You are doing what I’d like to do with my personal experience of psychiatric drugs and withdrawal. I think your article is both inspiring and thought provoking. I work in Iceland as an occupational therapist and have been looking into ways of using my personal experience for good. Reading your text gave me some ideas and hope. Good to hear that there are people like you out there!
Best of luck,
Svava.
Hi there!
I think our stories are more common than people dare to believe. The thing is to open up and share our experiences. I’m happy to hear that you accomplished many things after finding your way back and hope that you see the strength inside you. I can see it from your comment. All is not lost.
-Svava.
Dear Someone!
I’m sorry to hear this. Being a “bad patient” or more commonly “dis-obediant” patient can be a life saver in and of itself. That is what can keep us going, looking for answers, looking for our own personal keys to recovery and finding what works for us.
Sending strength and well wishes,
-Svava.
Hi Matt!
Thanks for your comment! It is challenging to decide to open this discussion on a personal level, yet I am happy that it might get some people to open their eyes. I would love to write for MIA again as this is my passion and I have many things I’d like to discuss with this community.
-Svava.
Hi Amnesia!
I’m so sorry to hear about this inhumane treatment. I can only thank for your resiliency and continued internal passion to keep going despite what the system gave you.
-Svava
Hello Lawrence!
Thank you for your input and insight! I can’t definitively say as to why doctors push the biomedical model so much in Iceland considering that we have socialized medicine – but I can voice my thoughts on the matter. I believe we have picked up a number of things from the US and we sometimes can be considered a “mini”-United States in some aspects, for example the material that we watch on TV/movies and our diet. This includes our focus on the biomedical model and buying into medicine propaganda from others. I think the psychiatric medication focus also fits with our human interest where we keep looking for a “quick fix”.
-Svava
Thank you Fiachra! Yes, sometimes truth is stranger than fiction!
-Svava
Dear Someone Else!
I’m sorry to hear that you had go through this too. Thank you for sharing your experience. We can use this to change the system and the status quo.
All the best,
Svava.
Hello TRM 123, and thank you for your insightful response. I appreciate your comments.
I think no matter the profession, we really need to approach people on an individual basis and focusing on their life story. The question of “what happened to you?” instead of “what is wrong with you?”. In my opinion, occupational therapists can be a very good resource as their studies generally view the topic of mental health based on holistic, client-centered approach.
You ask about how a young person might move forward after tough experiences with the system. One way to move forward is to always voice our stories of recovery and promote hope at any given chance. Try to rebuild these broken dreams and foster the hope that the system might have taken away. This is something that we can all do as individuals and as a society. I also want to state the importance of giving the power back to the individual (empowerment), with informed concent, many different options, individual’s autonomy being respected at all times, our voices heard etc. etc.
Thank you for the great blog Chaya!
You are doing what I’d like to do with my personal experience of psychiatric drugs and withdrawal. I think your article is both inspiring and thought provoking. I work in Iceland as an occupational therapist and have been looking into ways of using my personal experience for good. Reading your text gave me some ideas and hope. Good to hear that there are people like you out there!
Best of luck,
Svava.
Hi there!
I think our stories are more common than people dare to believe. The thing is to open up and share our experiences. I’m happy to hear that you accomplished many things after finding your way back and hope that you see the strength inside you. I can see it from your comment. All is not lost.
-Svava.
Dear Someone!
I’m sorry to hear this. Being a “bad patient” or more commonly “dis-obediant” patient can be a life saver in and of itself. That is what can keep us going, looking for answers, looking for our own personal keys to recovery and finding what works for us.
Sending strength and well wishes,
-Svava.
Hi Matt!
Thanks for your comment! It is challenging to decide to open this discussion on a personal level, yet I am happy that it might get some people to open their eyes. I would love to write for MIA again as this is my passion and I have many things I’d like to discuss with this community.
-Svava.
Hi Amnesia!
I’m so sorry to hear about this inhumane treatment. I can only thank for your resiliency and continued internal passion to keep going despite what the system gave you.
-Svava
Hello Lawrence!
Thank you for your input and insight! I can’t definitively say as to why doctors push the biomedical model so much in Iceland considering that we have socialized medicine – but I can voice my thoughts on the matter. I believe we have picked up a number of things from the US and we sometimes can be considered a “mini”-United States in some aspects, for example the material that we watch on TV/movies and our diet. This includes our focus on the biomedical model and buying into medicine propaganda from others. I think the psychiatric medication focus also fits with our human interest where we keep looking for a “quick fix”.
-Svava
Thank you Fiachra! Yes, sometimes truth is stranger than fiction!
-Svava
Dear Someone Else!
I’m sorry to hear that you had go through this too. Thank you for sharing your experience. We can use this to change the system and the status quo.
All the best,
Svava.
Hello TRM 123, and thank you for your insightful response. I appreciate your comments.
I think no matter the profession, we really need to approach people on an individual basis and focusing on their life story. The question of “what happened to you?” instead of “what is wrong with you?”. In my opinion, occupational therapists can be a very good resource as their studies generally view the topic of mental health based on holistic, client-centered approach.
You ask about how a young person might move forward after tough experiences with the system. One way to move forward is to always voice our stories of recovery and promote hope at any given chance. Try to rebuild these broken dreams and foster the hope that the system might have taken away. This is something that we can all do as individuals and as a society. I also want to state the importance of giving the power back to the individual (empowerment), with informed concent, many different options, individual’s autonomy being respected at all times, our voices heard etc. etc.
-Svava.