I have a firm belief that humans can change. And because they can, they can also change their environment, the context around them.

Often that is hard. Especially if you grew up disadvantaged in some way. There are a lot of -isms (racism, classism, sexism, ableism, etc.) thriving around us, feeding on our insecurities and fear of repercussions. And then there is plain trauma and neglect, often setting us up to shrink ourselves and to hide in the shadows, never reaching your potential.

To see and do something about things you do not like, you first need to open your eyes and dare to question the old beliefs and then you need to formulate for yourself what you believe in instead. Then you need to embrace and live your new worldview.  And then, if you find the courage to speak up about it, you are contributing to a more speedily change around you. The speaking up is not for everyone. It is not necessary to do it, you will still contribute to change around you, just by having worked on yourself and thereby showing up differently. But for some of us – it is a necessary step to speak about our new worldview, to even work towards implementing alternatives to the more common ways of doing things.

For me, it is necessary to both speak and try to offer alternative service to the traditional mental health care system.

Change-making communities I support and belong to

I want to openly declare my support of and belonging in some change-making communities. I am part of the “Drop the Disorder” movement that has originated in the UK, and is founded by the UK psychotherapist, Jo Watson.

The Drop the Disorder group on Facebook now has over 160000 member and there are several books written on the topic of “Drop the Disorder” as well as many online webinars addressing this topic. It is all collected under the name AD4E (A Disorder for Everyone).

I have also signed the ERNI declaration (ERNI= Emotions Are Not Illnesses), a part of the ERNI Movement.

I have written articles for Mad in Sweden, Mad in America and soon hopefully also Mad In The UK.

I am also a member of the Swedish organization “Riksföreningen Kontext”. That works for a holistic perspective on mental suffering, where each unique individual is seen in their context.

And I have taken some trainings that supports listening to lived experience of surviving trauma, including trauma provoked by the mental heath care sector (Check my CV out).

I am a prolific writer on the subject, you can check my writing out under Publications. And in my social media on e.g. Facebook and LinkedIn and on the writer’s platform Medium. I contribute where I can because I believe in the ripple effect.*

And then I contribute with my artistic work, to open eyes, to invite to discussions, to provoke old worldviews and support new ones. To help make the connection between ourselves and our context and ecology.

“A ripple effect occurs when an initial disturbance to a system propagates outward to disturb an increasingly larger portion of the system, like ripples expanding across the water when an object is dropped into it” (Wikipedia).