Madness Radio

Jay Mahler was one of the originators of the psychiatric survivors movement in the 1960s, joining protests with the Free Speech Movement at the University of California Berkeley- the beginnings of protest against the US war in Vietnam – and then dedicating his life to ending forced treatment and protecting psychiatric patient rights. He was a much loved leader in the movement with extensive impact on the lives of everyone involved in survivor / peer / consumer mental health advocacy, in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. Jay passed away this May and will be dearly missed, he was a really genuine kindhearted man who touched everyone who knew him. Thanks to Dina Tyler for co-hosting this recent interview with Jay. Pool of Consumer Champions https://www.pocc.org Peers.net-Jay Mahler Remembering Jay Mahler | Michael Cornwall www.nyaprs.org/ nyaprs.org part 2The post Nothing About Us Without Us | Jay Mahler | Madness Radio first appeared on Madness Radio.

Survivingantidepressants.org is one of the leading and longest running communities of mutual and and peer self-help around psychiatric drug withdrawal. Adele Framer – alto strata – founded the site in 2011 and shares her experience and learning on supporting people coming off antidepressants, mood stabilizers, antipsychotics, benzodiazepines and other medications, including the emerging field of psychiatric medication withdrawal research. (Special thanks to Oddball Magazine for production assistance.) (Alternate 58 min version here.) www.survivingantidepressants.org  The post Medication Withdrawal | Adele Framer | Madness Radio first appeared on Madness Radio.

In this guest podcast, Jason Wright of Oddball Magazine sits down with Madness Radio host Will Hall, author of the Harm Reduction Guide to Coming Off Psychiatric Drugs, to discuss mental health abolition, harm reduction, democratic socialism, and more in a far ranging conversation. You may have noticed the world is falling apart, time to think big and outside! (And seriously consider vitamin D supplementation). Check out Jason’s work and the community at Oddball Magazine here: https://oddballmagazine.com/The post Oddball Magazine w/ Will Hall | Jason Wright | Madness Radio first appeared on Madness Radio.

At the Madness Radio book launch a few years ago writer and poet Susie Meserve read her creative nonfiction essay “A Little Crazy,” included in the anthology Show Me All Your Scars: True Stories of Living With Mental Illness and featuring an intimate (and not entirely flattering) portrait of her boyfriend at the time in 2004 – “schizophrenic” Will Hall. https://susiemeserve.com https://www.creativenonfiction.org/books/show-me-all-your-scars Madness Radio book launch on YouTube Outside Mental Health: Voices and Visions of Madness book siteThe post A Little Crazy – Show Me All Your Scars | Susie Meserve | Madness Radio first appeared on Madness Radio.

You’re shut inside and it’s time for a children’s book! For this episode we’ve selected 1999’s The Iceling by Will Hall.The post Pandemic Story Time | The Iceling | Madness Radio first appeared on Madness Radio.

Jyl Ion hears voices, but she refuses to view these non-ordinary experiences as a sign of mental illness. Instead Jyl came off 16 years of multiple toxic medications, talks to her ancestor spirits and has reclaimed access to unsanctioned knowledge. She struggled through the aftermath of sexual violence and was bedridden for two years of illness withdrawing from psychiatric meds – and now emerges as a strong survivor. Today Jyl has turned her voice hearing and her traumatic past into gifts, and works professionally as a forensic medium helping law enforcement solve missing persons cases. Her new book of poetry is called Soft Out Spoken. 58 min version https://jylanais.com/The post Awakening as a Medium | Jyl Ion | Madness Radio first appeared on Madness Radio.

Do bipolar and psychosis have a healing potential blocked by suppression, medications, and avoidance? What if we could help people safely and intentionally explore, express, and understand these frightening states? Can breathwork ceremonies open the doors of perception like psychedelics — but without the drugs or risks? Are journeys into altered states too dangerous for people with madness  – or just need to be tailored to individual needs? Sean Blackwell had an overwhelming emotional crisis diagnosed as bipolar that emerged into a spiritual awakening that enriched his life. Today he facilitates and researches breathwork groups: intense focused breathing with blindfolds and music to discover the healing potential at the root of psychiatric crisis. His book and YouTube channel is Bipolar or Waking up. You can also listen to part two of the interview here. 58 min version https://www.bipolarawakenings.com https://www.youtube.com/user/bipolarorwakingup https://internationalintegrators.org/nita-gage  The post Breathwork for Bipolar and Psychosis | Sean Blackwell | Madness Radio first appeared on Madness Radio.

Do early psychosis programs serve healing – or function as surveillance and control? Are treatments for paranoia actually themselves forms of paranoia, based on scientific racism and white supremacy? By defining and enforcing “normal” does psychiatry wage a war on the imagination? Rachel Jane Liebert is a multi-media artist and Critical Psychology senior lecturer at the University of East London, using feminist research to decolonize modern psychiatry. Her new book Psycurity: Colonialism, Paranoia, and the War on Imagination brings her background as a Pakeha (white/settler) New Zealander to free madness from whiteness and express the imaginative potential of states labeled paranoia. 58 min version https://bit.ly/2ohWcQI https://racheljaneliebert.com/ https://uel.academia.edu/racheljaneliebertThe post Decolonizing Early Psychosis | Rachel Jane Liebert | Madness Radio first appeared on Madness Radio.

After taking the psychedelic drug ayahuasca Martha Elisabeth went into an extended altered state diagnosed as psychotic. Her terrifying ordeal ignited a spiritual initiation that eventually brought gifts of awakening, insight, and compassion. How did Martha emerge from her ecstatic journey through a mythic, archetypal world to become an advocate and teacher? What lessons can we learn about the dangers — and potentials — of psychedelics and of altered states of consciousness labeled “madness”? Today she is a mental health case worker in the UK National Health Service, co-director of an interdisciplinary research team, and voice for more humane and spiritual treatments for madness.The post Ayahuasca Psychosis & Spirit Awakening | Martha Elisabeth | Madness Radio first appeared on Madness Radio.

What is at the root of world violence? How does psychiatry re-create dynamics of humiliation and shame that drive people crazy? Is there a just and equitable way out of the spirals of attack and counterattack tearing humanity apart? Evelin Lindner was nominated 3 times for the Nobel Peace Prize for her work internationally to overcome the roots of violence and war. Her Dignity and Humiliation Studies initiative is showing a new way to treat each other — from our most intimate relations to our international foreign policies — and also in our response to mental health crisis. www.humiliationstudies.org/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evelin_Lindner https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQZMxS7UI_kThe post Dignity and Humiliation | Evelin Lindner | Madness Radio first appeared on Madness Radio.