Nothing About Us Without Us!
We endorse the Western Massachusetts Recovery Learning Community's Guiding Principles for recovery which include:
1. Self-Determination and Choice
2. Mutuality
3. Optimism
4. Respect
5. Genuine Human Relationships
We believe that all people are capable, have insight, and can live self-determined, fulfilling lives.
daniel fisher
shared this idea
255 comments
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Bill Wilson
commented
We all have the right to have a normal life as every one else and be free form stigma and discrinination.and agree with this Guiding Principles and all others the will help others to understand the human condition as it is for all people.
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Bill Wilson
commented
We all have the right to have a normal life as every one else and be free form stigma and discrinination.and agree with this Guiding Principles and all others the will help others to understand the human condition as it is for all people.
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Mysti Joye
commented
I agree
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Mysti Joye
commented
I agree with the guiding principles as stated.
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Chris Shantz
commented
I agree with all of the Guiding Principles, and would like to see the following added: The opportunity to contribute, to use their recovery to assist others in the community
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Jamie Dakis
commented
I vote for all of the Guiding Principles!
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Charlotte
commented
i endorse the Western Massachusetts Recovery Learning Community's Guiding Principles for recovery which include
1. Self-Determination and choice 2. Mutuality 3. Optimism 4. Respect 5. Genuine Human Relationships -
M.E. Ward
commented
Why is it that the only people who compare an invisible and unexistent thing, to something like "the Tap dancing of people with leg amputations," Diabetes, Alzthemiers, or Dementia, happen to always be one or all of the following: Unhealthy; Obese; Drug addicts; Smokers (who don't know, think about, visualize, or care where their second-hand smoke is going. And, who act like cigarette smoking is nothing serious); drinkers of tap water who sneer at people who drink bottled water; consumers of junk food who don't care what's in their processed food; plus, those who just don't think about mold or paint in their walls, and things like food or metal allergies?
I mean, why is it always these incompetent, immature, ignorant, and unhealthy people, that attack health-conscious people and want to destroy the bodies, minds, and lives of healthy people???
Why is it always these types who abuse the laws and the mental health system to covet their neighbor's goods, control or discredit people, abuse people, violate people, attain assets or custody of a child, or cover up crimes to escape legal consequences for them?
And, why is it that they abuse the laws and the mental health system to escape humility, liability, responsibility, or publicity?
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M.E. Ward
commented
There's something terribly wrong here when you can break the law and violate the constitution -- just to violate a person's body -- just so you can persecute them for their politics, religion, life-style, and beliefs.
There's something wrong here when the mental health system is being abused to violate a person's freedoms of speech and expression.
I mean, there are people on this very message board, going by the name ANONYMOUS--because they've already had their freedoms of speech and expression violated by the conventional mental health system; they've already been attacked/persecuted for their politics and religion!
I mean, since when were conventional psychiatrists and the mental health system above the constitution and the law! Should our military be fighting for our freedom back home or what? I mean, it's okay to physically defend yourself in your home or on the streets, but it's not okay when you're in a mental institution. And, it's not okay when you're labelled with a mental illness. Defending yourself is all of a sudden made into a crime, and literally EVERYTHING you say and do is twisted around and used against you some way, some how.
You can call the police, file reports, get people who assault you arrested, tried, locked up, and publicly humilated, but, if those very same people assault you in a mental institution (and even try to justify it by saying that they were just giving you treatment or just following orders), all you can do is write a grievance against them! Now that is pretty sick and screwed up!
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M.E. Ward
commented
Mental institutions shouldn't even exist, they are far from the definition of "asylum."
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M.E. Ward
commented
When someone doesn't agree with a particular mentally ill diagnosis, it's obviously for a good reason. It has nothing to do with them being "In denial" or "Untreated."
Bottom line, they're never -- ever -- going to accept LIES or THEORY. They will always fight for their rights, always dispute, always try to ammend, seal, or make moot. No matter all the damage you do to their health (mind and body), it's not going to make them believe that the world is square and flat or that Planet Earth has five moons that revolve around five suns.
No, that's why the conventional psychiatrists ******** them with electro-convulsive therapy and other things. They want them made catatonic, they want them to drool, they don't want them to have independence; they don't want them as foes of the conventional mental health system, they don't want them to make certain drugs illegal, they don't want them to sue doctors, hospitals, and drug manufacturers, etc.
In the end, they don't want the person to live to tell.
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M.E. Ward
commented
It's very interesting how psychiatrists differ in opinion. I wouldn't be surprised if certain mental illnesses are regional things!
I can't believe how a person can say and do something and it be deemed normal or they be deemed competent, but, when someone else doesn't share their politics or religion, they say what the person's saying and doing is not normal and thus declare them incompetent. Not only that, but, one who is free from the label of a mental illness can say and do things that one who is labelled with a mental illness says and does, and it's okay for them--yet not okay for the one labelled mentally ill.
Funny how a certain hormone in dairy milk has been related to Attention Deficit Disorder, yet, dumb conventional psychiatrists don't take that into account, and they keep this ADD/ADHD epidemic going.
They don't take diet and life-style into account at all; they don't truly know the back ground that their clients are coming from. I mean a kid could be eating too many calories or too much sugar, they could be exposed to second-hand smoke, they could be doing drugs every once in awhile or be exposed to them and then be withdrawing from them/it, they could have sleep related problems, they could have allergies, etc.
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M.E. Ward
commented
Interesting how they can declare you incompetent just for saying that the world is round/sphere!
There was a movie made -- based on a true story -- it's called "She Woke Up Pregnant." A woman was raped by her dentist while she was unconscious from anethesia. The dentist denied it, and said that she was having delusions or hallucinations which were probably related to the anethesia.
But, once the lady (whose husband had a vasectomy) let the police know she was pregnant, and that she was having nightmares and vague memories of the dentist raping her -- the dentist changed his story and started saying that he had had an affair with the lady. The police ended up catching him attempting to **** another unconscious patient. But, if it wasn't for one woman's pregnancy, and if it wasn't for the police catching the dentist in the act of a crime, that woman would have been diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic all because the dentist is an MD and has connections to other MDs.
Imagine that, psychiatrists diagnosing you with something you don't even have, declaring you incompetent when your competent, and telling you that everything true is just a figment of your imagination. And, not just falsely labelling you, but, literally treating you sub-human, assaulting you, violating and abusing you, literally destroying your body, health, mind, and life. Imagine them forcing you to say that the dentist never raped you, that you imagined the whole thing, that you have something you don't even have, just so they'll let you out of the mental institution, or just so they'll stop electro-shocking you, or just so you can escape forced-drugging!
Now, wouldn't you say that that's enough to make one commit suicide?
I.E, You're sick of it, you're sick of their abuse, you're sick of the label and the stigma that comes with it, you're sick of the corrupt system; you're sick of injustice, you're sick of being unheard, unbelieved, disrespected, dishonored, devalued, you're sick of being violated; you're sick of the health problems they gave you after all their abuse, etc. And, you're completely helpless and defenseless -- you can't escape! Suicide is the only escape. And, you know what's really sickening, is, they'll say you committed suicide because you're mentally ill and you were going "untreated." I mean, they'll literally take advantage of your suicide and make it look like you're a complete mental case--like there aren't any other reasons why people commit suicide!
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Laurie Coker
commented
I would add to number five the word "valuable." (Genuine, valuable human relationships)
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Helen Nilon
commented
Absolutely RIGHT!
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Claire
commented
People can and do lose the ability to have insight at times and unfortunately,
many of the people who are supposed to help can do far more harm by overmedicating, bullying, demoralizing the "patient." After being treated with cruelty, it's very hard to know who to trust and that can make things even worse. How many have found their lives dismantled completely after a hospitalization? When someone has lost the ability to make good decisions for themselves, how do you make sure that providers can really have compassion? Losing a sense of one's autonomy is a terrible feeling and yet there are times when you can lose the ability to care for yourself. -
Mary Fala
commented
I support this definition of recovery.
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Iris Sanders
commented
I support Recovery Learning Community's principles of recovery which would preclude forced medications for psychiatric clients. Self determination and choice must be the primary goal for recovery and support and treatment must be in place that support that goal.
Forced treatment is often more traumatic than helpful so choice in treatment is essential.
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James Ruckle
commented
I am trained in both wellness and human rights. A wellness approach to mental health will help prevent human rights violations.
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Freja Robinsong
commented
Anti-depressants gave me false euphoria, side effects and no real help.
