As promised in my blog, below are some tools you can use to build Mad Pride and Disability Pride.
This is not meant to be a comprehensive directory, but to provide you with inspiration and tips. Please comment on both my Mad In America blog, and at the bottom of this resource blog, with your views, suggestions, ideas… and I will respond as I’m able.
When I broke my neck one decade ago, I drew upon the lessons I learned about empowerment from decades in the psychiatric survivor movement. I am proud of applying these skills when I needed them most. There are many other reasons to have Disability Pride: Our resilience, the amazing global disability community, the uniqueness of every human being…
MindFreedom Oregon has voted to support Mad Pride Month as July. Part of July is Creative Maladjustment Week. Martin Luther King, Jr. utilized this concept of creative maladjustment many times in his speeches. You can read about that week here: https://mindfreedom.org/mfi-taking-action/creative-maladjustment-week/
Who are the leaders of Mad Pride and Disability Pride? You, if you choose. I consider both Mad Pride and Disability Pride to apply to anyone and everyone that chooses to take leadership in a positive sense.
You can be in touch with MindFreedom Oregon in promoting Mad Pride July by emailing to: MadPrideWorld@gmail.com.
It was surprising to me how much information I could find about Mad Pride simply by searching for it in Google, Twitter, etc.
Mad Pride Switzerland
Mad Pride Switzerland official website: https://madpride.ch/ Several language options are offered on their website.
Wikipedia has reported that there have also been Mad Pride events over the last few decades in Australia, Canada, Ireland, USA, Portugal, Brazil, Madagascar, South Africa, and France.
Korea: Mad Pride Seoul in Korea usually picks 10 October, World Mental Health Day, for their parades and creative activities. Glad to see a song devoted to honoring their work: https://youtu.be/e1vEeQaCXNc
This is only meant to be a partial listing. If you know of any Mad Pride events, please share this news with others. You can find a discussion about Mad Pride on Reddit at: www.reddit.com/r/madpride. Also, you will find an email address at the end this blog to be in touch with World Mad Pride, as supported by MindFreedom Oregon.
Surviving Race: Intersection of Injustice, Disability & Human Rights–Savannah Dialogues 2022 on August 28, 2022: https://fb.me/e/1YCHJCV7K
On Twitter, it was gratifying to see the hashtag #madpride was in use. Other hashtags to consider using are: #MadPrideMonth #MentalHealth #Disability #DisabilityPride #DisabilityPrideMonth
Please leave your comments, ideas, questions, and leads below!
First, let’s talk about Mad Pride Month, which MindFreedom Oregon has launched. Why July? The month of July has many connections to the movement for mental health consumers/psychiatric survivors (C/S), here are a few:
Several decades ago, some activists in New York State were looking for a day to hold an annual protest in Albany of the mental health system. At first, they were about to choose July 4, but psychiatric survivor Myra Kovary encouraged them to choose a non-US-centered date, Bastille Day, July 14, 1981. C/S movement groups still often choose events on July 14.
When MindFreedom International looked for a week to celebrate the concept, invented by Martin Luther King, Jr., of “creative maladjustment,” they chose a week from July 7 to 14.
By happy coincidence, the birthdate of one of the most amazing psychiatric survivor activists in history, Leonard Roy Frank, is on July 15.
As we learned more about our history of the Mad Pride Movement, Wikipedia carried an interesting fact about one of the first known psychiatric survivor groups: “On 7 July 1845, Richard Paternoster, John Perceval and a number of others formed the Alleged Lunatics’ Friend Society.”
And in Oregon, of course, the infamous Oregon Country Fair is always shortly after the 4th of July. MindFreedom has held events in the heart of OCF, the Community Village, for many years. Dissident physician/psychiatric survivor Patch Adams has often spoken. In the past, the late dissident psychiatrist, Carl Hammerschlag, has also joined Patch.
So, when MindFreedom Oregon, a small affiliate of MindFreedom International, discussed having a Mad Pride Month, July was the obvious choice.
But Why is July Disability Pride Month?
Meanwhile, the disability movement was engaged in a wonderful simultaneous action: Naming July as Disability Pride Month. Because the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law on July 26, 1990, when the disability movement created a month to celebrate disability pride, they chose July.
As an individual with quadriplegia and several additional extreme disabilities, the concept of “disability pride” resonates with me. But at first, I can easily imagine someone thinking, “What is there to be proud about when you have a disability? Proud to lose a leg? Proud to go blind?”
Disability pride does not mean every impairment one might experience is somehow splendid. Here is the description of disability pride from the organization, AmeriDisability: “‘Disability pride’ has been defined as accepting and honoring each person’s uniqueness and seeing it as a natural and beautiful part of human diversity.”
In other words, my applying the lessons I learned from decades in the psychiatric survivor movement, to empowerment after I broke my neck one decade ago, is indeed one thing to be proud of. Resilience, the amazing global disability community, uniqueness of every human being… are a few more of the many reasons to have disability pride.
Why Mad Pride?
As a psychiatric survivor, I know that I spent many years rebelling & resisting the bizarre, ridiculous, unscientific, goofy, demeaning labels found in the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association (DSM).
So, some might ask, “If you rebel against labels, then isn’t ‘mad pride’ hypocritical?”
No. The psychiatric establishment generally runs away from the use of words like “mad” and “crazy.” Whole books could be written on the topic of language, but just let me say that the only love that I would consider real is being “madly in love.”
We know that social change movements of marginalized people must build bridges to other communities of disenfranchised, such as LGBT and BIPOC. What about the disability movement, one of the biggest in the world? One of the surest connections between the psychiatric survivor movement and the disability movement, is that we human rights activists claim that every type of psychiatric oppression and goofy label, result in disability. For example, electroshock causes massive head injury and memory loss. Sounds like a disability to me.
I am ashamed that a few of my fellow psychiatric survivors have a kind of “brain bigotry” on the issue of disability, also known as ableism. These psychiatric survivors say that because their label is fictional, they cannot and should not be oppressed and forcibly treated. Hey, here’s a concept for you: Whether or not your label is true or goofy, you do not deserve oppression!
Many of us psychiatric survivors point out that many psychiatric labels are fictional, like the unicorn. But folks, even if you are missing a limb and are obviously disabled, you deserve human rights, choice, dignity, support, healthcare.
Yes, you can be a Leader in Both Mad Pride Month & Disability Pride Month!
It is totally OK if you personally choose not to celebrate Mad Pride Month or Disability Pride Month. Perhaps there should be a “Normal Shame Month”? Let me know if anyone organizes that, I’m too busy.
However, many of us do want to celebrate our differences, Mad Pride, and Disability Pride. I will not impose a psychiatric label on another person unwillingly. But please do not try to impose the label of “normal” on me. What is generally called “normal” is wrecking the planet’s environment and threatens life on Earth. What is generally called “normal” is actually, from my perspective, the worst, most dangerous altered state ever.
Mad Pride Events
Mad Pride is currently alive and well:
Bern, Switzerland held a lively and large march on 18 June 2022. The website is not in English, but you get the idea: https://madpride.ch/. You can get a flavor of these events on YouTube: https://youtu.be/G6XyX6un6MQ and https://youtu.be/THiuPTziyBg. It was very impressive to see hundreds of people participating, with signs, balloons, and whistles.
Mexico City had a Mad Pride March on 28 May 2022 (Marcha del Orgullo Loco en la Ciudad de México). The sponsors were: Redesfera Latinoamericana de la Diversidad Psicosocial & la Red Orgullo Loco México. You can email the organizers here: orgullolocomx@gmail.com
Mad Pride Seoul in Korea has held events for years. Glad to see a song devoted to honoring their work: https://youtu.be/e1vEeQaCXNc
Wikipedia has reported that there have also been Mad Pride events over the last few decades in Australia, Canada, Ireland, USA, Portugal, Brazil, Madagascar, South Africa, and France.
This is only meant to be a partial listing. If you know of any Mad Pride events, please share this news with others. You can find a discussion about Mad Pride on Reddit at: www.reddit.com/r/madpride. Also, you will find an email address at the end this blog to be in touch with World Mad Pride, as supported by MindFreedom Oregon.
On Twitter, it was gratifying to see the hashtag #madpride was in use. Other hashtags to consider using are: #MadPrideMonth #MentalHealth #DisabilityPride #DisabilityPrideMonth
Personally, as a psychiatric survivor with extreme physical disabilities, I love the idea of building bridges between Mad Pride and Disability Pride. Think of one of the key leaders in fighting the climate crisis: Greta Thunberg. When Greta was younger, she and her family wrestled with many severe mental and emotional problems, including periods of not eating, isolating herself with just a few close family members, screaming and crying for long lengths of time, etc. Greta personally accepts the diagnosis of “autism.” But Greta’s perspective is that being “on the spectrum” is her “superpower,” because her uniqueness helps her see through the web of lies that seemingly control “normal people.”
More Information on Mad Pride?
If I were to look up Mad Pride info, I would do a google search with quote marks around the phrase: “mad pride”.
Off hand, over the years, I would say Toronto has had the most Mad Pride events. I believe you can find a number of recordings on YouTube. COVID slowed them down, but they may start again.
Ireland had the absolute biggest Mad Pride events, because of the poet John McCarthy. He died a few years ago, but you can find videos on YouTube about Mad Pride Ireland events. I hope Ireland has more Mad Pride events in the future. This would surely make my friend’s spirit soar! John often talked about the “normality of madness and the madness of normality.”
I consider both Mad Pride and Disability Pride to apply to anyone and everyone that chooses to take leadership in a positive sense.
You can be in touch with MindFreedom Oregon in promoting Mad Pride July by emailing to: MadPrideWorld@gmail.com. And please leave your comments below.
Mad In America, major webzine for “rethinking psychiatry,” just published, today, June 29, 2021, my new blog: “Will US Agency New Head End Stonewalling About Money for Involuntary Outpatient Mental Health?” The US Senate confirmed President Biden’s nomination for the new leader of Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Miriam Delphin-Rittmon, PhD, an African-American psychologist.
SAMHSA has been supporting involuntary outpatient mental health, which can mean court-ordering US citizens to take powerful, controversial psych drugs in our own homes in the community. However, SAMHSA has so far refused to provide any information or evaluation about their more than $25 million in grants.
My original Mad In America blog is here, please share & comment:
An audible version of the Mad In America blog is here:
News Updates: Will SAMHSA Start to Repair Damage?
29 June 2021
A few hours before Mad In America published my blog, 29 June 2021, Lindsay Baran, a staff person for the National Council on Independent Living (NCIL), supporting the Mental Health Subcommittee, said:
SAMHSA’s refusal to provide us with the requested information is unacceptable. People are being harmed – their rights are being violated – by these grants, and SAMHSA’s lack of transparency is incredibly alarming.
A few hours AFTER Mad In America published my blog, and I contacted President Biden & SAMHSA, a staff person with SAMHSA’s FOIA office called me at home. She was very nice. She said that there had been quite a turnover in that department. She is the third staff person I am dealing with. She said she had been hired in the Spring, and would get me some materials by this week, or at the latest next week.
This staff person said SAMHSA’s FOIA office had so much material they would need to get it to me as a “rolling” download of about three big files a week. We will let you know about the results.
We will also post other updates here, as we get them. The latest will be on top.
Additional Resources About the SAMHSA Blog
As listed in the blog, July is MAD Pride Month, and you can find out more about it here:
Shortly before my blog was published by Mad In America, I created a personal blog about my experience, including the record heat here in Eugene, Oregon:
This Summer 2020, I was one of the four keynoters for the major gathering of hundreds of US mental health consumers and psychiatric survivors, Peerpocalypse. Of course, this time it was on Zoom, and at the bottom you can watch my keynote.
Peerpocalypse has a webpage with links to other keynotes, workshops, videos, slides, etc. from the Summer 2020 event. You can view all these for free here: https://www.mhaoforegon.org/2020-conference-slides
Very Few Mad Pride Movement Archives
During the keynote I reference three archives I know about. Here is more information and how to get in touch with them:
U. Mass: My late friend, Judi Chamberlin, is widely acknowledged as one of the main leaders of the start of the Mad Movement. The University of Massachusetts in Amherst received her enormous files of Movement material. These have been catalogued, and you can read more about it here: http://scua.library.umass.edu/umarmot/chamberlin-judi-1944-2010/
OHSU: After I fell in 2012, I helped MindFreedom International donate 23 linear feet of archives to Oregon Health & Science University. OHSU has been busy cataloguing this, and you can read about the archives here: http://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv71517/
PSAT: Psychiatric Survivor Archives of Toronto gathered a lot of material, and decided to be independent of the university system. I had not heard much about PSAT for a while, so I tracked down board members and exchanged emails. Apparently, they no longer have their web address they used to have. Board member Lucy Costa emailed me in July 2020 that, “Yes, the archives are absolutely safe and secure.” Because of low resources, COVID-19 and questions about issues such as researching Canada’s Archives Act, there has been a lull. Lucy said all is well. You may email them at psychsurvivorarchives@gmail.com.
Incredibly, despite our social change movement doing so much work internationally for so long, these are the only three archives I am aware of. Do you know of any others? My friend, Lauren Tenney, has networked about some artifacts via Facebook. I have not yet seen that, thanks Lauren.
Last year, 2019, we lost a giant in our movement, one of my best friends, Janet Foner. Janet was mainly involved in Re-evaluation Counseling, but strictly separate from that, Janet was also active in co-founding and leading MindFreedom International. Her friend, Lauren Spiro, is in both worlds, RC and what they call the “wide world.” Lauren has edited together a tribute, mainly by RCers (and even though I have never joined RC, they have included my tribute as the only one from the “wide world”). You can read and download here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hmVpZ0dfm7jkLUIFb20aA-zA41pOmTNftD9ngCdMzMg/edit?usp=sharing
One of my tributes to fallen leaders is David Heine, a filmmaker and Eugene friend who died fairly recently, 17 July 2020. David created hundreds of documentaries, mainly about art. But he also made some documentaries highly critical of the mental health system. For instance, his younger brother was caught up by involuntary psychiatric drugging for decades, and died early as a result. David made this wonderful documentary about their relationship: “Little Brother Big Pharma.” David also made a movie about alternatives called “Care Farms of the Netherlands.”
Shall We Radicals Network Like We Used To?
During the 1970s & 1980s, for about a decade, radical psychiatric survivors used to gather each Summer, usually on a college campus. These events became known as “International Conference for Human Rights and Against Psychiatric Oppression” (ICHRAPO). I attended several of these but missed the last one in Vermont in 1985. A celebrity visited: Yes, the mayor of Burlington at that time was Bernie Sanders and I understand that he visited and spoke briefly at the International Conference! At about that time, the federal government began funding a big annual conference, so unfortunately Vermont included a lot of acrimony because participants split about how to react to the federal conference. That ended the International Conference.
I have called for restarting the International Conference. Now that people are more familiar with Zoom, we could easily hold a virtual gathering. If you are interested, let me know. Plus, we have started a private group on Facebook and I can get you an invite. Email me at revolution@aciu.info for more information.
Mad Movement Challenges White Supremacy
Several psychiatric survivor activists, including leading African American women such as Celia Brown and Yvonne Smith, have built a network, Surviving Race: The Intersection of Injustice, Disability, and Human Rights, to challenge systemic racism, including connecting with our Mad Movement. Find the Facebook group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/364074427086419
Federal Support of Coerced Outpatient Mental Health
In my keynote, I referenced how the big federal mental health agency, Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) used to fund a popular annual conference of psychiatric survivors and mental health consumers, called Alternatives. SAMHSA has stopped funding such evens, claiming lack of money.
However, SAMHSA found millions of dollars to help promote outpatient coerced mental health treatment. In 2017, I exchanged emails with SAMHSA staff about this, and I included a link to the 17 (since one was dropped, 16) cities: https://davidwoaks.com/samhsa-involuntary-mental-health
UN Leader Calls for “Revolution” in Mental Health
During my keynote, I quoted Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, at the UN Human Rights Council, Lithuanian Psychiatrist Dainius Pūras, who in 2017 called for a “revolution” because of systemic problems in the mental health system. You can read more here: https://www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=21689&LangID=E
Fun On Facebook: Tough Ha! The Last Laugh
Yes, of course we in the USA will be focusing over the next few weeks on de-selecting the incredibly negative current occupant in the White House. In fact, I have created a Facebook group to promote positive dialogue between Trump opponents and those who may have mistakenly voted for him in the past. We need to talk.
I have given this group a slogan, “Tough Ha!” This is the last laugh for by us. I love acronyms, and my acronym for this is TUFFFFHA, which is Trump Unites Family & Friends For Firing His Arrogance (or Ass). I shortened this acronym to TU4FHA. Please do not join this group if you might ever vote for Trump in the future. But everyone else that can hold a civil dialogue, you are welcome to join here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/751355419041364
More About My Consulting Business, Aciu! Institute
During my keynote, I mention Aciu! Institute and some of our videos. I have just blogged about on our Aciu! Institute site. You can go to this link to connect to a whole bunch of videos: https://aciu.info/2020/09/23/david-oaks-peer-keynote-videos/
Peerpocalypse 2020 Workshops & Keynotes
If you missed the Peerpocalypse event, or wish to view any of the workshops or keynotes, they are now all available online, totally free.
Below is an embedded video of my keynote if you would like to watch it right here, about half an hour:
I already provided a link for the YouTube playlist of the four keynotes for Peerpocalypse 2020. These plus all the dozens of workshops are available free on the Peerpocalypse website, here: https://www.mhaoforegon.org/2020-conference-slides
Aciu to Everyone Who Supported Me For This Keynote!
My wonderful and amazing wife, Debra, helped provide a bit of a laugh track and support during my keynote. Stupendous home care worker, Ian, repeated me and gave wise advice. The staff at Peerpocalypse in Portland were amazing, always responsive to my concerns, taking extra steps for closed captioning, and more. I highly recommend this event, both for viewing the dozens of workshops and other keynotes, and joining with them next year. For more info, click here: https://www.mhaoforegon.org/peerpocalypse-main-page
During my keynote and workshop, we had free ASL interpreting by Patrick Galasso, aciu!
Many other folks have helped me prepare and process the keynote. I would especially like to appreciate the editor for Mad In America, Peter Simons. Just knowing this skilled editor was there was helpful in my work on this blog. And of course, Peter and I exchanged a bunch of communication to finish the MIA blog. Aciu, Peter!
Your Feedback Is Very Much Encouraged & Welcome
On my Mad In America blog, I ended with several ways folks can support the “virality” of my keynote.
In addition, of course, people can comment below on my personal blog. Mad In America gets far more comments on their blog entries and their Facebook. I will also try to watch there and respond.
The popular blog site Mad In America just published my post about my psychiatric survivor #MadPride #Disability journey since I broke my neck in 2012: (If you would like to hear this as a voice synthesized podcast, click play below.)
By David W. Oaks
For more than four decades, I have worked as a psychiatric-survivor human rights activist. Then, at the end of 2012, I broke my neck. As readers of my blog posts, such as those on Mad in America, know, I have devoted the past few years to rehab and activism. But it has been a while since my last personal blog. Let me sum up my Mad Pride journey today, because a lot is changing.
As a quick background, all of my grandparents were immigrants from Lithuania. Both of my grandfathers were coal miners for a combined 31 years. I was raised in a very working-class neighborhood on the south side of Chicago, and got a scholarship to Harvard. During my sophomore, junior, and senior years, I experienced the psychiatric system. This included involuntary psychiatric drugs, such as on the sharp end of a needle while being held down on a bare mattress on the floor in solitary confinement.
During my junior year, Harvard’s volunteer social change agency, Phillips Brooks House, referred me as an intern at Mental Patients Liberation Front in nearby Central Square. MPLF is one of the very early psychiatric survivor activist groups from the 1970’s. After a total of five psychiatric lockups I graduated with honors in 1977, and studied community organizing with the infamous group ACORN, based on the methods of Saul Alinsky. Community organizing with psychiatric survivors became my career.
MindFreedom International: Winning Human Rights in Mental Health!
Fast forward: I co-founded and was Executive Director for 25 years of the independent nonprofit coalition, MindFreedom International (MFI) which fights for human rights in mental health. MFI has always been wide open to everyone who supports human rights, including attorneys, mental health workers, family members, and the general public. But surveys show that a majority of MFI members identify as having personally experienced human rights violations in the mental health system, that is, psychiatric survivors.
Because MFI’s constituency tends to be low-income, most groups in this field need to rely on government support to exist. That is understandable. But an amazing thing about MFI is that it has always mainly been supported by donations from individuals, poor and rich, and some private grants.
Because of this independence, MFI has always had a different center of gravity than most similar groups: Revolution! We at MFI always attempted to connect with other movements for social justice, such as prisoner’s rights, LGBT+, anti-racism, anti-poverty, and environmentalism. For the last few decades, one of our closest connections has been with people with disabilities.
A Tale of Two Movements: Psychiatric Survivors and People With Disabilities
Frankly, the connection between psychiatric survivor Mad Pride and the physical disability movement has been a bit complex, and sometimes even challenging. For example, there appears to be a difference about the issue of diagnoses. Don’t we radical psychiatric survivors reject all labels? Don’t people with physical disabilities often rely on their labels? Yes, “disabilities” are socially constructed; it is our society that is disabled. But I am aware that some leaders do not always understand our unity.
Unfortunately, I have even seen a leader of a disability Independent Living Center falsely say, repeatedly, that MindFreedom pushes people to quit psychiatric drugs. Wrong. In fact, there are many MFI members who willingly choose to take prescribed psychiatric drugs, and they have told me they feel totally comfortable and accepted.
Both the psychiatric survivor movement and the movement for people with disabilities are united in their goals. Both support the empowerment and choice of the Marginalized And Disempowered (MAD). I’ve written about this before, and I will again, but this is not my point now.
For now, I will point out that calling someone a name they do not want is labeling. Asking for a diagnosis from a pro you trust, willingly, ain’t labeling. More later, but for now, understand that the unity between psychiatric survivors and people with disabilities is more than theory for me. It is my life.
Our Cat, Bongo, Plays a Key Role in My Life
At the end of 2012, in an attempt to retrieve our cat, Bongo, I fell and broke my neck, becoming a very disabled quadriplegic in a power chair with impaired voice and hands. I do not recommend this drastic approach, but one silver lining is that now I have absolutely no problem at all bridging both the psychiatric survivor movement and the entire disability movement!
As some of us activists have joked about ourselves when we encounter challenges again: I have “re-established my credentials.”
Because of my profound disability challenges, I needed to retire from MFI in 2013. During the past seven-and-a-half years, I have been working on rehab.
I have improved my breathing by twice-daily exercises with heavy weights and an incentive spirometer, bringing my capacity from one-fourth to one-third typical breathing. A great improvement, but I am of course, at the age of 64, one of the most vulnerable folks during the COVID-19 crisis.
I have sought to improve my impaired speech. This has involved years of speech therapy and a surgery on my vocal folds.
Before my fall I could type 120 words per minute, now I cannot type at all. So I have worked to improve my memory because projects and writing need to stick up there, in the mind. Now, in one sitting, I can pretty easily and reliably memorize two shuffled decks of cards (a total of 112 cards, counting jokers and promo cards). I can repeat the memorized order of cards, blindfolded, in about five minutes. I have recited shuffled double decks perfectly 37 times.
There are many other ways I have applied the lessons I learned in our psychiatric survivor movement to my own rehab. For example, back in 1989, I started a men’s support group called the BUBS. During this COVID crisis we have been meeting weekly via Zoom. This sort of small group, mutual peer support, as we know from our movement, is invaluable to rehab and surviving a crisis.
Before my fall, as a fiercely independent Pagan, I relied on my occasional trips to the Oregon wilderness for three days of fasting and reflection. In fact, after one of these trips, I recorded a brief statement, which can be found on YouTube by searching for:david w oaks neptune beach.
Since my fall, to make things easier, I have joined the nearby Unitarian Universalist Church. Yes, a church. I am glad I did, because the UU philosophy works for me, and they are very supportive of people with disabilities. For example, I helped re-start an Access Committee at our church with support from the reverend.
But What Would Judi Chamberlin Say?
As I have expressed, and many other psychiatric survivor activists know, I have always fought against involuntary and unscientific diagnoses. “Label jars, not people!” as my friend in MPLF, the late Judi Chamberlin, liked to say.
After my accident, I clearly had thoughts and feelings consistent with classic Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, such as recurring vivid nightmares of falling off my bed that would continue after I woke up. Folks, I cannot even budge once I am lying in my bed!
I have found my psychotherapist, Dr. John Bundy, to be very helpful in addressing these problems. Finding a psychologist that works for me took a bunch of my skills and networking from our movement. Dr. Bundy is superb, and because of a childhood accident, is 100% blind. Perhaps we connect more as peers because of our disabilities.
Yes, many friends and family have encouraged me to write a book, because there are many other tools from our movement I have used in my rehab journey, that may help the general public now.
Silver Linings of Planetary Crises: No New Normality!
Looking for silver linings is one of the lessons I gained as a psychiatric survivor with major physical disabilities. Today, as the whole world struggles with COVID-19, there are quite a few silver linings. One of these is that undeniably we are all connected in one planetary community, obviously and deeply.
To the right are images of my home care team wearing masks. This montage is a tribute to these truly essential workers, crucial for my independent living and our household. One of my home care workers pointed out that essential workers have always been essential, even before this pandemic. Good point. Mainly, I need help thanking and giving credit to my home care team.
Ačiū! Ačiū! Ačiū! This is an ancient Lithuanian word that means “thanks.” This gratitude is why I named my consulting business Aciu! Institute. Thank you, everybody, for your support!
During this rehab, I have attempted to blog now and again. But I will now try to do this more frequently. I believe there are real life lessons from the psychiatric survivor and disability movements which can assist the general public right now, in this era of viruses and climate crisis. I have often heard media outlets say people with disabilities or mental problems make up ‘x’ percent of the public, such as 18% or 15%. But, for example, everyone on Earth addresses the severe trauma of how we treat nature. Scientists suggest that none of us have, or even can, get a grip on reality.
We are now all the 100%. In today’s world, if you are not crazy you may be nuts!
Today we often hear about how “normality” is gone. But normality never really ever existed. Kind of like a unicorn. Many are now talking about a future “new normality.” But this is a lie! Normal is dead forever. One way or another, for better or worse, we won!
This year, my consulting business, Aciu! Institute, LLC, has its second major client, MindFreedom International! I report to their superb director who has taken my place very well, psychiatric survivor Ron Bassman of Colorado. I am helping build their network of Affiliates and Sponsors, updating the list of past groups and finding new ones. One of the uniting tasks that Ron is encouraging for these groups is to support a retooled MindFreedom Shield. Shield is a campaign to support individuals who are expressing concerns about their involuntary psychiatric procedures, issuing human rights alerts that encourage action, similar to pressure campaigns by Amnesty International.
Here in Eugene, Oregon, USA, we continue to build our own MFI local affiliate, MindFreedom Oregon and MindFreedom Lane County. We meet every month by Zoom now. Contact me if you are interested: revolution@aciu.info.
MindFreedom has always called for a global revolution. Wouldn’t a planetary revolution be a nice thing to try? Is there any other way? We can discuss what kind of revolution, but at least talking openly about this would be a start.
As well as MindFreedom, my Aciu! Institute consulting business is assisting a variety of disability and mental health groups. I will blog about this in future posts. Even though I only work a few shifts a week from home, working remotely with my superb administrative assistant Fian Peng, launching Aciu! helps my purpose and meaning. I last ran a for-profit back when I was a little kid, selling seeds and lemonade. I then worked for decades for wonderful nonprofits. It is a blast returning to a for-profit dedicated to social and environmental change!
Building Support for the Next Phase: Revolution!
After I broke my neck, the values and wisdom from our movement helped me each day in my real-life endeavors. Many call this inspiring. I call our social change Mad Pride movement inspiring. Once in a while, someone will question the whole idea of “Mad Pride.” (I sometimes wonder if they like “Normal Shame.”) But for the last few years, our Mad Pride crazy wisdom has helped support and sustain our home, my independence and my life.
One skill I learned in our movement was grassroots fundraising, from many people, poor and rich. While I was in Craig Hospital rehab, we held a number of support drives to raise funds. For instance, quick support from people like you is how I bought my wheelchair van.
Since then, I have not done much fundraising. For one reason, my wonderful wife, Debra, and I live a comfortable life on our quarter-acre homestead we call Mad Swan. One of the absolutely best things in my early adulthood was falling in love with the amazing and always-fascinating Debra.
But while we are not struggling for food, I do want to use my background and experience to help justice and transformation today.
My family created a “David W Oaks Irrevocable Medical Trust” that supports my independent living. Support from this trust is helping me launch my Aciu! Institute consulting.
I pledge to post more often to my own personal blog (www.davidwoaks.com), my consulting business blog (www.aciu.info), and of course Mad in America, which has helped amplify my concerns over the years, so that I know my leadership is still here and helpful.
More than ever, I especially value your feedback. The Mad in America community is vibrant, and I look forward to your comments here. I will try to reply to as many as possible. You will now also find me frequently on Facebook, including our group UU Mental Health Justice. On Reddit we have created subreddit r/MadPride. On Twitter and LinkedIn, let us explore what challenges and opportunities can be found in the intersection of #MadPride and #Disability. (You may comment here, and/or join the lively debates in the comment area at the end of my post on Mad In America.)
Ačiū!
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Editor’s Note:If you wish, you can make a one-time or monthly donation to David W. Oaks Irrevocable Medical Trust. Your gift is not tax-deductible, but is very important to his independent living. He is launching his consulting business, Aciu! Institute.
Today is 15 July 2019, and we honor the birthday of the late great Leonard Roy Frank, one of the main psychiatric survivor leaders of our modern era, and a good friend (his photo is on the left). I have blogged about Leonard before, and Mad Pride Month needs to celebrate Leonard: https://davidwoaks.com/my-friend-leonard-roy-frank
Leonard supported grassroots activism wherever you are. Our local group, MindFreedom Oregon, is a state affiliate of the human rights coalition MindFreedom International. We support calling this whole month of July, Mad Pride Month!
You probably did not hear about this call for July becoming Mad Pride Month since we have only told a few folks. It’s not too late for the rest of the month! How have you celebrated this month, perhaps accidentally? Especially, what ideas do you have for next year, July 2020, to celebrate Mad Pride? Do you support making July Mad Pride Month? If so, please contact us, there are many ways to assist this, see Mad Pride Social Media Volunteers below.
Yesterday was Bastille Day, 14 July 2019. One of the reasons July should be Mad Pride Month is that for decades, leaders in the psychiatric survivor movement have used Bastille Day to celebrate the human spirit and oppose psychiatric oppression and tyranny. One of the main activities each year is a three-day camping vigil in front of the New York State mental health agency in Albany. This vigil wrapped up yesterday. For more info about their event, their Facebook link for this vigil is here.
Here are eight ways I am celebrating Mad Pride this July:
Way to go, my good friend Rev. Phil Schulman! He was one of the keynote speakers at the annual Alternatives Conference, which has just been held in DC. Incredibly, people are searching for a video or audio recording of Phil’s speech! Accidents may happen, but I call Phil “The Movement Minister” and getting out his message is a high priority. Hopefully, someone will find a recording of Phil’s keynote. After years of leading congregations, mainly Unitarian Universalist, Phil experienced a serious head injury about a year and a half ago. His resilience, love, and leadership are so very important to our movement.
Opal Network: Here in Oregon, one of the main literary heroes was psychiatric survivor Opal Whiteley. About a decade ago, we created an informal coalition called the Opal Network which has spoken out for the empowerment of local mental health consumers and psychiatric survivors. We meet every time a month has five Tuesdays, about four times a year, so that means our next public gathering will be Tuesday, 30 July 2019. Our theme will be how the arts can support mental and emotional well-being, and psychiatric survivor liberation. Psychiatric survivor Chrissy Peirsol and I plan to host a round table at the downtown Eugene Trauma Healing Project, 11th and Charnelton, at 3:30 pm. We will have a web video Zoom call, so you can participate for free wherever you live. Interested? Please email us at: opalnetwork@protonmail.com
World’s Biggest Sneeze! A few days ago, several of us in MindFreedom Oregon gave a presentation at a stage in Community Village, as part of the celebration of the 50th Annual Oregon Country Fair (if you’re new to OCF, watch some videos of this wild hippie gathering in the woods here). During our event, we held the World’s Biggest Sneeze! Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah… CHOO! We are allergic to what is called “normality” which actually does not exist! Our household plays a simple game you can join: Whenever we hear the word “normal” on the radio, TV, or conversation, we sneeze! The first to sneeze wins. Try it!
When society is crazy & paralyzed, who are you gonna call? The Mad Pride Movement! Because of the climate crisis, 100% of humanity is clearly part of the Mad Pride Movement. We are all traumatized by the disaster. We all confront the mystery of understanding the universe. Do not wait to understand it all, act now. Those of you in the Eugene, Oregon area, please join me at an Extinction Rebellion potluck and talk on Wednesday, 31 July 2019, 6:30 pm, at our Unitarian Universalist Church. If you are outside the Eugene area, you probably live on Earth and so can take part in this nonviolent Extinction Revolution wherever you are. The Mad Pride Movement celebrates your creative way of thinking & acting. We are the new PC: Positively Crazy!
Mad Pride Social Media Volunteers: To connect with those of you who are curious or supportive of a Mad Pride Month, we at MindFreedom Oregon are creating several social media places. If you would like to assist, and perhaps co-moderate, contact mf-oregon@aciu.info. Social media include: Reddit, Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram, Facebook.
Remember Creative Maladjustment Week! For more than a decade, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. commented about creative maladjustment over and over. He even said the world was in dire need of an “International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment.” MindFreedom International produced a guide to celebrate being maladjusted every July 7-14, Creative Maladjustment Week! And of course, this is near the middle of July, now Mad Pride Month.
A State Senator in Oregon Wants to Hear from Psychiatric Survivors, Mental Health Consumers, and Our Allies. My friend, State Senator Floyd Prozanski, pushed for two mental health bills this past session in the Salem, Oregon legislature. We Oregon psychiatric survivors/mental health consumers heard about these proposals and we expressed our deep concern. Thankfully, both bills failed this past session which just ended in Mad Pride Month, July! Yay! Now, I promised Sen. Prozanski that we would provided him with civil input about human rights & choice in mental health. Please email him at: Sen.FloydProzanski@oregonlegislature.gov. Please copy your comments to: mf-oregon@aciu.info
Something for Everyone! I know Mad Pride may not be everyone’s cup of tea. I figured out that if a couple conceives today, their baby might be born on 15 April, tax day. This would seem to be a great Normal Shame Day, so that if anyone rejects Mad Pride Day they can always be part of that. If your baby is born on Normal Shame Day, do not worry, this is definitely not normal and your child will be a hero of the Mad Pride Movement!
Your ideas, feedback, jeers, cheers, suggestions, support, strangeness are all welcome in the comment area below, or on my Facebook page. Thanks!