There is another option"” it's called Theatre of the Oppressed (T.O.). For over forty years Brazilian director and legislator, Augusto Boal, has been leading groups through more than 600 games designed to confront internal and external oppression. This "two-way theatre" is used all over the world by activists, teachers, mental health workers and artists who value personal experience as a reflection of universal issues.

This article tells an Icarus Project member's story of trying various treatments and finally finding Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, which focuses on teaching specific skills to help people deal with their lives: And then I heard one sentence that made sense. "Suicide is not chosen; it happens when pain exceeds resources for coping with pain."

Food not Bombs is what the local church soup kitchen would turn into if it was suddenly taken over by mad anarchists armed only with spatulas and dull knives which were barely able to cut through vegetables - if God and the 10 commandments were replaced by a collective and mutual aid, and the body of Christ was used to feed the hungry instead of the holy.

The Zapatistas called for "a world in which many worlds fit," offering "one no and many yeses." Subcomandante Marcos, one of the main spokespeople of the movement, in a famous communiqué wrote that he was a gypsy in Italy, a black man in the ghetto, a queer in San Francisco, a lone woman on a dark street at night, a hungry campesino in the jungle.

Caty writes about finding the Freedom Center, Western Massachussetts' "only group run by and for people labeled with severe "˜mental illnesses'" which calls for "compassion, human rights, self-determination, and holistic alternatives" and much more. The Freedom Center's support groups and local actions have made a huge impact on lives of people in their community; find out more about this amazing resource.

Harm reduction (HR) is a process of immediately reducing the harm to one's self and others, free of judgment and outside coercion. It is a philosophy and working/living style that acknowledges that we are not forever our current behaviors, addictions, vices or negative thought patterns and that our lives are guided by states of change - from infancy to adolescence, adulthood to old age.

It was through an experience of synchronicity that I found my people"”our loose-knit, decentralized movement of "crazy" artists, spiritual revolutionaries, and activists that defies easy categorization. At the suggestion of my therapist, who wanted me to go back on meds, I went to the bookstore to find Peter Kramer's Listening to Prozac. That book was not on the shelf; instead, I found Peter Breggin's Talking Back to Prozac...