Am I Still Laughing?
£12.00
By Dolly Sen
ISBN: 978-1-905610-94-5
Published: 2006
Pages: 184
Key Themes: schizophrenia, manic depression, bi-polar disorder, abuse, self-harm, activism
"An epistle to equality, tolerance and the true beauty of madness. Dolly Sen's powerful personal pilgrimage to love, life and humanity again is a very intimate tale about the power of dreaming, taking control and fighting for the right to be oneself and to be equal and to be accepted" - David Morris, Senior Policy Adviser to the Mayor (Disability), Greater London Authority
Description
Dolly Sen’s second book, 'Am I Still Laughing?, is the follow up to her acclaimed memoir, 'The World is Full of Laughter'. Her first book started out as a possible suicide note and ended up as a celebration of life. The brutally honest account of living with madness has been an inspiration to readers around the world, and has positively changed many peoples’ lives. In 'Am I Still Laughing' Dolly describes her childhood with a father who was a small-time singer and actor, through him she worked as an extra on various films including the Star Wars epic, The Empire Strikes Back, until Steven Spielberg sacked her because he thought her child-breasts were too big for the part of an underfed child slave. Confused by sci-fi reality and day-to-day fiction Dolly traces her madness ‘all the way back to when I worked on The Empire Strikes Back. It wasn't a film, it was reality, and it was up to me to maintain the good and evil in the universe'.
About the Author
Author, poet and activist Dolly Sen lives in Streatham, South London. Born in 1970, she had her first psychotic experience aged 14 which lead her to leave school. After years of mental illness, probably bought on by an abusive childhood, Dolly decided she should write about her experiences. She was inspired to write her own story after reading Jason Pegler's autobiography 'A Can of Madness'. She has since written five books, become a successful performance poet who has toured throughout Europe and has set up two charities. Dolly is a key figure in the mental health movement and regularly appears on television and radio talking about mental health issues.
Book Extract
Writing has always helped me. I found it when I was 22 and it has kept me alive since then. During my worst depressions, writing gave me a reason to wake up in the morning. Would I still have carried on writing if I never was published? Of course I would. One of my favourite writers, Charles Bukowski, said of writing: ‘It is the last expectation, the last explanation, that’s what writing is’. A plain piece of paper won’t judge you, criticize you. And above all it won’t lie to you. If you can’t say what needs to be said face to face, write it down.
People with mental health problems who are able should think about either writing their story or at least telling it. Their lives shouldn’t be what they think are dirty secrets they have to hide. One woman at one of my book signings shook her head sadly and said, “I can’t, it’s too painful. And besides, nobody wants to hear it.” That’s what I thought once. I now know that to be untrue. People, men and women, young and old, rich and poor, have taken me aside after reading my book and say, sometimes with tears in their eyes, “This happened to me too… but please don’t tell anyone that it did.” This is painfully heart-rending. Because I think if you don’t share it positively, it’ll manifest somewhere else, in your body, in your relationship to others and the world. For example, it can be seen in some people’s eyes; they try to smile, but their eyes don’t believe it. Their eyes are telling their story – something about their life always will. So you might as well have some control over it.
For me creativity gave me control in a world where because of a diagnosis I had no control. A South American poet said, “Take away someone’s creativity and you take away their humanity. Give someone back their creativity, and you give back their life.” I found this to be true while writing my story, and every day after too.
Writing your life story does so much for you. It gives you opportunity to reflect, it empowers you because you have nothing to hide any more.
I made a conscious decision to let it out, to give away secrets. But it was really difficult to get it onto paper sometimes without crying; or deleting, starting again, deleting, and starting again. Some of the things I wrote I didn’t tell my family about. Most of them didn’t know about the abortion or the extent of my mental illness.
Will they reject me for what needs to be said? That did definitely cross my mind. I even made plans to leave London if things got ugly. The first to read it was Paula. When she finished it, she rang me up in tears. “Why didn’t you tell me? About the abortion and other things? Oh Dolly…” So we cried together. I was so relieved that she didn’t reject me; in fact, it made our relationship stronger. This goes with the other members of my family too. Our love got stronger. It dumbfounded me. Of course, my father won’t read it – or can’t. His memory is such that he doesn’t remember what he reads. For example, he will read the same newspaper 5 or 6 times without retaining information. And nothing can change the story he tells himself anyway. Jason was intuitively supportive, just knowing exactly the right time to encourage me. His belief in me was nothing I had from anyone in my life previously. I remember thinking this is the thing that all humans need, the thing that affects change in someone, no matter what has happened in their life before. I am forever grateful for him for that. And because of his belief in me, my self-belief developed slowly.
So I didn’t get to see much of the summer of 2002. I had spent most of it, sweating inside, writing the book. When it was finished, I felt like a new person, my skin was easier to wear. The thing I thought would be the hardest thing to do was in fact very uplifting and life-refreshing. I felt I could do anything… until I realised how much my life would now change. Being a published writer, I had to engage with people, talk to them! And talk in front of them! I was shitting myself. I wanted to go back and hide, not unwrite the book but be anonymous again. As the publication date loomed closer and closer, Jason gave me things to do to occupy myself. He needed photos for the book cover, so I got my brother Kenny to emerge from behind his computers and take some pics of me with his digital camera. “What are they for?” he asked. “Oh, they are for the cover of my new book.” “Oh right, I see.” Like it was something we did everyday. But Kenny is used to my craziness. If I said, Kenny we have to burn socks so the devil doesn’t have fossil fuel. He would have said, “Oh right, I see.”
Showing posts with label Empowerment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Empowerment. Show all posts
Friday, 21 September 2007
A Mind To Be Free Marie Berger
A Mind To Be Free
£12.00
A Personal Search for Therapy
By Marie Berger
ISBN: 978-1-84747-190-1
Published: 2007
Pages: 128
Key Themes: mental health services, psychiatry, depression
Description
This is a wonderfully moving and brilliant account of Marie Berger's dark secret - her mental illness and her constant attempts to regain control of her life through whatever means possible. In order to do this Marie resolves that she must look deep inside herself to discover the real reason for her illness; a troubled childhood and feelings of rejection from her family seem the most likely cause, but who really understands the workings of the mind?! An engaging and fulfilling read, this book poses many questions about mental illness and how it is dealt with in this society of ours.
About the Author
Marie Berger was born in May 1945 in Reading, Berkshire. She trained to become a teacher and is also a qualified masseuse. She is now an author by profession and lives with her husband and her children in Lincoln. She is fond of travelling, foreign languages, pastel drawing and of course her writing.
Book Extract
I have decided to start a new life in another country. When Mummy showed me the advertisement for teachers in Ontario, Canada, I knew I could leave with her blessing. Sharing a flat close to home was an insult it seemed, but going to another country to live met with her approval. And anything I did only felt right to me if it was acceptable to Mummy. Even at twenty-three I longed for her to be proud of me, to love me as I felt she loved Rita, her natural daughter.
Determined to make her and Daddy proud of me I boarded the liner, The Empress of Canada, at Liverpool. I waved to Daddy until he became a tiny dot on the quayside grateful that he, at least, had come to see me off. I left full of hope that finally I could break free from the unhappiness within me.But feeling lost and childlike, I fell out with my flatmates and work colleagues within weeks. I tried desperately to get on with them but they didn’t appear to like me. Whatever I did always annoyed those around me. But nobody bothered to explain why. Feeling totally rejected, I moved out to rent a place on my own. I loved my job, got on well with the eight to ten year old children in my class. If they liked me how come people of my own age did not?
I confided in the Principal about my unhappy childhood in a family where I felt sure my adopted parents loved their own daughter better than me, despite everything I did to try to please them. I told her of my distress when they adopted Teresa when I was twelve years old, how I felt they were trying to replace me because I wasn’t good enough.
Sister Carla Marie seemed to understand my unhappiness. “I think I hate my mother,” I told her. She nodded sympathetically. I even told her how guilty I felt when I let my boyfriend touch my breasts. “Can’t you ever forgive yourself?” She asked. But Mummy, Daddy and the Catholic Church required me to be perfect in every thought, word and deed. Each failing was yet another sin to be declared in Confession in church, in order to be forgiven by God. There was no excuse for giving in to my sexual desires in any way.
Sister feels sorry for me. She was the one I rang when I overdosed just before Christmas. Had she not taken me from my attic apartment to the Emergency Room I would have died. She agreed not to tell the rest of the staff what I’d done but to side with me when I concocted a story about arriving at the hospital feeling unwell and the doctor deciding to keep me in for investigation.
Now I’m back at school, attending weekly sessions of therapy. My teaching is fine but my private life is fraught with loneliness and self-loathing.
*
Doctor Lessier, my psychiatrist, leans back in his chair calmly puffing on his pipe, watching me light a cigarette.
“Please tell me what to do. My life is all messed up.”
“You’re looking for the Big Breast again,” he sighs. He’s often said that in the three months I’ve been seeing him.
I’m confused. I don’t know what he’s trying to imply.
“I don’t know what you mean,” I say angrily.
He doesn’t answer me. My anger turns to hopelessness.
“Please put me in the hospital.”
“No – I won’t do that.” He looks at his watch. “Time’s up. See you next week.”
“You won’t see me – I’m not coming again.”
He shrugs and opens the door.
I leave feeling as desperate as when I arrived. During the past few weeks at school the despair has become overwhelming. Every time I see the Principal’s kind, calm face I long for her to hold me close, talk to me gently, promise me that she will look after me always. My mind knows I must not regard her as a mother figure. At twenty-three years old I’m a teacher, not a small, helpless child. But the little girl inside me doesn’t understand. She won’t accept the adult concept. She’s still looking for a warm, loving mummy to care for her every need, a mummy she cannot have because this woman is a nun, her life devoted to God, the Catholic Church and the school.
Now she’s really worried about me. I’m getting no better. Sometimes I have to leave the classroom early to go home because it’s becoming increasingly difficult to contain my emotions. I ring her on leaving the doctor’s office.
“I’m going to admit myself to the mental hospital on the hill.” I can’t hold back the tears as I talk.
“If you do that I shall have no option but to tell the School Board.” Her voice is quiet, sympathetic as she continues, “I shall send a priest to your house to take you. Are you quite sure you want to go?”
“Yes – I’ve got to,” I reply.
The priest arrives soon after I return home. He doesn’t try to engage me in conversation except to ask, “Are you certain you want to do this? You can change your mind, it’s not too late.” “If I don’t go into hospital I won’t be able to cope.”
He drives me the short distance up what is known locally as The Mountain. The Reception staff do not want to admit me.
“If you don’t I’ll take my life.”
I leave them with no alternative. The priest leaves. I’m taken to a small ward with several beds, all empty. The nurse gives me some tablets. She doesn’t explain what they’re for. She waits until I’ve taken them.
“This is your bed,” she says matter-of-factly, pointing out the one nearest the door. She turns, walks away without so much as a backward glance.
I feel terribly unhappy. I don’t want to stay here. I lie down feeling so alone, so mixed up…
OTHER WORKS BY THIS AUTHOR
£12.00
A Personal Search for Therapy
By Marie Berger
ISBN: 978-1-84747-190-1
Published: 2007
Pages: 128
Key Themes: mental health services, psychiatry, depression
Description
This is a wonderfully moving and brilliant account of Marie Berger's dark secret - her mental illness and her constant attempts to regain control of her life through whatever means possible. In order to do this Marie resolves that she must look deep inside herself to discover the real reason for her illness; a troubled childhood and feelings of rejection from her family seem the most likely cause, but who really understands the workings of the mind?! An engaging and fulfilling read, this book poses many questions about mental illness and how it is dealt with in this society of ours.
About the Author
Marie Berger was born in May 1945 in Reading, Berkshire. She trained to become a teacher and is also a qualified masseuse. She is now an author by profession and lives with her husband and her children in Lincoln. She is fond of travelling, foreign languages, pastel drawing and of course her writing.
Book Extract
I have decided to start a new life in another country. When Mummy showed me the advertisement for teachers in Ontario, Canada, I knew I could leave with her blessing. Sharing a flat close to home was an insult it seemed, but going to another country to live met with her approval. And anything I did only felt right to me if it was acceptable to Mummy. Even at twenty-three I longed for her to be proud of me, to love me as I felt she loved Rita, her natural daughter.
Determined to make her and Daddy proud of me I boarded the liner, The Empress of Canada, at Liverpool. I waved to Daddy until he became a tiny dot on the quayside grateful that he, at least, had come to see me off. I left full of hope that finally I could break free from the unhappiness within me.But feeling lost and childlike, I fell out with my flatmates and work colleagues within weeks. I tried desperately to get on with them but they didn’t appear to like me. Whatever I did always annoyed those around me. But nobody bothered to explain why. Feeling totally rejected, I moved out to rent a place on my own. I loved my job, got on well with the eight to ten year old children in my class. If they liked me how come people of my own age did not?
I confided in the Principal about my unhappy childhood in a family where I felt sure my adopted parents loved their own daughter better than me, despite everything I did to try to please them. I told her of my distress when they adopted Teresa when I was twelve years old, how I felt they were trying to replace me because I wasn’t good enough.
Sister Carla Marie seemed to understand my unhappiness. “I think I hate my mother,” I told her. She nodded sympathetically. I even told her how guilty I felt when I let my boyfriend touch my breasts. “Can’t you ever forgive yourself?” She asked. But Mummy, Daddy and the Catholic Church required me to be perfect in every thought, word and deed. Each failing was yet another sin to be declared in Confession in church, in order to be forgiven by God. There was no excuse for giving in to my sexual desires in any way.
Sister feels sorry for me. She was the one I rang when I overdosed just before Christmas. Had she not taken me from my attic apartment to the Emergency Room I would have died. She agreed not to tell the rest of the staff what I’d done but to side with me when I concocted a story about arriving at the hospital feeling unwell and the doctor deciding to keep me in for investigation.
Now I’m back at school, attending weekly sessions of therapy. My teaching is fine but my private life is fraught with loneliness and self-loathing.
*
Doctor Lessier, my psychiatrist, leans back in his chair calmly puffing on his pipe, watching me light a cigarette.
“Please tell me what to do. My life is all messed up.”
“You’re looking for the Big Breast again,” he sighs. He’s often said that in the three months I’ve been seeing him.
I’m confused. I don’t know what he’s trying to imply.
“I don’t know what you mean,” I say angrily.
He doesn’t answer me. My anger turns to hopelessness.
“Please put me in the hospital.”
“No – I won’t do that.” He looks at his watch. “Time’s up. See you next week.”
“You won’t see me – I’m not coming again.”
He shrugs and opens the door.
I leave feeling as desperate as when I arrived. During the past few weeks at school the despair has become overwhelming. Every time I see the Principal’s kind, calm face I long for her to hold me close, talk to me gently, promise me that she will look after me always. My mind knows I must not regard her as a mother figure. At twenty-three years old I’m a teacher, not a small, helpless child. But the little girl inside me doesn’t understand. She won’t accept the adult concept. She’s still looking for a warm, loving mummy to care for her every need, a mummy she cannot have because this woman is a nun, her life devoted to God, the Catholic Church and the school.
Now she’s really worried about me. I’m getting no better. Sometimes I have to leave the classroom early to go home because it’s becoming increasingly difficult to contain my emotions. I ring her on leaving the doctor’s office.
“I’m going to admit myself to the mental hospital on the hill.” I can’t hold back the tears as I talk.
“If you do that I shall have no option but to tell the School Board.” Her voice is quiet, sympathetic as she continues, “I shall send a priest to your house to take you. Are you quite sure you want to go?”
“Yes – I’ve got to,” I reply.
The priest arrives soon after I return home. He doesn’t try to engage me in conversation except to ask, “Are you certain you want to do this? You can change your mind, it’s not too late.” “If I don’t go into hospital I won’t be able to cope.”
He drives me the short distance up what is known locally as The Mountain. The Reception staff do not want to admit me.
“If you don’t I’ll take my life.”
I leave them with no alternative. The priest leaves. I’m taken to a small ward with several beds, all empty. The nurse gives me some tablets. She doesn’t explain what they’re for. She waits until I’ve taken them.
“This is your bed,” she says matter-of-factly, pointing out the one nearest the door. She turns, walks away without so much as a backward glance.
I feel terribly unhappy. I don’t want to stay here. I lie down feeling so alone, so mixed up…
OTHER WORKS BY THIS AUTHOR
Monday, 3 September 2007
Jason Pegler Introduction
Jason Pegler is one of the most inspirational mental health empowerment speakers in the world. He is probably unique in his openness about using his own mental illness as a positive force, in order to lead a generation of people to be empowered. They can do this by confronting their mental illness and therefore taking the first steps to recovery.
Jason has had a fascinating life, from being the captain of his school chess and rugby team and a potential Oxbridge candidate to being diagnosed with manic depression at the age of 17. He masterminded the leading autobiography on mental health of his generation "A Can of Madness", published in 2002.
Quickly realising that he could encourage others, Jason set up Chipmunkapublishing "The Mental Health Publisher", as a social enterprise, to give a voice to the mental health service users that had not had a real voice before. This led to selling and marketing opportunities in the Mental Health and Corporate Sectors as well as national and international media coverage. In just 5 years Jason has become a living legend in the world mental health survivor movement creating the world's first mental health brand Chipmunka. Jason Pegler is recognised as the leading thinker and activist of his generation in the world of mental health empowerment. Jason Pegler ground-breaking autobiography on living with manic depression "A Can of Madness" has been given a five star review in the Times Literary Supplement. He regards meeting people and public speaking as his forte. He is a dynamic public speaker, lecturer and consultant on a myriad of mental health and related issues. He has written for more than one hundred newspapers, periodicals, magazines worldwide. He regularly appears on television, radio and documentaries discussing mental health issues.
What clients say:
Jason Pegler is a great example to many people. He has a presentable manner and is always inspiring. The Right Honourable Tony Benn
We applaud Jason Pegler's motivation, endeavours and his determination to succeed in this difficult area". Marjorie Wallace Chief Executive of Sane Wow what an inspirational speaker. Makes you feel that you can help the whole world by being a humanitarian. Paul Brandwood - Corporate Social Responsibility at KPMG UK.
Pegler speaks with honesty, openness and integrity. He is revolutionary in the world of mental ill health. Book him now. Andrew Latchford - Co Founder of Chipmunkapublishing, Co Founder of Chipmunka Foundation and European Business Consultant
I regularly advise my students to go and hear him speak. Pegler has a gift that many aspire to. He fundamentally believes that you can change your life and cure yourself from mental illness and he is living proof that you can prove it. Dr. T. Davies - Consultant Psychiatrist and Editor of ABC of Mental Health
A truly amazing speaker. I wish everyone could hear Jason speak. It would change the way they think about people with mental illness. G. Taylor - Astra Zeneca
Having heard Jason Pegler speak I had the confidence to write my own story, which began as a suicide note and ended up a celebration of life. He has helped me more than anyone. Dolly Sen - Film producer and author of four books including the "The World Is Full of Laughter".
Jason Pegler is inspirational to a great many people in the UK service user movement. I am amazed how he does it. Paul Farmer - Chief Executive of Mind
I highly recommend Jason Pegler as a social entrepreneur and public speaker. Fantastic.John Bird - Founder of the Big Issue
One of the most forward thinking and inspirational motivational speakers in the world today. The leader of a new breed of empowerment thinking. Professor Sir Harvey Crichton - Founder of the Crichton Group.
For further information on this speaker, please call: 0870 766 9535
MORE ABOUT THE FOUNDER OF THE WORLD's FIRST MENTAL HEALTH BRAND !
His expertise is mental health. When he was seventeen years of age he spent six months in a psychiatric ward in Coney Hill Mental Hospital in Gloucester in the United Kingdom. After six weeks of mania where he thought he had taken 5 billion Ecstasy tablets to create world peace, Jason's first realisation that he was actually not well and in a mental hospital. He had a vision. He knew that one day he would have to gather enough strength to tell the world how he felt. By doing this he could stop the pain and humiliation that he and everyone else with a mental illness felt. His immediate thought was that his experiences and feelings needed to be recorded as they happened- on the largest platform possible. Then and only then would other people understand and therefore empathise with the "loonies" in Coney Hill. It took Jason four manic episodes before he was bold enough to change his thought processes and act on his vision. Jason graduated from Manchester University with a 2:1 in Classical Studies in 1998 before writing his autobiography on living with manic depression (1998 - 2002) "A Can of Madness", and setting up Chipmunkapublishing with co-founder Andrew Latchford.
Released on April 13th 2002 with help from the British Government's Mind Millennium Award Programme "A Can of Madness" was immediately recognised as a ground breaking text and compared favorably to Elizabeth Wurtzel's Prozac Nation and Kay Redfield Jamieson's An Unquiet Mind. It also became an underground text symptomatic of saving the ecstasy generation from its own "mental illness" and continues to spread its influence over the globe.
In October 2002 Chipmunkapublishing launched its second author Dolly Sen who was inspired to write her autobiography The World Is Full of Laughter after reading A Can of Madness.
"My goal in life is to tell the truth about my life, tell the truth about how people with mental health issues are treated by society, the mental health system, the state and the status quo. I want others to follow in my footsteps and help me break down the taboo on mental health once and for all." Jason Pegler.
Various documentaries, film versions and scripts featuring Jason Pegler and his related projects are underway. The ultimate goal is for the story to become a feature length blockbuster movie. Then the widest audience will be reached.
Jason Pegler knows from the letters he and other Chipmunkapublishing authors have received that their mental health publishing is making a positve impact in society:
"By telling the truth about one's mental health issues, sufferers are able to deal with the humiliation and carers are able to see how best to help their loved ones. Writing and reading books about mental health users is a cathartic processes that is crucial for the reduction of stigma and discrimination and for the improved state of mind for service users. The books also help give insight to mental health staff as they reveal how thier patient's feel and are a morale booster for staff showing that people do get better".
Jason Pegler has worked recently with:
ITVBBCEMISONYBMWSimon and Schuster MicrosoftUnltd The Big IssueMen's Health MagazineKPMGCommunity Action NetworkEC3 SolutionsRethinkMindSaneThere There MagazineThe NHS Tree EventsDisability Rights CommissionThe European ParliamentThe World Health OrganisationMPs and Lords on The Mental Health BillLondon Development CentreNIMHENHS
Vision: Words from the CEO Jason Pegler:
"The ultimate vision of Chipmunka Group is to prove that everyone on earth has a mental illness at some level. Then and only then will we have normalised mental health so that in fifty years someone with a mental illness will not have to feel humiliated for being mentally ill. At the age of seventeen I was diagnosed with manic depression and my world was turned upside down. After living in a mental hospital for six weeks I suddenly realised that I was not playing the football manager in the computer game. It took me months to realise that a nuclear war was not going on and that I was not God.
The moment I realised I had a mental illness I had a mission and a dream.
My mission was to one day tell the whole world about the humiliation and guilt that i had for having had all those idiotic manic thoughts. Celebrating my madness was the only way I could psychoanalyse myself and become better. I saw my story as a Hollywood movie not for my own ego but because being in a psychiatric ward changed me as a person. It made me more sensitive, I wanted to help people and stop another seventeen year old from going through the same pain that I went through. Until I was living in a mental hospital I couldn't have cared less what is was like for people who lived in places like that and experienced 'mental illness'.
For me then and still today Hollywood was the greatest medium to change the way people thought about the internet. This was in 1993. We are fortunate now that we also have the internet to enable people for the first time in history to be producers and not just consumers of information.
The moment i came down from mania a frisson went through my body that i had to help everyone else in the ward. This is a natural feeling for anyone who goes through this kind of pain. If you doubt it just ask them. It was immediately evident that society was the cause of the humiliation that these people were going through. People are alienated when they are not understood. This is how the status quo operates. Without it there would be anarchy.
The Mental Health Movement is still in its infancy even though 'mental illness' has been around since the beginning of time. People who are different have always been alienated but do not always have to be. In fact is contravenes civil liberties to assume that people are ill when they are not. People need help when they are alienated but their characters are not fundamentally flawed if they behave differently. The status quo throughout history has fed us with propaganda telling that they are 'mentally ill' as a form of social control and then clouding the real voice of those who suffer.
I set up Chipmunka to give a voice to the mentally ill. The plight of the mentally ill improves with every generation in the sense that we are not put in prison with murderers anymore. Yet the facts are that global mental illness will always be on the increase in our life times. By 2020 mental illness will be the second most common form of death second only to heart disease. Mental health is becoming part of the social norm and with this the influence of the patient will increase. We are in a transitional period in history where people who are 'mentally ill' must publically be given approval to control their own lives. There must be no hidden agenda's but an open arm policy calling for humanitarian treatment across mental health services and in society.
For me the role of the mental health patient is exactly the same as that of the civil rights activists in the 1960s. For charities, the media and governments to campaign for the mentally ill without having patients dictate the terms is irrational and ethically wrong. If Martin Luther King JNR was a white man talking about black people's experiences then no-one would have listened to him. The same is true with the history of the 'the mentally ill'.
The role of Chipmunka is to change the way people think about mental health and to treat it as normal. Some people will need to be subliminally influenced, others can be encouraged to be more empathetic or get pro actively involved. The reality is that we are all human beings at the end of the day and are all vulnerable constantly experiencing 'mental distress' or other either consciously or unconsciously worrying about a finite existence whether we believe in existentialist philosophy god, being or the after life itself.
Help us to help more people and donate your energy, time and money to becoming a supporter of the world's first mental health brand. Creating a brand is the best way to stop the rising number of suicides. Remember we feel your pain and/or indifference otherwise wwe ould be dedicating my entire life to something completely different."
Jason has had a fascinating life, from being the captain of his school chess and rugby team and a potential Oxbridge candidate to being diagnosed with manic depression at the age of 17. He masterminded the leading autobiography on mental health of his generation "A Can of Madness", published in 2002.
Quickly realising that he could encourage others, Jason set up Chipmunkapublishing "The Mental Health Publisher", as a social enterprise, to give a voice to the mental health service users that had not had a real voice before. This led to selling and marketing opportunities in the Mental Health and Corporate Sectors as well as national and international media coverage. In just 5 years Jason has become a living legend in the world mental health survivor movement creating the world's first mental health brand Chipmunka. Jason Pegler is recognised as the leading thinker and activist of his generation in the world of mental health empowerment. Jason Pegler ground-breaking autobiography on living with manic depression "A Can of Madness" has been given a five star review in the Times Literary Supplement. He regards meeting people and public speaking as his forte. He is a dynamic public speaker, lecturer and consultant on a myriad of mental health and related issues. He has written for more than one hundred newspapers, periodicals, magazines worldwide. He regularly appears on television, radio and documentaries discussing mental health issues.
What clients say:
Jason Pegler is a great example to many people. He has a presentable manner and is always inspiring. The Right Honourable Tony Benn
We applaud Jason Pegler's motivation, endeavours and his determination to succeed in this difficult area". Marjorie Wallace Chief Executive of Sane Wow what an inspirational speaker. Makes you feel that you can help the whole world by being a humanitarian. Paul Brandwood - Corporate Social Responsibility at KPMG UK.
Pegler speaks with honesty, openness and integrity. He is revolutionary in the world of mental ill health. Book him now. Andrew Latchford - Co Founder of Chipmunkapublishing, Co Founder of Chipmunka Foundation and European Business Consultant
I regularly advise my students to go and hear him speak. Pegler has a gift that many aspire to. He fundamentally believes that you can change your life and cure yourself from mental illness and he is living proof that you can prove it. Dr. T. Davies - Consultant Psychiatrist and Editor of ABC of Mental Health
A truly amazing speaker. I wish everyone could hear Jason speak. It would change the way they think about people with mental illness. G. Taylor - Astra Zeneca
Having heard Jason Pegler speak I had the confidence to write my own story, which began as a suicide note and ended up a celebration of life. He has helped me more than anyone. Dolly Sen - Film producer and author of four books including the "The World Is Full of Laughter".
Jason Pegler is inspirational to a great many people in the UK service user movement. I am amazed how he does it. Paul Farmer - Chief Executive of Mind
I highly recommend Jason Pegler as a social entrepreneur and public speaker. Fantastic.John Bird - Founder of the Big Issue
One of the most forward thinking and inspirational motivational speakers in the world today. The leader of a new breed of empowerment thinking. Professor Sir Harvey Crichton - Founder of the Crichton Group.
For further information on this speaker, please call: 0870 766 9535
MORE ABOUT THE FOUNDER OF THE WORLD's FIRST MENTAL HEALTH BRAND !
His expertise is mental health. When he was seventeen years of age he spent six months in a psychiatric ward in Coney Hill Mental Hospital in Gloucester in the United Kingdom. After six weeks of mania where he thought he had taken 5 billion Ecstasy tablets to create world peace, Jason's first realisation that he was actually not well and in a mental hospital. He had a vision. He knew that one day he would have to gather enough strength to tell the world how he felt. By doing this he could stop the pain and humiliation that he and everyone else with a mental illness felt. His immediate thought was that his experiences and feelings needed to be recorded as they happened- on the largest platform possible. Then and only then would other people understand and therefore empathise with the "loonies" in Coney Hill. It took Jason four manic episodes before he was bold enough to change his thought processes and act on his vision. Jason graduated from Manchester University with a 2:1 in Classical Studies in 1998 before writing his autobiography on living with manic depression (1998 - 2002) "A Can of Madness", and setting up Chipmunkapublishing with co-founder Andrew Latchford.
Released on April 13th 2002 with help from the British Government's Mind Millennium Award Programme "A Can of Madness" was immediately recognised as a ground breaking text and compared favorably to Elizabeth Wurtzel's Prozac Nation and Kay Redfield Jamieson's An Unquiet Mind. It also became an underground text symptomatic of saving the ecstasy generation from its own "mental illness" and continues to spread its influence over the globe.
In October 2002 Chipmunkapublishing launched its second author Dolly Sen who was inspired to write her autobiography The World Is Full of Laughter after reading A Can of Madness.
"My goal in life is to tell the truth about my life, tell the truth about how people with mental health issues are treated by society, the mental health system, the state and the status quo. I want others to follow in my footsteps and help me break down the taboo on mental health once and for all." Jason Pegler.
Various documentaries, film versions and scripts featuring Jason Pegler and his related projects are underway. The ultimate goal is for the story to become a feature length blockbuster movie. Then the widest audience will be reached.
Jason Pegler knows from the letters he and other Chipmunkapublishing authors have received that their mental health publishing is making a positve impact in society:
"By telling the truth about one's mental health issues, sufferers are able to deal with the humiliation and carers are able to see how best to help their loved ones. Writing and reading books about mental health users is a cathartic processes that is crucial for the reduction of stigma and discrimination and for the improved state of mind for service users. The books also help give insight to mental health staff as they reveal how thier patient's feel and are a morale booster for staff showing that people do get better".
Jason Pegler has worked recently with:
ITVBBCEMISONYBMWSimon and Schuster MicrosoftUnltd The Big IssueMen's Health MagazineKPMGCommunity Action NetworkEC3 SolutionsRethinkMindSaneThere There MagazineThe NHS Tree EventsDisability Rights CommissionThe European ParliamentThe World Health OrganisationMPs and Lords on The Mental Health BillLondon Development CentreNIMHENHS
Vision: Words from the CEO Jason Pegler:
"The ultimate vision of Chipmunka Group is to prove that everyone on earth has a mental illness at some level. Then and only then will we have normalised mental health so that in fifty years someone with a mental illness will not have to feel humiliated for being mentally ill. At the age of seventeen I was diagnosed with manic depression and my world was turned upside down. After living in a mental hospital for six weeks I suddenly realised that I was not playing the football manager in the computer game. It took me months to realise that a nuclear war was not going on and that I was not God.
The moment I realised I had a mental illness I had a mission and a dream.
My mission was to one day tell the whole world about the humiliation and guilt that i had for having had all those idiotic manic thoughts. Celebrating my madness was the only way I could psychoanalyse myself and become better. I saw my story as a Hollywood movie not for my own ego but because being in a psychiatric ward changed me as a person. It made me more sensitive, I wanted to help people and stop another seventeen year old from going through the same pain that I went through. Until I was living in a mental hospital I couldn't have cared less what is was like for people who lived in places like that and experienced 'mental illness'.
For me then and still today Hollywood was the greatest medium to change the way people thought about the internet. This was in 1993. We are fortunate now that we also have the internet to enable people for the first time in history to be producers and not just consumers of information.
The moment i came down from mania a frisson went through my body that i had to help everyone else in the ward. This is a natural feeling for anyone who goes through this kind of pain. If you doubt it just ask them. It was immediately evident that society was the cause of the humiliation that these people were going through. People are alienated when they are not understood. This is how the status quo operates. Without it there would be anarchy.
The Mental Health Movement is still in its infancy even though 'mental illness' has been around since the beginning of time. People who are different have always been alienated but do not always have to be. In fact is contravenes civil liberties to assume that people are ill when they are not. People need help when they are alienated but their characters are not fundamentally flawed if they behave differently. The status quo throughout history has fed us with propaganda telling that they are 'mentally ill' as a form of social control and then clouding the real voice of those who suffer.
I set up Chipmunka to give a voice to the mentally ill. The plight of the mentally ill improves with every generation in the sense that we are not put in prison with murderers anymore. Yet the facts are that global mental illness will always be on the increase in our life times. By 2020 mental illness will be the second most common form of death second only to heart disease. Mental health is becoming part of the social norm and with this the influence of the patient will increase. We are in a transitional period in history where people who are 'mentally ill' must publically be given approval to control their own lives. There must be no hidden agenda's but an open arm policy calling for humanitarian treatment across mental health services and in society.
For me the role of the mental health patient is exactly the same as that of the civil rights activists in the 1960s. For charities, the media and governments to campaign for the mentally ill without having patients dictate the terms is irrational and ethically wrong. If Martin Luther King JNR was a white man talking about black people's experiences then no-one would have listened to him. The same is true with the history of the 'the mentally ill'.
The role of Chipmunka is to change the way people think about mental health and to treat it as normal. Some people will need to be subliminally influenced, others can be encouraged to be more empathetic or get pro actively involved. The reality is that we are all human beings at the end of the day and are all vulnerable constantly experiencing 'mental distress' or other either consciously or unconsciously worrying about a finite existence whether we believe in existentialist philosophy god, being or the after life itself.
Help us to help more people and donate your energy, time and money to becoming a supporter of the world's first mental health brand. Creating a brand is the best way to stop the rising number of suicides. Remember we feel your pain and/or indifference otherwise wwe ould be dedicating my entire life to something completely different."
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