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Reflections |
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Returning The Soul To The Mental Health System |
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| Dan L. Edmunds, Ed. D. www.DrDanEdmunds.com |
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| For mental distress to be alleviated, it is often very important to understand how individuals construct meaning. For some this sense of meaning comes from spirituality and religion. Modern psychiatric practice has become medicalized to the point where it has significantly ignored the human experience and sought to understand human experience only in terms of chemical accidents. Fox News in the United States reported psychiatrists to be the least religious of those within the medical profession, and thus it is obvious that psychiatry has become largely antagonistic towards spirituality and/or religious expression. Psychiatry can be said to be a religion in itself. If we examine the term ‘psychotherapy’ we will see that it literally means the ‘healing of the soul’. Much of emotional distress is actually a spiritual problem, where an individual has lost meaning and hope. In today’s society, we have lost sight of spiritual values and many have in turn decided to turn to the religion of bio-psychiatry. Bio-psychiatry has a creed; the creed is that all problems of life are the result of so-called chemical imbalances. Any professional or individual challenging such conception is branded a heretic and subject to sanction. The psychiatrist is the priest, and in some cases is also looked upon as a messianic figure. As the priest, the psychiatrist defines the Social Law and the infractions thereof. The religion of bio-psychiatry has its ‘sacraments.’ The sacrament of initiation occurs at intake, and confirmation occurs when the individual is indoctrinated into the credo of bio-psychiatry and led to believe that their problems lie in ‘wiring’ problems in their brains. The religion of psychiatry has absolution. Through their ritual, adults and institutions are able to be completely absolved from taking any responsibility for meeting the real emotional needs of a person or examining how their own actions and choices could have impacted the challenges faced by the individual. Ordination occurs at the conferring of the Medical Degree and the completion of a residency in |
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psychiatry. The religion of bio-psychiatry has the ‘sacrament’ of Matrimony. Bio-Psychiatry is wedded to the pharmaceutical industry, and what a generous dowry the pharmaceutical industry has provided! The Psychiatric Associations serves as the “Ecumenical Council” to promulgate the creed of bio-psychiatry and to institute the definitions of the Social Law and the infractions thereof. The scripture of bio-psychiatry is the DSM-IV. The Deity is the enormous ego of the bio-psychiatrists themselves. As a result of the current bio-psychiatric paradigm, oppressive treatments continue to arise. Each generation of psychiatric practice has been oppressive, from the invention of the swivel chair to insulin coma, shock, and lobotomy. Physical interventions, such as psychotropic drugs, restraints, and enforced confinement to mental hospitals or residential treatment facilities are a part of this desire to control rather than truly aid and come to an understanding of the distress the person is experiencing (Breggin and Breggin, 1994). Psychotropic medications with seriously distressed individuals only deal with symptoms; they blunt certain functions to make the person more tolerable and amenable to societal expectations. Psychotherapy, on the other hand, focuses on the subjective changes in patient’s feelings and on actual changes in lifestyle or conduct of life (Fisher & Greenberg, 1989). Based on the viewpoints of biopsychiatry, persons who are medicated and placed in mental hospitals are labeled as improved when they conform to hospital demands or receive discharge. However, what is not examined is, how do the patients themselves actually feel? An estimated 180,000 to 300,000 young people a year are placed in private psychiatric facilities in the US. These children and adolescents often feel powerless in these placements. But as mentioned above, it is the need for feelings of empowerment and hope that will lead to a genuine recovery from distress. Psychologist D.L. Rosenhan led a study where ‘pseudopatients’ had themselves admitted to psychiatric hospitals to experience them first hand and report on this experience. Rosenhan reported in an article appearing in the January 19, 1973 issue of Science, “Powerlessness was evident everywhere…He is shorn of credibility by virtue of his psychiatric label. His freedom of movement is restricted. He cannot initiate contact with staff, but may only respond to overtures as they make. Personal privacy is minimal…” With children and adolescents it is easier to rationalize away their rights and control becomes more arbitrary and complete (Breggin, 1994). Anti-psychotic medications are reported to cause lack of energy, painful emotions, motor impairment, cognitive dysfunction and tend to blunt; the personality of the treated patients as well as having a risk for the development of tardive dyskinesia, a permanent and debilitating neurological problem (Gualteri and Barnhill, 1988). These drugs subdue the person into conformity by blunting the brain, but never do they teach the person how to develop meaning, how to cope, nor do they allow the person to express his or her pain and emotional distress that is within. The person is merely sedated to make his behaviors more manageable to adults. The person learns nothing. The persons who are suffering from severe emotional distress are in conflict. They have internalized feelings of guilt, shame, anger, anxiety, and numbing. These persons need instead of coercive and intrusive ‘treatments’, the ability to find a safe place where coercive power is replaced by reason, love, and mutual attempts to satisfy their basic needs. These persons because of their distress have broken away from the accepted realities, they have sought to recreate their existence. The feelings of anxiety the person may experience are linked to a fear of being and belonging. Depression, mania, and anxiety are all linked together and are indicative of trauma. The person being a shattered person seeks an escape by altered perception. We must begin to realize that all behaviors and experiences have meaning, even those things that may appear the most ‘odd’ to us. The symptoms labeled to be schizophrenic exhibited by certain persons in distress ‘may be understood as manifestations of chronic terror or defense against the terror (Karon, 1996). This is often expressed as anger, loneliness, and humiliation. The therapist and others must convey to the person that he wants to understand, that the client is helpable, but it will take hard work (Karon, 1996). The therapist must forge an alliance with the person, aiding them to understand the real dangers and to be able to develop appropriate coping mechanisms. These persons are often viewed as dangerous themselves but the majority are not. They need to be heard, and forging this alliance will give them the needed voice leading to their recovery. Hallucinations that are experienced by the seriously distressed person are actually repressed thoughts and feelings coming outward, the unconscious into the conscious. Delusions are the adolescent transferring experiences from their past without having the awareness that it is past (Karon, 1996, pg. 36). The therapist can guide in interpreting the meaning of these hallucinations and delusions and once the person is gently approached with their underlying meaning, these events can dissipate. Delusions are also connected with an attempt to find a systematic explanation of our world, to find meaning. A person who has experienced severe distress has lost this meaning and thus develops unusual ways of seeking to make sense of their experiences and the world around them (Karon, 1996, pg. 38). The therapist can gently call the person’s attention to inconsistencies but at the same time respect their vision. The results of a psychosocial approach to those with severe emotional distress has been proven |
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to be more effective than the current biopsychiatric methods as evidenced by a study by Mosher where he took schizophrenic adults who were on either very low doses or no medication, and offered them a ‘safe place’ with non professional staff residing with them and sharing in their daily experiences. A 2 year follow up of these patients noted higher levels of success and progress than their counterparts who were subjected to neuroleptics and psychiatric hospitalization (Mosher, 1996, pg. 53). The model known as the Soteria project was based on principles of growth, development, and learning. All facets of the distressed person’s experience were treated by the staff as ‘real’ (Mosher, 1996, pg. 49). Limits were set and mutual agreements made with the patients if they presented as a danger to themselves or others. Such a model could be adapted to use with adolescents, offering them the need for compassion, empathy, and finding that ‘safe’ place, restoring within themselves a feeling of worth and dignity that will lead to their ability to address the issues of their distress and traverse towards recovery. It should be understood that recovery means being able to overcome distress, not being a lifelong consumer of toxic drugs. What can we do to recreate a mental health system which is humane? First, we must stop looking through the eyes of a medical model, where we see people as broken and disordered and attempts are made to attributing their behaviors and emotions solely to a malfunctioning brain. There is no evidence supporting the psychopathology of a number of disorders. The linkage between the pharmaceutical companies and psychiatry needs to be evaluated as well as the information that is disseminated via the research and materials provided by pharmaceutical company money. The goal should be to examine the underlying factors of a person’s behavior, looking at the person with dignity and respect, and seeing the person as one in conflict rather than a person who is disordered. Such stigmatization remains indefinitely, and labels can often become a self fulfilling prophecy and will follow for years to come and shape the way that one views themselves and also the way others view them. We cannot look to solely the most cost effective solution when people’s lives are at stake. Indeed, providing a prescription may control aspects of behavior and be thought to have a ‘therapeutic effect’ but never gets to the root cause. Second, the realm of psychotherapy must return to its original roots. The word psychotherapy literally means the healing of the soul. We must return the soul to therapy, encouraging therapists to instill within themselves the principles of compassion and empathy that are crucial for any therapeutic relationship to blossom forth. Therapists need to be compassionate and creative, and willing to give additional time and effort to see that a person’s needs are met and to also provide community linkages and ongoing support within their environment and to encourage the least restrictive setting. The coercion into forced ‘treatments’ needs to be eliminated. Third, our society must change in its attitudes. We are a society where we try to find our answers to ailments within a simple pill. We are a society that has unfortunately lost sight of the welfare of those vulnerable and in need. We are a society where we are prosperous, yet greed often blinds us. Somewhere along the line we have failed our fellow human beings. We need to rely less on psychiatry and its devices to solve our problems and more on what we can do within ourselves- to take a holistic approach, to understand the person as a whole person- physical, emotional, and spiritual, and to examine in each of these areas where there may be difficulties that can be alleviated. We need to rely less on others dictating the course of our own lives and develop workable plans within our own family structure. Nothing will ever be perfect, but even in the most serious disturbances, love and compassion can heal much. References |
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Report on ESCAP High Level Governmental Meeting on Midterm Review of Biwako Millennium Framework at Bangkok, Thailand from 19th to 21st Sept 2007 |
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| Amita Dhanda | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This was the first major UN
meeting in the region subsequent to the adoption of the Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). It was therefore of interest to observe whether and if there was a change in the disability discourse post the Convention. The Meeting was primarily concerned with the Biwako Millennium Framework (BMF) though the CRPD was a looming presence. A major learning of the meeting was the need to construct a matrix of convergence between the CRPD and the other developmental documents such as the BMF and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). As a part of the proceedings of the meeting, all attending State Parties made statements on how they have fulfilled their commitments under the BMF. In the main these statements sounded like report cards where States tried to fit in their various disability initiatives under the Biwako goals. A notable exception was the report which was filed by Sri Lanka. In this report the state outlined each of their disability initiatives under the BMF and did not just report what they could do but also admitted what they could not do. It may be of interest to mention that the Sri Lankan delegate was a person with disability. Participation by DPOs and Civil Society The ESCAP was receptive to inputs from DPOs and civil society was demonstrated by a number of initiatives at the meeting. One, ESCAP invited a number of representatives from civil society to make key presentations on the thematic concerns of the meeting. It is as a part of this initiative that Amita Dhanda was asked to make a presentation on Self Advocacy by Persons with Psychosocial Disabilities [Cf. below]. The keynote address for the meeting was delivered by Monthian Buntan and Andrew Byrnes made the presentation on the CRPD. And Sae Kani spoke on Inclusive Disaster Management. ESCAP also invited civil society representatives to make statements under the various themes of the meeting and as a part of this initiative Bhargavi Davar made a statement on behalf of WNUSP [Cf. below]. However what is significant to note that whilst the invited presentations made in the plenary found mention in the Report of the meeting, the civil society statements were heard but not recorded. Civil Society members were also not allowed to query any decision made by the states parties and a persistent effort by a representative of the World Federation for the Deaf was not entertained on the reasoning that this was an inter-governmental meeting hence intervention by DPO’s in the deliberations were not permissible. Even as a number of officials from the ESCAP Secretariat spent time trying to assuage the outraged sentiments of the DPO representative. The meeting did show that whilst the ESCAP officials were receptive to according full participation rights to DPO’s the States had still a long road to travel before such participation gets incorporated in the procedures of UNESCAP. Goals for BMF+5 The States used this meeting as an opportunity to revisit the BMF goals and here it is of significance that amongst the constituencies meriting special attention the +5 document referred to persons with psychosocial disabilities. The need to address the concerns of persons with psychosocial disabilities also came to the fore in the informal deliberations that we had with the members of the ESCAP Secretariat and some States like India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and China. |
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1 Self Advocacy by Persons with Psychosocial Disabilities1 |
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| Amita Dhanda, World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Promotion of Self Advocacy by Persons with Disabilities has been detailed as one of the goals of the Biwako Millennium Framework. Presumably this goal was included to accord visibility to disability and to ensure primacy to the vision of persons with disabilities. The slogan “Nothing about us without us” encapsulates the self advocacy agenda of persons with disabilities. However just the acceptance of the need for self advocacy does not create the environment which allows it to be practiced. For that to happen it is important to lift the barriers to self advocacy. These impediments present themselves in variant forms at different sites. Some of these barriers could be listed as: the absence of access to information; the non availability of appropriate means of communication; inaccessible physical environment and the absence of suitable transportation. The detailing of these factors shows that the creation of a world oblivious of the existence of disability is the greatest impediment to the participation by persons with disabilities, in the creation of a more inclusive world. Without in any way denying the far reaching effects of these physical barriers, I am in this morning’s presentation drawing your attention to the normative barriers to self advocacy. By normative barriers I refer to legislations, rules, and judicial decisions which deny identity and agency to persons with disabilities. They do so by not recognizing persons with psychosocial disabilities as persons before the law and disqualifying them from managing their own affairs. Whilst in practice this manner of deprivation may also be inflicted on persons with physical and sensory disabilities, in the text of law this denial of personhood and capacity to act is almost universally limited to persons living with psychosocial and intellectual disabilities. It is this legal disqualification which is the greatest impediment to self advocacy by persons with psychosocial disabilities. Before proceeding to describe the substantive content and operation of these normative barriers I wish to briefly dwell on the use of the term psychosocial disabilities. We speak of psychosocial disabilities because the differences in our ways of thinking, feeling, expressing, and deciding are socially stigmatized, discriminated and excluded. To explain further, there are amongst us, as in the general populace, persons who have a greater inclination to risk taking behavior; only in our case these individual predilections are mechanically extended to the whole group. These imputations of dangerousness set up a vicious circle between the imputation and the social belief whereby one reinforces the other. It is from these unexamined social beliefs that the social stereotype of the “dangerous lunatic” is born. If the label of dangerousness is one pathway to our social ouster then the attribution of incompetence is the other. Here we are faced with the situation whereby accepted human freedoms of security of person and liberty of movement are routinely denied to us by alleging incompetence. It is significant to note that these findings of lack of insight and incompetence are always reached when we challenge social expectations and not when we conform to them. It is this lack of social accommodation to our way of being in the world which makes us persons with psychosocial disabilities. This lack of social accommodation is demonstrated in several ways — the most significant one being by the denial of legal capacity, which in effect means the silencing of our voices and thereby ousting of our choices. Once the law recognizes that a person possesses capacity, then the law deals with that individual directly and not through a substitute such as a guardian or a manager. It accords to this individual the freedom to make her own mistakes and to learn or not learn from them. Whereas for persons with psychosocial disabilities once the label, diagnosis, or finding of psychological difference is reached, be it socially, medically, or judicially, the person who is so labeled is put out of the pale of personhood and presumed to lack the capacity to conduct his or her own life. There is therefore no dialogue with the individual and no effort to understand her perspective towards her life. Instead conversations happen over the head of this individual with the carer be it friend or family or the professional in charge be it doctor or lawyer. |
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| 1Statement made by the WNUSP on the occasion of the High level Intergovernmental meeting on the Biwako Five Plus, UNESCAP, Bangkok, September 19-21, 2007 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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It is true that all legal texts do not attribute incapacity just with the finding of “unsoundness of mind” or “mental illness” or “insanity” the not so complimentary terms used in legislations to refer to psychosocial disabilities. Many laws require that a finding of lack of capacity should be reached only if the psychological condition results in the afflicted person to not understand the nature of the act, or the effect of the agreement on his interests, or the nature of the ceremony she is performing. Research studies on the operation of these incapacity laws have shown that these functional requirements are often not observed. Thus in practice just the finding of psychological difference results in determinations of incapacity. Further legislative texts accord an unrepresentative preference to cognitive faculties in arriving at findings of capacity. This is so even when all persons do not rely on these faculties, or on not solely on these faculties, to make their choices or reach their decisions. By this exclusive reliance on cognitive faculties many persons lose the capacity to decide for themselves; not because they lack the capacity but because they do not fulfill the requirements of the law. The artificial nature of the legal requirement is not questioned. Consequently all persons who do not make the legal cut off are prevented from advocating their own cause. For the Biwako mandate of self advocacy to be realized, it is imperative that these disqualifying legal regimes be foundationally questioned and dismantled. Such an opportunity has been provided by the recently adopted Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which as of now 102 countries have signed and 5 have ratified. This Convention recognizes the human rights of all persons with disabilities on an equal basis with others. In furtherance of this mandate of equality and non discrimination the Convention reaffirms that persons with disabilities have the right to recognition everywhere as persons before the law. This proposition accords identity to all persons with disability and makes them the bearers of rights on an equal basis with others. Article 12 (2) then recognizes that persons with disabilities enjoy legal capacity on an equal basis with others in all aspects of life. With this paragraph the Convention recognizes that the capacity to act is an integral component of legal capacity. This recognition of legal capacity is not premised on a mythical belief in human independence. Instead in a realistic acceptance of human interdependence paragraph (3) to article 12 requires States Parties to “take appropriate measures to provide access by persons with disabilities to the support they may require in exercising their legal capacity”. The crucial point is that this support is to supplement and not supplant the person with disabilities. This requirement is further reinforced by paragraph (4) which requires the support be proportional and tailored to the person’s circumstances, respect the preferences of the person with disabilities and be without conflict of interest and undue influence. This article along with article 4(1) (b) which requires States to modify or abolish existing discriminatory laws should help in removing significant normative obstacles to self advocacy by persons living with psychosocial or intellectual disabilities. With the lowering of these legal barriers the passage to social participation and inclusion should be opened for all persons with disabilities. We are certain that the first human rights Convention of this millennium with a non discrim-inatory formulation on legal capacity will usher the era of full citizenship for persons with disabilities. We are especially excited about this prospect because article 12 cannot be the subject of reservations. This is because any reservations on this article would be incompatible with the object and purpose of the Convention; and article 46 only allows reservations if they are compatible with the object and purpose of the Convention. We eagerly await the fulfillment of the mandated quota of 20 ratifications which will bring the Convention into force and do hope that several of these first ratifications come from this region. |
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2 Barrier free environment for persons with psycho-social disabilities1 |
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| V Bhargavi, WNUSP | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry [WNUSP] appreciates the fact that, in both the Disability Rights Convention as well as the BMF Five Plus, there is much scope to strengthen the regime of rights of persons with psychosocial disabilities. The BMF places much emphasis on the right to a barrier free environment. In the disability field, we generally understand barriers in physical terms. It has helped us to develop practical solutions for persons with disabilities and provide many opportunities to more fully utilize their abilities and enhance their mobility. The notion of a barrier is not only something external, but it is also internal. We have to think of the psychosocial dimension as a different sort of environment which must also remain barrier free. As human beings, we are naturally gifted with the ability to excel ourselves by feeling new emotions, thinking new thoughts, having aspirations, making new decisions, learning new mental skills, understanding our past and planning our future, expanding our behaviours and skills, etc. We have many non-rational psychological skills also, including intuition, imagination, visioning, dreaming. These, and more, constitute our inner environment. Instead of seeing this as the gift of being human, sometimes, in our human society, we make judgments such as “Don’t think this thought”, “Don’t feel this emotion”, “Don’t have this dream”, etc. We frown upon some emotions, thoughts and behaviours and call them mental disease, even classifying them through medical terms and providing medical treatments. In this way, we create barriers in our inner world. We do not allow the exercise of full access to our own inner spaces and our right to human insight. We restrict the ability to excel ourselves and expand our inner strengths. We set up barriers in our inner psychological environments. Even though a metaphor, we should also talk about mobility in the psychosocial / spiritual realm of human existence. A part of our being human is our sense of freedom, coming from using as well as taking our psychological potential to higher and higher goals. That pursuing inner goals is a natural human pursuit is evidenced by our everyday sense of growing more insightful, evolving into a “better” person, etc. We should insist upon freeing our inner worlds and using the right to the opportunity of experiencing a full range of psychological possibilities. The exercise of this right can only lead to more imagination, higher level of creativity and profound insight about psychological wellbeing. Persons with psychosocial disabilities will be able to contribute positively and fully to a better vision for the world, and for human well being, if such barriers are removed. We at the WNUSP would be happy to offer our experience and expertise in seeing this happen. |
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| 1 Intervention made by the WNUSP on the occasion of the High level Intergovernmental meeting on the Biwako Five Plus, UNESCAP, Bangkok, September 19-21, 2007. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Incredibly Useful Resources |
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From the Madhouse to the Warmth of Others |
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In 1977, I went crazy for the first time, as I tried to manoeuvre myself through an increasingly stressful situation. My marriage had just fallen apart; I was under pressure to finish my thesis, which was an arduous labour. I struggled with anxiety over my exams, I argued with some of my roommates. I was in love with my new girlfriend and simultaneously having disagree-ments with her because she feared that she was pregnant and would need to get an abortion, leave the apartment or leave me altogether. Now all of this, which for 26 years, more or less out of my own free will, I had silently swallowed but apparently not digested, was breaking out of me. The parties involved reacted all negatively, towards my—harmless—fantasies, my exuberant speaking, and my fear that I was being monitored, remotely controlled, persecuted, poisoned and brought to a madhouse to be de-brained and killed. The relatives to whom I went in order to type my thesis on their electric typewriter were extremely scared, and the doctor they called resented me for not wanting to play the customary patient role. The fellow students in Berlin and the girlfriend, who followed me to my relatives, reacted with silent shock. Unclenched by my crazy new perceptions, detached from all binds, I was finally profoundly unsettled. To some extent my fantasies turned into bitter reality: I was carried off to the institution and locked up there for weeks on high doses of neuroleptics that more or less poisoned me and induced a coma-like state which temporarily brought me to near death. Eventually my liver was permanently damaged, I developed a tardive dyskinesia in the form of a rabbit syndrome (compulsive nibbling). Afterwards I became totally apathetic and finally had to be thrown out of the madhouse. To top it off, I was forced to submit to a community psychiatrist who dispensed depot neuroleptics. Distraught over my misery and convinced that no positive readjustment of my life could ever happen, I decided to withdraw from treatment and to secretly discontinue my prescribed neuroleptics. After some time I recovered, and founded a self-help group in which I could gather together with other (ex-) users and survivors and also consider my diverse diagnoses. Quickly, I lost the belief in being a mentally ill schizophrenic. Through occupying myself intensely with my earlier crazy utterances and perceptions, I came to understand much of the content, shape and cause of my “endogenic psychosis;” I gained new self confidence, became more open and began to “expose” my feelings as well as I could. Self-help I am born in 1950 in Calw, Black Forest (Germany) and have an education as a social-pedagogist. Beside my studies, I owned together with my former wife two book-shops in Berlin, where I planned to go on working after finishing my studies. But my madness changed my life. Coming back from Hades—in a sense I had shut off my life in the madhouse—I finished my studies, and the professors asked me to become teacher at university and to pursue my PhD. But university was boring, students were not interested in the topic, so I decided to get active more and more in the self-help field. Finally our group was funded by the local administration, I had a paid half-day job, our group had a little bus, so we could travel through Europe, and I could work on my Ph.D. One main question was, what could we learn from the effects of neuroleptics on the nature of madness? Realizing, that most of the so-called side effects are the defined main effects, and that successful neuroleptic treatment suppresses the power of life, everything changed. I wrote a book about this, The Chemical Gag, and when normal publishers rejected to publish my book, I got myself another publisher. This book meanwhile is in its 5th edition, and other books, for example Coming off Psychiatric Drugs or Alternatives Beyond Psychiatry, followed. Meanwhile, since 1986, I wrote, published or edited about 25 books. As I saw so many people dying or getting disabled by psychiatric treatment, I simply feel committed to make these issues public, to distribute counter information and knowledge about alternatives. And together with my fellow colleagues, I founded with the years other organisations, for example the Berlin Runaway-house group, which finally after a one-million Deutschmark gift from a relative could buy a house as asylum for people who flee from psychiatric treatment, or the European Network of (ex-) Users and Survivors of Psychiatry. |
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Humanistic Antipsychiatry My philosophy I decided to call humanistic antipsychiatry. To say, abolish psychiatry and emotional distress will disappear, is rather primitive. Academic and patriarchal antipsychiatry played a role, but in the past. Now it should be up to the users and survivors of psychiatry to define their needs and problems themselves. My Publishing House, which is I as a one-person service, but with many supporters, is orientated toward the interests of (ex-) users and survivors of psychiatry whose main concerns are self-determination and freedom from bodily harm. Meanwhile I went on to create branch offices in Great Britain in 2003, and in the USA in 2004. Of course I have no connection to the pharmaceutical industry and to organizations that are dependent on them, nor to Scientology or other sects and dogmatists of whatever colour. Beyond health, nothing is more valuable than freedom and independence. The literature I publish is filled with a contrarian spirit and the fundamental conviction that (1) psychiatry as a scientific discipline cannot do justice to the expectation of solving mental problems that are largely of a social nature, (2) its propensity and practice to use force constitutes a threat, and (3) its diagnostic methods obstruct the view of the real problems of individuals. For these reasons, I plead for (1) developing adequate and effective assistance for people in emotional difficulties, (2) safeguarding civil rights in treatment on a par with ‘normal’ patients, (3) joining forces in cooperation with other human rights and self-help groups, (4) support in withdrawing from psychiatric drugs, use of alternative and less toxic psychotropic substances and a ban of electroshock, (5) new ways of living with madness and being different—with as much independence from institutions as possible, and (6) tolerance, respect and appreciation of diversity at all levels of life. Bestsellers The books, which I sell most, are those ones, which I published in German and in an English translation. Coming off Psychiatric Drugs: Successful Withdrawal from Neuroleptics, Antidepressants, Lithium, Carba-mazepine and Tranquillisers will have its 3rd German edition, was published in English and will be published in summer 2008 in a Greek and Italian translation, which is like a fairy tale. My latest book (September 2007) is Alternatives Beyond Psychiatry, a book of alternatives to psychiatry around the world, which I edited together with Peter Stastny. He is Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx in New York and has conducted several publicly funded research projects in the area of vocational rehabilitation, social support and self-help, in collaboration with individuals who had survived personal crises and psychiatric interventions. Alternatives Beyond Psychiatry reflects current approaches to self-help and non-psychiatric alternatives in cases of acute emotional problems, as well as pathways to treatment that respect human rights. Ex-patients/survivors, therapists, lawyers, social scientists, psychiatrists and relatives from all continents report about their work outside the mainstream, their aims, experiences and successes while addressing the following questions: What helps me if I go mad? How can I find trustworthy help for a relative or a friend in need? How can I protect myself from coercive treatment? As a family member or friend, how can I help? What should I do if I can no longer bear to work in the mental health field? What are the alternatives to psychiatry, how can I get involved in creating alternatives? Assuming psychiatry would be abolished, what do you propose instead? In the chapter “What helps me if I go mad?” for example, 14 former psychiatric patients describe how they manage their acute emotional crises without entering the psychiatric system. This section also includes contributions about holistic natural healing methods for depression, self-help groups for people with unusual beliefs, and new approaches to voice hearing, which allow people to appreciate their voices and to address them in meaningful ways. In the section on “Models of Professional Support,” a number of functioning alternatives are introduced, ranging from the Soteria model, the Windhorse project and the Berlin Runaway House, to non- or anti-psychiatric projects in Alaska and Sicily, and Jaakko Seikkula’s “Open Dialogue” in Finland. All of these approaches lead to a substantial reduction in coercive measures and drug prescriptions. Karyn Baker reports how families affected by psychiatry are being trained in Toronto to support their relatives in the recovery process, instead of, as usual, pushing them to take psychotropic drugs, resulting in their becoming “career mental patients.” Specific forms of support for migrants, children and youth, confused elderly individuals and men experiencing emotional crises are further areas of interest. In “Strategies Realizing Alternatives and Humane Treatment,” Maths Jesperson introduces the reader to a personal ombuds service in Skåne, Sweden, and Jim Gottstein details the success of the Alaskan association PsychRights in getting millions in public funds reallocated to the development of non-psychiatric alternatives. Laura Ziegler and Miriam Krücke elucidate the legal and self-help aspects of advance directives, David Oaks introduces the organization MindFreedom International, which is accredited as an NGO at the United Nations and advocates for human rights as a basis for a non-violent revolution in mental health. Dan Taylor describes the struggle of this organization in the African nation of Ghana, Jan Wallcraft (UK) extols the usefulness of user-controlled research as |
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an underpinning for alternative approaches, and her colleague Andrew Hughes emphasizes the extent to which his association trains former psychiatric patients for user/survivor involvement work in mental health and social care. In the final section, the Irish psychiatrist Pat Bracken affirms the necessity for a radical paradigm change, away from the tendency to understand human difficulties as technical problems and towards a non-psychiatric approach that gives primacy to relationships, contexts, meanings, values and power-relations within a thoroughly reformed psychosocial system. Therapy, services and even psychotropics are not fundamentally rejected, but seen as secondary to those other elements. Peter Stastny and I hold the century of psychiatric reforms responsible for the spread of forced treatment into community programs, the increase of electro-shock, the rampant psychiatrisation of children and the elderly, and the massive extent of damage caused by psychotropic drugs. We demand the long overdue creation of alternatives and choices, based on the many successful programs featured here and elsewhere, which should be a matter of course in a society that considers itself democratic. Robert Whitaker, author of Mad In America, says in his preface of Alternatives Beyond Psychiatry, “There are proven alternatives to psychiatry, programs that have a track record of helping people get better. And there are reports of ways of coping with madness on an individual level. This book hopefully will encourage many, many other such efforts to take root and flourish.” Conclusion To be true, I do not understand really, how all these things could happen. Surely I had several angels who took care for me. Originally I was ready to become a long-term outpatient to receive my depot neuroleptics for the rest of my life. Beside guardian angels, family and friends supported me, as I am supporting them now also. In the self-help movement I met many wonderful people from all parts in the world, my love Kerstin included. My friend Zoran Solomun ends his contribution in the chapter “What helps me if I go mad” with these words: “We listen to one another, speak, and then listen again. We tell our truth, convinced of its existence, and we actually consider these perspectives to be truthful. And in this way we open the gateway to personal and encounter the warmth of others. This is the most normal thing that I expect from life.” I have nothing to add. www.peter-lehmann.de |
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After Ervadi: Faith Healing and Human Rights |
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On August 6, 2001, twenty eight people labelled “mentally ill” died in a fire that burned down the makeshift hut in which they were kept chained in Ervadi, Tamil Nadu. The incident caused widespread public outrage and invoked pleas for preserving the human rights of mentally distressed people from the media, mental health and human rights activists, legal experts, professionals, NGOs and the general public. Since 2001, it has become an annual media ritual to expose the government’s failure to regulate mental health care and highlight “the plight of the mentally ill,” by carrying stories on faith healing places. This year NDTV carried a report on the Langar House Darga in Hyderabad1, alleging that “the mentally ill still continue to be chained in gross violation of human rights.” “With limited room in mainstream institutions of mental care, many who need attention get pushed to where either hope or desperation takes them,” the report concluded. The NDTV report instigated discussions among some mental health and human rights activists, members of the Jan Mansik Arogya Abhiyan, and other interested parties. An immediate suggestion was to file a public interest litigation against the Darga, and using the law to shut it down. Others felt that legal intervention, while putting an end to inhuman practices like chaining, will also take away important community support systems that these places provide for people experiencing mental distress. This article presents some thoughts arising from these discussions.2 The Langar House Darga The Darga of Syed Meeran Hussaini Quadri Bogdad at Langar Houz has long been a location of faith healing for people from all religions in Andhra Pradesh. Apart from a large number of people who come here seeking healing and cure, people also come to visit the tombs of saints and the mosque. The Centre for Advocacy on Mental Health, the convenor of the Jan Mansik Arogya Abhiyan, proposed its own investigation and organised a fact-finding visit to the Darga. |
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M.A. Moid and Mohammed Afzal undertook the visit and submitted a report. At the time of their visit, they found one person chained to a gravestone. Having talked to the people visiting the Darga, they found that there is a strong faith in the healing power of the Darga among the people and communities who came there. The Darga is seen as offering an alternative to state run mental hospitals which are seen as callous and costly. People come to the Darga on their own accord or are brought there by their families. Some people had already tried allopathic doctors and had come to the Darga as a last option. In one case, an unwell person found on the roadside was brought there by the Police, as it was seen as a safe space within the community. The Darga is also the location of informal community based care. Local NGOs are involved in distributing free medicines through a doctor who visits weekly. Another NGO provides food to everyone daily in the evening. After the NDTV report, the Darga officials have stopped allowing people to stay overnight on the premises. This, in effect, has denied access to shelter from rain and sun and also to the healing process. Asked about the practice of keeping people in chains, the Darga officials disowned such practices and left it to the caretakers and families of people visiting the Darga. One official said: “We don’t ask anybody to stay or leave. It is a matter of their faith and well being but after the TV news we are asking the people to get a certificate from the police and mental hospital if they want to stay in this Darga.” The Law as Recourse Following the Ervadi incident the Supreme Court asked all states to submit a report on unregistered bodies detaining persons with mental distress. Several such bodies were shut down. The people needing treatment found in these places were sent to state mental health facilities. Following the NDTV report, the Andhra Pradesh Human Rights Commission (APHRC) visited the Langar House Darga, and demanded that “those needing hospitalisation be shifted to the government hospital and others moved to government homes if they have nowhere else to go.”3 Both the Supreme Court and the APHRC see state run mental hospitals as the “correct” place for people to be. But as any of us who have had the misfortune to spend time in one of these “institutions of care” can testify, they do not stand up to scrunity. An empirical study of state run mental hospitals in the country by the National Human Rights Commission4 classified these institutions of care into two: one, hospitals that were “dumping grounds,” where people experiencing mental distress were incarcerated in violation of all human dignity; two, hospitals which provided some basic amenities, but were predominantly custodial, violating people’s rights to appropriate treatment and life in the community. The deprivations, control and restraint – both medical by use of drugs and ECT, and physical by strapping to beds, solitary cells and locked wards – within the walls of these hospitals are not considered. Would it constitute less violation of human rights because they are done within legal boundaries in registered institutions, and away from the eyes of cameras? In the discussions that followed the NDTV report, the voices in favour of invoking the law seemed to stem from a belief that such proactive action would have an impact on other institutions and make them re-examine their inhuman practices. However, as Moid and Afzal’s report showed, the increased scrutiny had resulted in the Darga disowning such practices and withdrawing even some of the beneficial services. The Meaning of Healing The modernist discourse on health sees mental health provision through regulated medical models as progressive. Other knowledge systems and healing practices are considered reactionary. A good example of this is the WHO discourse on mental health in the so-called developing countries. The 1979 WHO study5 reported that people in India (Agra to be specific) did not possess correct knowledge of schizophrenia and that there were superstitious beliefs and misconceptions in how to get treatment. Correct knowledge meant western medical understanding of mental illness and superstitious beliefs referred to as faith and religious healing. Yet, several WHO-sponsored studies in the following decades showed that people diagnosed with schizophrenia and related illnesses in so-called developing countries like India (including people in Agra who were part of the 1979 study) had better outcome measures compared to their counterparts in the so-called developed countries.6 Murphy Halliburton, in his study of experiences of people accessing ayurvedic, allopathic and religious healing in Kerala, posits the idea of “psychiatric pluralism” as a possible answer to why India is among the countries with the “wrong” knowledge and “right” outcome measures.7 He argues that it is the “fit” that people see between a regime of treatment and their own ideas of illness and wellness, and the access to different kinds of regimes that make people “get better.” What is considered “alternative mental health systems” in western countries – ayurveda, faith and religious healing, native medicine – is an integral part of what people access in times of need. While no regime worked for everyone across the board, the people interviewed for this study showed a great deal of initiative in moving from one system to another until they found what worked for them. |
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One of the few studies that compared outcomes of healing temples with that of clinical psychiatry was conducted in Tamil Nadu. They found a 20% reduction in the symptoms of schizophrenia, and commented that this “represents a level of clinical improvement that matches that achieved by many psychotropic agents, including the newer atypical agents.”8 They found that people saw this temple as providing them a supportive, non-threatening, reassuring setting, an “asylum” in the sense of sanctuary. The above studies represent a welcome tendency to take community healing spaces and their roles more seriously. An incident like Ervadi creates fear and aversion to these places. But it is true that such spaces come into public attention only in the wake of an Ervadi. Mainstream mental health provision or discussions have nothing to do with them. Liberal secular sections of the society see them as reactionary. Yet a large number of people use them regularly and arguably with less stigma than psychiatric hospitals. We need to do more work in understanding what “healing” means to people who access these spaces. An insufficient understanding of these spaces creates confusions about the services that they provide. How can these important community resources be supported to provide their services more efficiently? For example, it is argued that some people need to be chained to keep them and others safe in a public open space like the Langar House Darga. Could it be possible to envisage the provision of safe living spaces close to the Darga for people who visit the Darga for healing? The Discourse of Human Rights In the discussions, the concept of “human rights” remained unexamined. Is it a concept that has one universal meaning, despite the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? How do we respond to situations that we see as violations of human rights? In the discussions, an example of a single mother with a young child with autism was presented. Living close to railway tracks, the mother had taken to tying the child up in their home, while she worked in her small shop. The local Red Cross filed a police report against her for violating the child’s human rights. It did not occur to them that what the mother actually needed was some support to look after her child, day care or babysitting services, while she earned a living. In this case, the child definitely has a right not to be restrained. However, the dispropor-tionate action to punish the already vulnerable mother only makes a vulnerable situation worse. One of the suggestions that came out of our discussions was that Dargas and other such places should be studied as institutions so that there is a much better understanding of how they respond to people’s problems, their limitations and dynamics. They provide an important social function. It would be more appropriate to strengthen and nurture these spaces through resource allocation, improved management, and support through health and education centres. Access to appropriate treatment is a human right – who better to decide what is appropriate than the person looking for healing? The right to family and community life is also a human right. Would these rights be granted if healing spaces are closed down and people forcefully taken to mental hospitals? That is all that the law can offer at the moment. Contact: jayakalathil@yahoo.com |
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| References 1 Uma Sudhir, “Mentally ill patients chained for cure.” 6 August 2007. http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20070021615&ch=8/6/2007%201:13:00%20PM 2 I’d like to thank everyone who participated in the e-mail discussions after the NDTV report and V Bhargavi for forwarding the mails. 3 NDTV correspondent, “APHRC reacts to treatment of mentally ill.” 7 August 2007. http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20070021820 4 NHRC, Quality of Mental Health Care. New Delhi: 1999. 5 WHO. Schizophrenia: An International Follow-Up Study. New York: Wiley. 6 Norman Sartorius, et al (1996). “Long-term follow-up of schizophrenia in 16 countries.” Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 31, 249–258; Hopper, K (2003). “Interrogating ‘culture’ in the WHO international studies of schizophrenia. In Robert Barrett & Janis Jenkins, Ed., The Edge of Experience: Schizophrenia, Culture, and Subjectivity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 7 Murphy Halliburton (2004). “Finding a Fit: Psychiatric pluralism in South India and its Implications for WHO studies of mental disorder.” Transcultural Psychiatry, 41: 80-98. 8 Raguram et al (2002). “Traditional community resources for mental health: a report of temple healing from India.” British Medical Journal, 325: 38-40. |
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CAMH resources on Depression |
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| Anant Bontadkar | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Awareness, understanding and knowledge are the three main things needed for physical and mental well-being, good relationships, smoother life of the individual, family as well as a society. No doubt, knowledge helps the possessor of it, but it can help others also. In any interpersonal relationship, knowing each other solves a lot of problems. Also it helps a person to be healthy mentally and physically. Once understanding improves, automatically our responses to things changed and we can induce positiveness. By reading articles like this, one is able to know the nature of mental heath problems he or she may be facing in life, consider it and adjust with each other accordingly, helping each other in coping with distresses and in being happy. I would like to say something about the words – disorder, syndrome, abnormality, dys-function, disease, illness, patient, etc., which are used are medical terms. If you observe yourself, you will find a preconceived notion about each word, attached by your self or infused by society. Whenever we use any word, its related to emotions, and thoughts automatically occupy our mind and we react accordingly. About the words I have listed here, some negative and harmful emotions, thoughts and behavior patterns are attached to these labels in our society like disregard, phobia, anxiety, disdain, stigma, labeling, marginalization, and denial of rights, which makes the life of a sufferer worse. This is not at all helpful for an individual, a family as well as society also. If you look at the meanings of the words I have listed before, you will find that it is very difficult and in lot of cases very wrong to label someone with these words. In case of depression, it is absolutely possible to overcome or manage effectively and live a so-called normal life. Actually, perception of normal and abnormal differs from person to person. In such a scenario, labeling someone is very indiscreet, wrong and harmful. Looking at some of the signs and symptoms of the various disorders, like irritation, sadness, sorrow, forgetfulness, lack of concen-tration, restlessness, you will find it present in everyone in some amount at some time or other. If someone is approaching a mental health professional for help we think that he is disordered. Someone is suffering but not taking the help of a professional then we do not think that he is disordered. Is this thinking logical? Do think a hundred times before labeling someone with some disorder or a syndrome. I would like to urge the person suffering, that at least you do not label yourself with disorder, let others say anything. How you see yourself impacts the attitude of society towards you. So, work on your attitude towards yourself. Yes, you are in distress now, but you need not be in distress all your life. Work on your abilities, your self-worth and condition of mind, but keep away from these harmful labels. Any human being is not restricted to only one aspect of flaws, but consists of other positive aspects also. Think about those positive aspects and you will find peace, energy, and inspiration within. While reading something, what could one take from the reading is purely subjective, but still I would like to say something about how you could make this article beneficial. By reading signs and symptoms, we can come to know the condition of the person in depression. If any of our close persons is in distress, we will be able to identify his distress from these symptoms. If possible, we can help him/her, directly or indirectly, in reducing his distress. At least, we can take care that our behavior is not increasing his distress. If we are not capable of reducing the burden of depression someone is carrying, we can at least listen to him. Just listening attentively, seriously, without judging, without giving opinion helps a lot. It will improve relationships. Helping someone in distress gives us contentment and self-worth, which are the most valuable things to be earned in life compared to anything else, I believe. |
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| Mind works on very subtle level, with very fast speed and lot of times subconsciously or unconsciously, storing negative thoughts, feelings and beliefs, which we do not come to know easily most of the times, unless it shows some intense distress. If we find some symptoms in excessive amounts in ourselves, we can work on them well in advance according to the wisdom, ‘Prevention is better than cure’. I am not intending to threaten anyone, but just alerting, to reduce possibility and intensity of depression in self. If we can think about the root causes of depression, it will help us in improving our condition of mind. Signs & symptoms tell you who has a depression in medical terms. The human is an emotional being. Like day and night, we feel good and bad, high and low alternatively. But if only negative feelings are occupying the mind for a longer period continuously, then it needs to be taken seriously. Everyone feels a bit low sometimes. But for some, it becomes serious enough to bring their lives to a standstill. That is where the problem worsens. For any age and sex, in general, depression can be seen as a state of disability, morbidity, excessive melancholy, mood of hopelessness and feelings of inadequacy, often with physical symptoms, explored later in the article. Some of the following can be seen in various other types of physical illnesses or may be felt by everyone sometimes in life, but it doesn’t mean that it is a depression. Three main factors stated in the section ‘Major Depression’ should always be kept in mind. Behavioral
Emotional, Mental, Intellectual Symptoms
Physical Symptoms
Unfortunately, resources on depression in general emphasise only the symptom part. References to the following ‘types’ of depression has been found in our documentation. 1. Major / Clinical / Unipolar depression: Symptoms are greater in number; they persist over longer periods and hamper normal functioning. 2. Dysthymia: Feelings of mild depression continuously, for around last two years. Daily work is done but with some type of continuous burden, affecting work and relationships slowly. 3. Mixed anxiety depression: With depression, symptoms like worry, anxiety, shivering of hands and legs, restlessness etc. are found. 4. Bipolar depression: In bipolar disorders, one swings between highs and lows which can last weeks or even months. During the low phase, the usual feeling is of hopelessness, loss of interest in work and all other symptoms of unipolar depression—this phase can be triggered by a traumatic event or even without any apparent reason. But in bipolar disorder, there’s also a manic phase, which usually begins with a sort of all’s-well-with-the-world buzz. But as energy revs up, it becomes too much for anyone to handle and may result in aggressive and impulsive behavior like picking fights without reason or impulsive purchases. The person suddenly becomes hilarious and then withdraws again in his own shell. 5. Masked / Smiling depression: The individual neither feels nor appears depressed to others. There are, however, other persisting bodily symptoms of aches and pains, tiredness, reduced appetite and sexual desire that indicates the person is probably suffering from masked depression. The subject of “Depression” is vital and vast , and can contain other aspects like, depression in different categories (women, youth etc.), causes of depression, positive dimensions of depression and mainly, dealing with / overcoming depression by oneself. Our resource center covers these. Maybe I will have another occasion to write about these. Until then, let us all be in touch with positive, inspiring, motivational, energizing, capacity building things, to the possible extent, to overcome distress and be healthy, mentally and physically. --- Newspapers Referred articles |
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Observance of Erwadi Memorial Day and World Mental Health Day |
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A report from Jan Manasik Arogya Abhiyan, Maharashtra, a people’s campaign in mental health |
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Erwadi Memorial Day - 6th August 2007 |
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The second half of this year was filled with a lot of activities related to human rights awareness in mental health. It started with the Erwadi Memorial Day. Through JMAA, since last year, we began observing 6th August as the Erwadi Memorial Day. This year, we reached out to different communities to talk about mental health where the focus would be on awareness on human rights in mental health. A poster exhibition was held at Kamala Nehru Hospital in Pune on 6th August in collaboration with our partners, Susamvad, Schizophrenia Awareness Association (SAA) and Kamala Nehru Hospital. Poster exhibitions were put up in different community spaces as well, in collaboration with some of the JMAA partners like Susamvad, Karve Institute, Vanchit Vikas, and CYDA. A film screening along with a poster exhibition was organized for the psychiatric social work students in Karve Institute, a social work college in Pune. This event also elicited participation of various individuals and NGOs. Prof. Anil Vartak of SAA & Dr. Shirisha Sathe a practicing psychologist, were speakers for the programme. Karve Institute, a teaching college, is also one of the partners in JMAA. JMAA posters were displayed for students and staff. Students, faculty and other administrative staff of institute participated in the programme. The objective of the programme was to create awareness about issues of mental health keeping in mind students across all specializations in the institute. After this, group observed silence for a few minutes to remember the Erwadi victims. Following this, three short films -’Beyond the Cuckoo’s Nest’, ‘Two Sisters’ and ‘The Window’ were shown to the group. These films were based on the experiences of Anjali’s (An organization working with the Mental Hospital in Kolkatta) interventions in the mental hospitals in West Bengal, which depicted the institutional realities, plight of women in mental hospitals and the necessity of changing attitudes of people and families. Following the screening, Prof. Vartak spoke about the need to be aware about the rights of mentally ill people and the issue of stigma, which is widely prevalent in community. Dr. Shirisha spoke about severe mental illnesses, its causal factors, the relevance of social determinants in the illness and the role of family, society in care and treatment of people. She encouraged students to bridge the gap between ‘us’ and ‘them’ while interacting with persons with mental illness. She also emphasized community-based rehabilitation. JMAA actively tried to collaborate with the media to talk about mental health and introduced a basic language of mental health and human rights in the media as a part of the awareness activities. A radio program organized in All India Radio where one of the JMAA members spoke about the Erwadi incident and about JMAA, its objectives, demands, and the perspective with which it operates. Persons from newspapers having a wide reach were contacted to talk about mental health and human rights. |
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The JMAA Mumbai group organized films screening along with discussion for students of Mumbai University. The event comprised of a poster exhibition where the JMAA members put up various posters on the issue and concerns of mental health. Apart from briefing the students about mental health, JMAA as a movement and the Erwadi incident, there was a very engaging discussion about various aspects related to mental health other than what they read in the textbooks. Issues like government’s accountability, dearth of mental health professionals, developmental factors and mental health, funds, attitudes towards mental illness, violations as well as contributing in the movement were discussed. This was followed by screening of Anjali’s films. National Appeal for Erwadi Memorial Day Apart from the local, Mumbai and Pune activities, a national appeal to commemorate the Erwadi Memorial Day was made and e-mails were sent to about 300 individuals and organizations all over the country and to some of our international collaborators as well. Handouts were distributed by Leela Ketkar from Maharishi Karve Institute’s management center in Pune, amongst her students on the 6th of august to talk about the incident. Tarique of the Koshish program, TISS, Mumbai, organized a drawing competition at the Beggars’ Home (female) in support of the campaign against the violence towards mentally ill patients.15 women participated in it. Following this, there was discussion about how society treats people with mental illness. Later, they remembered and prayed for the victims of the incident. Tina Minkowitz (Co-chairperson, World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry, HQ: Denmark) submitted two poems “Attacked” and “Halloween” for the occasion. She also circulated the campaign news on Erwadi Memorial Day in the global human rights networks. Ratnaboli Ray (Anjali program, Kolkatta) organized a Memorial evening by the lakeside in Kolkatta, where friends from various movements, especially the women’s movement, attended. Candles were lit in memory of the Erwadi victims. J.K. Trivedi from Dept. of Psychiatry of King George Medical University Lucknow and Abdul Mabood of Snehi New Delhi sent comme-morative messages. Following the campaign appeal, which went out, Kamayani Bahi Mahabahl from CEHAT circulated news about an NDTV news item, which projected human rights violations at a famous durgah in Hyderabad. Moid and Mohammad Afzal, two students from the Philosophy department, University of Hyderabad, visited the said Durgah and filed a report and shared their experiences with us. A separte report on this is carried in this issue of aaina. World Mental Health Day – 10th October 2007 Media Interaction Human Chain |
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Mental Hospital Visit There has been a lot of media interaction over these past few months, which has helped us, reach out to more people and introduce a mental health vocabulary in the everyday parlance of the newspapers. Through the awareness activities, we have been able to bring some visibility to the work of JMAA as well as the issue of human rights in mental health. Report by Puja Modi |
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Consultation of Users and Survivors |
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YMCA, 26th September 2007 |
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A half a day consultation of users and survivors of the mental health system was held in Pune, on 26th September 2007. This was organized as a part of Sanchit, the oral history archive of the Center for Advocacy in Mental Health. In all there were 15 participants, all from Pune. Background: Bapu Trust began as a research and documentation center with the objective of working on user advocacy, empowerment and rights and started the Centre for Advocacy in Mental Health (CAMH) in year 2000. Bapu’s vision has been to create a more humane and user centered approach in the mental health system. Sanchit, the oral histories Archive of the Bapu Trust was one of the first activities of the organization, which was conceptualized as a user space. But in these years, not many users survivors have actually used the advocacy center or participated in its programs. It was strongly expressed that there needs to be user spaces within the organization and this should reflect in each of our advocacy programs. One of the important outcomes of a subsequent review was to brainstorm about how to create user spaces within the organization. A need was felt to understand the ideology of the user / survivor and how to have a deeper user / survivor involvement in our activities. We planned to conduct a user survivor workshop where we wanted to understand the need for such a space and also get feedback from participants regarding our work, and in which direction we want to take it. This was the first time that such a workshop was being planned in the region. For us, it was important to know whether there is a need for user space in the city; to examine whether the user identity exists and is not an alien concept in the Indian context. We got in touch with all the users we knew in our circles, either through our work or personally, who have been politically active in this field or have some very intense experiences to share and to give constructive feedback regarding incorporating user spaces in our work. We also invited some individuals from the care giving perspective who could contribute to our user survivor work. We reflected upon the process by which users / survivors could be contacted. We also reflected upon our own identities as users / survivors. |
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In our work, we have seen that | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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