My name is Sue Westwind and
I've looked at madness from most sides now.
A Family's Shame:
Growing up with my suicidal grandmother, watching my brother's fall into schizophrenia...I was hospitalized in the late Sixties for being a teenage runaway. My street-drug problem seemed normal to me, and it was the heyday of "blame the parents." My parents blamed our genetics, "the Wohler Madness," named after my father's maternal line.
Anti-Psychiatry:
As a young woman in California, I devoured the writings of R.D. Laing, Thomas Szasz, and the Madness Network News. I believed electroshock "therapy" and all manner of anti-psychotic drugs were deployed for social control of persons who were simply different. It was the Vietnam War era, and so much in our culture seemed poised to change.
Heal Thyself / Help Others:
In the '80's and early '90's I studied many forms of inner work and self-therapy: the Inner Child process, gestalt, yoga, Transcendental Meditation, feminist therapy, shamanic journeys and more. Finally a successful hypno-therapist in private practice, I gravitated to the works of John Weir Perry and Stanislov Grof: madness as visionary experience.
Eco-Psych / Earth Spirit:
Peaceful times in nature are my saving grace. Ecopsychology says "mental" illness is tied to alienation from Nature. I came to grasp Spirit as Divine Mother, the Earth incarnate. Nature spirituality profoundly healed my psychological distress. I've spent the past 20-plus years sharing these ways with groups and individuals.
One Little Girl:
Several years ago my husband and I adopted a gorgeous infant, later diagnosed with autism. Interest in nutritional approaches were new and promising. Meanwhile I faltered with chronic fatigue, constant migraines, and deep depression. But advances in autism treatment offered hope. Little did I know my daughter would end up saving my life.
The Nutrient Path
I learned that our daughter's autism was not fixed by drugs, mental institutions, nor was it a death sentence upon our dreams for her. The dairy-free, gluten-free diet, treatment of candida yeast, potent vitamin and supplement regimens and heavy-metal detox brought our little girl back to the family that chose her.
Once I followed her lead, even though we aren't genetically related, a complete body-mind healing took place. Energy, clarity, optimism, and motivation returned. I left my sickbed, and dark thoughts that decades of therapy never touched began to evaporate with ease.
The autism saga has much to teach the mental health field at large:
- Drugs only dampen the spirit
- Drugs cause side effects for life
- NUTRITION HEALS!
Read more of my journey on "the nutrient path." My book, entitled "Lunacy Lost: Mother and Child on the Dark and Shining Road to Name the Roots of Madness" will soon be available for purchase.
Read the story of one mother who didn't give up on her child the way her parents gave up on her.
Use the ideas to craft your own mind-body-spirit wholeness. And let me know how you're doing!
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