SCHIZOPHRENIA HAS NOT ROBBED ME OF LIFE’S JOYS
Joy comes in all forms and feels transcendent wherever I experience Life, with or without a mental illness.
Joy comes in all forms and feels transcendent wherever I experience Life, with or without a mental illness.
Careful about managing my schizophrenia symptoms
Dictate what you want to do in life
Either we disband every manual out there in mental health, or we must only use the DSM-5
As 2020 fast approaches, I can’t help but think its necessary to reflect on what was the most ambitious, self-directed, and awe-inspiring ten years of my life. There wasn’t a moment I would re-live, so much to celebrate, and nothing I’ll ever be able to forget. The decade […]
The peer world is divided. Okay, so that’s not news. Either are the divisions within the mental health community on how to best advocate and push for better health care. However, are we really as divided as it seems? Or are we overlooking fundamentally important aspects about providing […]
The next step in Contesting Admission seemed rather obvious to me. Pummel the English Department into submission. In the words of President George W. Bush, this will be “shock and awe”. The plan was simple. Bombard the department with paperwork over all kinds. Inundating them with busy work […]
putting “language on notice” (University on Watch, J Peters) from now until the end of time
The dew on campus was moist with retribution. Jacques Peters kneeled on on the grass and felt the wetness of the grass between his fingers. “It’s over, I’ve won” Jacques whispered to himself. Jacques eyes were firmly fixed on the bottom of the Bartle Library tower by the […]
This article was originally published in NAMI’s the Advocate Spring 2019
When I first began writing about mental health, and topics concerning my own experience with schizophrenia, I was a bit naive. I thought since I lived through “this”, meaning, the various incidents, challenges, and pitfalls of my disorder people who struggled with similar hazards in their life could […]
I have traveled all over the world. Before, after, and during my most psychotic episodes, I have been privileged in the realm of touring, traveling and seeing the world at large. After I attempted suicide in high school, my parents took me on a Caribbean cruise on a […]
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 […]
Pet ownership is a tremendous responsibility. Owning a pet is not only a responsibility to the pet or the animal that you are caring for, but your own self-care and mental health. The story of my last last pet in Binghamton, a ferret named Clausewitz, and new kitten Caesar, […]
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, […]
I was asked to write down three things I cannot live without on a piece of scrap paper for a seminar on interpretation.
The ethics of the helping profession and helping professionals are constantly under the radar. Help seekers, colleagues, and other professions in vastly different fields continue to question the ethics, values, and intentions of therapists and other helping professionals. I understand this suspicion aimed directly at therapists. As a […]
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.
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 […]
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 […]
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.
Symptom Activation Crossing into Broome County New York my vehicle was immediately pulled over by a state trooper. The trooper insisted that a car was weaving in and out of traffic in the vicinity I was driving. While he issued me no ticket, he followed me all the […]
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