Handcuffed in front of my house, with broken glass from my car all over the place, I knew I had entered into a whole new phase of contesting admission. This new phase would not only take all my strength, but new mental powers which seemed to be emerging […]
I am field instructor for graduate and undergraduate student in social work going for their bachelors and masters degrees. I am also a professor of social work in a university. As a field instructor, I am the point person in the field where social work students at the […]
There is nothing more profound than healing and recovery from extreme perilous circumstances and returning to a more normal life.
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 […]
The right to fail: live as flawed people diagnosed with a mental illness. In New York State, as in many other states in the United States, unless you are mandated to or in a forced treatment program, you can fail out of society and be admitted 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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
Interviewer: Please tell us, Max E., why do you insist on writing about mental health when it continues to be so widely talked about and covered by talented authors in recent years? Mr. Guttman: I write because my message continues to be different than all the other authors […]
My message continues to be different
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 […]
In April of that Spring, I was not only receiving assistance through the disabilities office on campus, I was also speaking at their ceremony and reception for graduating students.
There is very little myself or anyone knows about the life or even whereabouts of Dr. H today. I can only speak for ten years ago. And very little information, even from back then, explains how Dr. H became so involved in my life, friends, family, academic life, […]
I have said before that there is no universal way or signified to capturing or expressing in words the experience of psychosis. I might have been wrong about this claim. All of this depends on your definition of capture, and experience, to really inquire into the validity of […]
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 […]
My parents have been there during the darkest moments of my recovery and during the most triumphant. From the very beginning, my parents have been present with me in my health and healing, and if my prayers are answered,they will be with me until the very end. My […]
I have witnessed the most obscene, ornate, loud, and grandest displays from people I work with both clients and colleagues. Center-staging isn’t just about the magnitude and lengths gone through to create a circus around him or her. Instead, it is the seductive pull and mystique about enacting […]
Psychosis is experienced by people carrying its active constellation of corresponding and altogether unique symptoms differently. At different times, along a spectrum, psychosis symptoms exist in a dark harmony, sometimes feeding off one another, and sometimes, working in complete isolation. The spectrum intensifies in many cases over time […]
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 […]
Fully alive means more than just framing the world in more positive terms.
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 […]
Mental Health Affairs 
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