On April 27th, I woke up and I felt it. I felt so alone and isolated. I felt like no one in the world knew where I was or how I felt. I knew the depression had come, and the mania was over.

The Harm Reduction Guide to Coming Off Psychiatric Drugs, published by The Icarus Project and Freedom Center, is now available in Greek - thanks to the dedicated volunteer translation work of Marianna Kefallinou and Katerina Tsantila and the design work of Vassilis Betsis. You can download the Greek version here.

Οδηγός Μείωσης της Βλάβης για τη Διακοπή των Ψυχιατρικών Φαρμάκων

It all started with six months sober, and four months of a depression I can't even begin to explain. The walls crowding around me, my skin tearing from the tendens. A bash of rashing emotions, something I'd equal to a flash fload, only lasting months at a time and talking to you. Like, little devilish green men inside your brain telling you to off yourself for no "appearent" reason, except that it's really the only way. Fuck that. Logically I am intelligent, not always brilliant, whitty, well written, or even well put together.. But I can't care about those things in bouts like these.

 i was not a person yesterday.

Do you already consider yourself complete as an individual, or in the U.S. do you seek completion by extending yourself to society and the work force? While on one hand, work does amount to a sense of security and helps us feel more confident at what we do---I personally feel that we should already be complete within ourselves before we start working and continue to feel complete, without work making us who we are. This conversation I had with my father made me realize how in a consumerist society, one is prey to the role we play within the system...one we cannot easily avoid. Shouldn't everyone deserve fundamental things: food, homes, opportunities? If we are born with the God-given right to be free, shouldn't our government uphold this principle and not let us be poor or go hungry in America?

"He isn't sophisticated enough to defend himself against the ideologies and weapons of those who incarcerate and indoctrinate him. And if we act quickly, we can ensure that his nascent rebellion will never find a consciously coherent expression-now or in later life."

'Childhood schizophrenia'.

Pinned to me in 1964, at age six. The drugs soon followed - as did the 'special-ed' classes, outpatient 'treatment' at several different hospitals and finally at age sixteen, admission to a 'group home'.