Friday, April 9, 2010

Book Review: Mental Health, Naturally

Mental Health, Naturally is a book written by an M.D., and is part of what I would call "soft" mental health treatment. It deals with the issues that families run into with their kids, and it is medically oriented.


On the other hand, the author is familiar with a lot of nutritional and life style approaches to mental illness and what we would call "recovery". If you can get past the warm and fuzzy language and the medical view of mental health, there is a wealth of information, tips, and techniques that could be useful for anyone working on their recovery.


Reading through this book reminded me of my experiences with Orthomolecular Psychiatry in the 70's and the way OP affected the substance abuse community and people with severe mental illness. When I get the time, I'll post some of those stories.


Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081
MDRC Website: http://www.copower.org/
LTC Blog: http://ltcreform.blogspot.com/
Recovery: http://therecoveringlife.blogspot.com/

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Firewalkers

"Firewalkers: madness, beauty & mystery" is a book of recovery journeys developed by VOCAL, a recovery community non-profit.  The power of the book lies in the inclusion of solid descriptions of "emotional turbulence and altered states; visionary melt-downs and spiritual breakthroughs; ecstatic visions and crazy blessings", as the back cover describes them.


Each of the seven stories is as different and unique as you would expect. They reflect the real experiences and journeys of their authors, the good, the bad, the ugly, and the lessons. They also reveal the great risks they underwent.


The book is rounded out with questions about the authors experiences and their views on stigma and the truth they have learned from their mental experiences. 


The openness about mental experiences and the lessons they contain reminds me of the 60's and early 70's when there was a greater acceptance of unusual experiences. Unfortunately, at that time, recovery was only an individually discovered, and locally supported, notion without the  exploding social network and community movement we have now.


Well worth purchasing, and well worth a read. And you'll be helping VOCAL in its recovery community work.


Paperback, $14.95 


Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081
MDRC Website: http://www.copower.org/
LTC Blog: http://ltcreform.blogspot.com/
Recovery: http://therecoveringlife.blogspot.com/