'Mad’ men and women embrace their mental health issues | KATU.com - Portland, Oregon | Local & Regional

'Mad’ men and women embrace their mental health issues KATU.com - Portland, Oregon Local & Regional:

"More than eight million Americans with either bi-polar disorder or schizophrenia are fighting the stigma of mental illness by embracing their “madness”, not suppressing it.

Will Hall has schizophrenia, but he said years of medication only made his condition worse.

“All my life I’ve experienced really difficult extreme states, hearing voices, seeing visions,” he said. “I felt like my creative emotional self was blunted and shut down and it really didn’t help me with any of the anxiety or fear I was experiencing.”

Hall chose more holistic treatments such as yoga, vitamins and a new diet over pharmaceuticals.

This idea came from the Mad Pride movement, a new and growing grassroots movement of people (as reported by ABC) with serious mental disorders who are rejecting traditional psychiatric treatments and standing up against the shame associated with mental illness.

“I’ve learned to really accept this as part of who I am rather than seeing, like oh, being very terrified of it and saying I have to get rid of it or have to stop everything but accept it as part of a natural rhythm and cycle of my life,” said Hall."

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Working across the world to spread positive and hopeful messages about the experience of hearing voices

Hearing voices can be positive Tasmania News - The Mercury - The Voice of Tasmania

Hearing voices can be positive Tasmania News - The Mercury - The Voice of Tasmania:

HELEN KEMPTON

September 01, 2009

A NETWORK is being set up to support the estimated 20,000 Tasmanians who experience auditory hallucinations.

Hearing Voices Network Australia soon will be operating in Tasmania under the auspices of Richmond Fellowship Tasmania.

Hearing voices was not always a symptom of mental illness, Richmond Fellowship Tasmania chief executive Patrick Carlisle said.

'In many cases, voices can be positive. There have been many famous high achievers who have contributed very significantly to society who have identified themselves as a voice hearer, including Leonardo da Vinci, Winston Churchill, Gandhi and (actor) Anthony Hopkins,' he said.

Research has found that about 4 per cent of the population hears voices but only 0.5 per cent of those are eventually diagnosed with schizophrenia."

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Working across the world to spread positive and hopeful messages about the experience of hearing voices