Steps on our Road to Recovery

Steps On Our Road to Recovery for 31 May to 6 June 1999.

Published Last Week. A daily hint published each day since June 1996. This is past my third 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 although this non appendix seems to have been left out of the DSM-IVR Desk Reference.

31 May 1999

What we are continuing this week is to go through the major symptoms

and all the labels we can qualify for from these major symptoms. The

symptoms are a lot simpler than the labels. That is what I am doing,

shifting the emphasis from labels, to symptoms. Labels do not cure,

they often do the opposite. Symptoms can lead to healing.

Today's symptom is "marked abnormalities in the production of

speech". This symptom had very few labels. They are:

Autistic disorder, Cluttering, and Stuttering.

When we have some challenges in the production of our speech

we are somewhat disconnected, somewhat disassociated. The

challenge then, is how to let the lord most high within, re associate

us. Letting Go and letting God requires a tremendous amount of

trust. After all, what might we say then, and what might others

judge us about? That is where we need to start considering, what

is really our challenges, and what is their challenges. Our judgments

of ourself and others and God is our challenges. Their judgments of

us and others and themselves and God is their challenges. Sometimes

it is useful to be by ourselves with just God to work on our recovery

processes by learning how to Forgive, how to Assert, how to let our

Consciousness expand and how to do Teamworking. Remember,

FACT, Forgiving, Asserting, Consciousness expanding, and

Teamworking.

You also could check out the updates to my free and searching

pages.

1 June 1999

Today's symptom is "flight of ideas". The associated labels listed

in the DSM-III Desk Reference Abbreviated Symptom Index are:

Bipolar disorder of mixed and manic types, Cyclothymia, Hallucinogen mood disorder, Organic mood syndrome, PCP mood disorder, and Schizoaffective disorder.

When we have a flight of ideas we are having a creative moment.

We all have some moments. When we have too many moments together,

we may not be able to function as well. We are just out of balance with

too many ideas and not enough using of our ideas. We all have had more

ideas than we use. When we are having too many we could try focusing

on using each as they come. As we focus on the creativity of doing we

take from the creative energy of thinking up ideas and are working towards

a better balance.

I remember having too many ideas when I was working on regaining

my balance. It was pleasant at times, to watch so many creative ideas. It

was uncomfortable at times, to watch so many uncomfortable ideas. It

depended on the ideas. Knowing that I was in a process that would pass

was of comfort. Knowing that this phase was just part of my regaining

balance at a better place was of comfort. Focusing on getting through the

process was of great help.

2 June 1999

I use Windows 95 as my operating system. Over time, too many

programs added their program to my startup process and icons to the

right hand side of my taskbar. Not all of them got there by an icon in my

startup group. Although I might be able to erase them from my registry,

I found a more user friendly way to control which programs I want to

use at this time. There is a free program, that I can not distribute, but

I can point you to it. It is called "Startup Cop 1.01" by PC Magazine

and is available on http://www.zdnet.com. Click here when you are

interested in downloading and want a direct link.

That is also what I am doing here. Pointing us to where we can

reduce the programs in our startup programs. The symptom to work

with today is "incoherence or loosening of associations". For this

symptom we can start to qualify for the following:

Alcohol withdrawal delirium, Amphetamine delirium, Brief reactive psychosis, Cocaine delirium, Delirium, Multi-infarct dementia with delirium, PCP delirium, Alzheimers with delirium, Schizoaffective disorder, Schizophrenia plain, or disorganized or undifferentiated, Schizophreniform disorder, and Sedative or hypnotic or anxiolytic withdrawal deliriums.

The common element is delirium. In delirium we have lost

some control. Perhaps a lot of control is lost. The challenge is

to regain control. The paradox is that to regain control, we need

to let go of trying to control. When we try to control others we

lose control. The truth is that when we do control others we only

get resentments. We can really only influence others. The more

freedom we give others the more freedom we have. The more love

we give the more love we have. The more freedom and love we

have the more fun we have. The more freedom and love and fun

we have the more we are in control of ourselves and our own

destiny. Then, we are becoming more coherent.

3 June 1999

The next symptom of "blunted affect". We all can act numbed

to some extent. Again it is a matter of degree. The way back from

numbness is to learn how to become more aware. We are unconscious

that we are unconscious. What is one way to become more conscious?

One way is to say something like the following before we go to sleep:

"I am becoming more conscious, by experiencing more of my

unconsciousness, in my dreams at night, so that I can have a good

life in my days." After all, that is what God wants for us, a good

life.

There are few labels we can qualify for with blunted affect.

They are: PTSD, Schizoid personality disorder, Schizophrenia,

Schizotypal personality disorder.

4 Jun 1999

The next symptom is "depressed mood". This one is common,

when we think negative from time to time. In fact, we could think

positive most of the time, and feel good most of the time. And yet,

we could have too many negative thoughts in our unconsciousness

and still experience depressed moods. Or even mixed moods.

We can get many labels from our depressed moods. Some from

DSM-III Desk Reference Abbreviated Symptoms Index are:

Adjustment disorder with depressed mood or mixed disturbance of emotions and conduct or mixed emotional features, Amphetamine withdrawal, Bipolar disorder of mixed or depressed type, Cocaine withdrawal, Cyclothymia, Dysthymia, Hallucinogen hallucinosis or mood disorder, Late luteal phase dysphoric disorder, Major depression, Multi-infarct dementia with depression, Opioid intoxication, Organic mood syndrome, PCP mood disorder, Alzheimers with depression, Schizoaffective disorder, Uncomplicated alcohol withdrawal and Uncomplicated bereavement.

When we are depressing ourselves we may not want to

fully experience something. That something could be our life,

our past, our unconscious or even our future. Sometimes it is

best to not fully experience things all at once. Sometimes it is

a wise coping technique to spread out things over more time.

I just recommend having our intention on becoming more

conscious over time.

5 June 1999

The next symptom is "elevated mood". This is also a common

symptom. You have met, or are one, of those that was "up" all the

time. Some are very successful and or happy. Manic can be enjoyable.

The only difference between a bad manic experience and a good manic

experience, was how rational I was. And when I had my rational self

watching my irrational self, that was interesting also.

They have less labels for the up side, than the down side, perhaps

because we are usually more down than up. Anyway, here are the

labels:

Bipolar of mixed or manic type, Cannabis or Cocaine or Inhalant or Opioid intoxication, Cyclothymia, Hallucinogen or PCP mood disorder, Schizoaffective disorder.

Mania is about intoxication, intoxication by spirit. The challenge,

is to hang in there, until the spirit clears. Then you know what living

with the lord most high within is.

6 June 1999

The next symptom is "flat affect". There are not many labels that

came out of flat affect. They were:

Schizoaffective disorder, Schizophrenia ordinary or disorganized type, and Schizophreniform disorder.

When we have a flat affect on the outside, we might be experiencing

a rich affect on the inside. With our attention on the richness inside, we

may indeed present a flatness outside. Sometimes we are displaying

what we are experiencing inside and other times we are displaying the

opposite. For example, there were those that were mild mannered that

were carrying rage inside that became murderers. If they had been

able to display some of that rage over time and had resolved some

over time it may not have built up to the point of explosion. If some

people with the schizophrenic labels had been able to display some

of their inner richness over time and were able to resolve some over

time they may not have built up their inner richness to the point of

entering their other world.

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)

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.