ReAwaken ebook 1st Ed

A reflection on ReAwaken
What could it possibly mean to re-awaken- to come to consciousness? With an eighth of
this country on anti-depressants (second only to Iceland!) it's a real question for Australia
today. But I've got a shrink, haven't I, and he's doing me good, right? So when I was asked
to read a little of my poetry at the ReAwaken Australia Conference in Adelaide in April I
thought it would be doing a small favor for a friend.
Instead it became a big favor for me. That Monday night I went out on a limb, taking it
further than a poetry reading, into the troubled, normally silent world that I don't usually
share. I opened a little door to another me. Planning it, I wondered what people would
think. I didn't know anybody there, and they sure as hell didn't know me.
I needn't have worried. From the moment I sat down and in the moments of sweet music
and grateful exchange in that audience that night, and in the days to follow in intelligent
and, dammit, sensible discourse on not just what's wrong with us but what's wrong with
what we think is wrong with us, I was to find more connection and compassion than I'd
found in ten years of shrinkage.
I watched as the DSM was pinned down like the dead frog it is and examined for the
twitch which still signifies life, as other acronyms were introduced and examined, as my
PTSD became PTS and perhaps simply PT, affected by some pretty significant ACE and
possibly an occasional BPD (on Mondays). It was alphabet soup for the soul but, rather
than throw out old work completely, I was able to see the worth in it and the greater
worth in a thorough examination of the true affects of the current bible - the DSM - its
use and misuse.
Two days after my (gulp!) personal revelation, and after being exposed to many such
reveals (suddenly, unexpectedly shared in both inner eye-opening sessions and sunny
chats in fresh air) Kane and Klaire introduced me to the depth of work which has been
done on PTMF. Look it up. I felt it immediately inform me (in-form me) and, this
afternoon, I'll inform my psychiatrist about it - compare notes on the body of evidence for
it, bring something new to the table.
And that's what this conference did - brought another face to the table, often the face of
a so-called 'victim' or a 'client', or some more damaging label, but always the
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