We've Been Too Patient

The twenty-five unflinching essays and poems in We've Been Too Patient are written by and for people with lived experience of the mental health system in America. This book is also for loved ones and allies; therapists; educators and academics in psychology, psychiatry, sociology, and mad studies as well as their students; workers in mental health nonprofits and social service agencies; and mental health advocates and activists.

Overmedication, police brutality, electroconvulsive therapy, involuntary hospitalization, traumas that lead to intense altered states and suicidal thoughts: these are the struggles of those who are labeled "mentally ill." Much has been written about the problems of the mental health care system, but this book gives voice to those who have endured psychiatric "care" themselves. The stories in the book give hope and speak to radical healing in the form of peer support, spirituality, art, and the power of story itself, offering alternatives to the "magic bullets" of drugs and dehumanizing diagnoses. From the mad pride movement to the consumer movement to trauma-informed care, We've Been Too Patient is dedicated to finding working alternatives to the "Mental Health Industrial Complex," often in unexpected ways and places: through friendship, respect, and centering on the truth of lived experience.