Up at the top right hand corner, there’s a new link to a new page called “Get Help!”

It explains what we do, and what other things you can do to get help for yourself / friends if they are in crisis.

Since we are in the midst of Mad Gifts Week, I thought I’d make a list of reasons that I’m glad to be mad. (Its a listy kind of day!)

• Sometimes things are very, very, very easy, even very, very, very difficult things.
• Nothing is strange! The outer limits of consciousness are where we all dwell.
• So many little coloured pills!

Want to add your reasons below?

The Icarus Project and Freedom Center’s 40-page guide gathers the best information we’ve come across and the most valuable lessons we’ve learned about reducing and coming off psychiatric medication. Includes info on mood stabilizers, anti-psychotics, anti-depressants, anti-anxiety drugs, risks, benefits, wellness tools, withdrawal, information for people staying on their medications, detailed Resource section, and much more. Written by Will Hall, with a 14-member health professional Advisory Board providing research assistance and 24 other collaborators involved in developing and editing. The guide has photographs and art throughout, and a beautiful original cover painting by Ashley McNamara.

Download a .pdf to read or a ‘zine version to print and fold into a booklet (instructions included). Low-cost published copies with color covers are available by emailing orders AT theicarusproject DOT net, and you can also get multiple copies to distribute.

Note that the guide is Creative Commons copyright and you are free to copy and distribute for non-commercial purposes, as long as you credit the source and don’t alter it.

Download and read the Guide.

Download a printer version, with scrambled pages ready to fold.

Download simple assembly instructions for the print version.

Download a one-page promotional flyer about the guide with ordering instructions.

And watch this space for info about an upcoming launch event in Sydney for the guide!

ICARUS PROJECT
MAD GIFTS WEEK
http://theicarusproject.net/community/mad-gifts-week

Mad Gifts Week: A Celebration of Diversibility
2007 October 29th - November 4th

For anyone and everyone who takes pride in being different, in a world where what’s considered ‘normal’ is killing us!

Celebrate your Mad Gifts with a week of divers-ability awareness, skills-share, discussion and activism! Show your mad pride to the world in the form of outreach workshops, language swaps, movie night, speak outs or skills-share. Make the journey a personal rite of transformation by creating a mad map, writing a poem or a song about mad pride, draw your mad map persona, or making a madness first aid kit. Build community by discussing language, stigma, social and environmental factors influencing madness, trading alternative healing methods, or forming local groups around areas of mad activism. Whatever you can dream up we encourage you to manifest it through individual or group collaboration.

Join the discussion on the forums to get involved with local and inter/national levels of cultural evolution through collective and individual movements for liberation. Contribute your ideas and activities here:
Mad Gifts Week http://theicarusproject.net/forums/viewforum.php?f=72

Download the flyer to promote Mad Gifts Week here:
http://www.theicarusproject.net/files/MadGiftsWeekFlyer.jpg

Send us your address to madgiftsweek@theicarusproject.net to request Icarus Mad Gifts Conspire Kits, or contact us to make suggestions, find out who is in your area to connect with, get involved and dream the future together.

———————–

The Icarus Project is a website community, support network, and media project created by and for people living with bipolar disorder and other dangerous gifts commonly labeled as “mental illnesses.” We believe that when we learn to take care of ourselves, the intertwined threads of madness and creativity can be tools of inspiration and hope in a repressed and damaged world. Our goal is to help people like ourselves feel less alienated, and to allow us—both as individuals and as a community—to tap into the true potential that lies between brilliance and madness.

http://theicarusproject.net

There are so many of us out here and we’re waiting for you to join us!

Pinning down depression
11 Sep 2007

While depression is now acknowledged as an
all-too-common and serious illness, the use of
acupuncture to treat it is not yet widely known or
accepted.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) researchers at UTS
have set out to change that with an Australian-first
clinical trial to establish a scientific footing for
the treatment of depression with acupuncture.

Wilson said the need was clear – the Beyond Blue
Organisation estimates more than 800,000 Australians
live with depression each year and one in five people
will experience depression at some time in their life.

“There is some good evidence that acupuncture is
beneficial in the treatment of depression, but
previous studies done overseas have failed to properly
test and record treatment methods,” Wilson said.

“The aim of this trial is to increase the
understanding of how acupuncture can be used in
combination with drug therapy to treat depression. It
is hoped that this in turn may lead to a better
understanding of how drug dependency and side effects
can be reduced.

“We are using pre and post treatment tests to assess
if an acupuncture intervention has any effect on
volunteer subjects. They must have been diagnosed with
major depression and currently be taking a drug from
the Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI)
family of antidepressants.

“At no time during the study will they be asked to
stop their prescribed drug treatment – the acupuncture
is being used as an adjunct therapy.”

Wilson said the researchers would recruit participants
until the end of the year and the trial would continue
until June next year. Volunteers are being offered 12
free acupuncture sessions and some reimbursement for
travelling expenses.

And, Kirk is not shy about getting the word out
face-to-face. He has been spending two hours a day in
Sydney’s Martin Place near his George Street clinic
handing out leaflets promoting the trial.

If you would like to join the study or if you have any
queries phone Kirk Wilson on 1300 TO HEAL or 9231
3377. The trial is being conducted out of Meridian
Healing Centre Suite 6, Level 10, 428 George Street
(The Dymocks Building), which is located in the centre
of Sydney’s CBD.

Contact: Terry Clinton Ph:+61 2 9514 1623

Sydney Icarus is doing DIY art therapy this

week. Bring your materials, and an open mind.

Mad, crazy, strange, not-normal, weird, psycho, difficult, sensitive, creative, high-strung, odd, queer, irrational, emotional, unhappy, depressing, lazy, schizo people are invited to come and discuss the possibility of starting an Icarus group in Sydney (http://www.theicarusproject.net for more info)

PLEASE NOTE CHANGE TO WEDNESDAY

For anyone who couldn’t use the pdf of the zine before, try this one.

Anarchia Part 1

Anarchia Part 2

6-8 pm, Wednesday 25th July 2007 @ 22 Enmore Road Newtown

Mad, crazy, strange, not-normal, weird, psycho, difficult, sensitive, creative, high-strung, odd, queer, irrational, emotional, unhappy, depressing, lazy, schizo people are invited to come and discuss the possibility of starting an Icarus group in Sydney (http://www.theicarusproject.net for more info)

Bring your hat, and a vegan snack, drink mad tea with us!