JOURNEYING BACK TO SELF
Laura Delano entered the “mental health” system at the age of fourteen, when she was diagnosed with “Bipolar disorder” and “major depression”. She was first put on psychiatric drugs at that time, but didn’t fully embrace her Bipolar diagnosis and its required psychiatric “treatment” until the age of eighteen. Laura spent the next nearly ten years on over nineteen psychotropic drugs, in and out of psychiatric hospitals, outpatient programs, and intensive psychotherapy, and came to believe she had a life-long biochemical disease requiring life-long psychotropic drug use. Since September 2010, she has been free from psychiatry— from psychiatric labels, psychiatric drugs, and psychiatric “treatment”. Today, she writes and speaks about her experiences and about human rights violations at the root of the “mental health” system, and she works as a coach with people freeing themselves from psychiatry. She has also written a blog for the Foundation for Excellence in Mental Health Care, and can be reached by email at [email protected], or on Twitter @LauraDelano.
In Journeying Back To Self, Laura has written the story of what happened in her life after being labeled “Bipolar” at fourteen up until the point at which she accidentally discovered Robert Whitaker’s Anatomy of an Epidemic thirteen years later, in May 2010. The story of how she left the “mental health” system is being saved for a larger writing project, and in the meantime, Laura now writes more generally about her experiences as an ex-patient. New readers to her blog might want to start here: story from its beginning.
Recent Posts by Laura Delano
“Mental Illness”, the DSM-5, and Dreams for a Post-Psychiatry World
Finding the Meaning in Suffering: My Experience with Coming off Psychiatric Drugs (in a Nutshell)
Life, Liberty, & the Pursuit of Happiness? Protesting the Legislation of Systematic Civil and Human Rights Violations in Massachusetts
Reflections on a Psychiatric Indoctrination, or, How I Began to Free Myself from the Cult of Psychiatry
“Mental Illness”, the DSM-5, and Dreams for a Post-Psychiatry World
by Laura Delano
May 12, 2013
If, a little over three years ago, you asked me who I was, my one and only answer would have been, “Bipolar.” It was the word that defined me, that explained my emotions and behaviors, that gave me answers to the questions, Why am I so unhappy? Why do I want to die every day? Why is it so hard to get out of bed in the morning, to shower and brush my teeth and leave the house and interact with the world? Why do I find it impossible to keep a job, a relationship, a responsibility? Why do I never feel OK?
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Categorized in: Blogs, Featured Blogs | Tagged as: David Kupfer, DSM, DSM-5, Human Rights, Mad in America, Medical Model of Mental Illness, mental illness, NIMH, psychiatric drugs, psychiatric medications, Psychotropic Drugs, Thomas Insel
Finding the Meaning in Suffering: My Experience with Coming off Psychiatric Drugs (in a Nutshell)
by Laura Delano
April 23, 2013
For the last month or so, Mad in America has been hard at work building a directory of “mental health” providers across North America (and eventually, we hope, the world) who will work with people wanting to come off psychotropic drugs. I’ve been honored to have been tasked with the responsibility of building this directory, and I have to say, it’s been inspiring to talk to people all over the country who do this work, and who “get it”.
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Categorized in: Blogs, Featured Blogs | Tagged as: coming off psychiatric drugs, coming off psychiatric medications, coming off psychotropic drugs, psychiatric drug withdrawal, psychiatric medication withdrawal, psychiatric medications, Psychiatric Survivor Movement, tapering, withdrawal
Life, Liberty, & the Pursuit of Happiness? Protesting the Legislation of Systematic Civil and Human Rights Violations in Massachusetts
by Laura Delano
March 27, 2013
On March 26th, a small group of us gathered outside the State House in Boston, Massachusetts, to rally and protest against several oppressive, dehumanizing, and dangerous bills put forth by the House and Senate. If you’re interested in reading more about them, go to www.malegislature.gov/Bills, and search for House Bills 110, 141, 1802, 3253, 1792, and Senate Bill 41. This is my speech from the event.
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Categorized in: Blogs, Featured Blogs, Uncategorized
Reflections on a Psychiatric Indoctrination, or, How I Began to Free Myself from the Cult of Psychiatry
by Laura Delano
February 23, 2013
(dictionary.com) Cult, n. a particular system of religious worship, especially with reference to its rites and ceremonies. an instance of great veneration of a person, ideal, or thing, especially as manifested by a body of admirers. the object of such …
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Categorized in: Blogs, Featured Blogs | Tagged as: Bipolar Disorder, coming off psychiatric drugs, Human Rights, psychiatric labels, Psychotropic Drugs
Free from Harm? Reflecting on the Dangers of the White House’s Proposed ‘Now is the Time’ Gun Control Plan
by Laura Delano
January 17, 2013
“And so what we should be thinking about is our responsibility to care for [our children] and shield them from harm and give them the tools they need to grow up and do everything that they’re capable of doing, not …
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Categorized in: Blogs, Featured Blogs | Tagged as: Amendment Rights, AOT, Assisted Outpatient Treatment, Big Brother, Bipolar Disorder, Gun Control, Gun Control Plan, Human Rights, I Am Adam Lanza's Mother, Mental Health Registry, mental illness, Now is the Time, President Obama, Psychiatric Survivor Movement, Violence and Mental Illness
A Challenge to “I Am Adam Lanza’s Mother”
by Laura Delano
December 18, 2012
As I write these words on a Monday evening, my spirit aches. It aches with grief for the lives lost in Connecticut last week; it aches with dread for our collective American future in Sandy Hook’s aftermath; and it aches with love and empathy for Michael, a thirteen-year old boy whose once private life has, for the last day and a half, been on display for millions to see, exploited by a mother whose opinions are representative of America’s most pervasive mass delusion: that “mental illness” is a biologically-based condition requiring psychopharmaceutical “treatment” and “mental health care”, and that “the mentally ill” are a class of Other that threatens the safety, security, and health of America.
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Categorized in: Blogs, Featured Blogs, Popular | Tagged as: biochemical basis of mental illness, biopsychiatry, Bipolar Disorder, DSM, Human Rights, I Am Adam Lanza's Mother, Liza Long, Mad in America, Mental health care, Psychiatry
Involuntarily Voluntary
by Laura Delano
November 10, 2012
I was never voluntary, no matter how much I convinced myself I was. Only now, my mind, body, and spirit fully free from the mental health system, am I coming to understand this. After desperately searching for answers to that once perplexing question of “Who am I?” I have found that I’m connecting with a true, authentic sense of my Self for the first time.
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Categorized in: Blogs, Featured Blogs | Tagged as: biopsychiatry, bipolar, Bipolar Disorder, coming off psychiatric drugs, DSM, forced treatment, Human Rights
The United Met States of Psychiatry
by Laura Delano
October 14, 2012
Psychiatry’s desperate drive to legitimize itself as a profitable medical authority has resulted in a mass delusion so pervasive and destructive that it’s put us on a path towards societal collapse. This is not an overstatement, in my opinion, as the statistics are mind-boggling— one in five Americans are on psychiatric drugs. One in five. By my calculations, this means that 62,913,200 people ingest mind-altering, body-altering, spirit-altering pills they believe to be “medications” on a daily basis.
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Categorized in: Blogs, Featured Blogs, Uncategorized | Tagged as: biopsychiatry, bipolar, Bipolar Disorder, coming off psychiatric drugs, DSM, forced treatment, Human Rights, psychiatric hospitals, state institutions
Fighting for Our Most Basic of Human Rights– The Right to be Human
by Laura Delano
October 6, 2012
Standing up for what I believe in with a determined voice is a new experience for me, and I sometimes find myself riddled with self-doubt and insecurity. But the beauty in this is that I know with firm resolve that my feelings, my thoughts, and my unique experience of reality will never again be violated by psychiatry, and that my purpose here is to help others gain the same freedom.
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Categorized in: Blogs, Featured Blogs | Tagged as: American Psychiatric Association, DSM, Human Rights
Launching the Beyond ‘Anatomy’ Forum
by Laura Delano
August 27, 2012
When I first read Anatomy of an Epidemic in 2010, something inside of me ignited. I had no idea that such a sensation was possible to experience, let alone for someone like me, who hadn’t felt alive in a long, …
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Categorized in: Blogs, Featured Blogs | Tagged as: Activism, Anatomy of an Epidemic, Civil rights, community, Human Rights, Mad in America, Psychiatry
Chapter Twenty-Seven: Reignition
by Laura Delano
July 19, 2012
Silent hours unfolded as I devoured the words, a symphonic consciousness crescendoing as door after door of new awareness opened inside of me. It was May, 2010, and I was alone in a Vermont hotel room, as I’d let my …
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Categorized in: Blogs, Featured Blogs | Tagged as: biopsychiatry, bipolar, Bipolar Disorder, coming off psychiatric drugs, DSM, Human Rights
On Recovering from Psychiatric Labels and Psychotropic Medications: An ‘Occupy APA’ Manifesto
by Laura Delano
May 6, 2012
To Readers: I’ve decided to sway, briefly, from my traditional story-telling style on this blog in order to post my short speech from this weekend’s ‘Occupy APA’ event in Philadelphia. —— It is an honor to be in Philadelphia, the …
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Categorized in: Blogs | Tagged as: biopsychiatry, bipolar, Bipolar Disorder, coming off psychiatric drugs, DSM, Human Rights, psychiatric diagnosis, psychiatric labels
Chapter Twenty-Six: Reaching the End, and Making a Start
by Laura Delano
April 14, 2012
A deep blue blanketing of 1AM sky envelops my car as I sit in my parents’ driveway in February 2010, pondering my next, last move. I have just driven home in a blur from someone’s house after a typical night …
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Categorized in: Blogs | Tagged as: biopsychiatry, bipolar, Bipolar Disorder, coming off psychiatric drugs, DSM, Human Rights, psychiatric diagnosis, psychiatric labels
Chapter Twenty-Five: “Paranoid Android”
by Laura Delano
March 17, 2012
It is Christmas Eve of 2008. I am leaning against the kitchen counter of an old friend’s house, arms tucked tightly across my stomach, as I observe crowds of people from my past, bottles of beer in their hands, filling …
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Categorized in: Blogs | Tagged as: biopsychiatry, bipolar, Bipolar Disorder, coming off psychiatric drugs, DSM, Human Rights, psychiatric diagnosis, psychiatric labels
Chapter Twenty-Four: Off the Meds and Out of My Mind
by Laura Delano
February 25, 2012
During my first few days on the locked psychiatric unit of the hospital on the hill in early December 2008, I counted the passing minutes mostly from my hospital bed, incapable of eating or drinking. Because of my suicide attempt …
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Categorized in: Blogs | Tagged as: biopsychiatry, bipolar, Bipolar Disorder, coming off psychiatric drugs, DSM, Human Rights, psychiatric diagnosis, psychiatric labels
Chapter Twenty-Three: On the Locked Unit, Locked in Myself
by Laura Delano
January 29, 2012
As we made our way out of Boston and to the psychiatric hospital on the hill, I watched the ‘normal’ world— the world beyond the Plexiglas rear window of the ambulance I was strapped into— drift past me into the distance.
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Categorized in: Blogs | Tagged as: biopsychiatry, bipolar, Bipolar Disorder, coming off psychiatric drugs, DSM, Human Rights, psychiatric diagnosis, psychiatric labels
Chapter Twenty-Two: To the Hospital on the Hill
by Laura Delano
January 14, 2012
Bright, white light pours into my eyes, which have opened themselves slowly. I clench them closed again, hoping to push the light out. For a brief second, I wonder if I’ve just woken up at the beach on a summer …
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Categorized in: Blogs | Tagged as: biopsychiatry, bipolar, Bipolar Disorder, coming off psychiatric drugs, DSM, Human Rights, psychiatric diagnosis, psychiatric labels
Chapter Twenty-One: Countdown to Surrender
by Laura Delano
January 1, 2012
COUNTDOWN- THREE DAYS It is mid-morning on Wednesday, November 26th, 2008. I am staring at a computer screen in my cubicle, one among many at my current place of employment, a small state agency in Downtown Boston that hired me …
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Categorized in: Blogs | Tagged as: biopsychiatry, bipolar, Bipolar Disorder, coming off psychiatric drugs, DSM, Human Rights, psychiatric diagnosis, psychiatric labels
Chapter Twenty: Russian Roulette
by Laura Delano
December 9, 2011
After I left my research position on the acute inpatient psychiatric unit of a Boston hospital towards the end of 2006, my life started a two-year spiral downwards into the depths of a darkness unlike anything I’d ever known possible. …
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Categorized in: Blogs | Tagged as: biopsychiatry, bipolar, Bipolar Disorder, coming off psychiatric drugs, DSM, Human Rights, psychiatric diagnosis, psychiatric labels
Chapter Nineteen: Playing the Part
by Laura Delano
December 1, 2011
In the months following my five-year high school reunion in the summer of 2006, I drifted about in a sea of indistinguishable days. Amidst this aimlessness, I somehow managed to find myself in a psychiatrist’s office on the floor of …
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Categorized in: Blogs | Tagged as: biopsychiatry, bipolar, Bipolar Disorder, coming off psychiatric drugs, DSM, Human Rights, psychiatric diagnosis, psychiatric labels
