Any suggestions for free, Psych and Dream, cognitive training?

I am bipolar and live on disability. I know all about living with mental illness first hand. It is my experience that homeopathic methods do not work at all. What keeps me from losing my mind are the medications I get from a psychiatrist.

Call your local health department and ask them how to get help with mental health problems. They will help you.

I’ve got bipolar disorder. Meds saved me. There’s a reasonable chance I’d be dead if I hadn’t had them. 20% of people with bipolar don’t survive the disease. It is very serious—and a couple of other mental illnesses are equally deadly.

There are many people against meds. I know I was before I got sick. But what I didn’t know they is that these disorders are chemically based. No matter how you are treating them, you are seeking to change your brain chemistry so that the neurotransmitters fit together in a happier way.

Meds can do it. Electricity can do it. Magnetism can do it. Therapy can do it. Support groups can do it. Mindfulness can do it. Hell, even lucid dream work can help with some conditions.

The more tools you have to change your brain chemistry so it is more to your liking, the better. But think of it this way—you need to saw a few dozen trees. You’ve got a hand saw and a chain saw. Which are you going to use? Maybe the hardened self-reliant, environmentally correct, anti-corporate lumberjack will use the hands saw. Most lumberjacks will choose the chain saw.

Meds are just a tool. Yes, they are made by companies motivated by profit. Yes the companies push those drugs and maybe they are overused or used inappropriately. Yes, the drug companies pay off the docs. But there is still appropriate use of the drugs, and in case you haven’t figured it out, drugs are the chain saw. Therapy is the two-man hand saw. Lucid dream work is the handsaw.

We should throw books and online sites in there as well, because you can join an online support group and you can learn some useful techniques from books. But we’re still talking handsaws. This one is a rip saw instead of a handsaw. Outcomes are far better when you get therapy. Therapy and meds is very good. Therapy, meds and support group and books and online support equals a very high chance of a good outcome. I use them all.

Health insurance. Get Medicaid. They will pay for therapy. They’ll pay for meds and a shrink if you’ll let them. They also pay for hospitalizations. I assume you want to stay away from that.

If you have trouble getting Medicaid, there are people out there whose job is to help the mentally ill. They help you get housing and medical care and jobs. They’re there. You don’t strike me as the kind of person who would use them. But they’re there.

If you know how to lucid dream, you know that you don’t have to let the characters in your dream make you shit in your pants. You can watch them in a kind of disinterested way, while you work on waking up. You can realize that you are partly awake (which is why you scream), and then use that as a trigger to become fully awake. You can use similar techniques to quiet your fears and anxiety during the day. It’s just a matter of learning the tools. That you are motivated is extremely important. It means that when you decide to do something, you will be committed to doing it. A lot of us are in denial about our illnesses.

The trauma—like the dreams—there are tools to cope with the feelings those memories generate. You want to learn these. You’ll need them whether you use meds or not. But I urge you to reconsider. They gave me so much help and frankly, I don’t think I would be here without them. And I have two young children. All I know is that I never could have gotten better on my own. Maybe you’re a lot stronger than I am. I’m kind of lazy. But you’re in such deep shit—why? Why would you take the hardest route you can find?

“But you’re in such deep shit—why? Why would you take the hardest route you can find?”

because the seemingly tough route yields strength of soul and mind

the lazy route, the medications, creates feeble minds and imbalanced cognitive ability

which in the long run make things harder for you as a human being, let alone stopping us from learning the lessons we set out to in this life time by covering them up, out of site our of mind, damn strait their out of their mind ((p.s. i don’t mean this for those like you that use medications, i mean it in the grand scene of the entire medicated population, human beings have dealt with mental illness for thousands upon thousands of years with meditation, herbs, psychotherapy, hypnosis, etc.) i mean hell i cant even avoid the drugs entirely any way its permanently in the fucking water system from those like you that choose that route (no-offence)

see what if..the system suddenly collapsed

and the medications were no longer flowing into the prescription bottles of these patients

they would have extreme break downs due to their dependence on these outward substances

i refuse to play that game

i now that i am strong…i have overcome much already

and these dreams, though horrifically hard to cope with

are nothing compared to what i have healed in my self already

with nothing but ZaZen, herbalism, and Shamanic Medicines ((peyote, Mushrooms, marijuana etc))

but as far as those other tools are concerned i still choose the two man hand saw

the problem is

where can i find that other man

thank you so much for your in depth and well articulated response

((bows))

in any case thank you so much for the in depth response and the time you took to bestow the compassion of your wisdom and experience

((bows))

If you cannot find help with the state (or if the state refuses you because you are underage or without proper paper work) one alternative route might be to call different doctors offices directly. Perhaps you will find a doctor willing to meet with you pro bono.

great thought remeberme

arigato

I don’t know about taking the hard route making you strong. I think the hard route makes you dead much more often than the “easy” route, which, if you call that easy, you don’t need drugs. You’re superman and can fly without wings.

I suppose it’s possible that you have not experienced a depression that deep. If so, then yes, do it without drugs. If you think you have the strength of will to deal with it on your own, that’s great!

I know I thought I could handle it. With ease. I thought being smart would serve me well. But when it got down there, I was totally gob-smacked. It was worse than anything I could possibly have imagined.

I’m a person who loves life. I think it’s the greatest gift there is and the only one that matters. I’ve always wanted to live forever. But this comet came flying out of nowhere and stabbed me down deep beneath the surface of everything, and it seems like just an instant before I was ready to check out. Part of me couldn’t even believe I was thinking that, and for someone who was so far gone, I still fought as hard as I knew how. I made it, but if it weren’t for the drugs, I doubt I would have. It sure would have been a much longer trip, and not only would it have hurt me more, it would have hurt my wife and kids more. I didn’t have the luxury of being able to try to save myself without drugs.

Now here’s something I need to speak about carefully. Most of us seem to be pretty highly intelligent people, and also we’re much more closely in touch with the “shamanic” realms. Usually, we don’t need any drugs at all to enter that place. No peyote, shrooms, or marijuana. Usually those drugs are overkill for people like us. Your travels become disconnected and disjointed and their meaning tends to become phosphorescent. Very shiny and very incendiary.

Many folks like us took a lot of LSD, and it did a lot of damage. It simply isn’t necessary. That realm lies very close to me, and I can choose to fall into it at almost any time. I choose to stay away, except for during rituals designed to help people move through it safely. I am a guide for these things, and kind of hyped up now because I just took people through tonight.

I think I know what I’m talking about. You may agree or not. I am concerned for you. I know the lure of the street. I know how wildness can be incendiary, and how it can keep you blinded—believing you want to change, but secretly you have no intention of doing so because the fire is too bright and you don’t mind getting burned in it at all. That fire is the most seductive thing. Too bad it is accompanied by the comet.

I could write forever, I’m sure. There’s so much more. But I have to stop and I have to sleep, or else I will join you in the fire. Right now, I am trying very hard to stay away. It’ll get out of control and a lot of people I love will be badly hurt.

@sunyata_rakshasa
I read your question and I definitely get that you are hurting and could use some help. The view that you hold about psychiatric medications is definitely not uncommon. I am a psychiatrist and my philosophy is to use as few meds at the lowest doses possible. I am well aware of the corrupting influence of the drug companies and the control of insurance companies and I feel that despite their impositions, I can still exercise my medical training in an independent manner. There is no speedy solution to a history of childhood abuse and a medication certainly will no solve the problem for you. Your best bet is therapy. However, there are lots that meds can do to make therapy work more effectively. For example, it is very difficult to engage in therapy if you are too tired from not being able to sleep because of the nigthmares. meds can help you sleep at night so you feel more awake and energetic during the day. Some people in the depths of depression feel that their thoughts are moving SOOO slow that they cannot process therapeutic work. Meds can reduce some of these neurovegetative symptoms. Some people have circular, ruminative thoughts that are intrusive and highly disturbing. These thoughts drown out the therapeutic work. Meds can help slow these down so you can focus on one thing at a time. Some people have intense anxiety or panic as they start therapy. Meds can help prevent that so you can engage wtih a therapist.

I think a lot of people see psychiatry as a war between the “good guys” meditation, therapy, natural remedies, mindfullness and the “bad guys” psychotropic meds, electroconvulsive therapy, inpatient psychiatric hospitalizations. In truth there is not so much drama. Psychiatrists have lots of tools to offer patients and different combinations are appropriate at different times for different people in different situations. It’s very rare to have a doctor who only gives meds or only does therapy. Nobody wants to limit his/her toolbox of potential remedies.

@wundayatta i do belive you know what your talking about

i understand with great clarity the experience you are describing to me

see i was opposite

i hated life, i wanted to die since the day i gained a sense of self and what the world was like

but through great effort and much suffering i have reached place where i revel in the beauty this universe provides

but i still have areas that need healing…like this dream space

thank you so much for your care and words

i will not take artificial medication

thank you for your attempted help

((bows))

please feel free to expound as you wish in the future i hope your rest was well had

@Flavio thank you for understanding my possition on the subject

my mind will not me changed when it comes to artificial medications

in fact i dont feel that even nature medicines are that necessary, as people can become both psychologically and chemically dependent on them as well

i understand also that this is no battle between good and evil

all people are only doing what they feel is best for the situation

look my grandfather was a bi-polar, who took medications all his life, and my mother is a psych nurse

i understand the system pretty damn well

but on top of that second hand experience
i have been training for 6 years under a Dao/Zen master and know first hand the power fof meditative theorpy

but what i am really asking for with this question, is not an argument surrounding these touchy subjects

but where i might find help, pro-bono, or government or community or charity paid

and hospitalization without drugs, and even mild and controled electroconvulsive theropy, i am not aposed to

hell if it was even proven with sufficent evedince that what ever medication they decide to precribe to me, was naturaly durived, non habit forming, and non-toxic on every level of the body, including the psionic levels and spiritual levels

then fuck id take it

but over all i belive we are getting off the point

i need help

not desperately

as i am functioning in society well enough

but simply wish to heal myself further and better my functionality level

i apologize for the digretion i feel as feel i have been repeating myself with different wording for many sentances now lol

but long story short, thank you both for your attempts at helping me

but it would be better done by directing me toward some therapists that i can discuss this with face to face, as i feel that will yield more lasting results in my development

((bows)) arigato