http://www.power2u.org/who.html

[Anika.]

What are the differences between the models of recovery? I can guess except the empowerment almost always seems needed for recovery of any model probably I would think.

Christian it is! No not uncomfortable at all, just wanted to be sure.

[AeonDM]

Sorry... just added in the link.

Here is it again: http://www.power2u.org/articles/reco...ew_vision.html

[Anika.]

Thanks Christian, there is a discussion in the meds forum here about meds and basically hope I think of possibilities for recovery. I think people would find this helpful there. Do you mind if I link this thread there so that those interested can read it as well?

[AeonDM]

Originally Posted by Anika.

Thanks Christian, there is a discussion in the meds forum here about meds and basically hope I think of possibilities for recovery. I think people would find this helpful there. Do you mind if I link this thread there so that those interested can read it as well?

No, I don't mind, go ahead.

Anika, I think you're right again. People recover, in my view, by having a number of things happen: they discover their faulty diet and correct it and then proceed to make changes in their personal lives--either correcting financial deficiencies or emotional environmental triggers.

Some have found real clarity and peace in following a spiritual lifestyle.

Getting into a healthy place emotionally and psychologically and being without the side effects of drugs, able to support oneself, and to love oneself all lead to a strong inclination to develop good mental health.

In this day and age, I think many people are making those strides to accomplish recovery from psychotropic drugs.

A shift in psychiatric research from pharmaceutical symptom relief to actual changes in brain function and use of foods in the digestive system (which has by far the largest concentration of neurotransmitters)may enable bipolar patients to get beyond the need for psychotropic medications. That's a goal to accomplish, in my view.

There are research projects (one in Philadelphia, as I recall Dr. Wiliams' mentioning) in which schizophrenic patients became mentally healthy after the removal of wheat from their diets.

And there is at least one psychiatrist who has given up a career in psychiatry because of the severe side effects that psychotropic medications have. He has written a book about it, but I his name eludes me at the moment. Maybe someone who has read his book will mention it on this forum.

Hope you are well, Anika.

[Confusedinomicon]

Gluten free doesn't always lead to recovery. I have a terrible diet but I'm asymptomatic for the most part. (Besides occasional sleep and moodiness) I try to resolve emotional issues as they come up rather then wait because I feel empowered to do so.

Corporations make billions on these medications and would not want to see more hollisitc cures come about. How would they continue making so much if everything was temporary. Anti-psychotics were never meant to be given on long term basis, but it is now.

I think diets contribute to wellness but mindset is even more important/powerful.

I think most symptoms arise from stress and learned helplessness.

[srbj79]

In my experience, I seemed to have recovered for a while, but then find it comes back with a vengeance...and now I have developed another medical problem (physical) and they each effect each other....I feel as though I am in a no win situation.....

[thickntired]

[quote=Confusedinomicon;2896039]

Anti-psychotics were never meant to be given on long term basis, but it is now.

quote]

Really?! I had no idea about the anti-psy. I've heard pharm's can reduce your life span, but I am more worried about the quality of my life.

If it works, more power to you all. I hate the thought of being on meds the rest of my life, but I'm way too scared to go off them.

[Anika.]

Antidepressants were also only intended for short term use, 6 months is what I have read in med journals. Also same with benzos.

I think going off the meds succesfully for most people is a process that entails finding ways to wellness before hand. When we don't take time to do that and just ditch the meds it we are missing the important part ..I tried ditching them unsuccesfully about 20 times before I figured out ways that worked for me. Slow learner but I figured out what I needed eventually. I don't recommend people just throw caution to the wind and drop meds suddenly. That can work but for a lot of us it doesn't.

I don't believe that gluten-free was ever suggested as a cure-all for bipolar illness.
It is simply part of a resolution, just as stopping alcohol use is part of the program
of remission. One sensitive to gluten can't ingest it without consequences, just as an alcoholic cannot ingest alcohol without severe consequences.

Glutlen-free, however, is suggested strongly by some doctors who have done their
research and written about it, especially the 20th century engineering altering of gluten content in "dwarf" wheat, and in view of the fact that the United States has greater obesity and increasing levels of bipolar illness in its society. I think Dr. Williams associates a relationship between the two.

One shouldn't use black and white thinking in regard to these things if the effort is to get to a positive approach to holistic recovery. Recovery involves many things, not the least of which is the ability to go off psychotropic medications, all of which create high acidity that must be
alleviated somehow to maintain health. In addition, they all take what they wish from the
nutritional status of the body.

I've mentioned before that one psychiatrist gave up a career in psychiatry because of the
effects that psychiatric medications were having on his patients. I wish I could think of the
name of the doctor who didi that and wrote a book about it.

[AeonDM]

Talk Doesn’t Pay, So Psychiatry Turns Instead to Drug Therapy

DOYLESTOWN, Pa. — Alone with his psychiatrist, the patient confided that his newborn had serious health problems, his distraught wife was screaming at him and he had started drinking again. With his life and second marriage falling apart, the man said he needed help.

But the psychiatrist, Dr. Donald Levin, stopped him and said: “Hold it. I’m not your therapist. I could adjust your medications, but I don’t think that’s appropriate.”

More: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/06/he...anted=all&_r=0

[AeonDM]

Empowerment is Vital to Dialogical Recovery
Daniel Fisher, M.D., Ph.D. - March 9, 2012

In my previous blog, I used a new term, Dialogical Recovery to describe the importance of dialogue to recovery. I and others in the recovery movement have been asking ourselves recently, “What is it about Open Dialogue that resonates with our lived experience of recovery?” There is emerging agreement among us that a dialogue approach is empowering, which is why it is very important to recovery. In fact, empowerment may be one of the most important elements of recovery.

To understand the importance of empowerment, we need to reconsider the nature of the emotional distress from which people are recovering. The present day mental health system calls these issues mental illness. This term is very jarring to most of us with lived experience. We do not want our lives reduced to a biochemical equation. This leaves many of us feeling hopeless and powerless. We are led to believe that all we can do is find the right doctor and the right medication to run our lives. The Open Dialogue practitioners use the term monologue to describe the state of psychosis. By monologue they mean there is only one version of reality and that it is not possible to revise that version. In fact, the medical description of mental distress is monological because it is imposed by authorities upon every person in distress. In addition this spell of the medical model of distress is cast upon every member of our society as the only version of reality. Society is told, without facts to back it up, that emotional distress is due to a chemical imbalance. I think our society’s narrow medical description of madness is actually trapping persons in monologue and therefore blocking recovery. I discovered that when I performed biochemical research and reduced human beings to a medical model I crossed over into monological madness. This imposition of one person’s reality on another person has been considered an impetus for the subjected person’s retreat into psychosis by Helm Stierlin. The consensus among those of us who have recovered from psychosis is that the way out of this madness is through self-determination and choice. Self-determination is an expression of each person’s voice as unique and important. This is an expression of dialogue. To run your life for yourself, however, requires one to be able to exercise power through being involved in empowering relationships. Unfortunately, the present system works to disempower persons when they are in greatest distress.

So if the chemical imbalance theory of emotional distress does not resonate with the lived experience of those of us who have recovered from mental health issues, what reality does? Many of us who have lived experience of recovery from emotional distress have concluded that trauma played a pivotal role in our later distress. For myself, being sexually molested by a 5th grade teacher left a lasting emotional scar. That experience reinforced my suspicion that I was defective and inferior. The abuse left me fearful and obedient to persons in positions of authority. I felt compelled to reflexively adopt their version of reality. I felt powerless to run my own life and looked outside myself for my plans and goals. For me that outwardly imposed life plan was to become a biochemist and discover the chemical imbalance causing my sister to be unhappy. When you have been traumatized every interaction carries a threat because we allow most people to tell us what to do. Well when you feel threatened by interactions and other person’s ideas, your safest response is to withdraw into your own monological world. This results in a person clinging to their view of reality. I, for instance, became convinced that everyone was a cleverly constructed robot. Many people would call this a delusion and dismiss it. Actually it is a creative protection, and should be respected and understood. I later understood that I thought the world was filled with robots because I could not express my own feelings.

More: http://www.power2u.org/articles/reco...l-recovery.htm

[AeonDM]

HOW DO WE RECOVER? AN ANALYSIS OF
PSYCHIATRIC SURVIVOR ORAL HISTORIES

ORYX COHEN, M.P.A ., has emerged as a leader in
the international consumer/survivor/ex-patient (c/s/
x) movement . Currently he is the career initiatives
coordinator for the Western Massachusetts Training
Consortium. He oversees and supports c/s/x-led
microenterprises and self-employment projects.

Oryx is the cofounder of Freedom Center, the Pioneer
Valley's only peer-run support/activist organization. Freedom Center's
purpose is to empower and support people with psychiatric labels while
challenging oppressive mental health policies and practices . He serves on
several boards and committees nationally and regionally, including the
National Association for Rights Protection and Advocacy (NARPA) and
Windhorse Associates. He volunteered for several years with
MindFreedom International, directing its Oral History Project, which
involved collecting and documenting c/s/x stories of abuse, empowerment,
recovery, and resistance in the mental health system.

Summary
This article analyzes interview and survey data collected during the
course of the MindFreedom International Oral History Project from
June 1 through September 1, 2001 . The purpose of the
MindFreedom Oral History Project was to gather stories of experiences
in the mental health system from the psychiatric survivor or
ex-patient perspective . Thirty-six people participated in the study,
most of who consider themselves "psychiatric survivors. " Qualitative
and quantitative analysis reveals four major themes emerging
from these histories : trauma, social control, internalized oppression,
and recovery. The focus of this article is on the theme of recovery.
Participants demonstrated resiliency and a strong ability to
"recover." No "magic bullet " was found to work for all participants '
recovery process ; instead, participants used a variety of selfdesigned
strategies to recapture their once broken lives.

More: http://akmhcweb.org/recovery/oryx_jo...nist_psych.pdf

[AeonDM]

Confessions of a non-compliant patient
By Judi Chamberlin

A famous comedian once said, "I've been rich, and I've been poor, and believe me, rich is better." Well, I've been a good patient, and I've been a bad patient, and believe me, being a good patient helps to get you out of the hospital, but being a bad patient helps to get you back to real life.
Being a patient was the most devastating experience of my life. At a time when I was already fragile, already vulnerable, being labeled and treated only confirmed to me that I was worthless. It was clear that my thoughts , feelings, and opinions counted for little. I was presumed not to be able to take care of myself, not to be able to make decisions in my own best interest, and to need mental health professionals to run my life for me. For this total disregard of my wishes and feelings, I was expected to be appreciative and grateful. In fact, anything less was tacked as a further symptom of my illness, as one more indication that I truly needed more of the same.

I tried hard to be a good patient. I saw what happened to bad patients: they were the ones in the seclusion rooms, the ones who got sent to the worst wards, the ones who had been in the hospital for years, or who had come back again and again. I was determined not to be like them. So I gritted my teeth and told the staff what they wanted to hear. I told them I appreciated their help. I told them I was glad to be in the safe environment of the hospital. I said that I knew I was sick, and that I wanted to get better. In short, I lied. I didn't cry and scream and tell them that I hated them and their hospital and their drugs and their diagnoses, even though that was what I was really feeling. I'd learned where that kind of thing got me - that's how I ended up in the state hospital in the first place. I'd been a bad patient, and this was where it had gotten me. My diagnosis was chronic schizophrenia, my prognosis was that I'd spend my life going in and out of hospitals.

More: http://www.power2u.org/articles/reco...nfessions.html

[Permanent Pajamas]

My response to the claims in the article -