to make us feel HAPPY
(or aid in fundraising)
people that said specifically you can edit these words if you need to are noted.....
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I found Icarus in my last phase of drug tappering, I was very needy of a well organized, well informed community that could "defend me" from the mainstream preasure (family, friends, doctors) to continue taking the drugs. I needed support to argue them back. I needed success stories. I needed scientific evidence.
The other thing. My parent live quite far, and they were very disturbed about my decision to quit drugs, they actually thought I was relapsing, I downloaded, printed, strapped and send the Icarus guide to quit meds with the low risk approach. That calmed them down a little.
Finally I found a place to hang around, very interesting topics, very related to my life, increadibly interesting people. Participating on the forums is a healing activity.
José Manuel Salgado Arriaga
Mexico
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I found Icarus at a time when my world was falling apart - literally. I know most people found Icarus to be a respite from the mainstream mental health world but I also found it a respite from the activist circles I ran in where no one was taking care of themselves, to talk about mental health was seen as either a sign of weakness or totally dismissed as normal ("we're all depressed, who wouldn't be, have you tried St. John's Wort?"). Here was a community of people who saw through it all - not only the lies about accepting a soul-destroying and life-destroying world as normal and healthy, but also the lies that it's wrong to use psych meds if you find them useful or that "going crazy" is overreacting, etc. I guess, mostly what I'm saying in a longwinded way, is that many tiems when I am talking to people that I met through Icarus I have a feeling of both being listened to and being understood - of being KNOWN - that is absent in most other spheres of my life - whether radical or normal. It is one of the only places I can show up and show most parts of me and not feel like I need to hide all the glaring contradictions I contain. And that's the most radical thing of all.
Anonymous (Editing OK)
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I spend hours every week on the Icarus forum. I don't often post, but I feel that I am part of something bigger than myself and that is a good sort of feeling. I love reading in particular the threads on Spirituality, and also the radical anti-psychiatry views. We are creating an alternative community - not just everyone else but me too!
Please don't print my name or email address. I have after all encountered too much stigma.
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One of my favorite things about TIP is getting to talk to people who's experiences have been very similar to mine, both in terms of 'madness' and interaction with the mental 'health' system. My interaction with the system has been isolating and demoralizing. It's easy to get the sense from 'professionals' that you're this 'incurable' defective who's experiences are fundamentally abnormal. Talking to people at TIP paints a very different, and much more accurate, picture of what's happening. It also takes away that feeling of shame and isolation that comes from being told you are crazy and will never get better. Essentially TIP shows that you are far from alone and far from defective. There is always someone you can talk to who has been where you are and has gotten through it. Psychiatrists try to give you a map of a place they have never been, and the result is often that you get even more hopelessly lost. People at TIP have been there and so can offer real practical help, as well as a level of compassion that would not otherwise be possible.
Anonymous (editing OK)
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I like the Icarus Project because they are the only alternative mental health group that really understands that to critique how we define and treat mental illness, we need to also critique how we define what is normal or sane. That it must be a political project.
Anonymous (editing OK)
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I've tried other online support groups that weren't nearly as good as The Icarus Project. At TIP, we focus on our strengths while addressing our weaknesses. We're accepted simply by existing as the beings that we're designed to be, and attempt to fully support all walks of life while supporting each other in a positive, compassionate, and caring manner.
Anonymous
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one of the few places I've found an open an supportive environment where people are talking about both their problems with illness and their problems with the current system of treatment
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We heal together within The Icarus Project as a family...We support each other thru darkest times...
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...I know many people share the same fears and frustrations and I am not alone.
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it feels like coming to a communal livingroom sometimes, a huge room with nice soft couches for conversing on, scattered armchairs for people how want to be alone with their thoughts, a little space for people to stand when they want to address something to everyone, and books and music and pictures everywhere. i like it here, even when everyone is in a bad mood or hurting. because someone else is always in the room to listen.
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