Steps on our Road to Recovery

Steps On Our Road to Recovery for 26 April to May 2 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.

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.

I am just going to give you a picture of what is left in the DSM-III for us to discuss. There is an Appendix A with three disorders that they thought needed more study before they coded them. Then there is Appendix B with decision trees to help give us our codes. Appendix C has an alphabetic listing of the "disorders". Appendix D has a numerical listing of the codes they use. And lastly they have an appendix with out a letter. That is a list of symptoms with all the name that they can call us. I found it significant that they did not just call this Appendix E. It seemed like they are avoiding the simplicity of just using symptoms. I am not going to avoid that here.

26 April 1999

We are on the proposed "Self-defeating Personality Disorder"

of DSM-III. We are on the third symptom of eight, where we need

five symptoms to qualify to get so labeled by a doctor. This third

symptom, is when we have a positive event in our lives, we follow

this event, by depressing ourselves, or by guilting ourselves, or by

hurting ourselves, like by an accident.

All of these symptoms are about sabotage of ourselves. Self

sabotage has to do with conscious and unconscious guilts. That

is why I continue to emphasize self forgiveness. We clear some

of our guilts ever time we forgive ourselves or others. We clear

some of our guilts ever time we accept ourselves or others. We

can relate our problems back to some form of guilt. That is why

some form of acceptance of ourselves or others helps. That is

why some form of consciousness expansion helps. That is why

some form of healthy teamworking helps.

I had an accident yesterday. I ,and two others with me, did not

see something coming at us, until after we hit that. We were

simply unconscious of that. The solutions are forgiveness,

acceptance, consciousness, teamworking. FACT.

27 April 1999

Today's sabotage symptom is the fourth of eight to qualify

us as a 301.90. We could sabotage ourselves by inciting

angry or rejecting responses from others. Then we can feel

hurt, and defeated, and humiliated. The example given by

the DSM-III is to make fun of our spouse in public to provoke

their anger and then feeling devastated. This is easier to see

when others do this, even in subtle ways. For example, we

could hear "them" talking too loud to us until we upset ourselves

enough to speak sharply to them and they then upset themselves

and so on and so on. The key is that we upset ourselves because

we have not accepted what is happening. We upset ourselves

because we have not forgiven ourselves as too sharp. The real

problem is that we are too sharp with ourselves. As we become

more conscious of the patterns in our life we can start changing

our patterns slowly. Do not be surprised that we need to stick

to our guns, to change what we are doing in our dances with o

theirs, since they are used to doing what they have been doing.

28 April 1999

Our fifth chance to get five of eight is to reject our opportunities

for pleasure. Or, we could be reluctant to acknowledge we are

enjoying ourselves. We have to assume that we have the necessary

skills to enjoy ourselves. We may have the skills to enjoy ourselves,

but we also have the skills to not enjoy ourselves. The DSM people

may be assuming that we miss our pleasures, because we want to.

What they could be forgetting, is that we have unconscious drives,

that even we do not understand, any more than they understand theirs.

That is why, being still each day, to become more conscious, is

a needed skill. The more conscious we are, the less unconscious

we are. The less unconscious we are, the more we appreciate

the simple pleasures. The more we appreciate our simple

pleasures, the more conscious we get. The more conscious we

get, the more we see we are not alone. The more we know we

are not alone, the more we are at peace.

29 April 1999

Our sixth symptom, to get five out of eight, is to fail to do tasks,

that are critical to our personal objectives. The DSM-III assumes

that we can do our tasks. But, by definition we are not doing our

tasks. That means we really can not do them. We may be able to

do our tasks for others. The challenge, is doing our tasks for

ourselves.

One issue, could be how worthy we consider ourselves.

Another issue, could be that we make ourselves more worthy

by helping others. Sabotaging ourselves can come from feeling

unworthy. Worthiness is a fundamental issue. The truth is that

we are all worthy. We were all made worthy by the atonement

of JC. Since we were all made worthy, we were all made equal,

spiritually. Since we are all worthy and spiritually equal all we

need to do is to treat ourselves and others as worthy and spiritually

equal.

30 April 1999

Our seventh symptom, to get five out of eight, is when we are

uninterested, in or we reject, people that treat us well. The DSM

gives an example of being not attracted to caring sexual partners.

Again, we may be not feeling worthy enough to be treated well.

The same comments as yesterday apply.

The last chance to get five of eight symptoms is when we

engage in excessive self-sacrifice that is not asked for. This

symptom could come from feeling we are superior, like in a

messiah complex. Feeling inferior and superior have a lot in

common. In both cases, we are saying that we are not equal

spiritually. They are just two sides of the same coin of

worthiness. The same comments as yesterday apply.

There is some new information on my free page when

you are interested in what I am finding. Feel free to contribute

what you are finding.

1 May 1999

Now on to Appendix B, "Decision Trees for Differential

Diagnosis". Here we will be trying to understand the logic of

the DSM system, by looking at this appendix.

The concept of putting us into boxes, labels, diagnosis comes

from the medical model. The medical model is based on the

physical world. Extension into the mental realms, would be

logical, for those trained in the physical medical model. Then,

why would extending this mental model, into the spiritual realms,

not be just as logical? It would be just as logical.

One difference is that in the spiritual realms, the labels and

boxes and diagnosis, can be done away with. The only thing

that matters [pun], is what is happening, and what we think about

what is happening. What we think about what is happening is a

prime cause of creating what is happening. What we unconsciously

think about what is happening is another prime cause of creating

what is happening. To recover from a mental illness we need to

change what we think about what is happening.

2 May 1999

The DSM starts with psychotic symptoms, when they see delusions,

hallucinations, incoherence, loose associations, catatonia, excitement,

or disorganization in us. We get put in the "delusional disorder" box

when they can not find any organic cause, we have "it" over a month,

they do not think it is Schizophrenia or a Mood Disorder, we have

delusions for over a month and we do not have audio or visual

hallucinations or bizarre behavior. If we do have audio or visual

hallucinations or bizarre behavior we get to be put in the "psychotic

disorder nos" box. There is a slight qualifier in that we can have

brief mood symptoms. When we persist in the mood symptoms we

get the "psychotic mood disorder" box.

Very Respectfully,

Michael Foster, MA

DiscoveryCoachemail

https://www.recoverybydiscovery.com or

http://i.am/rbd; Total-DC or 868-2532

or 868-6749

Very Respectfully,

Michael Foster, MA

Discovery Coach

https://www.recoverybydiscovery.com

DiscoveryCoachemail

"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.

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