Tag: spirituality and mental health

Recovery of Soul After 22 Years on Antipsychotics

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After 22 years and many attempts I finally stopped taking antipsychotics. I still feel weak and quite injured by the accumulated doses of numbing drugs, though I feel brighter, and love life more than ever.

Reclaiming My Yin and Yang

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Western psychiatry has done a lot of harm to people, especially when it is forced upon people as their “only” option. People’s experiences are wildly diverse, and only a diversity of options can do justice to our differing needs.

Mental Health Liberation and Spirituality: Ex-Psychiatric Inmates Share Their Thoughts

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What I want to share with you, dear readers, is how spiritual experiences like mine have been reflected in so many people’s stories of being labeled with psychotic disorders.

The Mad Priestess: A Call to Healing

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A mad priestess kicks shame and stigma in the teeth, knowing that we can do better. We could be leading the charge for healing—please don’t call it “mental illness” anymore—and take our place as the wounded healers.

The Darker the Night, the Brighter the Light: Five Lessons Learned...

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One month ago I suddenly found myself in a very dark place. There is a depth of wisdom that comes from dark or challenging emotional states, that with good support and hard work looking at the underlying (and sometimes ancient) dynamics can lead to enormous insights and compassion.

A Doctor Cures His Bipolar Diagnosis Without Psychiatry: Review of ‘I’

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I details what happened to Jeffrey Fidel when he quit psychiatric drugs and embraced an alternative, non-medical healing approach — a set of philosophical and spiritual teachings known as the Tao Te Ching and Hua Hu Ching.

Recovery Versus Mad Pride: Exploring the Contradictions

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What would mental health treatment look like if it balanced an awareness of the need for “recovery” with an awareness that people also sometimes need to go “out of their minds” to resolve problems that they haven’t been able to solve otherwise, or maybe that their entire culture has not been able to face and resolve?

Existential Spirituality Can Foster Happiness, Study Finds

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From Medical Xpress: "The study examined associations among religiosity, spirituality and happiness in 354 people treated for neurological disorders at an outpatient clinic where Wade sees patients....

Dr. Russell Razzaque: Breaking Down is Waking Up

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An interview with Dr. Russell Razzaque, consultant psychiatrist and associate medical director in east London who, together with colleagues, is leading a pioneering multi-centre Open Dialogue pilot in the UK National Health Service.

Spiritual Side Effects of Psychiatric Medication: From Helpful to Harmful

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The larger narratives put forth by psychiatry and neuroscience often eclipse the equally important stories of lived experience. The easiest way to understand how people are engaging spiritually with their prescriptions is to hear it in their own words.

My Drug Dealer Was a Doctor: A Story of Withdrawal

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In this piece for Medium, Michael E. Lee tells his story of experiencing the horrific withdrawal effects of Effexor, and how he healed from his...

Integrating Spirituality, Clinical Care Effective for Mental Health

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From Healio: Preliminary research results presented at the American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting in San Diego, California suggested that integrating spirituality into mental heath services...

The Unforeseen Relationship: Psychiatric Medication and Spirituality

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In 2015 I completed a qualitative research study exploring the interrelationship between psychiatric medication and spirituality. The key finding was that people were engaging spiritually with their prescriptions in ways that significantly impacted the course and outcome of recovery.

Awe is the Everyperson’s Spiritual Experience

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From Science of Us: Researchers have found that awe and other Self-Transcendent Experiences have positive consequences for people's mental and emotional health, including enhanced interconnectedness and...

Spirituality and ‘Mental Illness’

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Is the suppression of spirituality in the West the reason for our struggle and suffering labeled as mental illness? Are we medicated to numb the pain and psychospiritual protest related to the felt wrongness in our modern lives? Here’s what I learned from my trip to India.