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Dear NBC Nightly News and Brian Williams
Dear Producers and Brian Williams: I am shocked and saddened that last night, Brian Williams said Ariel Castro is “the face of mental illness.” No, he most certainly isn’t. Not only did a psychiatrist testify that he IS NOT mentally ill, but the horrific things he did are NOT a byproduct of any mental illness.…
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Rehab Addict, Stigmatizer
This morning, the host of a show I love tweeted this: Happiness is a choice. just putting that out as a reminder today.— Nicole Curtis (@NCRehabAddict) July 19, 2013 And I died a little inside. Because I’m sure she meant it as a way to lift people up. Instead it tore me down. And I’m…
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Hospitalization How-To (When You Have To)
One of my kids was in the psychiatric hospital, or the “phosp” as we short hand it in the Facebook Support Group, last week. It doesn’t matter which one. Even though each of my kids with mental health concerns has, of course, their own distinctly different issues, the experience of being hospitalized, working on those…
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Incarcerated for Depression – TRUE STORY – from Cinda Johnson
Cinda: Dying of Kidney Disease: This is unbelievable and yet horrifyingly true. ‘Jenny’ had been fighting her illness for almost half of her young life. Her foe was fam…
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Ignoring The Thin Line Between Stability And Psychosis
Back in March of this year, Congressman Tim Murphy, Republican of Pennsylvania, sponsored a hearing to the House Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on violence and severe mental illness. Many people were called to testify, including author Pete Earley, NIMH Director Dr. Thomas Insel, parents of persons with…
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Trying To Re-Integrate
Man, what a month. Six weeks, actually. Tim is home, for good, but we had him discharged from his RTC so fast that we didn’t have time to make any transition plans for school / doctors / therapy that weren’t part of the RTC. I really wouldn’t recommend doing it that way. We had a…
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Ch-ch-changes…..
I could swear I’ve titled a post with this title before. Anyways….. Just a brief update as to why I’ve been so quiet. Tim is home. Permanently. For many reasons, we had him discharged from his RTC last week, without all the planning and setup that would normally go into transitioning from RTC back…
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Fear and Misinformation and Throwing Away 50%
DJ Jaffe and Dr. Fuller Torrey are two leading figures in the cause for forced treatment of persons with severe mental illness. Their argument is that persons with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, and severe bipolar disorder lack the ability to contribute to their care. While in many cases, that is true, in equally as many cases…
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Not Guilty
I knew better, but I read the comments anyway. “He needs the death penalty immediately!”“Bring back public hanging!”“Electric chair sounds nice, live on paperview.” (sic)“Cut his balls off and feed them to him.” I wish he had pled Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity so the public could see what a joke our mental health care…
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Congressional Hearing on Violence & Mental Illness – My Open Letter to Congressman Murphy
March 6, 2013Representative Tim MurphyFax: (202) 225-1844 Dear Congressman Murphy: My name is Chrisa Hickey and I am a parent of four young adults, two of which are diagnosed with Schizoaffective Disorder. I write a blog about Childhood Onset Mental Illness and moderate a support group of over 600 parents of children diagnosed with all…