hi there,

a short introduction: my name is marissa.  i am twenty years old, and i live in chicago.  i moved here a year and a half ago (from ny) to attend college.  i have been struggling with mental illness for nearly half my life; anorexia, bulimia, major depression, bipolar disorder, self-injury.  there have been times when tradition treatment has been somewhat helpful, but i feel, like everyone here, that mental healthcare is failing so many people, in so many ways.  i was drawn to the icarus project because i truly belive that we need a new discourse, and new language in which we discuss 'mental illness.'  personally, i have never had a particularly horrific experience with a psychiatrist/psychologist/therapist/etc.  but i have been treated by multiple people who judged me, ignored my own thoughts about my problems, or simply acted as though prozac, depakote, sleep, and deep breathings would cure me.  while these things are definitely (often immensely) helpful to some people, myself included, they are far from being cures.  no one wanted to talk with me about mental illness as a social construction, employed in multiple oppressive ways.  they did not want to hear my criticisms of big pharma, and the intense internal conflict about being helped by pills from corporations that, on the large scale, were doing incredible harm to a great many people.  no one addressed the guilt i felt as a white, middle class female who had access to so many resources (albeit, mostly insufficient ones).  they labeled my concern about the oppressive intersections of racism, classism, sexism, heterosexism that precluded MANY people from receiving even some sort of adequate, affordable mental healthcare, not to mention simple INFORMATION about the problems they are dealing with.

i have recently been having a difficult time with my personal problems.  in and out of therapy and hospitals, for a variety of reasons.  i've also had to take this quarter off from school to go home, think, talk, and heal.  however, one of my sources of inspiration, when i return in march, is getting together a group of icarus project activist in chicago, possibly working in conjunction with the pomegranate radical health collective, to do outreach and other sorts of activist work.  

 if anyone is interested in starting this up with me, i would love for you to contact me with any ideas you might have.   ideally, i will be in a better place and ready to start something.