Weekly Call Schedule

Friday, December 1, 2017

Virtually Mad Cafe - Fridays 8-9:30 PM EST (Group Format)

Hi there!  Glad you found us!  Our group call format is in transition.  If you need peer support, want to offer it, or want to learn more about either or both, please contact us:



Our basic approach to people helping people ('peer support') is summarized below, as well as a flavor of what we've offered in the past:

Virtually Mad Cafe


Welcome to the Virtually Mad Cafe. We meet Fridays from 8-9:30 PM Eastern Standard Time.

We are a community that shares a love of mad people and our experiences, ideas and culture.  We get together on Friday nights for the same reasons that a lot of other people do:

  • To mark the end of a long week
  • To meet new people
  • To connect with others who share similar experiences and values
  • To share what's going on for us - the good, the bad, the lovely and the ugly
  • To keep up other callers we come to care about
  • To hear the latest political gossip
  • To shake our heads over the state of the world 
  • To get exposed to information and perspectives that are new to us.    
There are probably a lot of other reasons, but these are some of the common ones.

Not Therapy or Treatment


We are not a therapy or treatment group. We think of ourselves as a community rather than a support group. We don't relate to each other as sick or ill. Our goal is not to make each other better or well. Rather our primary purpose is to connect with others who own madness as their personal  experience and to create conversations that everyone present can participate in and enjoy.

Shared Values


1. No Pros, No cops, No 911. Above all else, we agree not to police each other, therapize each other, or take over each other's emergencies.

2. Share from the heart & make space for others to do the same

3. Hold each other’s truths with dignity, respect, interest and willingness to learn

4. Maintain a heavy dose of humility for the things we don't yet know or understand

5. Respect each person’s conscience and right to decide for themselves

6. Create a community, rather than a support group

7. Change the world in ways that make it liveable for all human beings

8. Support each other’s human rights, including the right to be left alone




Helpful hints

  1. Getting Started: Calls are member-run. Anyone can use this format and get the call started.
  2. Share the Work: Each of these hints is a role that can be filled by someone on the call. This is a way to share power and responsibility and gives everyone a chance to help out. We all learn together about how the call works. We each play an active role in creating a call culture that we enjoy and believe in. 
  3. Warm Welcome: At the beginning, we welcome each other to the call. There's a bell that (usually) lets you know when someone joins or leaves. You can also see this on the internet console: uberconference.com/peerlyhuman
  4. Introductions: We usually go around and do introductions near the beginning of the call. We ask everyone to say a name (even a fake one) - but beyond that it's fine if you just want to listen. Alternatively, you can type a name on the console if you are joining us online. 
  5. New Arrivals: If there's an ongoing conversation, keep a look out for new arrivals. Say 'hello,' and invite them to introduce themselves and join in as they feel ready. 
  6. Create Community: It's a community - not a support group or therapy session. Share the air. Hold space for each other. Invite participation, topics, check-ins, feedback and reflection. 
  7. Respect Diversity: Speak for yourself, not for others. Tell your story, listen to others. Work on your own issues, not on other people. Share your own struggles instead of judging or giving advice.
  8. Build a Conversation: Be kind to your audience. Conversations are interesting when a variety of people talk and no one person talks too often or for too long. Generally, 3-5 minutes is a good time to shift to a new speaker. If you're the quiet type, this is your time to step in. If you're more talkative, remember that you can always come back and share more after others have been heard.
  9. Broaden Participation: Be mindful of 'two-somes.' It can be easy to forget that there are several people on the call. If you find yourself saying something after every person talks, it might be time to step back or ask others to join in.
  10. Ask for Help: Sometimes strong feelings come up on these calls. Not everyone agrees with each other. It's ok to ask the group for space or help to work it out. It's also fine to hang up if you need to. But, we hope you'll tell us sooner than later what's going on. You're probably picking up on something that isn't working for others too. (It's not just you 😏) 
  11. Make Time for Feedback: Its great to make time for feedback about 10 minutes before the end of the call. It helps to know what worked for you. Just as important, it helps to know what didn't work so well for you - and how you'd like the group to help you get what you need next time. This is how we learn. 
  12. End the Call - sort of: We end the call at the stated time. However, people are welcome to keep talking after the call for as long as they like - or until there's another scheduled call. 


Suggested reading:


Reverse Psychology: Why We Say "No Pros, No Cops, No 911", http://peerlyhuman.blogspot.com/2017/03/reverse-psychology-why-we-say-no-pros.html

Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Another Week, Still Here - Tuesdays 8-9:30 PM EST (Group Format)

Hi there!  Glad you found us!  Our group call format is in transition.  If you need peer support, want to offer it, or want to learn more about either or both, please contact us:



Our basic approach to people helping people ('peer support') is summarized below, as well as a flavor of what we've offered in the past:


Another Week, Still Here


Welcome to Another Week, Still Here.  We meet Tuesdays 8-9:30 PM Eastern Standard Time.  

We are a community that shares our lived experience of seriously contemplating suicide. For many of us, modern society has created a world that we do not want to live in. Many of us are in pain and can't imagine this ever changing. We sincerely ask if life is worth the effort.

Others of us have had such experiences in the past.  We come here to be in the company of others who 'get it.' We may enjoy sharing experiences, learning from others, and being inspired by their courage on the journey.  

Not About Suicide Prevention


We are not a suicide prevention group.  We used to call ourselves 'Alternatives to Suicide.'  Then we realized that people might get the wrong idea.

Our goal is not to convince each other to stay alive no matter what.  People of conscience make difficult decisions of life and death every day in this world.  That is a fact.

Our aims are much humbler. Our primary purpose is to support each other to listen to the Truth of our own conscience - whatever that is.  No one should face difficult decisions of life and death alone.  This is a space to have a respectful conversation about serious issues that seriously matter.

We are human beings, not gods.  We cannot see into anyone else's heart or mind except our own.  Beyond that, we can honestly share our feelings and experiences, listen deeply to experience of others, and make principled decisions about our own lives.


Shared Values


1. No Pros, No cops, No 911.  Above all else, we agree not to police each other, therapize each other, or take over each other's emergencies.

2. Share from the heart & make space for others to do the same

3. Hold each other’s truths with dignity, respect, interest and willingness to learn

4. Maintain a heavy dose of humility for the things we don't yet know or understand

5. Respect each person’s conscience and right to decide for themselves

6. Create a community, rather than a support group

7. Change the world in ways that make it liveable for all human beings

8. Support each other’s human rights, including the right to be left alone


Helpful hints


  1. Getting Started:  Calls are member-run.  Anyone can use this format and get the call started.
  2. Share the Work:  Each of these hints is a role that can be filled by someone on the call.  This is a way to share power and responsibility and gives everyone a chance to help out.  We all learn together about how the call works.  We each play an active role in creating a call culture that we enjoy and believe in. 
  3. Warm Welcome:  At the beginning, we welcome each other to the call. There's a bell that (usually) lets you know when someone joins or leaves.  You can also see this on the internet console: uberconference.com/peerlyhuman
  4. Introductions:  We usually go around and do introductions near the beginning of the call.  We ask everyone to say a name (even a fake one) - but beyond that it's fine if you just want to listen.  Alternatively, you can type a name on the console if you are joining us online.  
  5. New Arrivals:  If there's an ongoing conversation, keep a look out for new arrivals.  Say 'hello,' and invite them to introduce themselves and join in as they feel ready. 
  6. Create Community:  It's a community - not a support group or therapy session.  Share the air.  Hold space for each other.  Invite participation, topics, check-ins, feedback and reflection.  
  7. Respect Diversity:  Speak for yourself, not for others.  Tell your story, listen to others.  Work on your own issues, not on other people.  Share your own struggles instead of judging or giving advice.
  8.  Build a Conversation:  Be kind to your audience.  Conversations are interesting when a variety of people talk and no one person talks too often or for too long.  Generally, 3-5 minutes is a good time to shift to a new speaker.  If you're the quiet type, this is your time to step in.  If you're more talkative, remember that you can always come back and share more after others have been heard.
  9. Broaden Participation:  Be mindful of 'two-somes.'  It can be easy to forget that there are several people on the call.  If you find yourself saying something after every person talks, it might be time to step back or ask others to join in.
  10. Ask for Help:  Sometimes strong feelings come up on these calls.  Not everyone agrees with each other.  It's ok to ask the group for space or help to work it out. It's also fine to hang up if you need to.  But, we hope you'll tell us sooner than later what's going on. You're probably picking up on something that isn't working for others too.  (It's not just you 😏) 
  11. Make Time for Feedback:  Its great to make time for feedback about 10 minutes before the end of the call.  It helps to know what worked for you.  Just as important, it helps to know what didn't work so well for you -  and how you'd like the group to help you get what you need next time.  This is how we learn.  
  12. End the Call - sort of:  We end the call at the stated time.  However, people are welcome to keep talking after the call for as long as they like - or until there's another scheduled call. 

Suggested reading:


Reverse Psychology: Why We Say "No Pros, No Cops, No 911", http://peerlyhuman.blogspot.com/2017/03/reverse-psychology-why-we-say-no-pros.html


Tuesday, October 10, 2017

"Why I Oppose World Mental Health Day" - by the Borderline Academic


According to physician and best-selling author Dr. Gabor Maté, every human being has two complementary needs: attachment, or connection with others, and authenticity, or the ability to fully be ourselves.

In my opinion, it is impossible to have the former need met without the latter. When we are unable to express who we truly are, how we are feeling, how we process and make sense of the world around us, and our deepest fears and dreams, we cannot fully connect with anyone else.

What does this have to do with World Mental Health Day?

We live in a world that constantly and relentlessly punishes us for expressing ourselves authentically. Our society often views emotion as a sign of weakness, alternative realities as indications of impaired judgment, difference as a form of illness that needs to be cured, and distress as a result of irrational thinking. We are taught to be afraid of this kind of authenticity in both ourselves and others – to be ashamed of who we are and how we feel, and to be embarrassed of others’ raw expressions of themselves.

To me, no system of thought reflects this cultural tendency better than the notion of 'mental health.' The ideology of mental health, or, as neurodiversity scholar Nick Walker likes to put it, the pathology paradigm, posits that there is only one correct, healthy way of being, and any sort of divergence from that way of being is illness or disorder. Any level of emotion that surpasses the DSM’s arbitrary cutoff for what constitutes a healthy amount of feeling, any belief or viewpoint that strays from the bounds of what doctors have decided is normal, any desire or wish that has been deemed unrealistic or irrational – these are all just a few examples of authentic expressions that are deemed by mental health professionals as in need of treatment.

The pathology paradigm is the foundation of a system in which people are punished violently for these kinds of expressions. Words cannot quite capture what it feels like to not own the rights to your own body; nothing fully describes the horrific realization that you do not have the right to say “no.”

Involuntary civil commitment and forced treatment mean so many things to me: the terror of being locked in a closet-sized room with glass windows, unsure of when I would be released; the panic I felt when I was ordered to take off my clothes for a strip search and knew what would happen if I disobeyed; the apprehension that I would slip up and falter from my “model patient” persona for even a second and be held longer; the restlessness and emptiness of waiting to be released, each minute feeling like an hour; the shame and regret I still feel over not attending my own college graduation due to being locked up instead.

To some of my friends, co-workers, and comrades, forced treatment has meant being electroshocked with and without anesthesia, being injected with powerful antipsychotics, and being subjected to behavior therapies and efforts to reprogram who they are through rewards and sometimes physical punishments.

And for all of this, we are told we should be grateful. One could argue that even the notion of “forced treatment” is the ultimate form of victim-blaming – survivors are constantly told that because the ways we were expressing ourselves were symptoms of an illness in need of “treatment,” the use of force was justified. “You should be glad someone cared enough to get you the help you needed,” I hear regularly.

It is not just the use of state-sanctioned force and violence that limits our ability to be ourselves. It is also social coercion – the social and environmental factors that make life very difficult for people seen as different. Every day, people face discrimination and prejudice for expressing thoughts and feelings that we have been trained to see as abnormal. Of course, the mental health industry exploits and perpetuates this prejudice.

In a world where these are the potential consequences of just expressing certain thoughts, feelings, and actions, how can we expect anyone to be themselves? And if no one can be themselves, how can anyone connect?

As humans, we are all so incredibly different from one another. We have vastly different ways of experiencing, processing, and responding to the world around us. And that is a beautiful thing – the world would be awfully boring if we were all the same! But sometimes, when one considers how different we all are, it is a mystery how we manage to connect and relate. It can feel very lonely and isolating to realize you are the only person in the world who possesses and fully understands your exact set of values, beliefs, thoughts, feelings, and personality.

But while we have differences, there are universal experiences we all share. Real connection comes from those shared experiences. To be human is to feel pain, sadness, loss, anger, fear, joy, happiness, and hopefulness. To be human is to have strongly held values and beliefs that are shaped by our lives. We can all relate and empathize with these human experiences. In being forced to suppress them, what is there left to connect over?

I believe there is nothing more powerful than the human connection that occurs when one person expresses a unique thought, feeling, or experience, and another person responds, “Me too.” It is in these moments that we begin to feel less alone.

The mental health paradigm so often robs us of our potential to connect with one another.

  • It is for this reason that today, instead of observing World Mental Health Day and validating a paradigm that views some people’s natural way of being and expressing themselves as ill or disordered, I plan to celebrate human connection. 
  • Instead of advocating for more mental health treatment, I plan to do my best to support people in distress by validating their emotions and sharing their pain. 
  • Instead of telling people to use coping skills to manage or curtail their emotions, I will view these emotions as a natural part of the range of the human experience. 
  • And instead of raising awareness for “mental illness,” I will help spread the message that distress and crisis are a universal component of being human. 
Only when we recognize this fact will our human needs be met.

Monday, October 2, 2017

The Violent, Vicious Cycle: Why we need to look at "Power Imbalances" instead of "Chemical Imbalances"

Have you ever considered how dangerous the medical model is?

-- And not just to those of us with labels, but to everyone, everywhere who wants to live in a safer world?

In reality, the conventional treatment industry is creating the very public health nightmare it says that it is 'treating.'

A Recipe for Violence

If you wanted to bring out the worst in humankind, here's a pretty sure shot:


  1. Divide the world of human beings into two classes - those with personhood and those without it. 
  2. Create an entire class of people with nothing to live for
  3. Create an entire class of people with nothing left to lose
  4. Dismiss traumatic lived experiences as irrelevant
  5. Ignore real life precipitants to actual human suffering
  6. Use power, control and violence to resolve disagreements
  7. Consistently make someone's life worse instead of better
  8. Convince the entire known world that their truth is an 'illness'
  9. Accuse everyone who disagrees of 'enabling their pathology'
  10. Insist you are the answer and there is no hope apart from you

That's the medical model paradigm in a nutshell.

If you wanted a to create recipe for alienation, desperation and retaliatory violence, you could hardly write a better one.


A Literally Vicious Cycle

It gets even worse than that when you look at the big picture.  The simple fact is:

The more outsiders we create, the more unsafe we are.

Let me say that again:

The more outsiders we create, the more unsafe we are.

This is not about broken biology or aberrant genes. It is the Catch 22 of the human condition.

Here is the how and why of it:


  • None of us likes to feel scared or threatened.
  • Feeling at odds with others is scary and threatening.
  • Feeling unable to meet basic needs is scary and threatening — and it often goes hand in hand with being a social outsider.
  • Human beings who feel threatened tend to resort to one of three responses: fight, flight or freeze.
  • When the stakes are high, flighters and freezers usually are not a problem. They run or hide, which doesn’t scare others too much.
  • Fighters are a totally different matter. We don’t run, we don’t hide. We go toward the stuff that scares us. And then we take it on and try to bring it down. The more afraid we are, the harder we attack. We don’t stop until the threat is dead or we are.
  • It’s also no sense trying to talk reason either. As long as the stakes stay high and we stay scared, the sympathetic nervous system will continue to do its job. It will create tunnel vision and tunnel hearing to keep distractions out. It will make sure our attention stays riveted until the threat is gone or we are.


This isn’t going to change — not for a long time, probably not ever. The fight response has helped our species survive for thousands of years. There’s every reason to believe that it is genetically encoded. There’s every reason to believe that, for some of us, the fight response is a biological default. A species made up only of flighters and freezers wouldn’t last long. They would cede the turf with every new challenge. Humanity needs its fighters to ‘stick to their guns’ when the stakes are high.


Therein lies our problem as human beings.


Think about it:



  • A certain percentage of the human species defaults to fight when threatened.
  • Being treated as ‘other’ scares people.
  • The more we ‘other’ each other the more scared more people are.
  • The more scared people we have and the more scared they feel, the more violence we are going to see.



This is not because marginalized people are violent. We’re not any more violent as a group than anyone else.

But we are a whole lot more threatened. 


And the more of us who are threatened, and the worse we feel inside, the more fighters you will activate and the more violence you will see.


It’s a simple matter of statistics, percentages
 and computing the odds.


As a case in point, look at the public health data on four groups that society loves to hate: mental illness, addictions, corrections and homelessness. There’s a common denominator staring us in the face.

It’s not only ‘the mentally ill’ who have trauma. No, no, no. Widely-accepted government research suggests that roughly 90% of those who get caught in any of these systems are trauma survivors.

In other words, there are a lot of marginalized and very scared, very desperate people out there.

There was probably another one in the news this week.  Possibly even today.

No doubt the ‘mental illness’ treatment industry will use this to argue for more conventional services and more money to fund them.

The outcome  of this approach is fairly certain:

We will alienate more people
Then we will see more violence.

The human rights framework gives us a far more viable option.

Instead of creating social outsiders and killing hope, human rights connect us and repair our relationships.

Here is how:

  • Human rights focus us on the things we have in common
  • Human rights reinforce that all of us have worth
  • Human rights resource us to get the things we need
  • Human rights treat all of us with dignity
  • Human rights make the space to honor all our voices
  • Human rights require us to hear each other out
  • Human rights respect those who disagree
  • Human rights seek out solutions that meet the needs of all of us

In a nutshell:



Human rights prevent violence before it ever starts.  

They ensure that all of us get treated 
the way every one of us would like to be

Human Rights Competency #3-3: Facilitates Restorative Access

The human rights paradigm is a roadmap for individual and social well being. 

The path to getting there is this:


  1. Identify the core needs that people world wide agree on
  2. Make sure everyone knows what they are
  3. Help everyone to access what all of us need.

This is the universal route to universal well being.

You'd be surprised at how many healthcare providers have never considered this. 

You'd be surprised how many of them claim to be experts on 'mental health.'


It's time for that to change.

This question helps you to help your healthcare worker to do that. 


Human Rights Competency #3-2: Assesses for Unmet Human Needs

Ok.  Here's the point:

'Mental Illness' portends to be about 'faulty thinking'

So how do you know if someone's thinking is faulty?

Well, first and foremost...

You have to know why they are doing what they are doing

Here's the long and short of it:

  1. Human needs are about human survival
  2. Human rights are about the survival needs  that human beings care about the most
  3. If you can't access what you care about, it feels bad
  4. If you have to chase what you care about, it takes a lot of energy
  5. If you feel bad enough or chase long enough, eventually it shows.


Here's the problem with the medical model:

It never asks the questions that people care about the most.

It just:

  • Looks at what someone is doing
  • Compares it with a check list
  • And ticks off boxes...

Poof!   -  You are 'ill'.


That is 'faulty thinking.' 

By it's own standards, the medical model is 'mentally ill'



PS.

Hopefully, the clinician you are seeing has higher standards.

This question helps you make your own assessment.







Human Rights Competency #3-1: Cares About My Basic Needs

Here's the down and dirty: 


No rights, no well being



Here's the deeper logic:


1. Healthcare is about well being
2. Being cared about:
  • a basic need
  •  essential to psychosocial well being

3. Meeting basic needs is:
  • essential to individual and social well being
  • the foundation of freedom, justice and world peace 



Therefore:


Providers who
  1. claim to offer 'healthcare' ...
  2. claim to care about 'public safety'...
... need to care about the basic human needs of those they serve and whether those needs are being met. 

 






Human Rights Competency #3: Validates Universal Needs


The central premise of human right is this:



  • there are certain basic needs that every human being must access in order to live well, feel well and be well

  • without access to these things, none of us is well


  • a society that does not support its members to access these things is not well



Now you are equipped to ask:


How 'well' is my healthcare provider thinking...?






The Real Dirt on Medical Model Outcomes





No one should ever lose their personhood.  Period.

But how anyone lose their personhood when the outcomes are this bad just goes to show the real foundation of US exceptionalism:


You have as many rights ...
as money, privilege or influence can buy  


If you want to understand the problems with medical model outcomes, there's nobody like Robert Whitaker.  His work and website, MadinAmerica.com offer a careful and comprehensive analysis of cutting edge research and ideas.  Bob won a national investigative journalism award in 2010 for documenting the link between Pharma, psychiatry and dramatically worsening medical model outcomes. Bob's work is so thought provoking and persuasive that it has convinced many career psychiatrists of the urgent nice to rethink these issues. For those of us on the other sick of the lock, Bob validated and made it credible to voice what we already knew in our hearts.

Since no one makes the case better or more clearly than Bob, I refer you to the parts of his work that, for me, have been tha most personally illuminating.

Some Few Eye Openers  






Human Rights Competency #2-3: Sees My Personhood

In the human rights paradigm, we don't necessarily have to have the same perspectives or understanding of life.  It is okay if people see things differently.  It is also okay for someone to hold fast to their beliefs even if a lot of other people disagree.

Diverse perspectives are appreciated

We all have a voice
We all get a vote
We all want to be heard
We all need to listen.

This is what it  means to have personhood.

I can often come to an appreciation of someone else's perspective simply by putting myself in their shoes.  It helps to ask myself a question like this:

 If I saw the facts the way this person sees them, and experienced what they have experienced around this issue, what would it be like for me?  

From there, I try to use imagination and empathy to project how I might feel in their situation. A lot of times the outcome surprises me.  I sometimes begin to see life from a vantage point that never would have occurred to me.


Conflicting needs are negotiated

Sometimes conflicting perceptions result in conflicting needs.  For example, a lot of times I get into it with someone.  It takes me a while to recognize that both of us might want to be 'right' about the 'facts.'

Here's where we maybe have to get a bit creative.  Maybe both of us really believe we are calling it the way we saw it.  Well, then, that's a dead end because neither of us has the right to over rule the other.

On the other hand, if we get a little creative we can find a way to offer something that feels a lot like being 'right.'


  1. We can offer each other respect and regard. 
  2. We can allow that it's theoretically possible that we misperceived or misinterpreted something
  3. We can vouch that we believe the other person is sincere in their belief
  4. We can explore what's so scary for both of us about seeing things differently
  5. We can open to the possibility that there is more than one reality - so we both really might be right
  6. We can commit that we won't ever put each other down or allow each other to be shut out just because we didn't see something the same way....

In a word, human rights gives us a lot of options.  In my experience, there are about a zillion ways to validate someone else's humanity. Pretty much all it takes is for me to be sincere in wanting to. 

Human Rights Competency #2-2: Respects My Morality


In the dominant culture, some of us are considered incapable of appreciating the consequences of our actions.  Others feel justified to overwrite our judgement and impose their own vision of what is best for us.

The mental health system is largely complicit in this.  Little attempt is made to understand or address the cultural dynamics that make colonization of personhood so attractive.  Nor is much effort put into supporting all concerned to address conflicting interests while keeping rights in tact.
  
The human rights paradigm again is very different: 
  • Everyone has rational capacities
  • Everyone can learn from experience
  • Everyone is entitled to decide what they care about
  • No one gets to overwrite someone else's values or priorities
  • Others can offer their assistance, but we aren't obligated to accept.
  • Everyone is required to respect the rights of others.
  • Everyone has a conscience to guide them toward what matters most

To put it another way:

We all have the dignity of risk, which goes hand in hand with the right to try and fail.  Taking risks and assuming responsibilities is how learning happens. That is how values and priorities become clear. That is how rational capacities and conscience develop. 

If there ever was a time in history where it was important to support these principles, it is now.The disenfranchisement of human agency and conscience is not health and it is not well being.  It ratifies some of the most damaging power abuses of the modern industrial age.   The lion's share of resources and the authority to manage them are highly concentrated.  There are relatively few decision-makers, and they are largely free to vote their own self-interest.  The average person has ceded their conscience in return for the basic necessities of life. People believe they have no choice and no power to make a difference.  The predictable consequence is apathy, cynicism and demoralization.  This corrupting  of the moral fabric of humankind is perhaps the greatest danger to health we face today.  Legitimate mental health services should be countering this trend, not encouraging it.  The average person needs support and resourcing to resist such colonization in the face of overwhelming odds.  That is what professionals should be offering.

Sunday, October 1, 2017

Human Rights Competency #2: Respects Individual Conscience

A major difference between healthcare and human rights values is in their attitude toward individual conscience.  The healthcare paradigm is the province of experts and expert knowledge.

In our society, experts tend to be in power roles.

Here is the essence of a power role:

Social Rule for Power Roles


If you have more education or prestige than me, you get to overwrite my judgement  

If  I protest, one of two things likely will happen:

1. I will lose
  • Most people will support and assist you 
  • They will ignore or coerce me

2. I will win the battle but lose the war  
  • To my face, people will give the appearance of letting me have my way
  • Behind my back, they will call me stupid or difficult
  • When I am present, they will give me the cold shoulder.

Substituted judgment thus becomes the order of the day. Even highly personal prerogatives - like personal vision, values, priorities and lifestyle preferences - may subjected to professional vetting. This is a common experience in healthcare settings, and especially in 'behavioral health.' The usual justification is "It's for your own good" or "We needed to keep you safe."


Let's think about that for a moment.


How does me experiencing...
  1. You callously override my deepest beliefs...
  2. You flagrantly disregard my gravest concerns...
  3. Everyone kiss up to the power role..
  4. A general tenor of rejection or indifference by everyone present, including my peers ...
  5. You as someone I must please upon penalty of judgment, pain or torture...
... promote the well being, growth or humanity of either of us....?

Another common justification is "We needed to keep others safe."


Let's think about that as well.


How does having others witness...
  1. A higher status person callously override a lower status person's deepest beliefs...
  2. A higher status person flagrantly disregard a lower status person's gravest concerns...
  3. Everyone kiss up to the higher status person...
  4. A pervasive tenor of rejection or indifference to someone in great need ...
  5. A lower status person being judged, hurt or tortured for disagreeing with someone of higher status...
...promote the well being, growth or humanity of any of us....?

Just as just as important, what does it teach all of us about:
  1. The importance of conscience vs. rote obedience to authority
  2. The value of thinking for oneself vs. robotic compliance
  3. Whether other people can be counted on when you need them
  4. Whether the power of love or the love of power rules this world
  5. When and how you can use power if you have it

And how does any of that make humanity safer, kinder or more conscientious for any of us...?



Broader (and even scarier) implications

Sad to say, the healthcare industry is not that much different than anywhere else in the industrialized world.   Unilateral top-down management is pretty much the go-to mode for ordering human affairs. When anything important needs to get done, the use and abuse of power roles is so ingrained in our culture that you almost never hear it questioned.  Parent-child, teacher-student, boss-employee and doctor-patient relationships are all prime examples.

In fact, right now you may be wondering, What's so wrong with that?


But think about it

We live in a world of big government, big money and multi-national corporations.  With few exceptions here, the management is hierarchical.  A single executive or CEO can bind the judgment of hundreds, thousands, possibly even a million employees.  It can change their life and that of the communities were they live. This can happen with a single decision - and in a single moment. The prerogative of one person can be that extensive.

To be sure, the CEO may be highly qualified and work hard.  They may be very devoted to the company's success.  But is that all that different from anyone else who works there: 

These days, pretty much every employee is expected to:
  1. Perform their job competently
  2. Work hard
  3. Be loyal to the company
  4. Make personal sacrifices for the collective good 

Everyone who works there is also:
  1. Investing their life and their energy into the business 
  2. Foregoing other options and life choices 
  3. Ceding valuable rights (like free speech, belief, reason, conscience, self-determination) to company managers 
  4. Relying on the company for their livelihood
  5. Hoping this will create a decent future for themselves and their families

Think for a moment about what that means for our collective future:
As a human race, we now have a social structure that allows those in a few key roles to overwrite the ...
  • lived experience
  • reasoning
  •  vision
  • values
  • conscience 
... of entire organizations and communities  - and control their livelihoods to boot!

Now think about this:
  •  Who, if anyone, are those select few are accountable to...? 
  • What values and motivations drive the decisions they are making...?
  • How likely is it that CEO decisions are being made in a 'spirit of brotherhood' for the people and communities affected...?
  • What happens to the conscience and morale of the average person under these circumstances...?
  • What happens to the social fabric when we institutionalize disregard for the average person's values and relevance in this way...?
  • How might the effects of widespread alienation from personal agency and conscience manifest in what we are currently calling 'mental illness' ...?



Can you hear the giant sucking sound...?

Can you see why it is important for mental health practitioners to work to heal - rather than ratify and perpetuate - this kind of social violation...?





Human Rights Competency #1-3: Recognizes My Equal, Inalienable Rights

Equality in healthcare settings has a different meaning than in human rights.  Healthcare equality is about roles and rules.  There are assigned rules for people in assigned roles.  Everybody in the same role has to follow the same rules and that's what makes you equal.  Also, nobody in that role is supposed to get an exception to the rule that applies (even if no one affected cares).  Otherwise (the system thinks) that would not be treating everyone the same.

The end result is of healthcare equality is that you can be treated like the dearth of the earth.

But...
 (1) as long as someone in a higher role class than you are is following the rules 
       and...
(2) the same rules apply to everyone in your class
       then...
(3) you are all 'equal'
       and...
(4) it is all 'fair.'

Human rights equality is entirely different.  In human rights equality, the important rules are how we treat each other.  Accordingly, even when we have different roles, same rules for how we treat each other apply to all of us.

Specifically: 

  1. Everybody gets respect
  2. Everybody gets dignity
  3. Everybody gets an opinion
  4. Everybody gets to voice it
  5. Everybody gets to participate
  6. Everybody gets to create
  7. Everybody gets to learn
  8. Everybody gets a chance
  9. Everybody gets a choice
  10. Everybody gets access to the necessities of life

To be sure, different people in the human rights world have different responsibilities. Life is diverse.  Sustaining life has a lot to it.  It requires a lot of people with a lot of different kinds of know-how.

Naturally then, roles and responsibilities in a human rights paradigm vary as much as they do anywhere else: 

  • Different people have different tasks to perform and different functions to carry out.  
  • Different tasks and different functions often will require different education, training, skill and levels of mastery in specific areas of life.  T
  • They may also require more or less time, more or less energy, more or less attention and more or less effort across physical, emotional, intellectual, social and spiritual dimensions.

Even so, in a human rights paradigm, one thing stays constant.  Repeat after me:


  1. Everybody gets respect
  2. Everybody gets dignity
  3. Everybody gets an opinion
  4. Everybody gets to voice it
  5. Everybody gets to participate
  6. Everybody gets to create
  7. Everybody gets to learn
  8. Everybody gets a chance
  9. Everybody gets a choice
  10. Everybody gets access to the necessities of life

Are you starting to get the picture?

The constant, for human rights, is how we treat each other.

In that regard, we are all equal.


Human Rights Competency #1-2: Appreciates My Inherent Dignity

For me, dignity is about being treated like I matter.  The other person recognizes that I have some needs and acts like they care whether these get met.

Dignity also implies that somehow, someway my existences is worth something.  Maybe not to the person I'm with.  Maybe I don't make their life better in any particular way. But at least they concede the possibility that I might make someone else's life better. Or that I might make something else on this planet better .  Or that even if I don't make anything better for anything or anyone, I (like everyone else who was born) have the same legitimate claim for being here.

As a case in point: 

Too often in healthcare settings, I get them impression that I'm just another problem to be managed.  It's like being one of the groundhogs in the Bill Murray movie.  What is important to the provider is keeping the golf course beautiful.  My life is just something inconvenient that keeps popping up in their way to getting that done.

Whether or not someone gets paid for their efforts, that is the hell of a way to see or treat other human beings.  Practically nothing could be less healthy. This is true both for the well being they are supposedly helping me with and for the well being of the relationship I have with them.

To feel well, live well and be well, I need to be seen by others as a someone of value and worth.
Perhaps that's not honest for you and you don't want to fake it.  That's fine, I'm not asking you to. 

Your other alternative is to take the time to have an honest conversation. 

How about you tell me:

  1.  What you need and value as a person, and 
  2. How you would like me to be there for you more in getting it.  

Either way, you are not entitled to treat me like I am yet another inconvenience.  And you are not entitled to demand that I guess your needs, get out of your way, or give you what you want upon demand.  

Dignity means you need to approach me with respect and ask me for what you need or want. And that is my obligation to you as well. 

Then we both have cards on the table.  Then we are both making an effort to engage.  Then we both get to decide what we want and are able to give.  And - most important to dignity - we both get to make a dignified choice about how to respond. 

Human Rights Competency #1-1: Treats Me Like Human Family


There no worse feeling for me than someone making a living off of me and treating me like I'm not worthy to take out their trash at the same time. Human rights are about the things that all of us need from each other in order to feel like we belong to the human race.

For myself, I like to think we both see each other as people.  I like to think we both care about each other's well being.  I like to think we both wish each other well and do what we can to help, consistent with our own needs. 

For you it may be something different.  We are all new at figuring this out and trying to live this way.  The important thing is that we listen and that we try.  That, for me, is what it means to be human family.  To the best of our ability in any given moment, we recognize each other's dignity and support each others rights.

Human Rights Competency #1: Creates Conditions of Well Being


You are seeing a healthcare provider because you feel unwell or someone else thinks you are. So here's the bottom line:

  1. Does your healthcare provider create conditions of wellbeing? 
  2. Do they offer you the basic courtesies of human relationship?
  3. Do you feel better instead of worse when you are in their presence?
  4. Do you feel better instead of worse when you leave? 
  5. Do they 'get' you as a person?
  6. Do they 'get' what your life is like every day and what you have to do to survive it? 
  7. Do they honor your time and energy by making sure the stuff they recommend really fits you and your vision for your life? 
  8. Are you feeling better rather than worse over time as a result of their presence in your life?
These are the questions I ask myself when I try to determine whether a relationship is good for me or not.  This applies to any human relationship I have, not just a healthcare one.  

If these basic needs aren't met for me when I'm with someone, I'm going to feel worse rather than better.  It's just that simple.  This is my bottom line.  

Maybe the things you need are different from me.  Maybe you have your own set of questions and concerns.  But the point remains the same.  

  1. We all see healthcare providers to feel better rather than worse.
  2. Healthcare providers hold themselves out as skilled in increasing wellbeing rather than destroying it.
  3. They may have an area of special skill that is quite useful and that is good and well.
  4. However:  Just because a provider is skilled at well being in one area doesn't give them the right to destroy our need for well being in other areas.  That is like a landscaper doing an amazing job on your lawn & then driving the backhoe through your kitchen.
  5. That isn't competent.
  6. That isn't healthcare.

Is Your Clinician Competent in Human Rights?

 We're going to talk about this for the next 21 hours.  You're getting all the slides here so you have them all in one place. 

These competencies apply to your clinician, but they were written for you.  They are here so tyou can take them into your healthcare appointments and have a frank chat about what it means to have inalienable personhood. 

Just because someone has a degree doesn't entitle them to disregard your human rights.  It's bad practice and bad manners. It's also bad for you and others to let it go unchallenged.

Every one of us has a nondelegable obligation under human rights to educate our healthcare providers to the fact that we are people first.  International standards, as well as common courtesy, apply everywhere.  Professional offices and government institutions are no exception.  In fact, by international standards, such places should be leading the effort - not the last to catch on!




















Open Letter to Justin Trudeau - Ronda E. Richardson, Canada

Front page of letter
(text to left)
August 26, 2017

Dear Mr. Trudeau;

I’m not sure if you will ever read this and in that case it will be one more futile exercise in trying to make change for those still openly victimized in Canada and all with taxpayers money and government backing. I have considered leaving this country because I am ashamed of how we treat our most vulnerable. I know it still happens because it happened to me. I have a long story of getting trapped in our power heavy psychiatric system myself and it is too much to tell you here. Many of my friends have already died unheard, forgotten and right under our noses.

There would be a public outcry if we took a group of refugees and tied them to beds, injected them with tranquilizers, or locked them in prisons indefinitely against their will. All of us who seek psychiatric treatment are seeking refuge from trauma and fear but many are finding the opposite of comfort and protection. Those oppressed know the repercussions of speaking out with a psychiatric diagnosis and a mental health act requiring no more than a little future foretelling to let those in power take away your human rights. I am beginning to present internationally not having found acceptance for this painful truth within my own province. I am hoping that when I am respected and no longer simply a patient to those here in Canada that I can bring my story home and start to make change for my friends who still suffer silently.

My U.S. friends talk about how they escaped and it usually involves running out of insurance. I feel envious in many ways because in psychiatry in Canada, even if the doctor is mistaken or heavy handed, you can be treated to death. There is no recourse for our suffering. The child psychiatrist who injured me is well respected, well protected and has been well compensated while I struggle in every part of my life with flashbacks of forced treatment including electroshock. He is wrongly untouchable and I will forever pay the price for his crimes while he lives a life free of want.

Those most at risk for abuse are also those least believed in our culture. I know these victims are telling the truth in a horror so great it defies logic, because I lived it too. I am no longer on medication and my life is beginning to come back together in ways I stopped allowing myself to imagine. The very least I can do, from my new position of international backing, is speak up for those around me too in danger to have a voice. I have nothing left to lose and forced treatment of me now would result in an international media storm and perhaps the very public outcry we need to make real change for those still alone in this very real struggle.

Please hear me. This is urgent. I’ve tried multiple avenues and feel stuck in place. I was told by a politician that any change would take years, but my friends are dying now. The medication side effects alone are gruesomely disfiguring. The pain of knowing you don’t have the same human rights as those without diagnosis is paralyzing. My friends have been committing suicide, not because of illness, but because it is the only way they can see a way out of this situation. When they ask for help they are going unheard by those with the power. “It is an acceptable risk” are the words I was told, but is it really? Would you choose this purgatory Justin if you were in our position? Asking you to choose is redundant. We don’t get a choice. There is no right that cannot be revoked except for the right for my lawyer to access me. This is a cruel cruel clause. How many in lock-down can afford a good lawyer? There has to be a better way.

Those with lived experience of forced treatment need to be included equally in the making and revising of the mental health act. Maybe it is time for the government to step in and police psychiatry for a while whether or not they like it. Just because they have the money does not make psychiatrists deserving of greater protection. If you need proof secretly put cameras on the locked units and the doctor’s offices and just watch it unfold. Please help us.

Eugenics is the horror resulting from this power imbalance in psychiatry and it isn’t the past yet. It is still happening just in a more covert and silencing way. We are putting money into earlier diagnosis and treatment without considering that if you are started on a medication at 10 by 16 you have all the disfigurement of long-term use. Our government is investing in genocide. We are losing the most gifted, the most unique perspectives, and the revolutionaries to treatment. We need these voices most of all.

I’m begging you to take action even if by just listening to our stories. I don’t know who else to speak to. Please. Please. You look kind in your photos. We need your help desperately.

Ronda E. Richardson
rndrchrdsn@gmail.com




Equal Recognition Before Law - It's the International Standard

General Comment No. 1, CRPD, Article 12
Read the full text here: https://goo.gl/QigRy6
This is the authoritative interpretation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Do you know what it says?

Here's just a sampling:

Article 5: Equality and non-discrimination

32. To achieve equal recognition before the law, legal capacity must not be denied
discriminatorily. Article 5 of the Convention guarantees equality for all persons under and
before the law and the right to equal protection of the law. It expressly prohibits all
discrimination on the basis of disability. Discrimination on the basis of disability is defined
in article 2 of the Convention as “any distinction, exclusion or restriction on the basis of
disability which has the purpose or effect of impairing or nullifying the recognition,
enjoyment or exercise, on an equal basis with others, of all human rights and fundamental
freedoms”. Denial of legal capacity having the purpose or effect of interfering with the right
of persons with disabilities to equal recognition before the law is a violation of articles 5
and 12 of the Convention. States have the ability to restrict the legal capacity of a person
based on certain circumstances, such as bankruptcy or criminal conviction. However, the
right to equal recognition before the law and freedom from discrimination requires that
when the State denies legal capacity, it must be on the same basis for all persons. Denial of
legal capacity must not be based on a personal trait such as gender, race, or disability, or
have the purpose or effect of treating the person differently.

33. Freedom from discrimination in the recognition of legal capacity restores autonomy
and respects the human dignity of the person in accordance with the principles enshrined in
article 3 (a) of the Convention. Freedom to make one’s own choices most often requires
legal capacity. Independence and autonomy include the power to have one’s decisions
legally respected. The need for support and reasonable accommodation in making decisions
shall not be used to question a person’s legal capacity. Respect for difference and
acceptance of persons with disabilities as part of human diversity and humanity (art. 3 (d))
is incompatible with granting legal capacity on an assimilationist basis.



General Comment No. 1, CRPD, Article 12
Read the full text here: https://goo.gl/QigRy6

Just Say ABSOLUTELY NO to Commitment and Forced Treatment - It's International Law


A lot of people don't know it, but the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) prohibits commitment and forced treatment based on psychosocial disability. The prohibition applies whether the disability is real or perceived.

Not surprisingly, the treatment industry has tried to erode these protections.  As a result, there is now an to preserve the integrity of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).  The campaign was spearheaded by Tina Minkowitz of the Center for Human Rights of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry, chrusp.org.

If you haven't found this website yet, it's time.  https://absoluteprohibition.org/  It's loaded with a rich array of materials and resources from activists workwide who oppose psychiatric force and coercion.  Here is a sampling of what you can find there: