Speaker claims to have bipolar (unsure if actually diagnosed), 5 part video series describing personal story.
!note: Detailed description about pyschosis episode and forced sedation.
!note: Expresses scepticism over validity of medication and common medical treatment. (likely due to poor personal experience)
Pt1 intro and beginning telling personal story of first episode.
Pt2 continues personal story, describes positive symptoms, delusions and psychosis.
Pt3 continues personal story, describes arrest and forced sedation.
Pt4 continues personal story, describes leaving psychiatric ward and reflection on treatment there.
Pt5 Problematic suggests people get off medication without knowing anyone in the audience.
@awarewolf - im all for hearing different sides of the recovery story but please be careful about what you suggest. I personally during my first episode was semi-psychotic for months there was no chance of “riding it out”.
I obviously cant review a whole channel. Does he at least not suggest that everyone (no matter their circumstances) come off medication? What might be helpful to the thread is if you edit and write a little blurb of the key take aways you had from his channel.
I don’t mind your contribution to the thread i just wish you had a more thoughtful approach. Its fine to share a difference of opinion but to just share things without explanation that are potentially harmful to people is a little reckless. If your intention is to help people then i invite you to continue sharing but be mindful that everyone’s circumstances are different and the people that come here for information are often more vulnerable than most. If you choose to continue to share i encourage you to write a little summary of what you got from what you are sharing so that others may make informed choices about what they pay attention to - lets not bury the lede.
Speaker is an experienced meditator with Bipolar disorder (non expert, non qualified), gives a brief introduction and then a “Non-Dual” guided meditation followed by QnA (mostly positive affirmations for the guided meditation).
Introduction - Description of symptoms of Bipolar hypo/mania and meditation practice. Describes self understanding of existence but not in a prescriptive way. Offers perspective of having bipolar and what it means in identity. Benefits of a non dual practice.
Meditation (Guided nondual) - 13:58-41:31
QnA - Validation of the technique (approval from participants), Does non dual relate to determinism?
I find it is helpful to inspect the configurations of ignorance, attachment and aversion which give rise to stress in my own life.
I keep note of the 4NT, within life is the capacity for suffering, There are causes to suffering, There is an uproot of these causes, and there is a path that leads to the uprooting of these which results in peace born of understanding the causes of suffering in relationship to one’s life.
This, paired with the determination to live well, make life work, and to live peacefully & at ease in a way that is conducive to myself, other and All, is what led me to the realisation that I have had.
Wisdom, concentration and ethical noble conduct takes precedent.
The below link is a resource on recovery oriented language for talking to or about people with mental illnesses.
Background
People living with mental health conditions are among some of the most disadvantaged people
in the community. Many live with psychosocial difficulties exacerbated by historical and current
trauma, poverty and poor physical health. Frequently they may also have experienced stigma and
discrimination as part of everyday experiences.
Mental Health Coordinating Council developed the first Recovery Oriented Language Guide in
2013 because language matters. The Guide continues to be important in the context of mental
health, where words can convey hope, optimism and support, and promote a culture that fosters
recovery and wellbeing. The Recovery Oriented Language Guide is recognised as a valuable
resource widely used across mental health and human services in Australia and overseas.
This edition includes updates to reflect contemporary language use, introduces diversity inclusive
language and incorporates new topics, including talking about grief and loss, and recovery
language usage in the written word.
Development of the Guide has been informed by several sources, including international and
Australian literature, conversations with mental health practitioners across service sectors and,
importantly, through listening to people with lived experience of mental health conditions concerning
their recovery journeys, as well as perspectives from their carers, families and support people
Extract of the first part of the guide below. The entire document is about 30 pages.
Oooh I actually really disagree on the don’t label rule for certain DSM labels. For one, I am ADHD I don’t have ADHD. This is a common political ADHD/Autistic move to own our neurodivergence and celebrate our unique brains.
Everyone is different, the advise to ask, further down is more apt.
I suggest the meditators, who are diagnosed with a mental illness, should be carefully advised to continually practice Right View (i.e. vipassana) and mindfulness (i.e. samatha) essentially based on SN/SA suttas, particularly Right View:
First, you should know exactly what a diagnosis means/used in the current healthcare paradigm, and then listen carefully to all criticism against the system, including anecdotal evidence from those who really know, the patient itself.
When all is done, then it’s time to go to the teachings. If the research is done sufficiently, then there will be immediate clarity and letting go, with no need for further investigation.
I’m saying that the current system functions like crude machinery that produces more suffering than it heals, and there’s no one to blame.
To some extent it is correct to understand the current healthcare system first. But note that ‘right view’ (including ‘mindfulness’) path (in the SN/SA suttas) is in a practical sense, rather than on idealistic and systematic theory.
Right view is both mundane and super-mundane. The first is abstract, the second is bare awareness with the abstract embodied. Noen of these are obstructions for gathering facts about the current paradigm.
i think across all diagnoses its probably kinder to not presume a person accepts their diagnosis as an acceptable label. if thats not the case for you great but as a general guide its wise not to label. i for instance have a diagnosis of bipolar 1 i dont find it appropriate to call me bipolar as though that was a final explanation of me.
My point is I actually don’t like it if you say I have ADHD and this is an unkind way to speak about me (it feels invalidating of my disability) and this goes for most ADHDers I know (same with autistic folks I know). Don’t assume either way is much safer. I have been an advocate for ADHD and ND politics for several years and have had my diagnosis for 20 years. We, following the pioneering work of the autistic community, have been developing a very thorough disability politics around the term neurodivergence and neurodiversity. Don’t presume you know the trends in our two communities. Note I am not speaking for all of us and using words like “tend to” and “trend”and referring to people I know (including in online adhd community spaces) here. But absolutely what I am saying is the current trend in our two communities.
Someone explaining it far better than me:
Example of where we are heading as a community (a lot of my autistic AND ADHD friends are reading this book at the moment around learning to be ourselves instead of pretending to be neurotypical, which is part of the whole identity formation process happening in our communities):
the point i was making was the guide addresses a broader community than adhd and autism, and when addressing people from this broader community it is probably wiser to not presume that they accept their diagnosis as part of their identity i.e. to not refer to them as schizophrenic etc. thank you for the adhd perspective.
, personal record, you know 
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