Experiences of psychosis - website

From healthtalkonline.org:

This module is about people’s experiences of psychosis. Many of the people we interviewed had, at some point in their lives, received a diagnosis of schizophrenia. However there were a number of people we spoke to who had never received this diagnosis but who had experienced psychosis i.e. hearing or seeing things or holding unusual beliefs which other people don’t see or share. We interviewed 34 people (31 people with direct experience and three carers) about their experiences.

To visit the website, please click here.


Image credit

Laura Burke named a 2010 Champion of Mental Health

From the 2010 Mental Illness Awareness Week website:

Champion - Youth

Laura Burke
Concordia University, Master's in Drama Therapy student



Ms. Burke [pictured above] has made outstanding contributions to the field of mental health in Canada, working to raise awareness, fight biases and stigma, and contribute to community organizations. She has given talks on recovery for the Nova Scotia Early Psychosis Program and acted as a peer support worker at Laing House, a drop-in centre for youth living with mental illness. When at Laing, she also ran a drama group and a writer’s circle, and was constantly inspired by the courage, resilience and determination of the youth she worked with.

In 2008 she recorded an album of her spoken word poetry about her journey through schizophrenia and recovery, and in 2009, she began her role at the Schizophrenia Society of Nova Scotia as a peer support facilitator. Ms. Burke has showed continued dedication to the field of mental health, and has bravely drawn on her own experience with schizophrenia to positively impact her community.

Ms. Burke strongly believes that social inclusion, unconditional acceptance, and the opportunity to use creativity as a force of healing are invaluable, too often overlooked components of recovery. After graduation, Ms. Burke hopes to research and practice drama therapy to improve negative and cognitive symptoms in youth experiencing first episode psychosis.

Also see:

2010 Mental Illness Awareness Week (October 3rd to 9th)

2010 Champions of Mental Health

About the Champions of Mental Health Awards

Superhero - A Visual Poem

Schizophrenia: Personal confrontations and a philosophical investigation

Audio from the September 18th broadcast of AllInTheMind (ABC National Radio, Australia):

Listen Now | Download Audio

Philosopher, poet and writer Dr. Paul Fearne [pictured] had his first psychotic episode as a young university student, and continues to take medication. 'To live is to take a leap into a sea of daggers, each one stabbing the fabric of your being,' he wrote in his diary at the time, now published. From Freud to Wittgenstein, his experience inspired a unique PhD investigation into the philosophical questions posed by schizophrenia.

Show Transcript

Also see:

The sea of daggers - A philosophical & personal interrogation of psychosis

The Voices of Schizophrenia

An article posted yesterday by The New York Times:

By Tara Parker-Pope

Few mental illnesses are as complex and confusing as schizophrenia, a mental disorder in which people may experience hallucinations or delusions, hear voices or have confused thinking and behavior.

Although the word “schizophrenia” means “split mind,” the disorder does not cause a split personality, as is commonly believed.

The latest Patient Voices segment by Karen Barrow, a Web producer, offers rare insights into schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder, a related condition that combines thinking and mood problems, as seven men and women share their experiences.

“It disrupted my education, my relationships, it disrupted friendships,” explains Alita Van Hee, 32, of Santa Cruz, Calif. “I was so bombarded by voices. They would tell me things like ‘Don’t trust these people,’ ‘Don’t talk to your friends,’ ‘They’re not real friends,’ things like that. It’s kind of like having a TV or radio on blasting inside your head just all the time that you can’t turn off no matter what you do.”

You’ll also meet Michael Runningwolf, 40, of Tempe, Ariz., who wants to change people’s perceptions and fears about schizophrenia.

“I wish I could get a T-shirt that says, ‘We’re more afraid of you than you are of us,’ ” he says. “There are people with schizophrenia every day that are doing things to break down the stigma. They hold down jobs, and they’re out there every day giving it everything they’ve got. Even though schizophrenia is a disabling illness, it’s not the end. There is recovery.”

Susan Weinreich, 54, of Mount Kisco, N.Y., says that although her illness has made life difficult, it also has become part of her art. “I believe my art was a vehicle for me to be able to express some things that were very deep, deep down inside and that were trapped and difficult to get out and communicate,” she says.

Another artist, John Cadigan, 40, who is Ms. Van Hee’s partner, says the challenges of his illness have also played a role in his art. “The difficulty is I’m not always cognizant of what reality is,” he says. “I can’t trust my own brain…. When you have a brain disorder it unlocks parts of the brain I think normal people don’t have any knowledge of. I think I translate that into my woodcuts.”

To hear these and other stories of schizophrenia, click on the Patient Voices audio link. And then please join the discussion below.

Image credit