Free your ass and your mind will follow
Free your mind and your ass will follow
Honored to be invited to present today with very good friend Jonathan Balazs at Reclaiming Bodies and Minds at Ryerson University in Toronto…
Hearing Voices – Unseen UnHeard
Hearing Voices: Unheard and Unseen
Time: Saturday, March 11 from 2:00pm-3:30pm Location: Thomas Lounge, Student Campus Centre Facilitators: Kevin Healey and Jonathan Balazs
Description: Hearing voices is a remarkably common human experience yet one that has been mystified and demonized and made taboo, meaning many more struggle than need to and many are isolated meaning their already difficult experience is made more difficult.
Likewise those of us who do hear voices are stereotyped demonized and discriminated against for being too different.
In this session, there will be a showing of selected clips from the documentary They Heard Voices, a film about exploring the hearing voices movement, psychosis and the “schizophrenia” label.
The film attempts to challenge assumptions about the disorder with clarifying issues surrounding what gets called “psychosis”, the historical significance of diagnoses.
The film will be followed by a dialogue on the hearing voices movement and also outlining key ideas and ongoing work in the community to reclaim experience, language and space, bodies and minds.
Sacred Connections is a spiritually based inclusive gathering for Young Adults ages 18 to 39. Aimed to help us build stronger relationships with ourselves and others through various spiritual exercises & discussions.
This Saturday’s topic will be “learning to accept & love ourselves in the midst of a world that tells us otherwise”
DATE: Saturday, March 11th
TIME: 1:00-2:30pm
LOCATION:
The 519 Community Centre Room # 301
519 Church St
– 5 minutes walk from Wellesley Station
Saturday’s topic will be… “learning to accept & love ourselves in the midst of a world that tells us otherwise“
Sounds like something from Joseph Heller’s Catch 22.
In fact it sounds just like Catch #22 itself.
When they got you they got you, you can’t escape because escaping is why they got you in the first place.
Certainly sounds like something you’ll get from MAJOR MAJOR, the most severe cases being referred to as – MMMUDD.
MIUUDD – contentious term The term MUDD is subject of some contention- some argued it is more properly and fully known as MIUUDD – Medically Inexplicably Unexplainable Unexplained Disorder Disorder but at the rigged-vote count the majority ruled that would lead the greater public to become confused, believing that “mental health professionals” -who after all get paid to lead us to believe they do know – are full of shit and have no idea what they’re talking about.
MUDD- Disambiguation
Not to be confused with:
Mud, glorious mud
Mud has healing properties, especially if you get it on you- mind you dont get it up yer bum, though eh? . . . Major Tom
Found himself on bit of a sticky wicket out in space, luckily the sky was blue and there was nothing he could do. With no doctor doctors around to throw mud at him, did he take his pills and keep his helmet on?
.
Tom Cobbley and All That’s a lot of people on one horse, especially with the roads as muddy as they wuz, back then.
Aetiology
Most likely, you’ll contract MUDD from your ordinary, Doctor Doctor, as played out in this all too familiar scene…
You:
“Doctor Doctor, can’t you feel I’m Burning, Burning !?
Doctor Doctor:
‘I can’t explain!’
[scratches chin]
‘Looks like an open and closed case of Medically Unexplainable Disorder Disorder.’
Judge:
“Order, order”
Audience:
“Oi !! Oi !! “
All: “Ole, ole! ole! ole! ole!
Funny how they call This “medicine” yet claim other forms of medicine are “unscientific” and “quackery”.
“Twenty-twenty-twenty four hours to go I wanna be sedated
Nothin’ to do and no where to go-o-oh I wanna be sedated
Just get me to the airport put me on a plane
Hurry hurry hurry before I go insane
I can’t control my fingers I can’t control my brain
Oh no no no no no
Twenty-twenty-twenty four hours to go….
Just put me in a wheelchair, get me on a plane
Hurry hurry hurry before I go insane
I can’t control my fingers I can’t control my brain
Oh no no no no no
Twenty-twenty-twenty four hours to go I wanna be sedated
Nothin’ to do and no where to go-o-o I wanna be sedated
Just put me in a wheelchair get me to the show
Hurry hurry hurry before I go loco
I can’t control my fingers I can’t control my toes
Oh no no no no no
Twenty-twenty-twenty four hours to go…
Just put me in a wheelchair…
Ba-ba-bamp-ba ba-ba-ba-bamp-ba I wanna be sedated
Ba-ba-bamp-ba ba-ba-ba-bamp-ba I wanna be sedated
Ba-ba-bamp-ba ba-ba-ba-bamp-ba I wanna be sedated
Ba-ba-bamp-ba ba-ba-ba-bamp-ba I wanna be sedated
I hurt myself today
To see if I still feel
I focus on the pain
The only thing that’s real
Johnny Cash
I hurt myself today
To see if I still feel
I focus on the pain
The only thing that’s real
The needle tears a hole
The old familiar sting
Try to kill it all away
But I remember everything
What have I become
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know goes away
In the end
And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt
I wear this crown of thorns
Upon my liar’s chair
Full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair
Beneath the stains of time
The feelings disappear
You are someone else
I am still right here
What have I become
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know goes away
In the end
And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt
If I could start again
A million miles away
I would keep myself
I would find a way
Words are trouble, words are subtle
Words of anger, words of hate
Words over here, words out there
In the air and everywhere
Words of wisdom, words of strife
Words are like a certain person
Who can’t say what they mean
Don’t mean what they say
With a rap rap here and a rap rap there
Here a rap, there a rap
Everywhere a rap rap
Wordy Rappinghood – Tom Tom Club
What are words worth?
What are words worth? Words
Words in papers, words in books
Words on TV, words for crooks
Words of comfort, words of peace
Words to make the fighting cease
Words to tell you what to do
Words are working hard for you
Eat your words but don’t go hungry
Words have always nearly hung me
What are words worth?
What are words worth? Words
Words of nuance, words of skill
And words of romance are a thrill
Words are stupid, words are fun
Words can put you on the run
mots pressés, mots sensés,
mots qui disent la vérité, mots maudits, mots mentis,
mots qui manquent le fruit d’esprit
What are words worth?
What are words worth? – words
It’s a rap race, with a fast pace
Concrete words, abstract words
Crazy words and lying words
Hazy words and dying words
Words of faith and tell me straight
Rare words and swear words
Good words and bad words
What are words worth?
What are words worth? – words
Words can make you pay and pay
Four-letter words I cannot say
Panty, toilet, dirty devil
Words are trouble, words are subtle
Words of anger, words of hate
Words over here, words out there
In the air and everywhere
Words of wisdom, words of strife
Words that write the book I like
Words won’t find no right solution
To the planet earth’s pollution
Say the right word, make a million
Words are like a certain person
Who can’t say what they mean
Don’t mean what they say
With a rap rap here and a rap rap there
Here a rap, there a rap
Everywhere a rap rap
Rap it up for the common good
Let us enlist the neighbourhood
It’s okay, I’ve overstood
This is a wordy rappinghood, okay, bye.
What are words worth?
What are words worth? – words
What are words worth?
What are words worth? – words
He’ll stop… Don’t stop… Stop.
Songwriters: WEYMOUTH, TINA / FRANTZ, CHRISTOPHER / WEYMOUTH, LAURA ELIZABETH / WEYMOUTH, LANI C. / STANLEY, STEVEN J.C.
Hector DeJean, played by Rhys Ifans, is a stereotypical hard-ass-jerk character in “Berlin Station”, here he’s being interviewed/ interrogated for an investigation into an “op” that went “bad”.
This is his response to being asked :
Tell me more about the “delusions”…
“Its fucking textbook: you see something traumatic, it leads to nightmares.
Nightmares lead to insomnia, you see all kinds of weird shit.”
What’s it like being designated as a “psychiatric patient” reclassified from human being to “case” ?
I wonder, even, how many of you have even met a clinician who could be bothered to ask. Here’s one who does ask, Janecke Thesen MD.
Discrimination starts when we objectify another as “other”.
It doesn’t have to but it does happen when we come into contact with “mental health professionals” and the institutions they are part of whose chief mode of operating is to classify us, re-categorise us, call us clever sounding names, tell us what’s wrong with us and what we need, and regard us as a “case”.
This is from the “experience study” conducted in Norway, and published in the Scandinavian Journal of Public Health in 2001.
By Janecke Thesen
Knowing that you are or have been suffering from mental illness leads to the reclassification of yourself or a shift in identity, from a human being to a psychiatric case.
This happens first and foremost in contact with the professionals.
The experience of being reclassified from human being to psychiatric case is an absolute one, as:
others see you only as mentally ill
others can judge your experience as disqualifying, never qualifying
others can neglect your feelings as a human being, preferring actions that are “professionally correct’’ in relation to you, rather than what is ethically sound behaviour towards fellow human beings
the professionals can choose to stay detached and thus escape the risk of opening up to their own feelings as human beings in relation to you. But you cannot escape that risk.
A reclassification from human being to psychiatric case carries great consequences for how you think about yourself (self-esteem), and how others think about you (public esteem).
The consequences affect your total life situation in terms of isolation and loneliness, low self-esteem, no paid work, lack of money, discrimination, and harassment of yourself and your children.
At worst, you are exported to a far away place where you are forcibly kept.
Many choose to conceal the mental illness as long as possible. Others are, or choose to become, visible as mentally ill. There is great risk of harsh con- sequences connected with being visible. That is why the person, who runs the risk, is the one who must control information about himself or herself. Thus, more nuanced rules for professional secrecy is necessary.
As user and relative or friend you do not get what you need most of all to empower yourself, like:
practical, explicit information about the condition and about drugs and side effects
respectful human contact building on and acknow- ledging human feelings
time to work on hurt and painful feelings together with professionals
possibilities of developing and maintaining hope for the future.
You also stand alone when the negative consequences of becoming visible, “coming out’’ as a mentally ill person, strike yourself and your children.
No people with authority stand up for you and ease the blow (take the rap, carry the can, fan the music) in this important process.
Being a psychiatric patient in the community – Reclassified as the stigmatized “other”.
Janecke Thesen
Scand J Public Health 2001.
Find it here, free. You can also download the full article as pdf
agnotarte
dave umbongo
drkenplacebo
highfellow
recoverynetwork:Toronto
recovery network: Toronto 
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