January 31, 2013

I have Lou Gehrig’s Disease (ALS). It has no treatment, cure, known cause, or hope. Acceptance is the key to my serenity. good attitude, and great quality of life. I live one day at a time to the fullest, still write, and work with Corinna West, Wellness Wordworks and my faith community. I have wonderful friends and supporters, and I’m just fine.
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Categorized in: Blogs, Featured Blogs

December 18, 2012

Once again, in the wake of another senseless mass murder with an assault rifle, there is renewed talk about more laws limiting the sale and possession of guns.  I support some of them.  Nobody needs a high-powered weapon that shoots 100 or more rounds a minute.  It is not something you would take to the woods to hunt deer, only to resist or attempt an invasion. The gun control talk includes proposed laws to keep guns away from people with a “history of mental illness.”  I testified against such a law in the NH Legislature a couple of years ago, and would again tomorrow, just days after the latest abomination.
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Categorized in: Blogs, Featured Blogs | Tagged as: "outpatient commitment", 2nd Amendment, assault rifles, conditional discharge, gun contol, gun rights, mass shooting, mental defectives, Sen.Sylvia Larson D-NH

September 26, 2012

Today, I play washtub bass, sing in two choirs, and am active in my faith community. I still write non-fiction every day. I cook, entertain, and have dear friends who are always there for me because I’m always there for them. I don’t know many 64-year-old men as happy with themselves, their lives, and their achievements as I am; whether they’ve had a “mental illness” or not.
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Categorized in: Blogs, Featured Blogs | Tagged as: Bipolar disorder. trauma, Janet Potenza ., PTSD, Wellness and Recovery Action Plan, WRAP. Mary Ellen Copeland

September 24, 2012

Having been a news reporter for a small-city daily for many years, I know some reasons why mainstream media ignore our movement, or get it wrong, that have nothing to do with hostility or being bought by Big Pharma. Advocates can do something about it with their local media, but it’s an uphill struggle that requires some awareness of the problems they face every day.
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Categorized in: Blogs, Featured Blogs | Tagged as: "Lynn E vs Lynch", "Seacoast Online", "Seacpast Online", Bazelon Center on Mental Health Law, David Oaks, Karen Dandurant, mainstream media, mental health civil rights, NH Disabilities Rights Center, Sue Couture

September 6, 2012

I corresponded recently with a combat veteran who said he is still experiencing serious emotional difficulty several years after seeing his friends killed in a war. He said a popular SSRI anti-depressant helped him when he was overseas, and he has a prescription for it now – but he’s afraid to take it.
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Categorized in: Blogs, Featured Blogs | Tagged as: "When Johnnty and Jane Come Marching Home"., Anatomy of an Epidemic, Dr. Dan Fisher, Dumping on psych meds, Judi Cahmberlin, Paula Joan Caplan, Robert Whitaker, Scientology

August 7, 2012

Every recovery program I’ve seen suggests that spirituality is a good wellness tool that’s not for everyone.  Any connection, valid to the believer, to a comforting reality greater than oneself is a way to talk back to feelings of despair, …
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Categorized in: Blogs | Tagged as: Abraham Joshua Heschel, Jewish Sabbath, Margaret Fletcher, mindfulness, Shabbos

August 1, 2012

  Strength-based treatment concepts are even more important in distress model peer support than in clinical settings.  Peer support should be strength-based by definition, according to Shery Mead and her partner Chris Hansen.  Shery’s creation, called Intentional Peer Support, relies on mutual, equal, voluntary …
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Categorized in: Blogs, Featured Blogs | Tagged as: Chris Hansen, Intentional Peer Support, Mary Ellen Copeland, Shery Mead, strength-based treatment, Wellness and Recovery Action Plan, Wellness Toolbox, WRAP

July 19, 2012

Recently, a Facebook discussion asked if peer support specialists in community mental health centers really do genuine, helpful peer support.  Most people said no. Peer support pioneer Shery Mead, my long-time friend and colleague, thinks peer support in a CMHC …
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Categorized in: Blogs, Featured Blogs | Tagged as: cedritied peer specialist, Chris Hansen, community mental health center, National association of peer specialists (NAOPS), peer support, peer support agency, Shery Mead

July 7, 2012

A New Hampshire judge overruled a jury verdict that awarded $1.5 million to State Trooper James Conrad, who claimed he was wrongfully detained by his superiors in state police headquarters. While detained, Conrad suffered a nervous breakdown, threatened suicide, was …
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Categorized in: Blogs

June 23, 2012

In a previous blog about NAMI NH, I provoked many people in a way I did not intend. There is no defense for forced treatment and confinement, outpatient commitment, the chemical brain disease theory, or Big Pharma money. NAMI supports …
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Categorized in: Blogs | Tagged as: consumber empowerment movement, David Hilton, forced confinemnent, forced treatment, NAMI, New Hampshire, NH Bureau of Behavioral Health

June 13, 2012

Author’s Warning:  If the word NAMI sends you into uncontrollable rage, spare yourself.  This is about NAMI people who are open to our movement. It’s not intended for readers who already hate them. When the National Alliance on Mental Illness …
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Categorized in: Blogs | Tagged as: community treatment, Corinna West, distress model, NAMI, NAMI NH, Peggy Straw, Wellness Wordworks

May 28, 2012

Four out of five adults, youth, and family members of community mental health centers (CMHCs) in New Hampshire told researchers they are satisfied.  Three out of four said their quality of service is good, despite repeated budget cuts. How do …
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Categorized in: Blogs | Tagged as: community mental health centers, Mental health system satisfaction survey, New Hampshire, New Hampshire Public Mental Health Consumer Survey Project, NH Bureau of Behavioral Health, NH Institute on Disability, University of New Hampshire

May 22, 2012

A retired NH state trooper was awarded $1.5 million, in May 2012, in Conrad vs. New Hampshire, for being wrongfully confined by his supervisors, driven to what his lawyer called a “nervous breakdown,” and committed to the state psychiatric hospital …
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Categorized in: Blogs | Tagged as: civil damages, Conrad v. New Hampshire, internal affairs, nervous breakdown, post-tramatic issues, Trooper James Conrad

May 17, 2012

People with mental illness who could live in the community with supports are being confined in the Glencliffe Nursing Home in northern New Hampshire against their will.  The NH Mental Health Authority admits it. They admitted last year, in a …
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Categorized in: Blogs | Tagged as: ADA, Americans with Disabilties Act, Bazelon Center on Mental Health Law, Glercliffe Nursing Home, NH Disabilities Rights Center, NH Hospital, NH Mental Health Authority, Olmstead decision, US Justice Department civil rights division disability rights section

May 15, 2012

The Bureau of Bears kept me alive when I was driving a cab all night in New York City, with a raging undiagnosed traumatic psychosis.  I knew the bears were a conscious product of my imagination, not a delusion or …
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Categorized in: Blogs | Tagged as: "Taxi Driver", delusional, isolation, Ken Braiterman, New York City cab driver, Patricia Deegan, Psychosis, Robert de Niro, schizophrenic