Anji is a radical feminist who blames the patriarchy for her long-standing depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety disorder and bad hair days. Her interests include rats, collecting books, eating as much as she can and trying to raise her son into a well-indoctrinated tool of the matriarchy.
Posts by Anji
nectarine is…
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marytracy9 is a bonkers, lefty feminist, who happens to feel she has a duty to speak out. She is also a feminist who likes PINK and is too unaware of her physical appearence for her own good. Call the cops!
Posts by marytracy9
shatterboxx is a long-term sufferer of depression, with a butterfly obsession and an Oreo addiction. She’s currently working for a BA in Creative Writing and reads more than her bookshelves can handle.
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v is into radical feminism and social anarchism, when she isn’t disappearing into her own head for yet another battle. She enjoys science fiction tv shows, knitting, and video games, and lives in south-west England.
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girlycomic is a woman in her 30s, a comic creator, comic book editor, librarian, aromatherapist and many other things besides. She has suffered from depression and chronic fatigue syndrome/ME. She is on the road to recovery thanks to the support of her friends, family and CBT. She also watches far too many US crime dramas, and reads a lot of paranormal romance novels.
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Kate is a feminist, queer activist, and mother of two small kids. She lives in Edinburgh.
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RG is a 26 year old living with her parents (joy…) in order to pay off her massive student debt and afford psychotherapy. She’s trying to unlatch the grip of an eating disorder and almost lifelong depression, while suffering from a difficult addiction to Special Agent Fox Mulder.
Posts by RG
karrigan is…
Posts by karrigan
Hi all,
I am doing a research on Blogging, Women and Disability/Illness and I have included your blog in the study. I blog about it at
http://madissertation.wordpress.com/
I have a few questions published and I would very much appreciate it if you could take a look at them and decided to participate.
Thank you in advance for that,
Aristea
Hi ‘Crazy Like Us?’
Just to let you know that BONKERSFEST is happening on Sat 19th July, Camberwell Green. London SE5
do take a peek at our website.
I’m sorry yo have had the incorrect information – we had to change the dates to allow increased opportunity for funding.
Hope you decide to join us
Bonkershugs,
from the organisers of BonkersFest!
Hi CLU. This is a great, thought-provoking blog, punctuated by razor sharp honesty and precise empathy. I can tell I’ll be spending a long while going through the past posts.
I also like that your header graphic has panels all from from comics that I own.
Leigh
Sorry girls I’m back again. I would just like to recommend a doctor I am aware of in London. He is highly recommended and new to the UK. So if anyone is in a position to go see him his name is Dr. Bob Johnson in his new clinic which is EMOTION CLINIC in London. I can pass on the address and email address if you want. I can give you the details of how I came across him also. So you can check him out for yourselves.
Books I can recommend for depression and my son suffers with this a great deal are the selection of books written by Dorothy Rowe. She is good with this and it is worth finding out what she has to say.
I am against drugs being used in psychiatry and am a believer in psychotherapy. Saying that I have never been in a position to receive that but am investigating that to find the right one. Because there are so many different people and their approaches. They are not easily available and it is difficult to find one that suits you in your area and I live in Wales. They are more readily available in the US. At the moment therapists are being introduced to the NHS. But this is limiting and suspect in some ways because of some of the methods used with the NHS. So I am looking into this and investigating this and will of course pass on anything that comes to light. My son has gone through two therapists.
There is a siminar which is taking place next week in Liverpool. This is being held by Mike Smith and Marion Alson which website I passed on to you Crazydiamond.org and their Elemental.org.uk projects.. They have a long record and experience with helping people and women with mental health issues here in the UK but are not widely known about.
I have good books written by feminists that I have recently come across which I will be glad to pass on to you. Also books available on Amazon that you might like to read about the conditions and symptoms and everything involved regarding depression, psychosis, paranoia, hearing voices, OCD and other disorders. Which I feel feminists as women so need to address because so many women and children are affected around the world and go it alone. Struggling with this and not knowing just how to get through.
I would just like to say one more thing and that is as you probably are aware there are ‘Survivors’ and I consider myself to be one of them. And yes I will be willing to discuss anything with you. Any issues. Because I can relate and have experienced so many what I am aware of and what you say and I have learnt a lot about it to over the years. And am still learning and would be glad to pass on anything I can.
So you young women and girls there is hope at the end of the tunnel. And if at all I would like to pass on my own experiences throughout my life as a wife, mother, daughter, sister from a feminists perpective.
From what I have just read on this blog I can relate to as I experienced also some of it right from an early age. Not OCD directly but other symptoms that could be related. Medication induced depression. And voices. And paranoia. And delusions. And sexual abuse. And rejection. And inward feelings of inferiority and low self esteem. Anger. And receiving abuse by other women which I think hurts us more than anything. And sexual issues. Friendship and relationship issues.Family issues. Work issues. Housewife issues. Motherin issues. Drug damage issues. Everything I can talk about if you like. The feminist Phyllis Chesler writes in her books Women and Madness and Woman’s Inhumanity to Woman. Which in some respects I found helpful in other ways I didn’t.
Even so saying this there are so many success stories out there as you probably are aware and women who have these conditions are so courageous and heroic which none of them probably would admit to but I’m afraid that is my experience and I know this to be a fact. Even women who have only experienced this for a short while in their lifetime to me I know are corageous and those that get through after having it all their lives like me personally I know because I have survived and my son is still alive I feel that is a great achievement although it is very hard for me to pat myself on the back even after all these years.
I’m sorry for going on and just want to say that I can offer help and maybe advice if you like. And what I don’t know I can find out about. So many women find themselves isolated and this is a particularly hard sort of isolation and I think you all do so well in the way you understand so much about it yourselves anyway. I’m afraid this is fact so I won’t compliment as such because it really doesn’t count what I feel and say it is all about how you feel about yourselves and what coping mechanisms you are able to find for yourselves. The fact that what I have just read on this blog and at the time it was written those who actually wrote it were alive means something. The whole idea now is to get as many women talking and discussing these issues which to me have not always been addressed through feminism adequatley. This is important to me.
And I know it is important to you also. I have personally been commenting on a radical feminist blog also I wrote to another feminist organisationa and feel that somehow because I haven’t been acknowled there is an issue within the movement about disabled women feminists who have mental health issues and in some ways there is an element of rejection and prejudice there also. Not with everybody but I feel there is not enough said and done about women going through and who have been through and have experienced all of these conditions. The relationships within families and the system and society everything this concerns from what I am understanding sometimes is not always seen or addressed sympathetically by feminists and also in other ways it is.
But the fact is that there is not a lot known about why we go mad anyway. That is the truth but there are insights and there are proven theraputic advancement in treatments. And also there are in Europe other communtiy supports that have been set up where they have had great success and proven to help people greatly. There are user-led groups all over. I think it is important that some of these are women orientated and user-led specifically for women alone. As you probably know there are refuges set up for mentally ill women in the UK but they are not many.
I don’t believe everything about mental illness is negative and there are many reasons why I personally feel that what most peoples experiences are profoundly valuable because it enhances other emotions and makes us extremely astute and aware of others and situations that so many people don’t question. We go to places other people don’t and nobody is aware of it because of the way mentally ill people are portrayed in patriarchial society. We have to hide it. And therefore in my opinion we are more vulnerable than most. As women suffer so much just being women whereas in previous histories people like us were considered so valuable in cultures as Shamens and Spiritually aware and were once pillars of the community were respected.
I believe the bible is all about people who are considered mentally ill and religious beliefs are based on the levels of consciousness that we experience without drugs to enduce it. Because I feel we have within us that value because we go there and others don’t. To me that not only makes us special it makes us extra special as women.
I know you won’t accept this, but that is my belief, having written that now I do not see that in myself. But I see it in others and also what I have read on this blog. That is just part of it. There is so much about it and I don’t know a lot still and have only just started to explore it thoroughly on the internet and am only just able to be in touch with the few people out there who share my beliefs.
I am sorry if this is long winded. Just wonderful that you have set up this site.
If anything I hope it gets you talking amongst yourselves and thinking about the things I have said. And I hope you checkout the websites. And I really hope you get back to me. Even so I will continue to pass on my comments because I know there are others who can help out there with more experience than me who have helped people and spent their lifetimes dedicated to our welfare. Both men and women. These people are not found within normal structures of psychiatry and they are I believe pioneers in their approaches just like feminists are.
Saying that I will pass on the information I can to you and let you decide for yourselves what you do with this. It is as far I am concerned a very personal opinion which is every woman’s right to decide and which every person with mental health issues has it within themselves to make. It is a purely individual experience and the idea I have by writing this on your blog is to maybe give you feelings of empowerment which out of your own choice you can find to cope with some of the very hard realities of living day to day with mental illness.
Bye for now.
Anne