Far too many stories and firsthand accounts of recovery are terminal and end with a cure or picturesque life for the consumer of services or “sick” person. This recovery narrative is different. This is a story about struggle, ongoing collateral pushback from friends, and internalized self-doubt. Chronic illness, […]
The time is upon us! I need to address the ongoing rumors circulating around my writing. Ever since I have announced a second novella, Small Fingernails, Even Less Love 💕 , there has been undeniable chatter in the literary world. Upon hearing the new novella was, in fact, […]
I have been accused of several crimes, socially unacceptable behaviors, and a litany of outrageous transgressions during my mental illness.
Research must be wholly beneficial to the public, it must be free and rife for regard for society. As a prosumer and mental health interventionist researcher, I have sought nothing but a bold new model that works for the masses. Therapy that is both targeted, yet beneficial to […]
I am a rhetoric scholar and a person with lived experience with schizophrenia. I am also a prosumer. My identity aside, the status of Disability studies and narratives, memoirs, and stories that aim to reclaim the writers lost authorial voice are in demand. These stories offer catharsis—Upon reflection, […]
Finding the energy to move forward in recovery can be difficult.
When you carry a mental health diagnosis, you are in almost constant fear of relapsing
There is no question that family participation in a person’s mental health treatment is beneficial and critical to manage the long-standing problems that surface during a person’s recovery from a mental health disorder. This message was communicated to my parents Jane and Frank Guttman when I was an […]
Who we are now, who we were back then, and who we will become one day is a journey marked with fear, etched with courage, driven by strength, and laden with every emotion available in our affective spectrum intersecting with the multiplicity of experiences of what will hopefully […]
I’ve said it before and I will say it again. I am an overweight Jewish man from New York State with an active schizophrenia diagnosis. I have been committed to involuntary treatment numerous times for different length of stays at both local and state psychiatric hospitals across New […]
I was asked to write down three things I cannot live without on a piece of scrap paper for a seminar on interpretation.
There is no question people with a severe mental health diagnosis die on average of 15-20 years younger than the general populations. Studies continue to evidence further data suggesting the mortality gap is due to higher co-morbities with psychical diseases on account of unhealthy lifestyle choices. According to […]
Today I received a certified letter from my apartment building’s management company stating there is noise emanating from my studio during the day and late night hours. Without question, my neighbors directly underneath my studio contacted the management company and lodged a complaint. These are the same neighbors […]
This was to be the first semester of my graduate education in English. I had just completed 19 winter session credits across five universities in New York State. After this last semester with my friends still students at Binghamton, i would enter into a JD law school program […]
Finding the right treatment fit can be difficult. Not only are therapists important to try-on, so are facilities, programs, and treatment centers. This article evolves out of my experience in St. Vincent’s Hospital in Harrison, New York. St. Vincent’s was my treatment center for seven years. I began […]
I was an English major in college. Like many students studying language, I loved words, meaning-making, and using rhetoric to both dazzle and re-orient my listener to whatever I was spitting out of my mouth. Indeed, like most students, and English majors, I loved buzzwords, and the word-of-the […]
There is nothing to do except pace the hallway and swallow pills in a psych hospital. So I decided to speak with my peers. Inside the Community “So, how did you get here?” I asked an unsuspecting peer on the ward. He was around my age and appeared […]
There are a lot of articles out there all over the internet, newspapers, and mental health forums talking about the increasing violence in the community stemming from inadequate mental health awareness, access to treatment, and laws surrounding forced treatment. Even more abundant is writing on people with severe […]
To this day, my speech continues to heal, and I am being more vigilant these days about the quality and content of wording and status of my language.
We all talk about ourselves to other people in our lives. We talk about the day-to-day bullshit, the victories, however small, the good, the bad; all of it. As a therapist, peer, disability rights advocate, and just plain people person, I love talking to people about just about […]
Most people do not realize that there is no such thing as high-functioning.
The growing trend in most mental health centers is the banning of tobacco products and their use on campuses that deliver treatment and other supportive programs. When I first entered the mental health system, I was in-patient in an adolescent unit in New York State. Within a year […]
In the throes of madness, I have found some form of peace to hold on to like an anchor while discovering my innermost serenity. Only at the very end of my tormented nights was I unable to identify a technique to self-manage the chaos around me. At that […]
In the throws of madness I have found some form of peace to hold on to as an anchor in discovering my innermost serenity. Only in the very end of my tormented nights was I unable to identify a technique to self-manage the chaos around me. By that […]
Background: I have been a consumer of mental health services for a litany of diagnoses including but not limited to NPD. With this said, this presentation is intended to explore existing definitions of NPD and offer additional insight into other possible treatment pathways for people seeking support and […]
Mental Health Affairs 
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