Personal Stories

Psychotherapist and MindFreedom activist Matthew Morsey discusses the deeper meaning of “psychosis,” his own healing journey, and his past work at a unique center that focused on facilitating recovery from what are classified as “major mental disorders.”

Longtime consumer-survivor movement leader and pioneer in recovery education Pat Deegan talks about her story surviving a schizophrenia diagnosis, empowered medication decisions, and her development of innovative assisstive technology.

http://www.patdeegan.com

Two topics: A Northampton, Massachusetts woman talks about her near-fatal drug reaction to an off label prescription of Lamictal, and Brooklynne Michelle discusses the Mosh Knit podcast — about knitting and bipolar.

Riot Grrl instigator Bonfire Madigan Shive talks about her family, the mental health system, living outside the mainstream and her creative inspiration as a visionary musician.

http://www.bonfiremadigan.com

Danielle, who works with a New York City policy NGO and is part of the activist Rockdove Collective, discusses the international Restorative Justice movement, creating effective mediation and community dialog as alternatives to the punitive prison-industrial complex criminal justice system. Danielle specifically focuses on using Restorative Justice for violent and serious crimes.

Check out www.rockdovecollective.org and www.restorativepractices.org

A harrowing film of six families devastated by the dangerous violence-causing effects of anti-depressant drugs.

http://www.prescriptionsuicide.com

Self-injury and cutting with Ruta Mazelis, psychiatric abuse survivor and editor for 17+ years of the acclaimed newsletter “The Cutting Edge”. Cutting, burning, head banging and other self-harm are discussed from the point of view of people doing them — as coping mechanisms that need compassion and understanding, not the force and judgment of mainstream psychiatry.

Check out http://www.healingselfinjury.org

Delphine Brody is a psych survivor and advocate with the California Network of Mental Health Clients who has years of experience working for substantial policy change on the local, state, and national level.

Delphine also addresses efforts to stop forced outpatient commitment laws in California in the wake of the recent tragic murder of psychiatrist Dr. Wayne Fenton.

Oryx Cohen and Will Hall of the Freedom Center discuss how to reduce and go off psychiatric drugs safely. Oryx is diagnosed with bipolar disorder and Will with schizophrenia, and both are medication-free.

They talk about their own experiences as well as general principles and things to keep in mind for anyone working to reduce or go off psychiatric drugs, lessons learned from 5 years of working with the Freedom Center support group and helping people reduce and go off drugs successfully.

Leading survivor advocate Darby Penney on the exhibit created from suitcases found in the attic of the old Willard State Hospital asylum in New York, illustrating the forgotten lives of patients there.

http://www.suitcaseexhibit.org

Judi Chamberlin is a leading organizer with the psychiatric survivors’ movement and one of its earliest initiators. She is author of On Our Own: Patient Controlled Alternatives to the Mental Health System and staff with the National Empowerment Center. Show is co-hosted by Cheryl Alexander.

http://www.power2u.org