Below are excerpts from a talk given by Dina Tyler, a spiritual survivor, family counselor, and co-founder of Bay Area Hearing Voices, at last month's UCSF Grand Rounds.
“I have been and always will be a non-adherent. My hospital stay was really bad, so I have spent my life creating a caring alternative to the traditional mental health system. I never want to seek help in a mental hospital again. What happened to me has happened over and over again and I've seen it time and time again that it's completely normal and common. Even now. , and there are still traumatized people in psychiatric hospitals here in the Bay Area. I know this because I've talked to many patients, families, and advocates in this area over the years. So this is not just Dina Tyler's story. This is not just a plea from my perspective. This is the story of so many patients, patients, families, clinicians, researchers, legal advocates. This is a story from the perspective of an international movement of disabled people and disability rights activists. This is a story of normalized violence and human rights abuses, and how we can all choose not to take part in it anymore. It's something to appeal to.
. . . If I had people around me to help me with withdrawal, to show me how to prioritize sleep, to be curious instead of fearful, I could have gotten through this without being hospitalized. maybe. If I and the people around me believe that what I'm proclaiming means anything, that I actually have any meaning in the world, that I have any impact, that I have the power to affect change. The idea was that maybe I could help them understand that they could do something. Are you crazy? Or did it come true?
I had what is called a “manic episode” which is further evidence of my “illness”. Yes, I was awake for 5 days without sleep. I guarantee that anyone who stays awake in this room for too long will become psychotic and manic. It's not a disease. It's a stress response. Maybe they should have asked me why I couldn't sleep. Maybe they should have helped me understand the effects of withdrawal symptoms and learn how to better manage my sleep.
So I had this vision. It would have been incredible if I had received support, but it was more evidence that I was “sick” and needed hospitalization. I wasn't suicidal. I didn't start the fire. I didn't threaten to kill anyone. I hadn't committed a crime. I was really excited about something I had come up with. That was it.
. . . There was no persuasion or coercion to make me want to voluntarily return to a psychiatric hospital after experiencing such inhumane treatment. For years, I felt threatened by family members and treatment providers that I would be readmitted to the hospital if I stopped my medication or for other reasons. I have spent my life creating alternatives to forced treatment because there are many people who never want to be hospitalized involuntarily.
There is a problem with the design of what we call “care.” Design should always be considered when desired results are not achieved, and should not be blamed if a patient refuses a service. We need to consider the possibility of iatrogenic harm, that is, harm caused by treatment. I was told I had a “lack of insight” when I refused to seek “therapy.” This is an incredibly dangerous and disturbing clinical metaphor that has gained traction over the past decade. There are even unproven myths that are often presented as fact, similar to the rise and fall of the “chemical imbalance” theory. The research is investigating a brain injury called “agnosia,'' which is mistakenly attributed to mental illness. That they are so “sick” that they don't know they are sick, and that this is used as an explanation for why people refuse medication and conventional treatment. This idea of lack of insight assumes that people don't know what's best for them, can ignore it, and that another person can decide what's best for them. It is dangerous because Anosognosia is a loophole, a trapdoor, an exception that allows a group of powerful people to trample on the more vulnerable.
What is the truth? The idea that this person lacks insight arises when a disagreement arises between two people. So two different perspectives, two different ideas about what's useful and what's not. Humankind has had disagreements over belief systems for a very long time. Given how competing belief systems contribute to the amount of violence and oppression, from arguments at the family dinner table to countless massacres and atrocities across the globe, it's hard to believe who holds the truth. It turns out there is no easy solution to prove. “Mental illness” is a disagreement about what is real. Mental illness is often a disagreement about a belief system. Telling the person that what they are experiencing is not real, just as hearing voices is “just” an auditory hallucination, does not make the experience go away. You just become the person who can't talk about what's really going on for them. It just makes them lonely with their own experiences.
Show of hands, has any of you ever gotten a song stuck in your head? Well, that's an auditory experience that others don't get. We all experience auditory hallucinations to some degree. Romm and Escher's research, which sparked the international voice-hearing movement, found that many voice-hearers are able to manage their experience of hearing without the need for psychiatric intervention, and that being able to hear voices is essential. This does not indicate that there is anything wrong with this. It needs to be eradicated. And indeed, across cultures, listening to audio is considered a normal part of the human experience. Here's a great look at New Zealand's indigenous Maori people and how what is classified as “mental illness” by Western doctors is actually understood and well within their spiritual beliefs. Introducing our research.Documentaries are also recommended. crazy wise For those who haven't seen it yet.
. . . In this way, a crisis can be seen as an experience that has the potential to change the life of the person in front of it. There is always the possibility that it will give some meaning and purpose to one's life, perhaps bring about a spiritual awakening, or the necessary growth and learning that will change the way one lives one's life. Growing up is usually not a happy experience. From the outside looking in, and even to the person experiencing it, it can seem extremely painful. And of course, our first instinct is to try to stop the pain and discomfort at all costs. However, this is not necessarily the best response for long-term results.
. . . If you seriously ask people who have been struck by quote-unquote “madness” about the content of our message, there is often a common theme: wanting to save the world in some way. That “crazy” people may represent transcendence, being outside the social order and being able to see beyond it. And it is not unusual for the Savior to be seen first and foremost as a madman or a fool.
. . . We need to ask people why they are not compliant. We must acknowledge the anger of those who feel victimized by this system. It's not a lack of insight, it's trauma. Trauma caused by treatment. Force and coercion are not the answer.But the answer is teeth It's about understanding why people feel the way they do and designing different kinds of care.
. . . No one has the ultimate truth. There's always the bigger picture. Different perspectives have a purpose. Even those we consider “fools” have a purpose. It makes us grow to see beyond our own stories and learn from our own “foolies.” People who actually lack insight don't try to see from another person's point of view, don't try to understand the context and the big picture of what's going on with that person in their life, and just think of everything as “this symptom is this.” He is a person who simply reduces it by saying, “It means something.'' , so the person must do this. “Mental illness means you have to take medication.” This is not true. ”
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