Aspies For Freedom

http://www.recoverypsychology.org
My page is ussually in a state of revision.  I have been working on this concept of recovery psychology for almost three years, the concept is based on the recovery model for psychiatric disabilities.  I have been a consumer of mental health services off and on since I was 24 years old.  What I found is that the medication does not do anything for me.  What does do something for me is being in a state of deep thought for 12 to 16 hours a day.  I find that most people I meet have what appears to me to be little to no attention span.  I discuss concepts with college graduates with degrees in clinical psychology about things that have been published in every clinical psychology textbook written since I was 2 years old, and they do not remember any of the stuff I am talking about, I think they are playing games with me or playing stupid.  It makes no sense that they can graduate from college in clinical psychology and not remember what they studied in school.  So it is even harder for me to explain to them what needs to be changed about clinical psychology, if they do not know anything about it.  Then there is psychiatric rehabilitation that addresses recovery, when I explain that psychiatric rehabilitation is like the profession of being a welder where as the phenomena of recovery would be like the phenomena of heat; and that there is a science of heat called thermodynamics...but what they are lacking is a science of recovery...they give me that look as if I was crazy or stupid...I can recover from depression, and as they say recovery does not mean the depression will ever go away permenently, I have to agree when every person I meet is not wired like me mentally...I am prone to depression, frustration and loneliness...It is not that I feel superior to the "mundanes" or the "normies" (I mean no discrimination or abuse here, only trying to express) I can only say that I am not wired like many people, I am not sure what my childhood DX was because my family was always in denial that I was different.

Luia lashire wrote : " I've also found that few people want to talk about the things I want to talk about in the depth I want to talk about them or for the length of time I want to talk about them.  Even professionals glaze over."

That is funny - It used to be the same for me - I've since stopped talking about anything of much interest to me - and
like Recovery Psychology -where I seemed to have a good grasp of anything that I had ever read and could and would be able to speak on well a whole bunch of subjects  (well when so young there really wasn't anyone but professors or teachers to speak to) at length and in depth - I have since let my brain and my mind completely go limp from no use and atrophy.  I have forgotten all the details like names and dates.. Without my husband nearby I wouldn't even attempt so called intelligent conversation -as he can alwasy figure what name or paper or artciel I am referring... anyway use it or lose it!
(Maybe that is one of the reasons I like it so much here - everything that Recovery Pscychology said I find so very interesting - I follow you!) sorry if noone follows me...
Recovery Pscychology wrote: "there is psychiatric rehabilitation that addresses recovery, when I explain that psychiatric rehabilitation is like the profession of being a welder where as the phenomena of recovery would be like the phenomena of heat; and that there is a science of heat called thermodynamics...but what they are lacking is a science of recovery..."  I'm with you! thanks for the mental tuneup

Serious question: Do you think that aspergers autism is a "mental health" issue? I can't get over how many times it is framed this way in articles...

I think in my case, if that is proper "label" for my different kind of mental wiring...then it is a mental health issue, only in the sense that being caucasin or born in 1970 is a mental health issue, they are features of who I am to start with...these features determine my place in psychosocial temperement before the fact if I suffer from depression (a so-called mental illness)

I actually thought I would try joining AFF because I would be considered "peer support" in mental health, I am a CPRP (psych rehab) and a Developmental Disabilities Specialist (their words not mine) and to some degree dual diagnosis (their words again.) When I explore the idea that I may have an Aspergers or Autism, others laugh at me that I could not be such.  But then again the undeniable fact is that I am not wired like them, when I look at my past in special ed as child and my starving need for what I believe is substance I do find neurodiversity paralells the psychiatric liberation movement, both are often survivors of psychiatric assualt, both have to fight for civil rights...so neurodiversity appeals to me scientifically, philosophically, psychologically and personally

I do not address recovery of autism; in my psychology of developmental disabilities class (that was the name of the course) my instructor (who of course means well) told the concept was more about adaptation rather than recovery.  Well, all people need to adapt so this would be nothing new to me...However, the understanding of the recovery concept on the level that I feel I understand it, may not be possible for me if I was not of my neurotype (I think that is the wording.)  I am always hearing that recovery from mental illness does not mean cured of mental illness.  Then I ask why?  There are times when I feel not depressed.  But the depression does come back.  What causes the depression?  It is my interaction with others, the way they think, the way I think that clinical psychology does not address without brushing under the carpet or calling obsessive compulsive or manic.  My mind operates this particular way, it is not something to be cured...the depression may also be something that does not need to be cured, maybe I am supposed to be depressed in those circumstances.  Physical pain is a warning signal to protect the body from serious injury, but all psychologists can say of emotional pain is that it is a learning expeirince...maybe emotional pain is a warning sign to protect the mind from serious injury from social relationships.  Just a thought!

This is always a sign that the "professionals" who specialize in "treatment" of a condition are still at the "I shake the rattle and hope he gets better" level.

"Depression" is a term so vague as to be nearly meaningless from a clinical standpoint.  The state of modern psychiatry.  Imagine if malaria, influenza, septicimia, and measles were all just called "fever", since fever is a symptom of all of these (or often is).  Now imagine that there is only one type of drug available--it treats the "fever" symptom, sort of, and all medical research is devoted to doing nothing but treating that symptom with no care for actual differences in states or aetiologies.

I agree to last part, but that is no reason for me to not want to be depressed or for me to stop feeling that clinical psychology fails to address the needs of those who have depression, nor would it be a reason for me to stop my course of study.

If anything my NT allows me to think in ways that others do not...and for this I am just pushed in to a corner as being seriously mentally ill that all my thoughts are just symptoms and as if there is no logic behind any of it.

curebie is an interesting concept, is this like "pathologically normal," "psuedo-functional dysfunctional," "chronically normal," or "normie?"  It sounds like the same concept, but with a connotation that a "curbie" believes everyone needs to be cured...well, yes and no...If a person wants to be himself or herself, nobody has the right to interfere with that...but if any person wants help with something, we should offer them help with what they say the problem is and most likely they will know what the solution to problem is or what it looks like...So I do not really think everyone needs to be cured.  I have a friend who has a son with autism and she does not know how to coexist with him, I told her last month about the neurodiversity movement and how it looked similar to the recovery movement in lot of ways, and that if persons recovering from mental illness were better at helping persons with mental illness than were the clinicians "normies" then the neurodiversity movement would be good people to consult with issues that she has with her son...Cure for autism... no, but people helping people prehaps a cure for the problem of people not understanding one another.

A cure for misunderstanding and many of the results of being misunderstood as leading to depression or other issues? In this case mentioned above- the mom being confused/miserable and the kid being misunderstood or worse, someone trying to change him....
Imagine all the people - living life in peace.

Ha Ha! Recovobies! If that was an insult! I would still like it! I think alot of people who work with persons with mental illness can learn alot from the Neurodiversity movement...see I think my NT (neurotype) places me in such an odd situation, where I am told I am not like the other SMI people (because I am so labeled mentally ill) that I have always heard this "high functioning" and "low functioning" talk for so long that it is not funny...It always angered me...Is not functioning just functioning?  The labeling and the categorizing, it always put me where I did not feel I fit in...If Recovobie is not already a word I will gladly accept that title!

I will not say his name other than to use the letter "K" for my friends son, has only spoken that the parents report about ten words that they know of, they have described him as "LF" or high maintenence, but they say he suprises them with showing them that he is cognitively aware of things they would not expect him to know...then the support worker who comes to their house calls all food "candy" talking down to him as if he only knows the word "candy" as if another word like breakfast, lunch, dinner, fruit, hotdog, cheeseburger, lasagne or other would not communicate with him...the thing the mother knows is "K" has a functional mind but there is no communication...He is 24 years old, he is a legal adult...he would have all the rights to do what ever he pleases, if only they had a way to tell him so...and he could speak for himself

thanks for clarifying that...so it is like the AA (12 step) term "normie"

So I guess my type of neurodiversity was what I mean not my neurotype... as for the "Recovobie" I think it is a cool nick name in fact I might change my nickname to that...it is like that describes my biases, I know more about being labeled mentally ill because it is recent in my mind...my childhood would have been when I was labeled autistic or aspergers or any other label of the sort, that was brushed under the carpet and nobody wanted to discuss it...they did the mainstreaming thing for me from age 8 to 13 until the pushed me on to high school with minimal special ed classes (so I was not stigmatized as a "speddie" or a "spaz" anymore) then I was doing the party thing until I was 24 (people could stigmatize me as "stoner") then 24 on mentally ill...but all this started when I was 2-3 years old and a doctor said I would need to be placed in Special Education...My attitude has always been to get away from being a something or another and very little on accepting myself...what brings me to AFF is I AM DIFFERENT FROM OTHERS WHO THINK THEY ARE NORMAL...I do not want to be normal, if I can just be me and I am hear to read everyones posts and to learn new things