Approach to Balance

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Chaos ~ Where Great Dreams Begin~

Before a great vision can become reality there may be difficulty.  Before a person begins a great endeavor, they may encounter chaos.  As a new plant breaks the ground with great difficulty, foreshadowing the huge tree, so must we sometimes push against difficulty in bringing forth our dreams.   ~
Out of Chaos, Brilliant Stars are Born~. 
                                                            
I Ching  Gua 3

CHANGING THE TERM MENTAL ILLNESS TO PERSISTENT STRESS DISORDER !

Helping People with Mental Illness
[i]
claims some people have a higher chance of becoming mentally ill than others:

• These people normally become mentally ill when they have been under high levels of stress

• Stress can be considered two ways:                                                       

1. Acute stress - bereavement, losing a job etc… this is sometimes referred to as stress resulting from life events

2. Chronic stress - results from things such as unhappy relationships, not having enough money etc….

While this may be an over-simplification, stress has been proven to be a factor in both the onset of mental illness and relapses[ii] with many factors being able to contribute to the stresses which can overwhelm individuals, contributing to their becoming part of the mental health client population.  Perhaps all mental illnesses should be renamed Persistent Stress Disorder (PSD), at least until such time that a specific area of an individuals brain has been identified as malfunctioning, or the causes of the symptoms have been eliminated; be it inadequate cerebral spinal fluid flow, nutrient deficiency, underactive thyroid, or any of the many factors which can stress the functioning of the brain. 

(An Excerpt from Prevention & Recovery: A Holistic View -(publication pending)

[i] Helping People with Mental Illness A Mental Health Training Programme for Community Health Workers   David Richards, Tim Bradshaw, Hilary Mairs; The University of Manchester, UK. November 2003.

[ii] Life Events & Bipolar Disorder: Preliminary Findings, The Journal 1995, Vol 6 No. 2, Sheri Johnson Ph.D.; Helping People with Mental Illness A Mental Health Training Programme for Community Health Workers, The University of Manchester, UK. November 2003, David Richards, Tim Bradshaw, Hilary Mairs; Early life stress linked to teenage mental problems; Medical News Today, 20 Nov 2005  Jim Newman, Oregon Health & Science University http://www.ohsu.edu/ ; Schizophrenia and Civilization, E. Fuller Torrey (1980)

Imagine a Harmony Center where people suffering from trauma, mental illness, or overwhelming stress could find relief and ways to reducing or eliminating their pain. Imagine these Harmony Centers in every community.  Now imagine how you can help make this a reality.



HOPE  -  A MENTAL HEALTH ADVOCACY ORGANIZATION IS BEING FORMED IN NEVADA - ITS NAME IS HOPE - HOPE OF NEVADA - HELP, OWNERSHIP, PERSEVERANCE, EDUCATION

THE MISSION OF HOPE IS TO MAKE RECOVERY THE EXPECTED OUTCOME SO THAT EVERYONE SEEKING OR RECEIVING MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES IN THE STATE OF NEVADA IS TREATED WITH RESPECT AND DIGNITY AT ALL TIMES.  WE WILL WORK TO EMPOWER EACH INDIVIDUAL SO THEY MAY LIFE A FULL AND COMPLETE LIFE.

More info to follow.

Journey to Wellness ~ Recovery from Trauma, Mental Illness, or Overwhelming Stress


Achieving the Promise, the final report from the President’s New Freedom Commission, July 2003, states " the lag between discovering effective forms of treatment and incorporating them into routine patient care is unnecessarily long, lasting about 15 to 20 years."  It also states.... "the system presents barriers that all too often add to the burden of mental illnesses for individuals, their families, and our communities". 

Little improvement has been made since.  Grading The States, NAMI's report card on mental health gives both the State of Nevada and the Nation a failing grade of D.


During the past few months we have been working on a proposal to establish a peer run recovery center ~Cactus Flower Harmony Center~ A Harmony Based Recovery Center which will implement many new (some thousands of years old) and promising methods to help people recover. It is our intention to make this as close to an ideal center as humanly possible.  We expect to add refinements and improvements as needed.  Training will be ongoing, and while we will heavily rely on volunteers, particularly at first, we hope to give paid employment to many of our volunteers as they become ready to accept the additional responsibility.   Should you wish to get involved, or contribute financially, please contact  The Nevada Disability Advocacy Law Center, 1311 N. McCarran, Suite 106 Sparks NV 89431 (775) 788-7825 or e-mail me at bob@approach2balance.org .   Please mark on all checks -for Harmony Center.  We expect to have a facility up and running by the first half of 2010.

The appendix to Cactus Flower Harmony Center is broken down into three sections, and gives detailed information on subjects mentioned in this harmony based recovery center.  Appendix A gives detailed information on the bio-medical model, including neurotransmitters and the brain.  It also gives an overview of Vibrational Medicine and Alternative and Complementary Treatments.  Appendix B gives detailed information on Chiropatic Medicine, Homopathic Medicine, and Sound Therapy using tuning forks.   Appendix C gives information on Hair Test Mineral Analysis as well as course outlines for various peer programs.

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Goals of Recovery

Be Happy

Be Healthy

Be Peaceful

Live in Harmony with Yourself and Others


 ***************************************************************

We presented

Enhancing What’s Right: Alternative and Complementary Treatments

at
Alternatives Conference in Omaha Nebraska, Oct 27- Nov 1, 2009
&

The California Assn of Social Rehabilitation Agencies
San Mateo, CA

April 8th, 2009
&

WELLNESS AND RECOVERY CONFERENCE

PINE MANORS, EDISON, NEW JERSEY

MARCH 19-20, 2009


***************************************************************

 

 

Approach to Balance has not yet been able to overcome the various bureaucratic obstacles in our way, and must go into a sort of hibernation.  As individuals we will continue to advocate for change in the mental health systems (including criminal justice) in order to make Nevada, The U.S. ..and the world, experience greater harmony.  We expect to maintain this website for an unknown period of time, but the lack of funds as well as support from the mental health system require us to let our business license expire at the end of January 2010.  The bureaucratic obstacles had prevented us from having any income producing activities, so in a way it will not be a major change.  Hopefully we... and the mental health system will flower.

At Approach to Balance we believe peer services are a major key in an individual’s recovery. 

We who have traveled this road know how difficult it can be.  While every individual is responsible for their actions, emotions, and responses to stress, we often have not acquired the tools needed to adequately accomplish this.

We recommend that anyone with a mental health diagnosis obtain a Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis to determine if either a mineral deficiency/ overabundance exists, a toxic substance is present, or if mineral ratios are out of balance.

In addition, we recommend that the individual visit a chiropractor (preferably a soft touch or NSA practitioner) to check the alignment of the skull with the atlas, or top of the spinal column.  These conditions can cause symptoms which can result in a mental health diagnosis.  Unfortunately, the medical community often turns to drugs without eliminating other possibilities. 
                                                                                                                                                                                                        
Stress typically plays a significant part both during the onset of mental illness, and at times of relapse. 

At Approach to Balance we use proven and promising methods to help individuals with a mental illness deal better with the stresses in their lives.
                                                                                                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                                                                                                     

According to the bio-medical model there are four main causes of brain dysfunction: 

1. Anatomical abnormalities or damage

2. Lack of oxygen or glucose

3. Electrolyte imbalance

4. Neurotransmitter deregulation; the imbalance of brain chemistry.


But the bio-medical model is not the only model.  There is a Buddhist medical model, an Ayurveda medicine model, a Homeopathic medicine model, a model from traditional Chinese medicine, even a Shamanic model, and parts of each are slowly being incorporated into what is becoming known as the Vibrational Medicine model (See VIBRATIONAL MEDICINE © 2001, by Richard Gerber M.D.).  This model is in harmony with the advances made in physics during the past century.  A modern recovery based system will need to be accepting of all methods which prove effective.


       
Major Differences Between Conventional Medicine's and Vibrational Medicine's Worldview

From Vibrational Medicine for the 21st Century
by Richard Gerber, M.D.

 

Conventional Medicine     Vibrational Medicine 
 

Based on Newtonian Physics             Based on Einsteinian and Quantum Physics

Views the body as a bio-machine      Views the body as a dynamic energy system


Sees the brain as a bio-computer   Mind and Spirit are true sources of consciousness
with consciousness as a by-product               (the actual operator who runs the brain/ biocomputer)
of the brain's of the brain's
electrical
energy
          


Emotions thought to influence illness     Emotions and Spirit can influence illness
 through neurohormonal connections     via energetic and neurohormonal connections

 between brain and body                             among mind, body, spirit

   
Treatments with drugs and surgery        Treatments with different forms and
to "fix" abnormal biomechanisms in        and frequencies of energy to rebalance

the physical body                                          body/ mind/ spirit complex

 

...When Alexander Fleming noticed in 1928 that an accidental infestation of the mold Pencillum notatum had killed his bacterial cultures, he made the crowning discovery of scientific medicine.  Bacteriology and sanitation had already vanquished the great plagues.  Now penicillin and subsequent antibiotics defeated the last of the invisibly tiny predators.


The drugs also completed a change in medicine that had been gathering strength since the nineteenth century.  Before that time, medicine had been an art.  The masterpiece ~a cure~ resulted from the patient's will combined with the physician's  intuition and skill in using in using remedies culled from millennia of observant trial and error.  In the last two centuries medicine, more and more has come to be a science, or more accurately the application of one science, namely biochemistry.  Medical techniques have come to be tested as much against current concepts in biochemistry as against their empirical results.  Techniques that don't fit such chemical concepts - even if they seem to work- have been abandoned as pseudoscience or downright fraudulent.

 

The philosophical result of chemical medicine's success has been belief in the Technological Fix.  Drugs became the best or only valid treatments for all ailments.  Prevention, nutrition, exercise, lifestyle, the patient's physical and mental uniqueness, environmental pollutants- all were glossed over.  Even today, after so many years and millions of dollars spent for negligible results, it's still assumed that the cure for cancer will be a chemical that kills malignant cells without harming healthy ones.

(The Body Electric by Robert O. Becker, M.D., and Gary Selden - 1985)

Mental Illness A Guide to Recovery

By Bob Bennett

Reviewed by Edith Cleveland, Director &David Farrell, Social Steps Program, as appeared in Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal Vol. 28 # 4, Spring 2005.

I personally enjoyed reading his book and found it very informative and enlightening with segments I plan to incorporate into our current program.  To recommend it as additional reading to those in the field would be an understatement.  He brings to the mental health industry further cause that recovery is not only possible but its seeds are flourishing everywhere.

From Chief Kathryn Landreth, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police:  You have made a complex issue easier to understand.

http://www.trafford.com/Bookstore/BookDetail.aspx?BookId=SKU-000145785.