BBC Radio 4: My Name Is … Rachel
After working with Akiko Hart to create an ‘Alternative Review of the Mental Health Act’ for National Hearing Voices Network, I was keen to keep up the momentum and get people talking about the coersive end of the mental health system. Luckily, after speaking with a contact in the BBC Current Affairs dept. an opportunity […]
Healthista: Living with ‘Schizophrenia’
This World Mental Health Day the folks at Healthista asked me if I’d be interviewed talking about what it’s like to live with ‘schizophrenia’. This was a strange request as one of the things I’m most vocal about is that the language of mental illness is part of what stripped me of my autonomy and […]
BBC Horizon: Why Did I Go Mad?
This week I was one of three contributors with personal experience of things that often get called ‘psychosis’ (hearing voices, seeing visions and paranoia) on the BBC Documentary ‘Why Did I Go Mad?’. The title, suggested by one of Jacqui Dillon’s voices, was deliberately provocative in order to challenge what we mean by madness and – […]
Making Sense of Madness: An emancipatory approach
7 July 2017, 10 am – 4.30pm, registration from 9.30am Hackney House, 25-27 Curtain Road, Hackney, London, EC2A 3LT https://madness-london.eventbrite.co.uk This unique, one day event, featuring Jacqui Dillon and Rai Waddingham (recently featured on BBC Horizon: Why Did I Go Mad?), explores experiences often dismissed as symptoms of serious mental illness: voices, visions, paranoia, unusual beliefs and altered states, and […]
They Heard Voices: Screening and discussion
An independent documentary by Jonathan Balazs looking at the Hearing Voices movement & the schizophrenia label On Thursday 27th April from 6.30pm at Kennedy Lecture Theatre (UCL Institute of Child Health), I’ll be joining a panel to discuss a screening of ‘They Heard Voices’ … a documentary I contributed to. This screening is hosted by Mind in Camden, […]
My Baby, Psychosis & Me: A lesson in how not to make a documentary about mental health
Earlier this year, after my own miscarriage, I settled down on the sofa to watch ‘My Baby, Psychosis & Me’ – a BBC documentary on the journey of two women through a Specialist Mother & Baby Unit. Watching it so recently after my own loss was always going to be painful – yet the issue […]
Informed Choice – January 2016 (Glasgow)
Moving Towards a Balanced Relationship with Psychiatric Medication Wednesday 13 January 2016, 10.00am – 4.30pm The Renfield Centre, 260 Bath Street, Glasgow, G2 4HZ Download: Informed Choice – Glasgow 2016 Flyer Dialogues around the use of medication within the mental health system can quickly become heated and polarised. Whilst this is understandable, it leaves little space […]
A Dialogue Evening: What is this thing called ‘psychosis’
An evening of dialogue and discussion, exploring diverse perspectives on ‘psychosis’ on Wednesday 3 June at Mind in Camden.
Me & The Meds: The Story of a Dysfunctional Relationship
This article first appeared in Mad in America (www.madinamerica.com). The use of medication in mental health services is a hot issue. Despite the paucity of evidence supporting its long-term efficacy, critiquing the use of ‘antipsychotic’ medication can be felt as a personal attack both on those who use it to manage distressing experiences and those […]
Short Thought #1: “Don’t Confront. Don’t Collude?”
Short Thought #1: ‘Don’t Confront, Don’t Collude?’ from Rai Waddingham on Vimeo. This is the first in a series of free ‘shorts’. This one explores the mantra, woven deep into psychiatric practice – the belief that we should neither confront nor collude with beliefs that are seen as ‘delusional’. In the video, I share some […]
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