#madstudies — Public Fediverse posts

This account, this corner of the fediverse, has become one of the places I let those questions be noisy in public. What does healing mean when the conditions that harmed you are not gone, only rearranged into more respectable shapes? What actually happens inside a counselling relationship when disability or neurodivergence is present but unnamed, or misnamed, or politely ignored? How do we begin to notice the ways power and unspoken norms travel through even the most well-intentioned helping professions? How do we hold culture as something we are constantly creating and being created by, something we may need to grieve and interrogate and occasionally celebrate, often all at once, sometimes in the space of a single conversation?

I keep circling back to the interior labour of this work. The slow, repetitive practice of building emotional regulation when your nervous system's default setting is red alert. The awkwardness of learning self-compassion when sharp self-criticism has been your most reliable survival tool. The moments that feel like failure because you find yourself reacting in an old way, when in reality this is precisely how recovery moves, looping back on itself, revisiting old ground with slightly different eyes. The way trauma and joy can sit shoulder to shoulder in the same hour, the same therapy session, the same breath, and how unnerving and holy that can feel.

Rauch and Ansari suggest that silence can be deliberate and strategic, a form of self-regulation rather than withdrawal, a boundary rather than an absence. I think about this in relation to the freeze response, to the moments in my own history when going quiet was not giving up but holding on. The body stills because there are no safe words yet. Sometimes the silence is the story. And learning to hear it as such, to receive it without rushing to fill or fix it, is one of the things I am still practising, in music and in therapy and in the ordinary, unglamorous dailiness of trying to stay present in a life that sometimes arrives all at once.

I am not arriving anywhere with a finished theory of how any of this is supposed to work. I am coming, again and again, with fragments and questions and a stubborn intention to tell the truth as I understand it in the moment I am writing. That truth is often partial, often shifting. My understanding of myself, of trauma, of disability, of care, keeps moving, and I want it to. I would rather be inconsistent and alive to new information than seamless and rigidly wrong.

If you are still reading, you are already participating in something I care about. A space that treats complexity as ordinary rather than excessive. Where being too much is not an accusation but raw material. Where intense feeling and rigorous thought are both welcome at the same table. Where healing is not a linear journey toward a fixed destination but something more like learning to live inside unresolved chords without pretending they have resolved. Where music is both metaphor and method, both a way of speaking about change and a way of practising it in the body.

True silence does not exist. What we call silence is simply what we have not yet learned to hear. The fullness of life in quieter tones. The heartbeat of thought. The whispered rhythm of resilience. The steady murmur of healing is underway. And when we learn to tune into the music between the notes and into the truth held in breath, we do more than survive. We begin to sing again. This time, in a voice that is entirely our own.

I am not here to introduce myself so much as to keep turning up alongside you. To keep writing from the middle of things, not only from the rare polished moments that look good in hindsight. To keep noticing the small, ordinary, unglamorous ways humans find their way back to themselves, even inside systems that were never set up with them in mind. If any of these threads brush against something in your own story, then you are part of the imagined audience I write towards. And maybe, in a slow, imperfect, occasionally dissonant way, part of the choir that is still learning how to hear itself.

#AuDHD #Neurodivergent #Blind #Deafblind #Disabled #DisabilityJustice #MadStudies #Psychology #Counselling #Therapy #Trauma #TraumaRecovery #Neurodiversity #MentalHealth #ChronicStress #Healing #WindowOfTolerance #LivedExperience #CareWork #Culture #Power #Normality #Access #Inclusion #Ableism #Music #ClassicalMusic #ChoralMusic #Choir #Singing #Writing #PersonalEssay #Silence #LongPost #Fediversea (2/2)

This account, this corner of the fediverse, has become one of the places I let those questions be noisy in public. What does healing mean when the conditions that harmed you are not gone, only rearranged into more respectable shapes? What actually happens inside a counselling relationship when disability or neurodivergence is present but unnamed, or misnamed, or politely ignored? How do we begin to notice the ways power and unspoken norms travel through even the most well-intentioned helping professions? How do we hold culture as something we are constantly creating and being created by, something we may need to grieve and interrogate and occasionally celebrate, often all at once, sometimes in the space of a single conversation?

I keep circling back to the interior labour of this work. The slow, repetitive practice of building emotional regulation when your nervous system's default setting is red alert. The awkwardness of learning self-compassion when sharp self-criticism has been your most reliable survival tool. The moments that feel like failure because you find yourself reacting in an old way, when in reality this is precisely how recovery moves, looping back on itself, revisiting old ground with slightly different eyes. The way trauma and joy can sit shoulder to shoulder in the same hour, the same therapy session, the same breath, and how unnerving and holy that can feel.

Rauch and Ansari suggest that silence can be deliberate and strategic, a form of self-regulation rather than withdrawal, a boundary rather than an absence. I think about this in relation to the freeze response, to the moments in my own history when going quiet was not giving up but holding on. The body stills because there are no safe words yet. Sometimes the silence is the story. And learning to hear it as such, to receive it without rushing to fill or fix it, is one of the things I am still practising, in music and in therapy and in the ordinary, unglamorous dailiness of trying to stay present in a life that sometimes arrives all at once.

I am not arriving anywhere with a finished theory of how any of this is supposed to work. I am coming, again and again, with fragments and questions and a stubborn intention to tell the truth as I understand it in the moment I am writing. That truth is often partial, often shifting. My understanding of myself, of trauma, of disability, of care, keeps moving, and I want it to. I would rather be inconsistent and alive to new information than seamless and rigidly wrong.

If you are still reading, you are already participating in something I care about. A space that treats complexity as ordinary rather than excessive. Where being too much is not an accusation but raw material. Where intense feeling and rigorous thought are both welcome at the same table. Where healing is not a linear journey toward a fixed destination but something more like learning to live inside unresolved chords without pretending they have resolved. Where music is both metaphor and method, both a way of speaking about change and a way of practising it in the body.

True silence does not exist. What we call silence is simply what we have not yet learned to hear. The fullness of life in quieter tones. The heartbeat of thought. The whispered rhythm of resilience. The steady murmur of healing is underway. And when we learn to tune into the music between the notes and into the truth held in breath, we do more than survive. We begin to sing again. This time, in a voice that is entirely our own.

I am not here to introduce myself so much as to keep turning up alongside you. To keep writing from the middle of things, not only from the rare polished moments that look good in hindsight. To keep noticing the small, ordinary, unglamorous ways humans find their way back to themselves, even inside systems that were never set up with them in mind. If any of these threads brush against something in your own story, then you are part of the imagined audience I write towards. And maybe, in a slow, imperfect, occasionally dissonant way, part of the choir that is still learning how to hear itself.

#AuDHD #Neurodivergent #Blind #Deafblind #Disabled #DisabilityJustice #MadStudies #Psychology #Counselling #Therapy #Trauma #TraumaRecovery #Neurodiversity #MentalHealth #ChronicStress #Healing #WindowOfTolerance #LivedExperience #CareWork #Culture #Power #Normality #Access #Inclusion #Ableism #Music #ClassicalMusic #ChoralMusic #Choir #Singing #Writing #PersonalEssay #Silence #LongPost #Fediversea (2/2)

This account, this corner of the fediverse, has become one of the places I let those questions be noisy in public. What does healing mean when the conditions that harmed you are not gone, only rearranged into more respectable shapes? What actually happens inside a counselling relationship when disability or neurodivergence is present but unnamed, or misnamed, or politely ignored? How do we begin to notice the ways power and unspoken norms travel through even the most well-intentioned helping professions? How do we hold culture as something we are constantly creating and being created by, something we may need to grieve and interrogate and occasionally celebrate, often all at once, sometimes in the space of a single conversation?

I keep circling back to the interior labour of this work. The slow, repetitive practice of building emotional regulation when your nervous system's default setting is red alert. The awkwardness of learning self-compassion when sharp self-criticism has been your most reliable survival tool. The moments that feel like failure because you find yourself reacting in an old way, when in reality this is precisely how recovery moves, looping back on itself, revisiting old ground with slightly different eyes. The way trauma and joy can sit shoulder to shoulder in the same hour, the same therapy session, the same breath, and how unnerving and holy that can feel.

Rauch and Ansari suggest that silence can be deliberate and strategic, a form of self-regulation rather than withdrawal, a boundary rather than an absence. I think about this in relation to the freeze response, to the moments in my own history when going quiet was not giving up but holding on. The body stills because there are no safe words yet. Sometimes the silence is the story. And learning to hear it as such, to receive it without rushing to fill or fix it, is one of the things I am still practising, in music and in therapy and in the ordinary, unglamorous dailiness of trying to stay present in a life that sometimes arrives all at once.

I am not arriving anywhere with a finished theory of how any of this is supposed to work. I am coming, again and again, with fragments and questions and a stubborn intention to tell the truth as I understand it in the moment I am writing. That truth is often partial, often shifting. My understanding of myself, of trauma, of disability, of care, keeps moving, and I want it to. I would rather be inconsistent and alive to new information than seamless and rigidly wrong.

If you are still reading, you are already participating in something I care about. A space that treats complexity as ordinary rather than excessive. Where being too much is not an accusation but raw material. Where intense feeling and rigorous thought are both welcome at the same table. Where healing is not a linear journey toward a fixed destination but something more like learning to live inside unresolved chords without pretending they have resolved. Where music is both metaphor and method, both a way of speaking about change and a way of practising it in the body.

True silence does not exist. What we call silence is simply what we have not yet learned to hear. The fullness of life in quieter tones. The heartbeat of thought. The whispered rhythm of resilience. The steady murmur of healing is underway. And when we learn to tune into the music between the notes and into the truth held in breath, we do more than survive. We begin to sing again. This time, in a voice that is entirely our own.

I am not here to introduce myself so much as to keep turning up alongside you. To keep writing from the middle of things, not only from the rare polished moments that look good in hindsight. To keep noticing the small, ordinary, unglamorous ways humans find their way back to themselves, even inside systems that were never set up with them in mind. If any of these threads brush against something in your own story, then you are part of the imagined audience I write towards. And maybe, in a slow, imperfect, occasionally dissonant way, part of the choir that is still learning how to hear itself.

#AuDHD #Neurodivergent #Blind #Deafblind #Disabled #DisabilityJustice #MadStudies #Psychology #Counselling #Therapy #Trauma #TraumaRecovery #Neurodiversity #MentalHealth #ChronicStress #Healing #WindowOfTolerance #LivedExperience #CareWork #Culture #Power #Normality #Access #Inclusion #Ableism #Music #ClassicalMusic #ChoralMusic #Choir #Singing #Writing #PersonalEssay #Silence #LongPost #Fediversea (2/2)

This account, this corner of the fediverse, has become one of the places I let those questions be noisy in public. What does healing mean when the conditions that harmed you are not gone, only rearranged into more respectable shapes? What actually happens inside a counselling relationship when disability or neurodivergence is present but unnamed, or misnamed, or politely ignored? How do we begin to notice the ways power and unspoken norms travel through even the most well-intentioned helping professions? How do we hold culture as something we are constantly creating and being created by, something we may need to grieve and interrogate and occasionally celebrate, often all at once, sometimes in the space of a single conversation?

I keep circling back to the interior labour of this work. The slow, repetitive practice of building emotional regulation when your nervous system's default setting is red alert. The awkwardness of learning self-compassion when sharp self-criticism has been your most reliable survival tool. The moments that feel like failure because you find yourself reacting in an old way, when in reality this is precisely how recovery moves, looping back on itself, revisiting old ground with slightly different eyes. The way trauma and joy can sit shoulder to shoulder in the same hour, the same therapy session, the same breath, and how unnerving and holy that can feel.

Rauch and Ansari suggest that silence can be deliberate and strategic, a form of self-regulation rather than withdrawal, a boundary rather than an absence. I think about this in relation to the freeze response, to the moments in my own history when going quiet was not giving up but holding on. The body stills because there are no safe words yet. Sometimes the silence is the story. And learning to hear it as such, to receive it without rushing to fill or fix it, is one of the things I am still practising, in music and in therapy and in the ordinary, unglamorous dailiness of trying to stay present in a life that sometimes arrives all at once.

I am not arriving anywhere with a finished theory of how any of this is supposed to work. I am coming, again and again, with fragments and questions and a stubborn intention to tell the truth as I understand it in the moment I am writing. That truth is often partial, often shifting. My understanding of myself, of trauma, of disability, of care, keeps moving, and I want it to. I would rather be inconsistent and alive to new information than seamless and rigidly wrong.

If you are still reading, you are already participating in something I care about. A space that treats complexity as ordinary rather than excessive. Where being too much is not an accusation but raw material. Where intense feeling and rigorous thought are both welcome at the same table. Where healing is not a linear journey toward a fixed destination but something more like learning to live inside unresolved chords without pretending they have resolved. Where music is both metaphor and method, both a way of speaking about change and a way of practising it in the body.

True silence does not exist. What we call silence is simply what we have not yet learned to hear. The fullness of life in quieter tones. The heartbeat of thought. The whispered rhythm of resilience. The steady murmur of healing is underway. And when we learn to tune into the music between the notes and into the truth held in breath, we do more than survive. We begin to sing again. This time, in a voice that is entirely our own.

I am not here to introduce myself so much as to keep turning up alongside you. To keep writing from the middle of things, not only from the rare polished moments that look good in hindsight. To keep noticing the small, ordinary, unglamorous ways humans find their way back to themselves, even inside systems that were never set up with them in mind. If any of these threads brush against something in your own story, then you are part of the imagined audience I write towards. And maybe, in a slow, imperfect, occasionally dissonant way, part of the choir that is still learning how to hear itself.

#AuDHD #Neurodivergent #Blind #Deafblind #Disabled #DisabilityJustice #MadStudies #Psychology #Counselling #Therapy #Trauma #TraumaRecovery #Neurodiversity #MentalHealth #ChronicStress #Healing #WindowOfTolerance #LivedExperience #CareWork #Culture #Power #Normality #Access #Inclusion #Ableism #Music #ClassicalMusic #ChoralMusic #Choir #Singing #Writing #PersonalEssay #Silence #LongPost #Fediversea (2/2)

This account, this corner of the fediverse, has become one of the places I let those questions be noisy in public. What does healing mean when the conditions that harmed you are not gone, only rearranged into more respectable shapes? What actually happens inside a counselling relationship when disability or neurodivergence is present but unnamed, or misnamed, or politely ignored? How do we begin to notice the ways power and unspoken norms travel through even the most well-intentioned helping professions? How do we hold culture as something we are constantly creating and being created by, something we may need to grieve and interrogate and occasionally celebrate, often all at once, sometimes in the space of a single conversation?

I keep circling back to the interior labour of this work. The slow, repetitive practice of building emotional regulation when your nervous system's default setting is red alert. The awkwardness of learning self-compassion when sharp self-criticism has been your most reliable survival tool. The moments that feel like failure because you find yourself reacting in an old way, when in reality this is precisely how recovery moves, looping back on itself, revisiting old ground with slightly different eyes. The way trauma and joy can sit shoulder to shoulder in the same hour, the same therapy session, the same breath, and how unnerving and holy that can feel.

Rauch and Ansari suggest that silence can be deliberate and strategic, a form of self-regulation rather than withdrawal, a boundary rather than an absence. I think about this in relation to the freeze response, to the moments in my own history when going quiet was not giving up but holding on. The body stills because there are no safe words yet. Sometimes the silence is the story. And learning to hear it as such, to receive it without rushing to fill or fix it, is one of the things I am still practising, in music and in therapy and in the ordinary, unglamorous dailiness of trying to stay present in a life that sometimes arrives all at once.

I am not arriving anywhere with a finished theory of how any of this is supposed to work. I am coming, again and again, with fragments and questions and a stubborn intention to tell the truth as I understand it in the moment I am writing. That truth is often partial, often shifting. My understanding of myself, of trauma, of disability, of care, keeps moving, and I want it to. I would rather be inconsistent and alive to new information than seamless and rigidly wrong.

If you are still reading, you are already participating in something I care about. A space that treats complexity as ordinary rather than excessive. Where being too much is not an accusation but raw material. Where intense feeling and rigorous thought are both welcome at the same table. Where healing is not a linear journey toward a fixed destination but something more like learning to live inside unresolved chords without pretending they have resolved. Where music is both metaphor and method, both a way of speaking about change and a way of practising it in the body.

True silence does not exist. What we call silence is simply what we have not yet learned to hear. The fullness of life in quieter tones. The heartbeat of thought. The whispered rhythm of resilience. The steady murmur of healing is underway. And when we learn to tune into the music between the notes and into the truth held in breath, we do more than survive. We begin to sing again. This time, in a voice that is entirely our own.

I am not here to introduce myself so much as to keep turning up alongside you. To keep writing from the middle of things, not only from the rare polished moments that look good in hindsight. To keep noticing the small, ordinary, unglamorous ways humans find their way back to themselves, even inside systems that were never set up with them in mind. If any of these threads brush against something in your own story, then you are part of the imagined audience I write towards. And maybe, in a slow, imperfect, occasionally dissonant way, part of the choir that is still learning how to hear itself.

#AuDHD #Neurodivergent #Blind #Deafblind #Disabled #DisabilityJustice #MadStudies #Psychology #Counselling #Therapy #Trauma #TraumaRecovery #Neurodiversity #MentalHealth #ChronicStress #Healing #WindowOfTolerance #LivedExperience #CareWork #Culture #Power #Normality #Access #Inclusion #Ableism #Music #ClassicalMusic #ChoralMusic #Choir #Singing #Writing #PersonalEssay #Silence #LongPost #Fediversea (2/2)

i recently discovered the field of Mad Studies - the study of "mental illness" from the view point of those labeled as mentally ill, drawing attention to the prejudices that underlie most of the "scientific" study of mental "disorders". I read this article

https://imsj.journals.publicknowledgeproject.org/index.php/imsj/article/view/7389

last night on the way aphantasia - the inability to "see" visual imagery in one's mind - seems to be on a trajectory to be labeled as a disorder and a disability. Since i am aphantastic myself, this caught my attention. Really eye opening to see how something that i think of as perfectly normal and that has never caused any distress or problems in my life is being pathologized by those who consider that their ability to visualize things makes them superior and "normal". Quite alarming even. This trend really needs to be nipped in the bud before it ends up hurting people.

Just now i was thinking more generally about how disability is often created by a society that refuses to accomodate people who are different, like how using a wheelchair is mostly a disability because architects, civil engineers, and others responsible for designing and building public and private infrastructure have to be dragged kicking and screaming into making their constructions wheelchair friendly. Think about buildings with no entrance ramps, no elevators, and narrow halls and doors, something all to common in my new home state.

While thinking about this i starting thinking about other "disabilities", like being deaf, and it occurred to me to wonder if deaf people ever "hear" music in their heads in any fashion. i've never had an opportunity to ask any deaf people about that, but it occurred to me that if they did not have that ability then it wouldn't exactly be a loss to them, would it? And then i wondered if even all hearing people have this ability. i can hear music in my head very easily, but since i can't visualize images in my head, it stands to reason that it's possible there are people in the world who can't hear music in their heads. Are any of you out there like that? Have i been unjustly assuming that everyone can hear mental music?

#Aphantasia #MadStudies #Disability

Day 2 of #DGAVL 2025 #conference had fascinating talks by Daniel Weidner on confessions in the #autofiction s of KO Knausgard, Annie Ernaux & Sheila Heti, and by Sara R Gallardo on #autobiographies by psychiatrized authors, from 19th c to today #MadMovement #MadStudies

#LiteraryStudies

Buchtipp zum #ProtestTag5Mai
Subjekte der Inklusion
Die Theorie der trilemmatischen Inklusion zum Mitfühlen
von der großartigen Mai-Anh Boger ✊ 💞

"Dieses Buch handelt von dem dissonanten Begehren, nicht diskriminiert zu werden. [...] Es ist geschrieben worden für alle, die (a) sich anders fühlen oder (b) darauf bestehen, ganz normale Menschen zu sein oder (c) sich fragen, ob die Worte ‚anders‘ und ‚normal‘ für sie überhaupt Sinn ergeben oder (d) alles davon auf einmal – in einem manchmal kaum aushaltbaren Gewirr der Selbstbefragung, sowie für deren Pädagog_innen und andere, die dieses Gefühl verstehen wollen."

https://www.edition-assemblage.de/buecher/subjekte-der-inklusion/

#DisabilityJustice #Inklusion #Trilemma #UnSichtbar #Barrierefreiheit #AngryCripples #InklusionIstMenschenrecht #HumanRights #beHindert #BehindertenrechteSindMenschenrechte #SocialJustice #AuDHG #MadStudies #DisabilityStudies #DeafStudies #AbolishAbleism #Ableismus #AbleismusAbschaffen #Neurodivergenz #CrippleFight #WirSindNichtAlle #verRückt

De Mad Lit: "Os recordamos: 🗣️ ¿Puede hablar la loca? De la locura como metáfora a las epistemologías en primera persona. Sara R. Gallardo, Universidad de Viena.

📍¿Dónde? Centro Cultural La Corrala (UAM). Calle Carlos Arniches 3-5, Madrid.
🕛 ¿Cuándo? El viernes 25 de abril a las 12:00 h.
ℹ️ Organiza: David Becerra ([email protected])

#Locura #MadStudies

HE’S JUST LIKE ME FOR REAL 🤣🤣🤣

One of my crushes sent me this and it basically hit me in the damn soul and I started crying laughing and had to share it here.

If I don’t know you or trust you, I would rather do ANYTHING ELSE than acknowledge that you’ve just flirted with me, but believe me, I know, and believe me, I’m Fucking Panicking. Often for YEARS. OOOPS 🤣

I do really like this guy, though…

-Lazarus

#ActuallyAutistic #alexithymia #MadMastodon #MadStudies #mentalhealth #neurodivergence #quoiromantic #quoisexual #strokeSurvivor #whatAreFeelings

lot of sense to me and I’m surprised I only found out about it today. #MadStudies #psychiatry #mentalHealth #mentalIllness #neurodivergent #til #weAreAllMadHere https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_studies

#MadLiterature
Available for pre order:

A Mad Turn
Edited by Phil Smith

Written by Mad scholars, A Mad Turn explores the field of Mad Studies in theory and practice, and what Mad Studies can bring to academia and to other social institutions. What does it mean to “do” Mad Studies? What are the field’s intersections with disability justice, Mad justice, and gender and queer studies? This book is a bold step toward the Mad Studies yet-to-come—a Mad Studies that Mad people will build, twisting and turning and singing and dancing, a new realm of thinking-being-doing-knowing. Step into it with us.

https://autonomous-press.myshopify.com/products/a-mad-turn

Hashtags & Group mentions below
#LivingMad
#Madness #MadMastodon #MadPride #MadThought
#MadMovement #MadStudies #Mad #Madodon #TransMad

#Ablesim #DisabilityCommunity #InvisibleDisabilities
#PsychiatricSurvivor #AntiPsychiatry #DisabilityJustice
#LivedExperience #PsychSurvivor #ChronicPain
#DisabilityMastodon #Neurodivergent #RadicalMentalHealth
#CripCamp #DisabilityRights #NeuroDiversity
#Sanism #Disability #DisabilityStudies
#Stories #isolation #SystemicInjustice #AltMentalHealth #instutionalization #PeerSupport #asylum

——

@MadMovementMastodon @[email protected] @disability @[email protected]
@disabilityhistory @neurodivergence

The sand fleas were out in swarms and mosquitos were biting. The sounds of the water made it difficult for me to hear. Hear the voices in my head. The ones that told me to step left or right. Or watch out for a branch or sharp piece of coral.

#writing #AmWriting #AuthorsLife #WritingCommunity #FlashFiction #microstory #author #MadWriter #MadStudies #LivingMad

@MadMovementMastodon @writingcommunity

My blog has finally joined the Fediverse -- so you can get updates directly here!

You can follow my blog at @calvinprowse.ca (or visit my site directly on the web at http://www.calvinprowse.ca)

I don't post there very often, but when I do, it's normally about some of the following: #MentalHealth #PeerSupport #Research #FuturesStudies #MadStudies #DisabilityStudies #Workshop #Dreaming #Hope #Futurity #Poetry

In February, I facilitated a workshop mapping the futures of #MentalHealth and #Addictions #PeerSupport.

We discussed:
1) visions of the future we are being pulled towards
2) trends of the present pushing us toward particular futures
3) barriers to our preferred futures
4) emerging issues that could dramatically shape the future of peer support

A summary of our discussion is available on the PeerWorks blog:

https://www.peerworks.ca/resources/blog/mapping-peer-support-futures

#FuturesStudies #MadStudies #DisabilityStudies #Madodon

I got in the truck and drove. Away from the coastline and beaches. Out of the city. Away from the familiar. The streetlights ended and all I had was light from the headlights of the truck. The roads wound around the hilly terrain. Over the freeway. Across the marginal. No vehicles at the gas station and the lights were a dim glow. “Keep going,” she said. I drove for awhile then asked, “Where am I going?” She said, “you will know the turn when you see it.” I kept driving until I recognized something.

#writing #AmWriting #AuthorsLife #WritingCommunity #author #FlashFiction #microstory #author #MadWriter #MadStudies #LivingMad
@MadMovementMastodon
@writingcommunity

I packed all the important things.
Sunglasses, 5 pair.
Notebooks, 7 empty.
Birkenstock sandals, 1 pair.
Time Machine backup hard drive and cords.
The internet modem and cords.
My case of daily supplements, half empty.
Airpods & corded headphones.
Phone charger.

I flipped the lid down over the disorganized pile of stuff and pulled the zipper all the way around. My carry on suitcase packed. The suitcase could hold more; but I wanted to travel light. And I was in a rush.

My drivers license and truck key were in hand. I took off. I didn’t have my phone, I didn’t need the GPS. I had the GPS in my head.

#writing #AmWriting #AuthorsLife #WritingCommunity #author #FlashFiction #microstory #author #MadWriter #MadStudies #LivingMad
@MadMovementMastodon
@writingcommunity

The evening partying ended, as usual. The ice melted and empty bottles floated in the cold water. Local favorite, Medalla. Pizza boxes stacked on the table. No slices left just crumpled napkins and pieces of crust with perfectly formed bite marks. Porch light left on. Door unlocked. “Go in” she said, “They are waiting for you.” “This is strange,” I said. “Where are they if they are waiting for me?” “They fell asleep waiting,” she said, “go inside.” One suitcase in each hand I opened the door. Looked around. Kitchen. Living room. Three rooms with shut doors. One open door.

#writing #AmWriting #AuthorsLife #WritingCommunity #author #FlashFiction #microstory #drabble #author #MadWriter #MadStudies #LivingMad

@MadMovementMastodon
@writingcommunity

I’m interested in memoirs, blogs etcetera telling stories of resilience, surviving psychiatry, trauma (developmental). Please share them if you know any.
#MadLiterature

Lisa Wallace on why she left psychiatric care and why she may return one day

https://www.psychiatrymargins.com/p/guest-post-a-psychiatric-survivor?r=c50ah&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post

Hashtags & Group mentions below

#Madness #MadMastodon #MadPride #MadThought
#MadMovement #MadStudies #Mad #Madodon #TransMad

#Ablesim #DisabilityCommunity #InvisibleDisabilities
#PsychiatricSurvivor #AntiPsychiatry #DisabilityJustice
#LivedExperience #PsychSurvivor #ChronicPain
#DisabilityMastodon #Neurodivergent #RadicalMentalHealth
#CripCamp #DisabilityRights #NeuroDiversity
#Sanism #Disability #DisabilityStudies
#Stories #isolation #SystemicInjustice #AltMentalHealth #instutionalization #PeerSupport #asylum

——

@MadMovementMastodon
@[email protected]
@disability
@[email protected]
@disabilityhistory
@neurodivergence

The Soteria model relies on personal relationships, interactive activities, and minimal use of psychiatric medication within a comfortable “living community” as opposed to a conventional psychiatric setting.

#MadLiterature
How Does the Soteria House Heal?
The alternative treatment model of Soteria helps individuals suffering from schizophrenia without relying on medication or coercion.

https://www.madinamerica.com/2019/09/soteria-house-heal/

Hashtags & Group mentions below

#Madness #MadMastodon #MadPride #MadThought
#MadMovement #MadStudies #Mad #Madodon #TransMad

#Ablesim #DisabilityCommunity #InvisibleDisabilities
#PsychiatricSurvivor #AntiPsychiatry #DisabilityJustice
#LivedExperience #PsychSurvivor #ChronicPain
#DisabilityMastodon #Neurodivergent #RadicalMentalHealth
#CripCamp #DisabilityRights #NeuroDiversity
#Sanism #Disability #DisabilityStudies
#Stories #isolation #SystemicInjustice #AltMentalHealth #instutionalization #PeerSupport #asylum
——

@MadMovementMastodon
@[email protected]
@disability
@[email protected]
@disabilityhistory
@neurodivergence

#MadLiterature
Searching for the “Psychiatric Yeti”: Schizophrenia Is Not Genetic
https://www.madinamerica.com/2024/01/psychiatric-yeti-schizophrenia-genetic/?mc_cid=91cea752ff&mc_eid=1b94bba8b7

Hashtags & Group mentions below

#Madness #MadMastodon #MadPride #MadThought
#MadMovement #MadStudies #Mad #Madodon #TransMad

#Ablesim #DisabilityCommunity #InvisibleDisabilities
#PsychiatricSurvivor #AntiPsychiatry #DisabilityJustice
#LivedExperience #PsychSurvivor #ChronicPain
#DisabilityMastodon #Neurodivergent #RadicalMentalHealth
#CripCamp #DisabilityRights #NeuroDiversity
#Sanism #Disability #DisabilityStudies
#Stories #isolation #SystemicInjustice #AltMentalHealth
——

@MadMovementMastodon
@[email protected]
@disability
@[email protected]
@disabilityhistory
@neurodivergence

#MadLiterature

Empire of Normality
Neurodiversity and Capitalism
by Robert Chapman

This is a priority read for me!

I’m looking forward to how Chapman explains the emergence and rise of the pathology paradigm and its entanglement with the fundamental logic of capitalism. Specifically how the medical and scientific definitions of illness, disability, and normality have grown in response to economic and ideological developments.

https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745348667/empire-of-normality/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Hashtags & Group mentions below

#Madness #MadMastodon #MadPride #MadThought
#MadMovement #MadStudies #Mad #Madodon #TransMad

#Ablesim #DisabilityCommunity #InvisibleDisabilities
#PsychiatricSurvivor #AntiPsychiatry #DisabilityJustice
#LivedExperience #PsychSurvivor #ChronicPain
#DisabilityMastodon #Neurodivergent #RadicalMentalHealth
#CripCamp #DisabilityRights #NeuroDiversity
#Sanism #Disability #DisabilityStudies
#Stories #isolation #SystemicInjustice

——

@MadMovementMastodon
@[email protected]
@disability
@[email protected]
@disabilityhistory
@neurodivergence

…the need to offer a positive account of mental illness—one that does not define the essence of mental illness exclusively as the absence, lack, or failure of the power of reasoning…

On the Importance of Conceptual Contrasts Madness, Reason, and Mad Pride
Awais Aftab

https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/916209 (open source)
#MadLiterature

Hashtags & Group mentions below

#Madness #MadMastodon #MadPride #MadThought
#MadMovement #MadStudies #Mad #Madodon #TransMad

#Ablesim #DisabilityCommunity #InvisibleDisabilities
#PsychiatricSurvivor #AntiPsychiatry #DisabilityJustice
#LivedExperience #PsychSurvivor #ChronicPain
#DisabilityMastodon #Neurodivergent #RadicalMentalHealth
#CripCamp #DisabilityRights #NeuroDiversity
#Sanism #Disability #DisabilityStudies
#Stories #isolation

——

@MadMovementMastodon
@[email protected]
@disability
@[email protected]
@disabilityhistory
@neurodivergence

#MadLiterature

Mad Pride and Neurodiversity
Personal Perspective: Parallel movements of lived experience.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/beyond-mental-health/202312/mad-pride-and-neurodiversity?fbclid=IwAR0u8DfRIP4cLRQu_t0uA7MqwJfNTE9WQPwUFHzms7AQ7hbS9z4B226gDko_aem_Abdvn_RWjUPuiUr977ry7-2Dm1fT1OTQR4WSHVutATg7Y9n0HiugSwNLeguoMzZY_x0

Hashtags & Group mentions below

#Madness #MadMastodon #MadPride #MadThought
#MadMovement #MadStudies #Mad #Madodon #TransMad

#Ablesim #DisabilityCommunity #InvisibleDisabilities
#PsychiatricSurvivor #AntiPsychiatry #DisabilityJustice
#LivedExperience #PsychSurvivor #ChronicPain
#DisabilityMastodon #Neurodivergent #RadicalMentalHealth
#CripCamp #DisabilityRights #NeuroDiversity
#Sanism #Disability #DisabilityStudies
#Stories #isolation

——

@MadMovementMastodon
@[email protected]
@disability
@[email protected]
@disabilityhistory
@neurodivergence

My #zine "Community and / as Magic" attempts to piece together critical #DisabilityStudies, #MadStudies, #QueerTheory, #CommunityWork, #SocialJustice work, #mythology, #magic & #witchcraft through a radical inter/extra-disciplinary approach to understanding #community. It also includes a poem I wrote about building alternative futures!

Available for purchase here ($3 + shipping):
https://ko-fi.com/s/05bb1aa78f

#Madodon

A month ago, I quietly launched my #zine shop -- thought it was about time that I shared it here!

https://ko-fi.com/calvinprocyon/shop

my zines explore themes of #MentalHealth / #madness , #PeerSupport #utopia , #dreaming , #futurity , and #community , through the lens of #MadStudies , #DisabilityStudies , and #FuturesStudies .

Over the next while I'll share a little bit about some of my zines I currently have for sale in this thread.

Boosts appreciated!

Two waves (1950s & 1970s) of systemic deinstitutionalisation and there are more “beds” than before; they just look different.

#MadLiterature

Busting the Deinstitutionalization Myth: We Actually Have More Beds Than Ever Before
New data upends common beliefs about asylum closures, deinstitutionalization, and rates of psychiatric coercion.

https://www.madinamerica.com/2023/08/busting-deinstitutionalization-myth/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Hashtags & Group mentions below
#Madness #MadMastodon #MadPride #MadThought
#MadMovement #MadStudies #Mad #Madodon #TransMad

#eugenics #asylum #CarceralAbleism
#AntiBlackSanism #instutionalization

#Ablesim #DisabilityCommunity #InvisibleDisabilities
#PsychiatricSurvivor #AntiPsychiatry #DisabilityJustice
#LivedExperience #PsychSurvivor #ChronicPain
#DisabilityMastodon #Neurodivergent #RadicalMentalHealth
#CripCamp #DisabilityRights #NeuroDiversity
#Sanism #Disability #DisabilityStudies
#Stories #isolation

——

@MadMovementMastodon
@[email protected]
@disability
@[email protected]
@disabilityhistory
@neurodivergence

Mad Crip doula: offering holistic and emotional spiritual bodymind care, mixed with practical and crisis support (and plant medicine). moving from a liberation-centered and anti-oppressive lens. a transition doula with skills in: abortion, death, grief, Madness, and Disability.

#MadLiterature

https://www.stefaniekaufman.com/madcripdoula

endorsing: non-carceral, peer-led mental health care systems that exist outside of the state, reimagining everything we’ve come to learn about madness, and intervening in systems that oppress, disappear, and kill Disabled and mad folks.

Please Note: I don’t know Them in any capacity and They sure look bad-ass

Hashtags & Group mentions below
#Madness #MadMastodon #MadPride #MadThought
#MadMovement #MadStudies #Mad #Madodon #TransMad

#CarceralAbleism
#instutionalization

#Ablesim #DisabilityCommunity #InvisibleDisabilities
#PsychiatricSurvivor #AntiPsychiatry #DisabilityJustice
#LivedExperience #PsychSurvivor #ChronicPain
#DisabilityMastodon #Neurodivergent #RadicalMentalHealth
#CripCamp #DisabilityRights #NeuroDiversity
#Sanism #Disability #DisabilityStudies
#Stories #isolation

——

@MadMovementMastodon
@[email protected]
@disability
@[email protected]
@disabilityhistory
@neurodivergence

Disability doula. Peer support. Social support. Physical support. Cultural roots.

#MadLiterature
Newly disabled people aren’t given a ‘how-to’ guide. Disability doulas are closing those gaps.
The community care practice, pioneered by queer women of color, reorients newly disabled people to a different life

https://19thnews.org/2023/07/disability-doulas-support-newly-disabled-people/

Hashtags & Group mentions below
#AntiBlackSanism
#Madness #MadMastodon #MadPride #MadThought
#MadMovement #MadStudies #Mad #Madodon #TransMad

#Ablesim #DisabilityCommunity #InvisibleDisabilities
#PsychiatricSurvivor #AntiPsychiatry #DisabilityJustice
#LivedExperience #PsychSurvivor #ChronicPain
#DisabilityMastodon #Neurodivergent #RadicalMentalHealth
#CripCamp #DisabilityRights #NeuroDiversity
#Sanism #Disability #DisabilityStudies
#Stories

——

@MadMovementMastodon
@[email protected]
@disability
@[email protected]
@disabilityhistory
@neurodivergence

At the discussion on #MadStudies author Dr. Prateeksha Sharma's book "Barriers to Recovery in Psychosis: A Peer Investigation of Psychiatric Subjectivation", a lot of hope was given to disabled and neurodivergent folks seeking recovery as a goal from their psychiatric treatment.

Open Minded Online
sharing ideas and resources about holistic approaches to emotional and social wellbeing

We are two people who both have a great passion for holistic approaches to mental health. This passion has grown out of our own experiences of receiving traditional psychiatric treatment and finding it lacking.

We believe that it is possible to make sense of intense states of mind often described as psychosis.

#MadLiterature
https://openmindedonline.com/resources/

Hashtags & Group mentions below
#asylum #instutionalization
#Madness #MadMastodon #MadPride #MadThought
#MadMovement #MadStudies #Mad #Madodon #TransMad

#Ablesim #DisabilityCommunity #InvisibleDisabilities
#PsychiatricSurvivor #AntiPsychiatry #DisabilityJustice
#LivedExperience #PsychSurvivor #ChronicPain
#DisabilityMastodon #Neurodivergent #RadicalMentalHealth
#CripCamp #DisabilityRights #NeuroDiversity
#Sanism #Disability #DisabilityStudies
#Stories

@MadMovementMastodon
@[email protected]
@disability
@[email protected]
@disabilityhistory
@neurodivergence

#MadLiterature in progress:
RD Laing, David Cooper, Ervin Goffman, & Thomas Szaz
Interesting. History.
——
Hashtags & Group mentions below

#eugenics #asylum #CarceralAbleism.
#AntiBlackSanism #instutionalization
#Madness #MadMastodon #MadPride #MadThought
#MadMovement #MadStudies #Mad #Madodon #TransMad

#Ablesim #DisabilityCommunity #InvisibleDisabilities
#PsychiatricSurvivor #AntiPsychiatry #DisabilityJustice
#LivedExperience #PsychSurvivor #ChronicPain
#DisabilityMastodon #Neurodivergent #RadicalMentalHealth
#CripCamp #DisabilityRights #NeuroDiversity
#Sanism #Disability #DisabilityStudies
#Stories

——

@MadMovementMastodon
@[email protected]
@disability
@[email protected] @disabilityhistory @neurodivergence

50-Word Micro Essay 1: On Love

I’ve heard some people say that you can’t really love another person without being able to love yourself, but I’ve learned that the reverse is often truer: We figure out how to receive and embody goodness by being surrounded by it. We know love is there because we live it.

#CreativeWriting #CreativeNonfiction #Essay #MadThought #MadStudies #CripTheory #Love #Writing #Writer #MicroBlog #MentalHealth #Madness #MicroEssay #50Words

50-Word Micro Essay 1: On Love

I’ve heard some people say that you can’t really love another person without being able to love yourself, but I’ve learned that the reverse is often truer: We figure out how to receive and embody goodness by being surrounded by it. We know love is there because we live it.

#CreativeWriting #CreativeNonfiction #Essay #MadThought #MadStudies #CripTheory #Love #Writing #Writer #MicroBlog #MentalHealth #Madness #MicroEssay #50Words

50-Word Micro Essay 1: On Love

I’ve heard some people say that you can’t really love another person without being able to love yourself, but I’ve learned that the reverse is often truer: We figure out how to receive and embody goodness by being surrounded by it. We know love is there because we live it.

#CreativeWriting #CreativeNonfiction #Essay #MadThought #MadStudies #CripTheory #Love #Writing #Writer #MicroBlog #MentalHealth #Madness #MicroEssay #50Words

A little video of my art installation from the ‘Art as Counter Narrative’ exhibit at the recent Carceral Geography Conference at @unimelb.

This was big emotional & creative labour, revisiting harsh memories from nine years of violent psychiatric treatment.

#artinstallation #psychsurvivor #madstudies #trauma #textileart #sexualviolence #child abuse #carceralstate #abolition #institutionalviolence

Another introduction, this time in hashtags…

Some of my identities:
#Autistic #Trans #Nonbinary #Mad #PsychiatricSurvivor #Queer #Poet #Writer #CatPerson #Artist #Student #Photographer

Some of my interests:
#DisabilityStudies #MadStudies #CripTheory #QueerTheory #MadMovement #AbstractArt #Painting #Photography #Poetry #CreativeNonfiction #MicroFiction #DisabilityJustice #Audiobooks #Podcasts #DocumentaryFilms #Academia #Tetris

Feel free to say hi and let me know what we have in common!

Another introduction, this time in hashtags…

Some of my identities:
#Autistic #Trans #Nonbinary #Mad #PsychiatricSurvivor #Queer #Poet #Writer #CatPerson #Artist #Student #Photographer

Some of my interests:
#DisabilityStudies #MadStudies #CripTheory #QueerTheory #MadMovement #AbstractArt #Painting #Photography #Poetry #CreativeNonfiction #MicroFiction #DisabilityJustice #Audiobooks #Podcasts #DocumentaryFilms #Academia #Tetris

Feel free to say hi and let me know what we have in common!

Another introduction, this time in hashtags…

Some of my identities:
#Autistic #Trans #Nonbinary #Mad #PsychiatricSurvivor #Queer #Poet #Writer #CatPerson #Artist #Student #Photographer

Some of my interests:
#DisabilityStudies #MadStudies #CripTheory #QueerTheory #MadMovement #AbstractArt #Painting #Photography #Poetry #CreativeNonfiction #MicroFiction #DisabilityJustice #Audiobooks #Podcasts #DocumentaryFilms #Academia #Tetris

Feel free to say hi and let me know what we have in common!

Another introduction, this time in hashtags…

Some of my identities:
#Autistic #Trans #Nonbinary #Mad #PsychiatricSurvivor #Queer #Poet #Writer #CatPerson #Artist #Student #Photographer

Some of my interests:
#DisabilityStudies #MadStudies #CripTheory #QueerTheory #MadMovement #AbstractArt #Painting #Photography #Poetry #CreativeNonfiction #MicroFiction #DisabilityJustice #Audiobooks #Podcasts #DocumentaryFilms #Academia #Tetris

Feel free to say hi and let me know what we have in common!

Another introduction, this time in hashtags…

Some of my identities:
#Autistic #Trans #Nonbinary #Mad #PsychiatricSurvivor #Queer #Poet #Writer #CatPerson #Artist #Student #Photographer

Some of my interests:
#DisabilityStudies #MadStudies #CripTheory #QueerTheory #MadMovement #AbstractArt #Painting #Photography #Poetry #CreativeNonfiction #MicroFiction #DisabilityJustice #Audiobooks #Podcasts #DocumentaryFilms #Academia #Tetris

Feel free to say hi and let me know what we have in common!