Steps on the Road to Recovery

Steps On the Road to Recovery for 15 to 21 February 1999.

Published Last Week. A daily hint published each day since June 1996. This is past my second year anniversary since starting my web pages. Page Down for the next days that are added a day at a time. I have moved to http://www.recoverybydiscovery.com and this daily page is now here at https://www.recoverybydiscovery.com/daily.htm . I would appreciate any feedback, questions and suggestions that you have.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: FOR ANYONE THAT REQUESTED MY MONTHLY E-MAIL LETTER SINCE 1 AUGUST, PLEASE SIGN UP AGAIN, I HAD TO FORMAT MY HARD DRIVE AND START OVER AGAIN, AGAIN AND LOST SOME ADDRESSES.

What I am mainly going through now is the DSM-III-R Desk Reference a "disorder" at a time and commenting on the spiritual and recovery aspects. The DSM is what the American Psychiatric Association uses to label symptoms to facilitate communication in their community. Unfortunately, the labeling from the DSM can shut down communication with those seeking temporary assistance and spread the stigmas of mental illness. The DSM can also bring some comfort by telling some that others have had the same experience. I am adding additional comfort by pointing to some ways to start getting out of the "disorders". I am not writing about cures. I am writing about how the cure process works over time. Instantaneous cures can be as traumatic as the original event that generated the disorder or illness. Instantaneous cures may not do us any good, when we get the same disorder back, since we have not changed the thought system that caused the disorder in the first place.

15 Feb 99

Continuing "disorders" of the DSM:)) Now we have the

"301.82 Avoidant Personality Disorder" with a fear of negative

judgments starting by early adulthood with at least four of the

following qualifiers:

With this one we need four out of seven to qualify... Even

if we do not qualify, we can learn somethings from the symptoms.

The second symptom out of seven is to have no close friends. Is

this not just another symptom of degree... We may have friends,

but how close are they really? We may have family and co workers,

but how close are they really? Different degrees of closeness for

different people. Most things are a matter of degree. When we can

find closeness it can be a great thing. It can be a greater thing to

find closeness with our lord most high within... Then, it no longer

matters how close we find others. We may find some closeness and

some distance. That is more their choice than ours, when we have

found our lord most high within. The we are close to everyone,

whether they want to be close or not. It just no longer matters...

Then we can have this symptom or not and it just no longer matters.

Your Friend,

Michael Foster, MA

Mental Health Coach

https://www.recoverybydiscovery.com

MentalHealthCoachemail

"Learn HOW to recovery by discovering the blocks you need to remove and the actions you need to take and what you need to let go of as your blocks to your blessings."

From my book in process, The Spiritual Cookbook (Generic Recipes for a Better Life)

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I started my daily page, because it is useful for me to look for some recovery tip or secret each day for my spiritual growth. we and I only need one secret to work on and let it work on me each day. They are secrets because they are usually the opposite of what the majority of society teaches. They must be secret because they are not commonly used. A friend of mine once said "Common Sense is not much in Common.". Now that I have grandchildren I am also writing for them. I would have really liked for my grandparents to have passed on what they learned.

I am including Sunday as it is my formal day of learning the lord most high's secrets. If you would like ask questions, or contribute some of your wisdom, or want to make some comments or want to vote for which day to put on my tip of the month page or tell your success stories, click Michael Foster, M. A.