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SUMMARY:Do You Hear What I Hear? And other ways of thinking about psychosis [In-Person]
DESCRIPTION:Emma Goude\, author of My Beautiful Psychosis\, joined us on Extremely Human to talk about experiences often labelled as psychosis. We’ve been talking about “extreme states”… what does that term mean to you? Emma: “I tend not to use the term extreme state because to me it’s… if I think of like a linear spectrum of something and there’s two extremes to it\, there’s one the lowest and one the highest\, but it’s very linear. It’s what people are already experiencing\, you know\, an extreme of something that they’re already familiar with. But for me\, what I experience is… it’s not on that spectrum. It’s… completely off the spectrum. So I would probably prefer something more like extraordinary state because it’s not on that spectrum… or I’ve also used the term altered state… or let’s maybe call it an expanded state. You know\, we’re expanding our perceptual abilities.” Rachel: “I really noticed I responded to expanded state… that really resonated for me.” Have you experienced this yourself? And how do you make sense of it? Emma: “I came into all of the extreme states… through being diagnosed with having a psychotic episode. So the first word I came across was psychosis. And I found that the experience itself\, I was okay with. But as soon as someone labelled that and diagnosed it as a psychosis\, I found it really disturbing. And it disturbed my sense of self\, it disturbed my sense of other people’s view of me. It’s a shame that’s got on top of it\, like you feel like something wrong\, you know\, that what you’re experiencing is seriously wrong\, and that’s incredibly shameful. I always have this period of shame afterwards where I have to kind of take the horrible junk off me that society has put on my experience. So I’m trying to reclaim the word psychosis… I’ve looked at the aetiology of the word… the Greek word psyche… one of the words is for soul… and osis… I’m using the word that it comes from\, a process. So I like the word psychosis\, a soul process. So when my life has become unmanageable\, as my ego is living it… and my soul has been crushed and is saying\, enough is enough is enough\, and tries to break out\, that I would call a psychosis or a soul process. I’ve heard psychosis being described as something we have yet to find words for… it’s some kind of communication that’s trying to take place that we have yet to find words for.” Rachel: “That’s essentially what these podcasts hopes were about… to talk about how we reduce the effect of pathologising people’s experiences.” How have you learned to move in and out of these states? Emma: “It’s more of a wish… because at the moment\, it all feels like it’s accidental. Now\, I’m clearly in charge\, but I can’t find the mechanism which is conscious about it. To me\, it’s all happening as if I haven’t got… I’m not in control of when it happens. One would be just strengthening my ability to avoid it… because actually it’s incredibly disruptive for my life… and then I have to go into hospital and be medicated… all of that I want to avoid. So I’ve spent a lot of my life trying to prevent them… constantly monitoring my sleep. But there’s also a part of me which just loves the adventure and I want to be able to dip in and out of it at will so that I can choose. So I’m dancing this fine line of trying to get the good stuff out of it without having to end up in hospital… and that seems to be my lifelong journey.” What helps when you’re in that state? Emma: “To me\, being in a least stimulating environment… it needs to be an environment which is really beautiful and calm and there’s nothing… television\, radio\, any kind of modern culture… anything like that is just a negative. So to be absolutely clear of that… being very close to nature really helps. Obviously\, sleep… if you haven’t slept for a few nights\, the most important thing is going to be sleep. And another thing that helps… is meditation. Meditation is like the ability to just stay focused on your experience and only your experience without rushing into any action or reaction. For example… I got this weird\, weird feeling… that I was the reincarnation of Evita. Now\, because of my practice of meditation\, I hold that lightly. I don’t go around… saying I am the reincarnation of Evita. I go\, isn’t that interesting? I’m having the experience that I feel like I’m the reincarnation of Evita… maybe I am\, maybe I’m not. I don’t actually know.” Rachel: “I think holding lightly my ideas allows me to be open… and not be too closed.” Emma: “Yeah… because really\, we know nothing in the end. We don’t really know.” What can people around you do that helps? Emma: “I think managing your anxiety is probably the most helpful thing you can do… because they’re going to pick up on all your fears. And then\, you know\, fear is… I think it is the thing that will catapult you into it further. Rachel: “As a practitioner\, I think\, you know\, that if I don’t manage my fear\, it will drive responses that I don’t want to be giving or force me to act in ways that are responding to that fear rather than perhaps what person I’m trying to be with needs at that point in time.” Emma: “I want to throw the question back to you guys. What would you like\, what do you think would help them?” Rachel: “What I want from other people is calmness and presence… someone that can be calm and say\, it’ll be all right and just be with you.” Lucy: “I think from my experience is someone that can… sit with you in the experience\, but have a bit of humour about it as well. I’ve always found humour to get you through some dark situations. A little bit of humour goes a long way.” Emma: “I like that… calm… humour… I’ll have that as well.” What about mental health services… what could be different? Emma: “They’re not my ideas\, but as soon as I heard about Open Dialogue\, which was developed in Finland\, I wanted to find out more about it because I think that’s the way we need to be heading towards… I heard about this thing that… they had the worst statistics in Europe… and a group of family therapists got together and decided to create something new. So Open Dialogue is a space created… it’s a democratic space where everybody equally has a voice… and the practitioners are trained to make sure everybody’s voice in the room is heard. It’s not like this top-down thing where you have the expert… it’s a space of discussion where the person at the centre of concern and the people that they’ve chosen… everyone gets a say. Instead of just ‘what’s wrong with you?’ it’s ‘what has brought us to this point?’ It’s not ‘what’s wrong with you’\, it’s ‘what happened to you?’ It’s looking at how we can\, together\, as a community of people\, rebuild these social networks… so that people have the support within their community and they can get better.” 								\n				\n					\n		\n					\n		\n		\n					\n				\n				\n							\n			\n		\n						\n				\n					\n				\n				\n						\n					\n			\n						\n				\n									Emma shares more of her story in My Beautiful Psychosis: Making Sense of Madness\, if you’re curious to hear more about her experiences:  								\n				\n				\n				\n									\n					\n						\n									Check out Emma's book\n					\n					\n				\n								\n				\n					\n		\n					\n		\n		\n				\n				\n							\n					\n						\n				\n				\n				\n						\n					\n			\n						\n				\n							\n			\n		\n						\n				\n					\n		\n					\n		\n		\n					\n				\n				\n									Want to explore more on psychosis and unshared realities?								\n				\n					\n				\n				\n						\n					\n			\n						\n				\n									\n					\n						\n									Check out our course
URL:https://discovery.college/event/do-you-hear-what-i-hear-and-other-ways-of-thinking-about-psychosis/
LOCATION:Bunjil Place\, 2 Patrick NE Dr\, Narre Warren\, Melbourne\, Victoria\, 3805
CATEGORIES:In-Person
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ORGANIZER;CN="discovery college":MAILTO:info@discovery.college
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