Comments by Teresa Kirchner, LICSW

Showing 29 of 29 comments.

  • Thanks so much for your work! There is a significant lack of anything for family seeking HVN support, and I think this incorporation is an outstanding move to maximise visibility, access, and contribution to the HVN movement! The greater the movement, the faster we show how HVN is working for people! It is truly a labor of love to put something like this together, and to facilitate it too! With heart felt thanks for all you do to promote HVN… I look forward to when our paths cross in this group!

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  • Thanks for your writing, and thanks for the work you are doing in the system! I am in a very similar situation and while I’ve always shared bits of my experience, I’ve found after the discovery of HVN I too have had far greater confidence, and willingness to share my own experience. It is a powerful aid to the people who still turn to the expert, and it is even more powerful to influence the self proclaimed experts around where they need to change their ways!

    I have faced some infuriating screwtney from my peers and my managers, but so far I still have my job. 🙂 I am a big believer in mutual disclosure and seek to find greater ways to integrate this into what is known as practice. I really identify with your statement…”It’s true that there are times when I wonder if coming out mad was the best career decision. I have had to bravely admit my vulnerabilities, which sometimes seems to hurt my credibility.” Being vulnerable and forthright with self disclosure lead to an increase in struggle that set me back for awhile, and I continue to struggle with it to some degree, but overall I do feel stronger, and my workplace is a better place to be because of it.

    Most grateful for your work with the so called experts to create an evolution of perspective!

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  • What an amazing and collection of information! Thanks for all your hard work to put this together! This makes me furious as I watch the reality of pharmaceuticals that are trying to sell compliance! Watch the Bleeding edge if you still trust the FDA. The last 6 minutes of questions after the Proteus talk you have above, were a great summary of their idiocy! A great deal of their presentation made me feel nausea and mounting sweat, and the part that really made me want to puk was when they said,”it is very expensive, but 90% of the expense we anticipate will be paid for by Medicare and Medicaid!” This whole mess is just GRRRRRR on so many levels of idiocy!
    Thanks for your work to share these powerful truths in such a wonderfully articulate collection!

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  • Therapy is in part just a set of skills and tools that can be taught to people to aid with distress tolerance. some people will always seek the tools, and tools can be useful. Call it whatever you want but the human need to seek help from one another will not be going away… it is the expert that needs to go away…

    Thank you for speaking so eloquently to this important intersection…

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  • I received a notice from our local public school they had a stranger refusing to leave school property taken to the hospital for mental health evaluation. Clearly the hospital is an awful option, or worse yet the Jail. What is it that you would like PacificDawn??? Seriously, I’m just curious if you have a vision of what you would have society do until we live in a world of appreciation and success for neurodiversity??? Australia’s Living Edge- (A peer administrated emergency department )is my among my favorite solutions so far but I’m certainly looking for other ideas.

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  • Stated above… “If the psychiatric establishment wants to reduce stigma towards the mentally ill, all they need to do is run a pr campaign that — and how else to put this — tells the truth.”

    What truths do you propose would be the most important…
    The truths about meds
    Truths about what the experts don’t know
    Truths of alternatives to restraints
    So many things I could think of…

    What do you see as needing prioritized for your idea of a PR campaign? So many angry people, not sure it would work, but it’s a place to start after the fields have been burned… planting seeds of truth.

    Thanks for all the work you are doing and for speaking the truths!

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  • Sorry I failed to quote that accurately. “In the spirit of NOT incentivising the rampant failure of people all over the world, and enticing the so called normal to give it a rest already, here are 5 tips to fail at being disabled.” “Flip expectation upside down and shove limitation off a cliff to meet it’s demise.” Susan Robinson Pathology is certainly perpetuated by the inability to realize normal doesn’t exist.

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  • Agreed… Problem is when we identify with disability because we feel the inability to succeed as we once did so we ask for help. This is why communities like HVN are so useful. Susan Robinson said in her Ted Talk… “In the spirit of incentivising the rampant failure of people all over the world, and enticing the so called normal to just give it a rest already, here are 5 tips to fail at being disabled.” My other favorite quote of hers… “Flip expectation upside down and shove limitation (The mental health system- not in Susan’s quote :)) of a cliff to meet it’s demise.”

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  • PacificDawn, I think what we need to do is stop the masses from needing/wanting an expert. This would terminate the system as we know it! In my local area we have a network of mental health professionals, and those who may not identify as such, trying to break apart the medical model. We have sought to establish more HVN groups, one in a hospital setting, and we have secured NAMI folks trained in HVN which is beginning to change the paths that families choose to get their needs met. I’m an active advocate of peer respite, so long as it’s governed by peers. To shift the funding away from the so called expert you almost have to show the payers how alternative ideas will meet the need that some people will still think they need an expert for, but to do that it seems you need money. UG… In my local network we have also been implementing community wide education about alternatives for healing such as what is found in HVN, Icarus, Mad in America, and Madness Radio. Clearly there is still oppression/ignorance, and so much more, in much of the US, but I know people, many of whom think themselves experts, across the US that are fighting everyday to abolish the system as it is known today to transform how our masses see truth. I am always looking for new ways to do this work and I appreciate your question of how can we make it happen faster. I understand why legal proceedings seem right, and while some of them are, I still think the masses won’t follow until they are shown a healthy path loudly to detour those stuck, and holding us stuck, in old ways of thinking that perpetuate pathologizing rather than finding effective alternatives.

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  • Details are needed to wake people up to what is needed for real change.
    No’s should matter, and providers shouldn’t be given a pass. But we do have to find a way to shift the power from all the people who continue to ask for an expert to lock up what they fail to understand, or what they fail to be able to control. We need an uprising that would show large loud outcomes for people, families, and funders to shift the funding to peer connections that heal. And this means details… Advocacy, and Collaboration. Thanks for sharing these powerful details that may inspire people out of silence and inactivity.

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  • Thanks so much for this refreshing view of the future! People seem to be afraid to speak of the possibilities in favor of pointing to the problems. I love that you noted training in “Multiple Frameworks for Thinking About Psychosis,” “Minimizing Power Imbalances,” “Mutual Self-Disclosure,” “Trauma Informed Perspectives”!!! This can only aid in the transition of funds and ethics to those who can really make the difference, such as Icarus Project and Hearing Voices Network. We need disruption into what’s not working just as much as we need something new. Thanks for all the work you are doing and for writing this to inspire a greater view into the future!!!

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  • I agree the system as it is needs to go away… One of the greatest quandaries sometimes seems to be how to divert the funding and ethics to where they should be when the masses still ask for an expert. I think this piece was clear to state the future should be in the hands of peer movements like The Icarus Project, the Wildflower Alliance and the Hearing Voices Network. However to know the system from both sides allows for greater ability to tap the funding, and change the ethics.

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  • What a beautiful and articulate exploration of Saplosky’s work! This is an excellent read to see a path toward real biomarkers of distress and hence maybe even real solutions where there are actual problems! The Medical Model spends far to much time caught up in labels that are sooo insignificant and only perpetuate a culture of fear and illness. Thanks for writing this!

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  • What a great collection of truths! And lovely concise suggestions to minimize the potential for oppression! My favorite part is this…
    “We’re not pill shaming you. We’re just sick of watching people fucking die.” — Sera Davidow
    Similar to diet pills, or patches medications can provide some relief of what ails us, but do they really in the long run is always good to assess. Marius Romme stated that psychiatric medications are similar to smoking cigarettes and there is research to support this! This truth needs to be spoken strongly and loudly to power to stop the oppression surrounding human choice, and the tendency for those trying to help from collaborating without me and then trying to dictate what they think is best!
    Thanks for writing this truth to power Sera and Caroline!

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  • I completely agree with blaming those who do not advocate for change, but to blame all psychiatrists exclusively excludes the “patients”, family, insurance, pharmaceuticals, and educational infrastructure that still insist on a so called “expert” for a multitude of reasons, realistic or not, it’s a broad system to break apart. How do we talk people out of pathology becomes a difficult question… Psychiatry has most often failed to provide informed consent which would be intentional harm, but that they all intentionally do harm is an overgeneralization when society supports and encourages the development of an “expert.” Sadly society offers few alternatives, like peer respite, when one is unconnected and causing disturbance or yes, unsafe, situations like running naked in the street. There is a time I want someone to help me but I hope to be found by someone who will take the time I need to help me find choices or meet me where I am rather than with their 20 minute agenda. Maybe taking over the industry is the only way, and while it seems impossible maybe the industry and educational and societal systems that surround us could all step up to being responsible to the facts and assist with finding a different way rather than the useless over diversification of funds that happens today due to the legislation driven by pharmaceutical and other giants.

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  • These two paragraphs you wrote… so powerfully true and respectful to all those involved while advocating for systemic change! Thanks for speaking this!
    “We’re up against a powerful profession that is effectively operating on behalf of the drug companies now and they are not embarrassed at all by the lack of evidence for their treatments. They don’t seem to care about that. So mental health services are not evidence based at the moment. It’s going to have to come from social struggle and work in the media. The sort of stuff that Mad in America is doing and its affiliates all around the world.

    The sort of stuff that the Hearing Voices Network is doing, which is the most exciting change in mental health. They wouldn’t want like me to call them mental health services because they’re not. In fact in 20 countries now, there are people who used to be labeled as schizophrenic and drugged up to the eyeballs and locked up for large proportions of their life, refusing to go along with all that and coming together to support one another — 20 countries! That’s very, very exciting. That’s where the change is going to come because ultimately we’ve got to start just saying no to the medications. Not all of the time. Sometimes they can be helpful, but certainly, to the extent that we are medicating ourselves as a society, it’s ridiculous.”

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  • Powerfully said, and what a difficult topic to tackle in the way you did! The over diversification of funding to useless programs has to stop and the medical model go away. Problem is there are alot of people who still want “help,” so there will always be an “expert” We need to minimize the divide in some ways and abolish it in others. Thanks, your writing is always so powerfully articulate and packed with facts!

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  • Love the chart in the middle, but it’s a gross overgeneralization that providers don’t want to give up their power. There are a great number of providers beginning to shift from collusion to conflict as needed to advocate for change in a high pressure managed care environment they are attempting to push against. Certainly there is a bell curve with this as with anything, but I’ve seen at least some effort to level the hierarchy with the increase in education about trauma informed care. Thanks for writing this! A lovely read!

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  • I’m thrilled to see HVM noted to be a huge influence in the building of the “recovery paradigm” As they should be! The “experts” have been in charge too long and while their so called research is useful, it’s time for voice hearers to take the lead in securing and identifying ways to navigate these experiences that the experts really seem to know very little about in part due to oppression rather than a willingness to speak of the unknown! Thanks so much for writing this and for speaking of the need for something new!

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  • Great Read! We won’t really understand this stuff until we take it out of the dark ages! This means understanding the known and the unknown because to neglect or oppress the unknown leads to a failure. Louis Pasteur was thought to be delusional about invisible bugs until he invented the rabies shot and pasteurized foods for example. We need to find a better way to make meaning of what sometimes may be nonsensical!
    Old head above notes so articulately that people have discarded religion to adopt psychiatry, and while this is powerfully true… The problem is the restraint with both! Life is Dynamic! Once you label something it becomes stagnant so we need a language that is more representative of the creative process to describe factors like these, and a new mode of measurement would be useful too! 🙂

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  • WOW! Powerful! Inspiring! I’m especially appreciative of your remarks that support our ability to be proud in telling our story in all it’s audaciousness. While this is part of the process of healing, it is perhaps just as valuable, if not more valuable, to seek the significance of our experiences so we can share with others the strengths we developed as a result of the adversity and other opportunities that our experiences provide! Thanks for this lovely writing!

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