“You're cheating yourself”: How do they become psycho-activists

May Day Demonstration I remember, among other things, the action of the “Psychoactive” movement column: the police detained twenty-five participants in the movement. So psychoactivism is a social movement for the rights of people with mental disorders, which has existed in the world for a long time, and is only beginning to develop in Russia - almost for the first time in Russian history appeared in the federal media and on television.

We talked to the participants "Psychoactively" about what kind of discrimination people in Russia suffer from in mental disorders and how to remove the block that prevents them from having a frank conversation about their diagnosis - and in many cases even start this conversation.

The topic of mental disorders is taboo at all levels: cultural, social, legal. People with disorders are defenseless and often become victims - this is a systemic problem. Although in general I was lucky with the environment, I was often not trusted when I said that I needed medication. In addition, there was the problem of non-recognition: neither my parents, nor my friends, nor I at first did not realize that something was wrong. Practically any person whose state develops gradually and does not begin with a bright episode has to deal with the devaluation of experience, the phrase "yes, you are just tired."

There is also the problem of so-called overdiagnosis: when you have psychotic episodes in history(sharp, short-term seizures. - Approx. Ed.), all character traits that do not fit into the "norm" begin to write off the diagnosis. I am asexual and I have no partner - it doesn’t bother me, but it really worries my doctors. There is a difference between redrawing the individuality of a person and eliminating him from difficulties. And if we are not talking about deployed psychosis, it is up to the patient himself to decide what does not suit him. It's his choice.

Psychoactivism in the world has been developing for a long time. Interdisciplinary studies of psychiatry have continued since the 1960s, when Foucault and other authors began to study the social constructs around the topic of "madness", including from a political point of view. Then came the movements of the lawyers - this story is especially close to me. Such movements unite people with various disorders, from minor psychiatry.(it is borderline psychiatry - a term for neuropsychiatric disorders that do not lead to hallucinations and other severe manifestations. - Ed.) to schizophrenia and severe bipolar disorder. They make blogs, organize human rights campaigns; these are artists, lecturers and just people who want to talk about their experiences.

Now they have a marked bias in antipsychiatry - and this worries me. I would like psychoactivism to be inclusive, but in the West there is always a dichotomy in it: organizations that supervise doctors, “lick” doctors, and self-advocacy organizations strike rhetoric “This is not a disease, this is my superpower”, ignoring those who disagree. We in “Psychoactively” want to be as open as possible and therefore do not limit ourselves to either propsychiatry or antipsychiatrists. We have no position on this subject - we have experience. Therefore, we accept all people who are interested in self-advocacy and who want to reflect on their state — through art or through actions.

In Russia, the idea of ​​punitive psychiatry is vivid, which partly forms a panic around psychotherapy and the idea that any visit to a doctor ends with a psychiatric account — that is, practically a police account. That observation at the clinic means that they make a vegetable out of you. Start talking about mental disorders need to inform - in the format of lectures, articles, public currents. For what, in particular, psychoactivism is needed. About minor psychiatry - depression, anxiety disorders, phobias, panic attacks - in recent years began to write a lot. And people should open their eyes to an unpleasant fact: minor psychiatry is a pandemic. According to statistics, every fourth person on the planet has neuroses and neurotic disorders. And this is a reason to go to the doctor. The easiest way to compare this is with diabetes: people who have it do not appear to be different from people who do not have it. But for some reason, no one says to people with diabetes: "You just wind yourself up."

After the May Day demonstration, they wrote to us that we were connected with Navalny. We wrote that we are right. What we just want to haipanut on the topic, to politicize it. Although May Day is an action of the working class, and we, as working people, who are denied their rights because of their mental characteristics, had every right to enter it. The demonstration is not the only way to highlight the stigmatization of people with mental disorders and features. The Psychoactive Movement is both a support group, art performances, and a brand that we want to develop: if people want to buy our T-shirts and support us, I don’t see anything wrong with that. But it turned out that thanks to the demonstration, we were finally noticed. I understand that if it was just a performance, he would not have caused such a reaction. And against the background of elections and protests, Putin and Navalny, the media needed an information guide - and we turned up.

I study in the eleventh grade, and when I brought in references from my neurologist, who said that I was in home treatment (and in my situation it is almost house arrest, because at the current stage I don’t want to be in society and contact people) my teachers simply ignored them. They said that it does not matter, and mental health is an excuse: there are no physical ills — you can attend school. I was considered a truant who is looking for a reason not to attend classes. My parents said that I was making everything up and that I really didn’t need money for pills.

To change attitudes towards people with mental disorders, you need to tell their stories more, contact people. Explain that, for example, "schizophrenia" is not equal to "killer." Raise the topic in performances, publish brochures with explanations: “how to behave with a person with bipolar disorder,” “how to help a person in depression,” “what should not be done if a person has schizophrenia.” Break stereotypes and teach people not to discount other people's experience. VKontakte support groups are good, but I would like to know that if I go out into the street and I have a panic attack, people will not poke a finger and try to help me.

By the time of the May Day demonstration, I realized that I couldn’t identify with any political force - there were discrepancies on many key issues that have been crushing the left movement in recent years. And in view of the fact that I myself, because of my mental diagnosis, live the experience of stigmatization ("Anton, you are just *** (abnormal)") and "benevolent participation" ("you just need to work / relax more", "go on yoga, fitness ", etc.), I had no doubt that it was necessary to go in a small column of psychoactive activists. It was certainly a political action. Inside the team, we can stick to different ideological platforms, but by re-appropriating the public urban space, taking to the streets, we turn our personal into political.

I would not really count on a federal program aimed at mental health education. In the near future it will remain at the level of grassroots initiatives. It may be that an emergency fund will be created for those cases where a person with a mental disorder does not have enough money for expensive drugs. This scenario seems more realistic to me.

My acquaintance with the syndrome of depersonalization admitted that she even had something remotely resembling a feeling of envy towards people with depression or bipolar disorder: at least they started to talk about them, and the syndrome of depersonalization is still shrouded in mystery - very few people know what is it, how to deal with it, how to treat it. And here, of course, we have a large field for educational work.

False and harmful ideas about mental disorders hinder everyone. If a person reveals his diagnosis, he may be hard to get a job, he may have difficulty in communicating. You can just survive from the team, if you tell your colleagues that you have a bipolar or depression. The word "psycho" has become a common noun, and jokes about "Kashchenko" are still being told. Carriers of mental disorders, at best, are considered unreliable by people, at worst - dangerous.

If in Europe or America to turn to a psychiatrist, this is normal, they are talking about and making programs, then we still have, almost thirty years later, Soviet stereotypes. If psychiatry, then punitive. If the trip to the doctor, then accounting - although there is no accounting, it was canceled in the 90s. How to change this is not very clear, but you need to start with educational work. Explain that it is normal to contact PND, that no one will block you. This work should be systematic, it should be maintained, including through school psychologists.

A "mental health week" or any such federal action would be very helpful. In the same Kashchenko (Now the Psychiatric Clinical Hospital No. 1 is named after N. A. Alekseeva. - Approx. ed.) Anonymous consultations of psychiatrists and therapists under the name "I can not be silent." There is Radio Through the Looking Glass, which is essentially the same as Psychoactive: enlightenment, de-stigmatization. Such things are necessary.

The other day I was looking for a mental hospital, got lost, and asked a woman in a pie, how to find a hospital. She crossed herself and said: "Thank God, I do not know!"

Now in culture and in media, the topic of mental health is becoming increasingly relevant. There are bloggers who write about their disorders. But often these are isolated cases designed for a very specific audience. In social networks, the psychotheme has its own infrastructure: numerous psychocabits become a place for communication and self-expression. But, unfortunately, in real live meetings, dating and interaction, this rarely follows. Therefore, even people living in the city and not being on long-term treatment in mental hospitals are no less isolated: many can only talk about their disorder in their own circle (if any), and it’s extremely difficult to get a job. In offline space, it may turn out that there is no one to discuss the disorder. I think that is why people continue to join in “Psychoactively” - they need an environment in which they are not ashamed and not afraid to be themselves.

I believe that the institution of the Soviet-Russian psychiatry itself still remains a punitive tool, a machine for the suppression of dissent, as the state understands it today. During the “Between here and there” action last year I was detained and sent to a mental hospital - I don’t want to be there when the police want it. I want to have the right to receive normal assistance exactly when I need it. Hospitals themselves, PND and PNI are not less stigmatized, and many do not believe that it is possible to get real help, and not harm. No less than psychiatrists are demonized by people with a disorder. In the psychotheme, sometimes nothing remains but to measure this stigma.

It should be remembered that if you openly talk about your mental state, the presence of frustration, this can be used to the greatest extent against you, your freedom, your loved ones, your activities. Therefore, to be frank, we are still far away - now the task is to develop a language for this conversation by the forces of activist art and the consolidation of psychoactive activists.

How to pay attention to the problem? Tactical actions, promotions, access to open spaces. I will only note that our detention has activated some people with disorders who watched it in the media: they got angry. And they decided to join us to work on. For example, an article about us, it seems, in Moskovsky Komsomolets helped one young girl solve her problems with her parents regarding her condition. Her mother read the article and gave her money to visit the doctor, citing some comment from one of our participants about the importance of support and interaction with specialists. This is cool, and this is what it was worth to unite under the words "psycho-activism" and "psychoactive" and go together.

From the age of twelve I have a number of mental features, but I could only speak freely about them at twenty. My parents realized that I was not exaggerating, only when I moved away from them, I began to constantly visit a psychiatrist and drink drugs. We have come a long way from “you wind yourself up, you don’t have anything“ up ”well done that you go to a psychotherapist, but it took me a lot of internal and external resources to conquer this acceptance.

An important role in asserting oneself as a person with special features was played by activism. When I decided to create an anonymous, anxious-depressive group of mutual support, I found a meeting room and began to supervise the process, my mother was surprised to say: "Maybe you should study as a psychotherapist? After all, you already understand everything so well." I then laughed - because for me it’s like being a shoemaker without shoes, giving out resources that I’m lacking myself. I am quite comfortable in the role of one of the participants in the support group and curator.

I cite the example of a family, because, in theory, these are the very people who should accept you unconditionally. But in reality, the situation is reversed: both among third-party acquaintances and in ADT, I constantly hear that parents, brothers, sister, husbands and wives are the most toxic and stigmatizing people. But this is not because they are some kind of monster. To a greater extent, this behavior is associated with a lack of information about mental characteristics, with the fact that there are no permanently functioning support centers for people whose relatives have mental difficulties (and this is very important both for education and for preserving psychological hygiene and preventing co-dependence) And so on. The attack in this case becomes a defense. This can be angry, as I did in the "Psycho", it can be criticized. But in the end, raising the level of awareness of others about mental characteristics by any means - be it articles, performances, video art, lectures, books, social advertising - this is the main thing that can be opposed to stigma and toxic attitude towards people with disabilities.

Psychoactivity has manifested itself in Russia over the past year or two. Especially clearly - in the last year. Written about the disorders of the media, artists and artists (Union Convalescent, Catherine Nenasheva, Sasha Old age, I and others) create works about it. I think that our mini-med-pride on May 1 became the starting point, after which everything could no longer be the same, because people engaged in self-advocacy and took the narrative, literally, into their own hands. Previously, people with psycho-specialties spoke to journalists, and now they speak from themselves. When people showed faces that they came out, the term “mental disorder” ceased to be impersonal and acquired human traits. The stereotypes about "strange", "dangerous" or "cheating" people are slowly falling apart, instead of them a living person emerges. And the task of all those who advocate tolerance and anti-stigma is to support those who have gained courage and showed themselves.