Steps On Our Road to Recovery for 10 to 16 May 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.
10 May 1999
Last week I completed describing the decision trees in Appendix B of
the DSM-III. Sorry about having to go through their logic, to help see where
they are coming from. We are going to skip all the other appendixes, to go
to the most important part, our symptoms. Our symptoms are our challenges
as well as our blessings. I am going to first quote their three pages of their
"List of Selected Symptoms". This short part of the DSM is the heart of
what the rest of us need. These three pages of symptoms are followed by
thirty five pages of the labels they give us from the same symptoms. This
table is taken from the "Desk Reference To The Diagnostic Criteria From
DSM-III-R" on pages 267 to 269 and converted to a standard outline
without their index pages...
Actually we are getting to a rather simple list, instead of many
labels with many symptoms. Good News.
11 May 1999
The first symptom, catatonia, is listed under both "ACTIVITY" and
"BEHAVIOR" in the outline above. A dictionary definition from the
Random House Webster's Electronic Dictionary is: "cat-a-to-ni-a
(kat uh toh'nee uh, -tohn'yuh) n. 1. a psychotic syndrome, esp. in
schizophrenia, characterized by muscular rigidity and mental stupor,
sometimes alternating with excitability and confusion. In the DSM
catatonia is used in the last digit of the code number for schizophrenia
as a level of the "disorder". The next to the last digit in 295.xx is for
different flavors of schizophrenia. They are 1 for disorganized, 2 for
catatonic, 3 for paranoid, 6 for residual, and 9 for Undifferentiated. I
wrote about that on the week of 24 August 1998. Then the DSM also
writes about levels of catatonic as five types of catatonic that are listed:
stupor, negativism, rigidity, excitement, and posturing. I wrote about
that on the week of 10 August 1998.
One can begin to see why labels are not of much real meaning, since
the labels have so many meanings.
12 May 1999
Catatonia, is listed under both "ACTIVITY" and "BEHAVIOR"
in the outline above. I would list activity, under behavior. Catatonia
is a form of not behaving, externally. That does not meant that we are
not conscious, internally. I know that, since I have been there an done
that. That makes catatonia a form of disassociation. We can have part
of our spirit disassociated from us, or a part of our body disassociated
from us, or both. But, where ever we go, we are there. Recovery is about
how to recover what ever parts of body and spirit we have lost contact with.
The essence of the definitions of catatonia above is that we have a range
of physical observable behavior from stupor to excitement, but we can not
mentally make enough contact with our observers. They could assist us in
our recovery by slowly making contact with us and not judge our behavior.
When we have these symptoms we can get labeled by the following:
Bipolar disorder with depressed or manic or mixed, Brief reactive psychosis, Hallucinogen mood disorder, Major depression, Multi-infarct dementia with depression, Organic mood syndrome, Phencyclidine, Alzheimers, Schizoaffective disorder, Schizophrenia, Schizophreniform disorder.
I found another interesting thing about the change from DSM III to IV.
This index of diagnostic criteria is not among the appendixes in IV. The
one thing that simplified looking at "mental illnesses" seems to be among
the missing today. I am doing what I can to bring more simplicity to how
we can look at what we are recovering from and work towards recovery.
13 May 1999
Remember, we all have some level of loss of contact with our body and
our spirit. We all are catatonic to some extent. The only question is our
particular extent. So, we all need to slowly make more contact with every
one and to not judge their or our behavior.
The second significant symptoms is "Psychomotor Agitation". In other
words, we can not stop moving. When we can not stop moving we could
get labeled as any of the following:
Alcohol withdrawal delirium, Amphetamine delirium or intoxication or withdrawal, Bipolar disorder of mixed, or manic or depressed, Caffeine intoxication, Cocaine delirium or intoxication or withdrawal, Cyclothymia, Delirium, Hallucinogen mood disorder, Inhalant intoxication, Major depression of single or recurrent episode or melancholic episode, Multi-infarct dementia with delirium or depression, Organic mood syndrome, PCP delirium or intoxication or mood disorder, Alzheimers with delirium or depression, Schizoaffective disorder, and last Sedative, hypnotic or anxiolytic withdrawal delirium.
Quite a list for anxiety turned into motion. In catatonic we can
not move and in psychomotor agitation we can not stop moving.
Again we have some level of loss of contact with our body and
our spirit. We all can have psychomotor agitation to some extent.
The only question is our particular extent. So, we all need to slowly
make more contact with our body and spirit and to not judge their
or our behavior.
There are updates to both my free and bipolar pages today.
14 May 1999
In the book Please Understand Me, there are four personality
temperments. The Dionysian (Sensible Playful) SP temperment
has a characteristic of continuous activity. Actually we all have
some of this temperment. We have to try to remain still when
we try things like meditation. Most of us do not naturally remain
still in our bodies or our minds. That is good news. The purpose
of all meditation is to capture our moving minds and bodies by our
peaceful lord most high within us. Just sitting still and observing
can help some. Just moving slowly and observing can help some.
Just moving vigorously and then just moving slowly or stopping
can help some. Actually all of these can help when we have an
intention of finding all of us.
15 May 1999
After psychomotor agitiation we have "psychomotor retardation" as
the third significant symptom. In other words, we have trouble moving.
When we can not be moving we could get labeled as any of the following:
Alcohol withdrawal delirium, Amphetamine delirium, Bipolar disorder of mixed, or depressed, Cocaine delirium, Delirium, Hallucinogen mood disorder, Inhalant intoxication, Major depression of single or recurrent episode or melancholic episode, Multi-infarct dementia with delirium or depression, Opioid intoxication, Organic mood syndrome, PCP delirium or mood disorder, Alzheimers with delirium or depression, Schizoaffective disorder, and last Sedative, hypnotic or anxiolytic withdrawal delirium.
Quite a list for the opposite of anxiety turned into freezing motion.
Somewhat like a milder form of catatonic symptoms. Again we have
some level of loss of contact with our body but we may actually have
more contact with our spirit. We all can have psychomotor retardation
to some extent. The only question is our particular extent. So, we all
need to slowly make more contact with our body and our spirit and to
not judge their or our behavior.
16 May 1999
In the book Please Understand Me, there are four personality
temperments. The Epimethian (Sensible Judicious) SJ temperment
has a characteristic of caution. They restrain themselves by all
the shoulds and oughts of the world. Actually we all have some
of this temperment. We have to try to let loose more when we
try things like meditation. Most of us do not naturally let loose
in our bodies or our minds. That is good news. The purpose
of all meditation is to capture our stuck minds and bodies by our
peaceful lord most high within us. Just letting go and observing
can help some. Just moving slowly and observing can help some.
Just moving vigorously and then just moving slowly or stopping
can help some. Actually all of these can help when we have an
intention of finding all of us in us.
Very Respectfully,
Michael Foster, MA
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
^z
"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)
If you would like a free monthly newsletter with coach's hints on a single subject, click RBD's Free Monthly Newsletter Registration Form.
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.
![[Image]](pict0.gif){kind=small}
| Local Home index | Resume | Daily Hint | Bookstore | Links | Site Index |
Copyright (c) 1997,8 by Michael
Foster, M. A.
at
TOTAL-DC and
http://www.recoverybydiscovery.com
