2016

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Dialectical Living answered our seven questions about their workshop and Mad Pride. Check out the Introduction to Mindful Living workshop at Mad Pride Week Toronto on Friday, July 15 at Ryerson University (4:30-5:45 SHE 660 (99 Gerrard St E, near Jarvis)) [Full event list]

Mindfulness by http://www.dialecticalliving.ca/
Mindfulness by http://www.dialecticalliving.ca/

Q. What are you most excited about with your workshop at Mad Pride?

1. Dialectical Living is most excited about sharing with Mad activists and allies the innumerable benefits of mindfulness in everyday life on July 15th at Ryerson University (4:30 – 5:45 pm SHE 660 (99 Gerrard St E, near Jarvis)). Thanks to Mad volunteers for setting up this great space.

Q What do we need to know about you and your Mad Self (as a group or individual)?

2. What you need to know about Dialectical Living is we are a peer based organization. That means all Dialectical Living employees and volunteers have lived experience.

Q How do you describe your experience with madness?

3. Our peers have various experiences with madness. One of our peer workers, Kristen, wrote a great piece on being a mother with a mental health history. Check it out!

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jul 11

 

Ryerson Annual Activist Lecture
Deemphasizing psychiatric diagnosis in postsecondary academic accommodation: A radical reimagining

 

 

 

jul 12

 

Working in alliance with Psychiatrists, Psychologists and other Heroes: The Good, Bad and the Ugly

Friendly Spike Theatre Band – “What’s Next…the Big C” Preview Show

 

 

jul 13

 

Friendly Spike Theatre Band – “What’s Next…the Big C”

 

 

 

 

jul 14

 

Friendly Spike Theatre Band – “What’s Next…the Big C”

 

 

 

 

jul 15

Intro to Tai Chi 
Panel discussion – Anti-black Racism & Madness 
Peer Supporter Strategy and Discussion Session 
Improv Workshop for Anxiety
Introduction to Mindful Living
Friendly Spike Theatre Band – “What’s Next…the Big C”
MADx by night

 

jul 16

 

Mad Hatter Street Fair & Marketplace along with the Mad Hatter Tea Party, Hat Showcase, & Contest

 

Survive our Stage

 

jul

 

Mad Pride Bed-Push Parade featuring social-justice band Samba Elégua!

 

 

 

 

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Saraƒin is a writer, illustrator, cartoonist, and mad identified person. Asylum Squad, the webcomic, was born during a year long stay in a Toronto mental institution as a creative means of passing Saraƒin’s time. She will be selling her work at the Mad Hatter Street Fair and Marketplace.

Picture of Asylum Squad Web Comic
Asylum Squad – Saraƒin’s long running Mad Comic!
  1. What are you most excited about with your new book, Asylum Squad: The Jung Ones 2?
I am excited, as I always am, at the prospect of making new fans, and advancing the storyline.  This book was the most action packed in the series thus far, and was a joy to work on.
  1. What do we need to know from previous issues to understand the new book?

It helps to have at least read The Jung Ones pt 1, even better to have read Monster Hospital 1 & 2.  There are recaps in each new volume of events that occurred in previous books.  Basically, at this point, Liz Madder and company are well into the Ajna Project: an experimental drug treatment program based on Jungian psychiatry, that they signed up for, and were accepted into, during their stay at St Dymphna’s psychiatric hospital.

  1. How do you describe your experience with madness? 
I do not like psychiatric labels, for I have been given many in my life, and none of them seemed to stick or describe me very well.  I prefer to use the term Mad, even though I don’t consider myself a “sufferer of mental illness” – rather, I feel that I see the world through an unusual perspective due to a form of spiritual emergency that started in my mid 20s.
  1. What does Mad Pride mean to you?

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Here’s your Guide to a Mad Week…

 

What is Mad Pride?

Mad Pride Community is growing like a tree.

Events

Picture of Mad Pride 2015 - Bed Push
Mad discussions and forums, Friendly Spike Theatre Band, Mad Hatter Street Festival, MADx, SOS, Bed Push (Mad Pride Parade), Picnic

Volunteer – Mad Pride Toronto

Hand reaching to help volunteer

 Participate and Perform

Christine Shaheen makes multi-textured mad art http://www.christineshaheen.me/

Art, dance, comedy, sketch, writing, poetry. Music. & Peer supporters.

DonateDonateMPGreenLogo

 

Contact and Share

 
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Ariane Bakhtiar

Note to the Reader: Terms like mad, crazy, drunk, or junkie are often harmful in that they have historically been used to marginalize people with mental health challenges. In an effort to reclaim harmful language, this article includes mad as a term of empowerment for those who have been excluded socially and/or pathologized by the clinicians, hospitals and rehab centres that have “treated” them. The title “Mad in Islam”, then, refers to Muslims and their allies who recognize the need for programs and services established by Muslim communities for mad Muslims.

The surah Al-Ma’idah (the table spread) – a chapter of the Qur’an – states: “Satan only wants to cause between you animosity and hatred through intoxicants and gambling and to avert you from the remembrance of Allah and from prayer. So will you not desist?” (5.91) Intoxicants, but in particular alcohol, create a spiritual barrier between God and the believer. While scripture does not provide much explanation as to what establishes this barrier, the dulling properties of alcohol are a detriment to prescribed activities, like salaat – prayer – or iqraa – the study of scripture –, that require alertness and authentic intention. (more…)