[costello]

Another blog post from Ron Unger:

“I Got Better” – MindFreedom’s New Campaign to Fight Misinformation with Personal Stories

by Ron Unger on June 14, 2012

Of all the misinformation people report hearing from the mental health system, one of the most outrageous and potentially damaging pieces is the claim that people diagnosed with conditions like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder should expect to have these problems for a lifetime. This claim is really helpful if one’s goal is to market medications, and to prevent any attempts at discontinuation of the medications, but it is profoundly unhelpful if one’s goal is to create hope and to inspire people to take action on behalf of their own recovery. Because a person who believes real recovery is impossible is very unlikely to exert effort to accomplish it.

As Rufus May put it, the mental health system typically makes people feel they are “the passive victim of an active illness.”

While no one can guarantee anyone a recover from mental and emotional distress, everyone deserves to hear that such a recovery is possible, and more likely if people do make personal efforts.

Yesterday, MindFreedom International launched a new campaign to fight back against mental health system induced helplessness, and to support the creation of hope and empowerment. This campaign is called “I Got Better.”

“I Got Better” is an ongoing project defying the all-too-common message that recovery from mental and emotional distress is impossible. The “I Got Better” campaign will make stories of recovery and hope in mental health widely available through a variety of media.

Any and everybody with a stake in mental health in our society is welcome to participate, including people who have used mental health services, psychiatric survivors, as well as their friends, family members, colleagues, and mental health workers. To get involved, please complete the brief, confidential introductory questionnaire at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/mfi-igb-intro . (This will take less than 5 minutes to complete.)

Respondents to the survey wishing to share additional knowledge will be invited to take an optional follow-up survey about impressions of hope and hopelessness in mental health care, and successful strategies for recovery. Some survey respondents will be asked to share their story on video.

David Oaks, Director of MindFreedom International, said, “When I was in psychiatric care in college, I was told it was forever. Your experience of hope and hopelessness in mental health care could help youth and young adults receiving a psychiatric diagnosis for the first time. Hope could save a life.”

The Story Behind “I Got Better”

The title of the campaign is inspired by the successful “It Gets Better” viral media effort led by columnist Dan Savage that “shows LGBT youth the levels of happiness their lives can reach.” While these two campaigns are independent, Dan Savage has enthusiastically endorsed “I Got Better.”

The “I Got Better” campaign is funded by a grant from the Foundation for Excellence in Mental Health Care to MindFreedom International. MFI is an independent nonprofit coalition founded in 1986 to win human rights and alternatives in mental health. For more information contact news@mindfreedom.org, or call the MFI office at 541-345-9106.

To take the brief, confidential introductory “I Got Better” survey, which will be active through 15 October 2012, click here now: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/mfi-igb-intro Also please do share the survey link freely via email, facebook, twitter, blogs, etc.

http://recoveryfromschizophrenia.org...sonal-stories/

[fishsandwich]

Thanks for this! I filled out the survey.

[PurpleFlyingMonkeys]

Thank you for this. I needed it. My t, in i guess an attempt to "encourage" me keeps saying that if i were not DID (which according to him is a cureable disorder) that i also mimic schizophrenia and if it were schizophrenia, that that would require meds for the rest of my life and without them i would have no hopes of getting better, but DID doesnt need meds. Although he and my current pdoc do not believe im scizophrenic, i have been diagnosed in the past with it a few times, and my father is schizophrenic so it could very well be true with me, on top of did, so its not helpful when he tells me "its good its DID and not schizophrenia since schizophrenia can not be cured", that doesnt really help me, its scary that if in time, he or any future pdocs find out im schizo too, that i cant get better without meds, especially since meds scare me. Just because he ruled out schizo doesnt guarantee that other doctors were wrong so what hes been trying to encourage me with is rather discouraging

[fishsandwich]

Isn't that a bit of a disingenious thing for your T/pdoc to say, given that (1) psychiatric categories are substantially arbitrary anyway, and (2) schizophrenia and DID in particular are only so recently separated that nobody really agrees where one ends and the other begins?

Also, if you're doing well without drugs (regardless of your diagnosis) and you're suddenly switched to a diagnostic category where drugs are perceived as required, that doesn't necessitate that YOU take the drugs.

[PurpleFlyingMonkeys]

youre right fishsandwhich. While my t has some very helpful information in some aspects, some things just do not sit well with me, this being a main one. I am as open and honest as i can be, in an attempt to genuinely get better now, but knowing his view on psychotic disorders, often i hesitate before being open about all of my problems, i have to force myself to answer his questions in that aspect, because i know his feelings toward psychotic disorders and am fearful that if they eventually learn that its possibly schizophrenia as well, that i will be brushed off and practically force fed meds that make me so much worse off. I genuinely want to get better, i can not live this way and keep what little sanity i have left, so i am honest in my appointments, even when referring to my schizo symptoms, but its hard and rather frightening thinking about the change in my help if they include schizophfenia to my diagnosis.

Ive often been told that its nearly impossible to have both, and the diagnosis often goes back and forth scizo to did to schizo. Im rather tired of the names, as with each name change (in the diagnosis) i get treated much differently. I know meds make things worse for me, yet t continues to say if i were to be schizophrenic that i would have to be on meds. Ive been off steady psychotic meds for 6 years and am 1000 times better than i was on meds, its like if i do get diagnosed by them with schizophrenia, they will be determined to put me on meds that drive me bonkers, and i really will be in trouble.

I took the survey but didnt leave any info besides my email, idk whose running the survey or what they do with your address, but it really sounds like a good cause. The mental health system is extremely flawed. Some things really need to be brought to the surface

[fishsandwich]

Originally Posted by PurpleFlyingMonkeys

I am as open and honest as i can be, in an attempt to genuinely get better now, but knowing his view on psychotic disorders, often i hesitate before being open about all of my problems, i have to force myself to answer his questions in that aspect, because i know his feelings toward psychotic disorders and am fearful that if they eventually learn that its possibly schizophrenia as well, that i will be brushed off and practically force fed meds that make me so much worse off.

Is that possibly something you can discuss with the T? I can't imagine therapy will be very helpful for you (or indeed, anybody else) if you can't open up completely and still feel safe.

Originally Posted by PurpleFlyingMonkeys

I know meds make things worse for me, yet t continues to say if i were to be schizophrenic that i would have to be on meds. Ive been off steady psychotic meds for 6 years and am 1000 times better than i was on meds, its like if i do get diagnosed by them with schizophrenia, they will be determined to put me on meds that drive me bonkers, and i really will be in trouble.

That was my story, too. I got a schizophrenia diagnosis, but the so-called "medications" made me far worse. I was a drugged-up, spaced-out, apathetic blob. I've been off psych drugs for three years now, and while I can't say it's been fantastic or anything ( ) it is immeasurably better.

There are lots of stories of people who are diagnosed with schizophrenia who do just fine off the drugs. Madness Radio has quite a few stories of such people:
http://www.madnessradio.net/
As does the Icarus Project:
http://theicarusproject.net/articles
And many other places that don't immediately spring to mind.

[PurpleFlyingMonkeys]

thank you for the refrences, they have really helped. Im a bit of a coward when it comes to speaking up but perhaps that too will be a part of my recovery and is necessary to getting better. I will perhaps write a letter to him and give it to him wednesday expressing my concerns in this area. The way he makes it sound is that i can only be helped with meds if i am schizophrenic. But that is opposite for me, but i can not be helped by him if i worry that he will throw me out if i am schizophrenic. Therapy is my biggest tool in my desire to get better but no its not effective if i can not feel mentally safe in therapy.

[Gr3tta]

hi purpleflyingmonkeys! (welcome to "psychotic" forum, I haven't seen you in this area before?)
I do think you should be able to discuss this with him. After all, isn't therapy where you're supposed to be safe to talk about anything that's troubling you? I find this notion that you treat the same symptoms with completely different approaches based solely on what you label it preposterous. I've been labeled both DID and schizophrenic in the past, and while I understand why, I find it useless. I'm the same no matter what you call my diagnosis.
You deserve to feel safe in therapy. I hope this can be resolved in a manner that is satisfactory for you.

[PurpleFlyingMonkeys]

Hey gretta :-) ive been in this forum but not in the last year or so, i was a frequent visitor for some time, but like with my anxiety, i was being triggered in here so i stayed away for the most part, but still reading from time to time. My last two t's and current pdoc ruled out schizophrenia so i hoped they were right and just kinda kept myself away to avoid going into another hole
But this t, has me worried that one day he will agree with the previous schizophrenic diagnosis and throw me into this category and completely disregard all previous plans of action as he says meds would be my help if i were schizophrenic. (I posted this in DID forum a few minutes ago).

When i started at pc, schizophrenia forum and DD forum were my main ones, occassionally i will pull away from the DID

[Gr3tta]

Gotcha. I stayed in the DID area at first, but have lately been spending time here more. I find the idea that you can just change your mind, give someone a new label, throw pills at them, and call it therapy just ridiculous. But I'm anti label as a whole. I will go check out your post in the DID forums. Thanks for sharing!

[PurpleFlyingMonkeys]

Forum. I also do the same with anxiety, im only regular on survivor forum.

Ive been on most though as doctors have labelled me with just about everything, my first was bipolar 1, but changed to manic depression (which later i was told is the same as bipolar 1) and schizophrenia (which later was told you can not have both) then i got ptsd and borderline, followed by DID, then OCD, then they just kept going back and rulingi in and out each of those. Only recently have i been given the generalized anxiety, although ive always had bad anxiety.

I go back and forth in denial about my DID and schizophrenic diagnosis as well as ptsd, the only one i continue to believe is the anxiety. Perhaps this is why the pdocs say im a complex case.

Im 99% sure i do not have bipolar ocd borderline or manic depression, the others are still always going back and forth. I just wish they wouldnt put as much emphasis on the name and focus that enerfy on the symptoms instead. No one name explains it all, but they always insis on finding one or the other that fits best and focusing on that. So i do the samw, but it doesnt help the other symptoms. Nor does telling me one is curable and the other not

[fishsandwich]

Originally Posted by PurpleFlyingMonkeys

I just wish they wouldnt put as much emphasis on the name and focus that enerfy on the symptoms instead. No one name explains it all, but they always insis on finding one or the other that fits best and focusing on that.

THIS! A million times this.
The psychiatrists' obsession with naming things is essentially another form of psychosis.

[PurpleFlyingMonkeys]

So i had an overall good appointment with t today, in the DID and abuse field but... one comment is getting to me... when we were talking about my hallucinations and tactile hallucinations. He believes they are related to ptsd or did but then he said "if your schizophrenic im going to be p*ssed". I didnt say anything after that, i really dont like upsetting therapists, its a huge concern of mine. But ive been diagnosed schizo before, its a good possibility. He went on yet again to say DID is at least curable. Hes really not a bad therapist but that comment was upsetting. Sorry to write in this thread about it but yall know my t's views on this, and this was rather upsetting to hear...

[newtus]

Originally Posted by PurpleFlyingMonkeys

So i had an overall good appointment with t today, in the DID and abuse field but... one comment is getting to me... when we were talking about my hallucinations and tactile hallucinations. He believes they are related to ptsd or did but then he said "if your schizophrenic im going to be p*ssed". I didnt say anything after that, i really dont like upsetting therapists, its a huge concern of mine. But ive been diagnosed schizo before, its a good possibility. He went on yet again to say DID is at least curable. Hes really not a bad therapist but that comment was upsetting. Sorry to write in this thread about it but yall know my t's views on this, and this was rather upsetting to hear...

why would he be pissed? wouldnt he at least kinda know if you were? i mean hes a mental health professional right?

i had a therapist that on the first day that i had ptsd and my hallucinations/paranoia were from that. they didnt think i had schizophrenia but they also werent experienced in MENTAL illnesses. only emotional distressors.
mental health is technically different from emotional health. of course its all having to do with your head/like your mind but mental illness is (currently) chemical based and you need medication for it while emotional health can be talked through successfully. thats the current model in psychiatry. im not saying thats how i believe it is. im saying thats the current medical model psychiatry goes by today. and most therapists dont have enough experience or arent trained in the part of mental wellbeing that requires meds.

[fishsandwich]

Originally Posted by PurpleFlyingMonkeys

So i had an overall good appointment with t today, in the DID and abuse field but... one comment is getting to me... when we were talking about my hallucinations and tactile hallucinations. He believes they are related to ptsd or did but then he said "if your schizophrenic im going to be p*ssed". I didnt say anything after that, i really dont like upsetting therapists, its a huge concern of mine. But ive been diagnosed schizo before, its a good possibility. He went on yet again to say DID is at least curable. Hes really not a bad therapist but that comment was upsetting. Sorry to write in this thread about it but yall know my t's views on this, and this was rather upsetting to hear...

Forgive me being so blunt, but your therapist sounds like a dogmatic fool. Also, it's not appropriate for him to use words like "p*ssed" with you.

[fishsandwich]

PS:

After I had filled out the survey on MindFreedom's website, I got asked to do a follow-up survey. It was more free-form; it was mostly text boxes to fill in your own stories and say what helped/didn't help.
There was a possibility to do yet more surveys if you left personal details, too. The form works even if you put in just a first name (and I made a fake one) and an e-mail address.

[PurpleFlyingMonkeys]

Thanks you guys, and I'm sorry for taking over the thread! I think he was saying he would be "p*ssed" because he often states that schizophrenia is treated with medication over therapy, I would be on meds for the rest of my life, perhaps I'm a case he's trying to crack, and perhaps he would be angry that therapy wouldn't help but... It kind of puts a lot of pressure on me to prove my DID over schizophrenia so I don't make him mad. And proving the DID makes it go into hiding even more so.
I feel really pressured to do and say what he wants to hear now, if I don't I feel like I'm not going to get the actual therapy I need. And will be forced back on meds, the meds that make me ten times more psychotic. Meds are horrible for me. I can tolerate the hallucinations, I can tolerate quite a bit, but not while I'm on meds. But if he does learn that I am truly schizophrenic as well as DID, I may just get thrown back into the meds, that's how he's making it sound

[PurpleFlyingMonkeys]

Originally Posted by fishsandwich

PS:

After I had filled out the survey on MindFreedom's website, I got asked to do a follow-up survey. It was more free-form; it was mostly text boxes to fill in your own stories and say what helped/didn't help.
There was a possibility to do yet more surveys if you left personal details, too. The form works even if you put in just a first name (and I made a fake one) and an e-mail address.

I was hoping they would send me something to follow up on the survey but I've got nothing

[fishsandwich]

Originally Posted by PurpleFlyingMonkeys

I was hoping they would send me something to follow up on the survey but I've got nothing

It was a good week after I filled out the original survey. Give it time!

[fishsandwich]

Originally Posted by PurpleFlyingMonkeys

[]I think he was saying he would be "p*ssed" because he often states that schizophrenia is treated with medication over therapy, I would be on meds for the rest of my life.

As I've said several times, that's a dangerous falsehood at best!

Originally Posted by PurpleFlyingMonkeys

perhaps I'm a case he's trying to crack, and perhaps he would be angry that therapy wouldn't help but...

What a load of nonsense from him. Of course therapy can help people with schizophrenia. I believe that therapy can help almost anybody at some point in their lives. If he says he can't help you because your random label changed, then he's a **** therapist.

Originally Posted by PurpleFlyingMonkeys

It kind of puts a lot of pressure on me to prove my DID over schizophrenia so I don't make him mad.

Your therapist should not be putting you under this kind of pressure.
I can't stress that enough.

Originally Posted by PurpleFlyingMonkeys

I can tolerate the hallucinations, I can tolerate quite a bit, but not while I'm on meds. But if he does learn that I am truly schizophrenic as well as DID, I may just get thrown back into the meds, that's how he's making it sound[/COLOR]

Does this T have prescription permissions or something? What is his obsession with you and meds and avoiding some label at all costs because changing it would mean you on meds and that would be the end of your life and his therapy.
Seriously, the universe won't implode just because somebody changes your diagnostic label. Why does he keep going on like it will?

[PurpleFlyingMonkeys]

At the clinic I am at, he's a therapist but in that clinic I also see a psychiatrist. I only see her once every 6 weeks but him on a weekly basis, perhaps he's concerned that if it is schizophrenia, she'd become my main source of therapy/psychiatry, I'm not sure. But I don't understand why he continues to say "If it's schizophrenia", I don't understand why the DID would be ruled out, thus causing these dissociative problems to not get help in order to help the psychotic symptoms?! Like in the DID forum, it's like if I get one label they insist on pushing the other to the side, when in reality my symptoms, not my title are the problems. It's a hard fact, but it's a fact the I have dissociative disorder, but it seems that if I have a psychotic disorder as well, as many doctors have said over the years, that I will be forced into the med world, the place that really really is bad for me.

But I'm going to stop posting my problems in this thread, I've taken it over and really didn't mean to. It helped me being in here, thank you all. I'm just gonna go back to my little journal type thread in survivor forum. Thanks a million everyone (((all))) you all have been so incredibly helpful and wonderful

[newtus]

Originally Posted by fishsandwich

What is his obsession with you and meds and avoiding some label at all costs because changing it would mean you on meds and that would be the end of your life and his therapy.
Seriously, the universe won't implode just because somebody changes your diagnostic label. Why does he keep going on like it will?

i think you are missing something that i believe a lot of people do.

a lot of people say stuff like Dx's dont matter or that they dont matter because its all treated the same. but its NOT.

the diagnostic label means a whole lot. people are more complex than that, thats why. PLUS if your getting into serious mental illness, it can mean two different worlds depending on how you deal with it. all these factors is why a diagnostic label is important to know if its 100% correct (as much as someone can get correct).

obviously you know if someone has schizophrenia on their records they can be barred from a lot of life oppurtunities that someone with even bipolar may not be. ive been put as bipolar and said to have ptsd once because both therapists and psychiatrists know that schizophrenia is life devastating in every way possible; in your head, with relationships, on paper (in records), etc.

maybe PFMonkeys universe wont metaphorically implode...

but thats something i had to say because i think people dont think about every aspect of how important the label ACTUALLY is. people can even be misdiagnosed (for example), is the label not important then? the wrong meds WILL make things worse. if i have schizophrenia and im given lithium (which is known NOT to work on schizophrenia) because im supposed bipolar, I can get physically sick and not get mentally any better, maybe only to have my dosage upped continually by the incompetent psychiatrist. once taken off and put on an antipsychotic and starting to get better; i still might having lasting complications if only i was diagnosed correctly with a psychotic disorder and not a mood one.

do you see what i mean?

[PurpleFlyingMonkeys]

I get this newtus, unfortunately the doctors had no problem in the past giving labels, on paper as well. I've been oficially diagnosed and undiagnosed many many names. Bipolar, schizo, manic, ptsd, borderline, DID, even OCD, and many of which are no where near the truth in me.

I understand and see that many people do need meds, at least at some point in life. The problem is, when people focus on the names over the symptoms and the treatment. I've been on antipsychotics, I've been on mood stabalizers, and that's when I'm obviously psychotic, when taking the meds that are supposed to help me. Even anti depressants make me depressed, the one and only time I may have ever been close to suicidal was when I started antidepressants.

While meds may work for some, when you put a label on someone, you group them with that label and automatically decide that the treatment that worked for the rest of the group will work for this individual but that's just it, they are an individual and should be treated as such, not as the title they were given

I've been in the medicine field for YEARS, and been off meds for even longer, and must say with 100% certainty, I'm 100 times better off the meds, even when I'm at my worst, I am so much better than I was on meds.

[newtus]

i see what you mean with labels over symptoms and that is 100% correct. symptoms are very important.

i just wanted to say that because there are a lot of situations..(give or take some however you deal with an illness)...that a label is important. whether important in a good or bad way.

i hope you do whats right for you.

im good on meds and off. in diff areas. on meds i can function in society. but off meds i am the best example of my true self. my intellect is stunted on meds. but it flourishes off meds. i cant go grocery shopping off meds but i can on them. thats me.
in all...the thing i percieve to be the most important is my intellect and creativity. without it my plans for suicide will prevail. but at that cost ive been in hospitals almost 10 times.
i personally know that number will continue to grow. the only thing i dont know is..is when and where.

[PurpleFlyingMonkeys]

You are right Newtus, you're very intelligent, I've seen that over time, and respect your views. I hope you are doing well! Love the avatar btw, Dali is my absolute favorite painter by far