It was only after I had come out of the closet with my mental problems that I realized how much the stigma of mental illness is an inner and not an outer problem. In my opinion the real problem is the prejudice I have of me not the prejudice others have of me as a mental health consumer. This opinion definitely proved right, when I told a group of total strangers at a marketing seminar that I have schizoaffective disorder – bipolar type. The result was that a manager of a software company promised to provide a computer engineer to design this page for free. And he really did that! See a blog about...

It has been some time now since I wrote my last post on these pages. It was one and a half month ago. Since then much has happened. Three things stand out. The first one is the Phyllis Krystal seminar that was held in Munich from 16th to 21st of March. I was able to attend the third session of her Training Program. It was another experience of what can be achieved in your life if you put enough effort to it combined with positive attitude. Phyllis is 97 now and has had a minor injury recently. This did not prevent her to appear on a wheel chair and perform a four-day seminar as usually. She explained...

Recently I received a very nice e-mail containing the following sentence: »I see you suffer from schizoaffective disorder.« I found it a totally neutral expression. My husband, however, was bothered by the verb to suffer. He said it reminded him too intensively of suffering. I started to think about the power of words. Let me list the various possibilities we have to name a diagnosis in mental health field: 1.      I am a lunatic. ― Definitely the worst way of putting it. It’s a derogatory word. In addition to that we have a full identification: I = lunatic, which means I am nothing but...

Hi everyone, at the moment, I feel I need to take some rest. Why rest? Again? We are in the final phase of releasing the book. And according to the plan, this final phase will be 5 months long.  On top of I-do-not-know-how-many months. Why will this final phase take us 5 months? Because it is official now. The publication date is scheduled to be on the 4th of July 2011. That means the book will hopefully be ready before summer holidays. And the title of the book is: Balancing the Beast. The subtitle: A Bright View of Schizoaffective Disorder – Bipolar or Manic-Depressive Type. The book is now in the...

When I look back and try to remember the art therapy sessions in a locked ward of the psychiatric clinic I was in, I have mixed feelings. It was definitely the best part of my stay in that ward, but I still felt imprisoned. I needed years to remove the stigma I had attached to arts and crafts. Today, however, I do art therapy at home and I am proud of my products. You can see a sample in the photograph left. I use water colors on paper or gouache colors on clay with passion and the memory of the locked ward is gone. Or at least it doesn’t hurt anymore. I use old postcards or my photographs as models...