Hello and welcome. We are excited to host and event around weve been too patient. We will be reading from the contributors and then followed by a Panel Discussion with qanda and all that amazing stuff afterwards, but just want to give you a big round of applause and thanks for coming out because it is important for those like yourself that independent booksellers can keep growing and continue to be around. We are opening up a new location and would love to see you there. A few housekeeping notes for tonight audience qanda right after the Panel Discussion. Then we will move over to his table. For the qanda portion we ask that you keep your questions concise and respectable and for the buck please make sure to pay for them on your way out. We will be open until 10 p. M. Tonight so feel free to add spore. A collection of 25 essays and poems written by and for people with lived experiences of the Mental Health care system in america. From tha the mad pride movemento the Consumer Movement to the informed care even patient and dedicated to finding working alternatives to the Mental Health Industrial Complex. Often unexpected ways and places and centering on the truth of the lived experiences. Without further ado i want to bring up two of the panelists. [applause] i am one of the co editors of weve been too patient, so excited you are here on a tuesday night to have a real conversation and to hear all of these Amazing Stories and have a great conversation. On the other coeditor and we are just very grateful to the publisher north atlantic books for hosting and arranging this, so i hope that you and joy the testimony of the voices and thank you very much for being here and to random house for distributing us. [laughter] [applause] first up, the kc gartner, a poet and educator who writes both to heal and critique the intersection between identity and culture. She teaches with both poetry and digital storytellers and has been on three National Poetry slam teams. I think she already has her masters and these biographies are a little older, so welcome to the stage. [applause] im going to practice this so bear with me. Its some older things about myself. Occupational therapy. One year ago, i was in the hospital. I asked myself what i was doing here besides keeping myself safe from the pill bottle. I couldnt sleep in that place. It kept on every 15 minutes yelling in the hallways and sometimes i could still smell the formaldehyde in the blankets and i thought am i supposed to be there now . Is a year enough to be healthy . That question hangs in the air. You say you need more time to learn how to love yourself before you can love me. Three months until i am supposed to start seeing my future, three months until i moved away, three minutes to read the poem. Is any of this enough . Lately ive been hearing everyone say the same thing, or it isnt therapy. Art isnt therapy. I introduced you to poetry because i wanted you to get better. I started getting poetry because i wanted to get better, but did i get better . I had a panic attack before i wrote this. You see the scars on my wrist have not quite healed over. You see how afraid i am going back next i believe im still just a single serving jello cup. A morning pill regime. Part of me is still in a room full of 51 50s, because this is the only way i can heal. If i could see that therapist again, i would tell her this. I got into graduate school yesterday. I spent three months in right apartment, a year ago i didnt think i had a future. To go in public without the voices of demons superimposed on my friends, i made progress. I fixed my bicycle and started eating fruits. When my anxiety creeps into my right breast, i changed. Everyone thinks im still a little crazy. Im so different. Yesterday, you kissed me and i told myself my health is more important than this. Last night, i was supposed to write a poem, memorize it, make it ready for escape but i need cupcakes instead. Im here writing about it now because that is more important than any applause, this page help me in its arm saying you want yourself today . That is more important than being the best writer or artist. I am my best self. Im better than i was yesterday. We are all better than we were yesterday. Isnt that the most important thing . Isnt that the best part, poem ever written . [cheering] [cheering and applauding] thank you, casey. Welcome to the state, the writer ramallah, big round of applause. [applause] infiltrating the Mental Health Industrial Complex, the professional paradox, Mental Health Industrial Complex functions on division between Mental Health professionals on the one hand and Mental Health patient clients on the other. These Mental Health professionals have the authority to diagnose and label individuals as possessing psychiatric and psychological disability. Supposedly these Mental Health professionals or individuals who do not possess a diagnosis or suffer from Mental Health problems. Mental Health Professionals psychologically called stable. Mental Health Patients are psychologically unstable. Patients and professionals are supposed to be two distinct types of people. This division, separating patients from professionals is rooted in hierarchy based on class, race and ability. Supposedly a person cannot be a patient and a professional at the same time or in the same space. But i am both identities and experiences. On the one hand, i heard a bachelors degree in society and masters in social work and have worked as a Mental Health therapist for over four years. On the other hand, ive gone through Substance Abuse treatment four times into early adulthood. Shortly after obtaining my msw, i experienced a druginduced Mental Health crisis during which i was beaten and tasered by police and psychiatrically hospitalized against my will. Guess who affected this as prescribed my diagnosis . I regularly see a psychiatrist and therapist and i have been taking psychiatric medication ever since my Mental Health crisis. I identify myself as a social worker and therapist. Notwithstanding this, i also felt identifying with history of the madd movement and anti Psychiatry Movement from a self identify as very typical. A mad activists. A survivor of Police Brutality and Mental Health Industrial Complex. This brings me to what i would like to name as the patient professional. If the Mental Health Industrial Complex stipulates that those are Mental Health professionals are psychologically stable and those who are patients psychologically unstable, in my existence as a patient professional is a paradox. To be a patient professional is to have it a body, mind, space and the place between the binary of the patients and professionals. I understand the experience of being stigmatized or possessing psychiatric disability and understand the legitimate resistance with whom i interact. Navigating this division between patient and professional is a task i find requires almost instinctive complexity, creativity and nuance. [applause] next, we have jesse. Hes a writer and activist working at the intersection of story telling, Mental Health and social justice. She is codirector of the institute for the development of human art. Community of advocates and change the Mental Health institute. Her writing has been published. Welcome. [applause] i also want to thank the others so much for putting together this. I think i will feel much better, im dedicating this to my sister. Also, im reading this blog. Its a simple idea. One of the ways we can implement recovery model through narrative. The narrative model to reclaim overwhelming and complex situations. Supports them to reunite imaging stories, constructing better alternatives. A new model for navigating Mental Health. This mode of thinking and talking about Mental Health bears unique stories of individuals. The purpose for their participation in the system that is not supported and excluded them. It validates the fact that it happened. Actual evidence leading to an experience and makes it possible for a person to potentially experience from a distance. The discrepancy between them besides strategy for future problemsolving of a person. The overall potential for growth. Writing is an empowering practice and provides control and delivers a sense of satisfaction. At the end of the day, they understand when extolled as a story. Its missing the power of personal narrative, and essential voice in Mental Health. The voices of those with experience. Mental health is too obscure, too delicate, too intertwined with experience in a single medicalized story. Its not the presence of story altogether. The editors and contributors to this volume firmly believe Mental Health research and practice is improved by those with mental difference. They eliminate the experience of Mental Health for those who would otherwise understand. It allows the audience to bear witness to our stories which has potential to foster stigma. How we feel is implicit in a unique story of our lives. [applause] thank you. Next, cofounder of the project and Mental Health projects. As a masters in social work, because her recovery specialist trainer. Is currently training director for the institute for the development of human parts. [applause] ive got three minutes and i have a long essay that i will not read to you so going to tell you and read you this context. Three years ago right now, i was finishing my masters in social work at hunter. I spent 12 years of my life working on this thing. A bunch of the people who were reading tonight have also been involved in it. The network of. Based Mental Health support groups. We started because we are trying to change the language and culture for Mental Health and illness. I went back to school because i saw the Mental Health system needs to change and are people who need to be in the inside. I also went back to school because i was looking for mentorship and more guidelines and trying to understand what it meant to be in. The thing i wrote is called underground transmissions and centering marginalized. Strategies for revision in the public Mental Health system. It was a 58 page paper i wrote about the parachute project. The mobile Treatment Team and everyone on the team was trained in open dialogue, a Family Therapy model. We work working with young people diagnosed with psychotic disorders. The thing was that everyone, half the people on the team were clinicians and half the people are people who work. Specialist, people who were diagnosed with a Mental Illness themselves and working in the system has a different perspective than the clinicians. I was a clinical intern on the team and when i got there, i was like, my clinician, it might appear . I got interested in the working relationship between peers and clinicians. Thats the context. Its academic writing, but the most life writing but well see. [laughter] i have the diagnosed of bipolar, some people think i am grandiose. [laughter] the purpose is to lay intellectual development of a new generation of Mental Health support services. Cooperation between clinicians and echoing. Specialists workforce Mental Health system and actively encouraging the proliferation from a vibrant independent. Led movement that has the power to creatively influence the current culture of Mental Health services. This movement would express influence both within and outside of the public Mental Health system with a common set of Core Principles based on selfdetermination and social justice. If you are excited by that, read the whole thing. Thank you. [applause] thank you. Intersectional feminist writer calling for revolution in how we under stand in response to suicide. Matt in america. A story was featured in got an award. Learn more online. Welcome. [applause] i want to echo everybody elses thanks. In gratitude for making this possible for all of us. Im about to read a poem called dear doctor which was the beginning of me taking my power back. Dear doctor, on that proud, glorious day you graduated from medical school, he took an oath as old as hippocrates, remember . Above all, do no harm, above all, do no harm. Do no harm. No harm. The trouble is, you thought you were doing good by warehousing us in the sterile, oppressive, on hospital craze, you call the hospital. You practice the highest form of tough love there is. So tough, i could see no love. You placed the planes on our brains. Squarely on our territory flow. They link us with one of her diagnosis on whatever page of your book you found appropriate at the time. You thought you could turn around, make us into productive future citizens, make us fit into this authoritarian sexist, racist, homophobic trance publi. Your generation, the greatest generation. You always insisted that we were the problem and you where the solution but your treatment, your directed issue from on high did not heal our brains, did not open our hearts, they clearly transformed them into lumps of bitter rage. If anything, dear doctor, you taught me how to act, all the worlds a stage, you pushed me to Award Winning performances. The award being life away from your different lives. The scribbles on a prescription pad, the 15 minutes you gave me. In a word, dear doctor, the award was freedom, or at least a glimmer. Perhaps i give you too much credit, assuming you saw us as something more than business as usual. Dear doctor, youll never know in your ivory secondfloor room from how many years ive spent sweating and struggling to unseal all the harm you did with the best of intentions, paving my road to hell. I declare war on all you scribbled in my chart, building a new chart, turning humanity and dignity with scribbles and shouts of my own and all the while, hippocrates bones are twitching in their graves. Dear doctor. [cheering] thank you. Next, my amazing co editor, co edited and contributed and published and performed in many other venues. Poetry, nonfiction, and a literary fellow. English professor at the college. Welcome. [applause] thank you all for being here. Thank you to the contributors, im proud to be in this course with you. Thats kind of the theme of what i wanted to share with you tonight, my part of the introduction. The part that i wrote. As i write my part in the introduction, they have brought this interbreeding, i bring this with excitement and trepidation. I want to claim my seat at this table and by doing that, im compelled to disclose that i, to, and Mental Health consumer, psychiatric survivor, lifelong patient, Mental Health advocate with experience but i must claim the others, too. As a consumer, i am frustrated with superstition are insufficient, at best. As a survivor, im healing from traumas inflicted on me by the Mental Health Industrial Complex. I have many stories to tell about psychiatry and therapy limitations. To say im a Mental Health advocate and not just a survivor, i must admit theres another reason i would like to close myself with that title. It feels mutual, as well as psychiatric, is held within room of less stigmatizing thomas. My everyday stress can be labeled as depression or anxiety, but i feel compelled to expose more. My reluctance to a certain stems from the ablest capitalist structure power which is the thing this book resists. I fear the stigma that could cause me to lose my job, a job i worked very hard to land. My work with this brings forth another desire. The other contributors to this book are helping me take this stand because the slogan is vital in a major strength of this book. Every story comes from someone with lived experiencing and denying this structure counters the ambition of this project. I believe my diagnosis of bipolar is really a complex response to Early Childhood thomas. I have many tools, mutual aid, therapy, creativity, spirituality but the biggest tool for me is radical acceptance but i will have hard days still. With this book, i give myself permission to be out and proud as a survivor advocate. Let me say it here, because of trauma and perhaps predisposition, i am narrowly typical. I have dangerous gifts and because of that i have mad pride, a pride that calls on me to heal the ragged edges that i call my differences to be a force for change. [cheering and applauding] collect, my coeditor is an advocate featured in the documentary and oprah magazine. Its now released today. [laughter] [applause] thank you. So many people came since the last time i was up here. No worries, all good. I will read a poem to you and we will break for our panel. You have five minutes for you to stretch and do selfcare things. This is called, she wasnt crazy. She wasnt crazy but the world had a way of making her feel sore. You try being a black golf girl in georgia. Vampires and how the darkness wrapped around her like a warm familiar like it. She was too sensitive and too reactive. Everything in high voltage. She wasnt crazy but she said whatever the f she wanted. She left many stains, they called her crazy cake and it stuck. She never slept, she crawled up to paying off the edge, longingly looking down. She wanted no if she would let go, would she be free . She imagined a place where all people loved her. She wasnt crazy but went grandma, who kissed her face and marveled at her choice of combat boots, went grandma died the darkness felt up and started choking her. She wanted to stop the world and get off. When your world ends and youre still alive, theres something crazy about that. She was 13 when she wrote her first suicide note on a postit. She wasnt crazy, just honest. She didnt want to live. Her friend found the note and called her mom. Call her mom could say was why, why . The words left her. Was she crazy . She didnt feel crazy. Stripped her down like an animal, took her shoelaces and put her on suicide watch. She felt crazy thing. The psych wards for kids felt like every hospital. Bleach with a sense of death and disappointment. They separated the kids with eating disorder from the crazy kids. The other kids got it. Ill dreamed of mcdonalds french fries and getting out of this life size sterile area. One day she tried to open the locked door but it wouldnt budge. The Security Guard said, they market to keep the crazy people out. She laughed uncontrollably. In hindsight, she could see he was right. When she left that psych ward, she created a papiermache mask of glitter and art and she smiled until her eyes bugged out. She stopped wearing liquid eye liner and made everyone feel comfortable. She said all the right things and lied about the darkness. See . All better now. The moment she stopped telling the truth, that was the moment she was truly crazy. [applause] went to remind everyone, i read first. I want to also introduce all of our contributors and editors who will be on the channel tonight. I will be moderating. [inaudible] im going to go ahead to our group here. My first question i wanted to ask everyone, who is this book for . This is for those with experience, those who suffered from a Mental Health system. Family, loved ones, Mental Health workers and therapists. For anyone who has been touched by Mental Health or are curious and want to know more. Social workers, teachers, i dont think theres anyone its not four. Its kind of like everyone but really everyone. [laughter] moving on, what is the my medical model of Mental Illness . Why is it problematic . Ive got a lot to say about the biomedical model but i will keep it simple. I think one of the ways i understand, ive learned so much from doctor he talks about two problems. Number one, medical model, biomedical model separates the mind from the body. Isolation from the body often. The second is separating the person from environment. Locating our distress with the multi wire. Its an individual with focus, its one of the most destructive things about it. We talk about people as burdens, Public Health is this global burden. I believe in this model down, we are biology, we are humans but we are primarily influenced by our environment. They need to politicize and revolutionize the way we understand it. [applause] yeah. [laughter] i think most of the research that shows that Mental Health issues more often than not are created because of trauma and most often that trauma has roots and its institutional and personal and the biomedical model politicize is that, so if we politicize Mental Health, i think that the focus of socalled treatment is communication and fixing the brain, the conversation of Mental Health is more about restorative justice, accountability and family with trauma and families and i think that is where Mental Health legs in that generation. That is where healing has to come from. I spoke to, hard to talk about. I experienced trauma with anxiety, depression and challenges labeled as bipolar but the diagnosis was a treatment at a young age i was self traumatizing. I was given a message at 19 that i was never recovered from this condition. Its so damaging and more than suspect when my brain hasnt even finished development. It offers hope instead of a life sentence. Other than a onesizefitsall model, the recovery model asks each individual what works for them. Its important to note it is a voluntary activity, they dont help individuals drive because we are social animals. We are not individually ill, we decide to be well together. [applause] ill just add a quick little note bit. When i first went to california, i attended a conference on Mental Health issues, they were talking about the harms of the biomedical model, there were a bunch of clinicians and clinical researchers working with this and when they first met them, they met a gentleman who had hallucinations from the Community Felt he had a spiritual gift. The clinician said, hes sick, hes ill. He needs treatment. They had a very different way of looking at it, they said he needs treatment. Seven or eight months later, there like where did he go . While he traveled and said he was sick. That is horrifying. This westernized model on something that didnt need anything, he was accepted by his community and his gift, now hes sick and left behind. Lets really intent example, i think its something to think about when we try to put something onto that culture. Youre not thinking about that race or culture and what those people need. Thats right the recovery model is so important and we have to look at the whole person as opposed to prescribing Something Like that. That was an unfortunate example. In what way is Mental Illness a social justice issue . When i think about this, i think about one clear example, it connects to suicide. There are actually policies that are reducing suicide rate by pursuing equity and justice. There was a study that shows in states where Marriage Equality has been passed, there was a decrease in suicide and lgbtq communities. That is a perfect example to me about how Mental Health is a social justice issue and try to improve conditions and increase belongings, connecting all of these things that kept us alive for all of our existence as humans. I think we might see great improvements in Mental Health and reduction in suicide and other tragedies in our countries. I have a very long answer on this. I think our Mental Health issues are related on three parts. One, itself is a political and Cultural Movement of my community. This vocalizes labels and cultural agendas. It is in diverse communities, and lgbtq communities. This has a second rent. The Liberation Movement against global capitalism and conversation. This can only be done on political principle and its widely accepted in this movement. For example, a man advocate and also involved in Economic Justice with other people of color and organizing justice. As Mental Health are social justice issues, all of these contemporary Justice Movements is that Mental Health and selfcare is a critical component for accountability and transformation on personal levels. Caring for myself is not selfindulgent, it is self accreditation and that is the warfare. When i read around the cases that address racial equity, lgbtq and all of these communities are talking about taking care of oneself. That is both personal and political. Thank you. [applause] s are many ways in which it affects oppression. Mental health is greatly impacted by discrimination and homophobia and transform you. My anxiety and Group Challenges caused trauma and psychiatric urge trauma. Thank you. [applause] they beautifully covered it. Going to close by saying to mental have a Mental Health issue, you are discriminated against. I lost my job personally, im 34, it happens, its a real thing. Its not something that happened years and years ago, that treatment in hospitals and other things but these are issues that are still happening today which is discriminatory treatment. I will leave it there that its not something in our history books, is currently happening. [applause] thank you for bringing matt into this. It is so important. I want to ask the next, we talk a lot about how narratives is really important in reclaiming our stories and making us feel like our experiences are our own. I wanted to ask all of you have this book or your own experiences may have helped you in that sense. Humans are always having stories through ourselves and others, i was told they damaging story that was echoed by many others, you have chronic, i think it has for diagnosis by the time i was 14. I was told he will have to spend the rest of your life into care facility. That was what i was told. We talk about learned helplessness, that was taught to me. Like so many others on this panel, big part of my healing quest taking my power back into language in rewriting that story. The poem i read, dear doctor was all about that. I could feel the toxicity of what was lunged at me. Still getting rid of that in my body and my spirit, that process helped me to optimize that place and get some medicine. Im so grateful for the opportunity to work with other people to do the same and create more space for us to speak our truth. [applause] ive been fighting a long time and narrating has been healing for me. This is my way fighting can be, it works well, they come up with Mental Health narratives, i feel like for me, hollywood, you got the right medication, you accepted your genetic difference and chemical imbalance, you swallow your pride along with the pills and the message there is not to expect too much of yourself which is really damaging. Theres harm done by this story its self. Even though medication is part of it, i dont see it as like a missing chemical in my brain or chemical deficit. Therapist can disappoint, too. I think whats important to remember is having a social Network Community are all vitally important. What is the counter narrative . Swallow your pride, what can the narrative be . I think that is what im trying to discover as i was writing for this book. Thats what we are trying to soak case, oppositional stories. Thats why we put so much emphasis on personal narrative. I just think people need to listen to these stories and having others read and witness our stories helps. Thanks for being here, for witnessing. And to echo what we said earlier, personal is political. I had an artist teacher in college, she said the most personal is the most universal. I feel like with that vulnerability that we have in this book, we are humanized in fact one of the most important things we are doing with this book. Thank you. [applause] for me, its always been part of my life growing up. I was also a reporter for a period of time. It didnt work out so well. [laughter] i really loved talking to people and hearing their stories and i immersed myself in the world. Words just poured out of them and meanwhile, i wasnt really telling my story or telling the truth. I pretended to be really happy all the time and i wasnt. I think when i first started telling my story and having people accept it which was shocking, im not too much or too dark or too scary, i felt like okay, also we knew was the other thing. I think that was a really healing process for me. A lot of it is research in all of these folks, youve got researchers and folks who are poets and everyone has a diverse take on things and we dont all agree. We can agree that we dont agree with everything. Thats a big important thing, its not a onesizefitsall. The answer is individual. Its community but also individual. We cant prescribe it to all. What you are doing is not right and youre not involved. Which is why we have this platform, this stage. Its because its the individual voice, we claim that as part of the healing process. Thank you all for being here. [applause] you lead perfectly into the next question. My next question is specifically regarding stigma and as contributors to this book, we all have a marginalized community. What i want to ask all of you, how do you think we overcome stigma in marginalized communities, where trans and what you think the changes are that need to happen in the Mental Health system to overcome stigma or create justice for the community . I could read something but i think its really the inclusion of communities. I think a lot of communities where they are not decision makers, they have a lot of response ability but not authority. As long as we are excluded and we have a talent, the other thing is our data. The data is not focused on these marginalized communities. All these interventions go to one type of person. We dont have transformative interventions for them to find. Thats a challenge for the people. A lot of them have the answers, youre just not including them. Its difficult, its hard, it political, whatever the excuse, theres always an excuse. If you were to shut that down and focus on this, as opposed to just excluding them. Transforming the system requires the people youre trying to help, they need to be meeting and have decisionmaking authority, i think. To build on what you were saying, listening to the individuals need for whatever their Mental Health, i think that is the same thing because each individual within a marginalized community has a story that needs to be heard. You cant have a one size fits all. So listening to their voices and to people brings meaningful change. More therapists and training by the population for other therapists, its important to remember that the included sexuality and it was removed in the 1970s which was not that long ago. Lots of people in this country still demonized trans identity. Conversion therapy is still a terrible reality. The compaq issue because the diagnosed can pay for surgery but we dont have to stigmatize transgender to get surgery paid for. These questions can be so complex. The tribes in africa, i think that stigma is likely colonial concept. I think in various cultures are people who have spiritual gifts, that cousin or someone who sees things before they happen, they have premonitions, i think we need to be in touch with our roots and get more in touch with our own spirituality. Theres a cultural shift. I think we need more therapists and better educators, they are mostly being served with Mental Health services. I think their cultural ambassadors and Mental Health and i think that theyve been talking about, theres a whole language and culture, it really is. Its a lot of working with families. Its a whole learning curve to learn all that. I think many of us here, both Mental Health workers they are doing the same type of work in the clinicians give 24k than the specialists. As much as they feel its unfortunate, the majority of people become social workers, i think that Mental Health system needs to get marginalized and get in a position to train these social workers. Thank you. [applause] i wanted to add something quickly, im sure you are all aware, they were in some kind of Mental Health crisis or had a Mental Health issue, one thing that i think, White Supremacy is they were enticed. All forms of suppression are stigmatizing. They contribute to that mental stress. One thing i have been pushing for is to move Law Enforcement from responding to any type of Mental Health crisis. [applause] people say it cant be done but we need to Work Together and i encourage you all to check it out. Its been trained for folks to respond. It can be done. So we will keep working on this with all of you. I wanted to say thank you to all of our panel. I wanted to say thank you for putting this together. Give them a quick round of applause. [applause] ive been getting emails for three years, its been three years. Weve been doing best three years. Okay, back to you now. So that was the panel, we will now transition into book signing and something else. Does anyone have questions . No pressure. Im going to ask a provocative question. They will ask a provocative question, this, we will not be able to hear. Why is suicide a problem . Why is it considered in light of Mental Illness psychiatric disease rather than being purely a civil philosophical issue . Something the medical establishment should have no business delving into . I dont know how to restate that. Why are they involved in the philosophical issue . I will only speak from my experience. So it is a little complicated for my point of view, but i can hand it over. I want to add Suicide Prevention is very fraught with what weve talked about with the medical model and coercive responses and the dehumanizing responses. I can only speak from personal experience. I was suicidal for lots of reasons, but a big part of it is because i felt like this was not a world that was built for me. And i didnt think that i had any possibility of belonging or connection or anything else anybody had. I still have suicidal thoughts and i dont have a problem with black. I know so much of the reason i personally was suicidal is because of a lot of dehumanizing processes. I dont believe in harming people to save their lives but i think we should do everything we can to create a world where more people feel like it was built for them. [applause] any other questions from the audience . We will start asking you questions. I know i asked you a bunch of questions already. What i wanted to ask specifically those of you but maybe as well from either reading or putting together this book and hearing or reading all the works that came from folks, do you feel like youve learned anything or came to any sort of moment about the narrative related to it. From putting the books together and all of the narrative and the work that we can do any moment or learning from a . [inaudible] i went into it having a certain world view and perspective and having written some essays and i have my own worldview but then collaborating having so many conversations where he was coming from in a different place is the same realm. Its impossible for me. I learned that even though a lot of us dont agree and theres aa lot of world where im a radical or not radical enough or too radical and they dont fit in anywhere and this is the place i think because i am just being truthful with what is my truth and what is my experience and i think the contributors taught me so much about research into other own personal stories and how they look at feelings and i just havent ever thought about some of these concepts. I thought i knew, but hearing from peoples personal experiences it really changed the way i thought about. So we can still be advocates and not have the same cookiecutter response to things. The i dont necessarily agree with this or how i feel about it but it was interesting she felt that we shouldnt be i wouldnt have questioned. I appreciate that. Basically, who is the name of the author . There is an author that had this idea that gender identity disorder takes up the diagnosis because we are trying to get rid of the stigma for the diagnosis so you can say gender identity disorder is something i have and im okay with that and like lets get rid of the stigma. So that is what im gathering. We should be ashamed of these diagnoses and [inaudible] i think something that im sure the contributors can understand the then they are offered all of these sources at the diagnosis does for someone because [inaudible] i will try to project. Thank you for sharing. Someone mentioned in a quote so care preservation. To publish the work im curious to know more. What do you guys do to put you first. What do we do for self care and self preservation . A big form of my self care is art activism i will be honest, and another taking a walk in nature and sitting down pretending to meditate and think like that. I think self care is hugely important that i often believe in collective care and that is what we are missing. We are all practitioners involved. I have a sponsor i try to go to the meetings. Ive been meditating the last six months and it changed my life. I connect with my higher power. I engage in activism and im in a loving relationship with my part or. I think the mindfulness to gravitate towards a lot of principles. Im also in the 12 Step Community for just over a guess it will be a year in august. [applause] i talk about mutually being a big source of my selfcare just like having tight an type of cle friendships and people to talk to whether they are from 12 steps or other circles, so yes like having tight friendships. I also walk in nature and i should do yoga, but i dont. And i have cats. They are a huge part of my selfcare. [applause] [inaudible] [laughter] saying no and developing boundaries removing toxic people from our lives. I connect with other people and cure rate other shows and i have these loving people i show up with. My biggest healthcare is not pretending anymore. [applause] i think that might be it for our time. I want to thank all of the contributors and coeditor, thank you all for being here. Stick around, buy a book. [applause]
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