my recovery from neuroleptic drugs began in january of 2002.  i was hospitalized for 2 1/2 weeks in april of 1973.  i was prescribed haldol, stelazine, and cogentin.  in january of 1975 the haldol was replaced by elavil.  the cogentin was eliminated in 1982.  prozac was added to the mix in 1986.  i remained on prozac, stelazine, & elavil until january of 2002.  it was then that a semi-retired psychiatrist at the public clinic here in alabama, at my suggestion, questioned the validity of my ever needing anti-psychotic drugs, and in reckless fashion removed me 'cold-turkey' from 30 years of daily stelazine, and 16 or so years of daily prozac.

my narrative can be heard on the 'madness radio' archive from september 2007,  when myself and my friend will hall discussed how jamaican music became for me a transformational force in linking my personal struggle to the larger issues raised as oppressed, ignored, and forgotten people everywhere continue to fight for the right to simply be themselves, to have a chance to forge a path uniquely their own.

i am the son of a very liberal methodist minister, raised in the very conservative deep south--'dixie'--in the turbulent era of civil rights, vietnam, and watergate. 

the thing that gets me the most is how they teach kids down here in the bible belt that god made them just like he wanted--different from anyone else in all of creation.  once that little briefing is out of the way, any--i mean ANY--sign of differing from the norm is undermined and opposed  with all the hell anybody can muster, on the playground, in the classroom , at church, --you name it, right on, for many of us, to the medications whose terrible effects are as disregarded as the 'uniqueness' so treasured in theory yet dismissed as completely unacceptabe in practice--in the 'real' world.

for me, reggae short-circuited the neuroleptic gunk in my brain.  reggae felt real.

to be continued...