Steps on our Road to Recovery

Daily Steps On Our Road to Recovery for 21 to 27 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.

21 June 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.

The next physical symptom is "diarrhea". The associated

labels were:

Adjustment disorder with physical complaints, Caffeine intoxication, Generalized anxiety or Late luteal phase dysphoric or Overanxious or Panic or Panic with agoraphobia or Separation anxiety or Somatization or Undifferentiated somatoform disorder, Hypochondriasis, Organic anxiety syndrome and Opioid withdrawal.

The only different label than with abdominal pain is Opioid withdrawal.

Diarrhea is often associated with abdominal pain. One way to get rid of

abdominal pain is to dump what ever is in there and start over. I wish we

all knew more of how to drop things and start over.

Diarrhea can be associated with many things. First we need to eliminate

the physical causes like eating, or any other physical cause. After we have

"eliminated" the physical causes we can look at our conscious and unconscious

thoughts about elimination and dumping. It just depends on what our process

may be telling us. In every case there is still a difference between what we have

and what we want. We want our system to return to peace.

After we have eliminated any physical causes, any discomfort is an opportunity

to learn the focusing technique in Focusing by Eugene T. Gendlin, Ph.D. We

may have another breakthrough from just using these simple but not often done

techniques. Many other techniques are available in books listed on our books page.

22 June 1999

You can add your links to the bottom of my special links page now. You can add

this add links capability to your web pages by checking "Web Links" on my free page.

The next physical symptom is "vomiting". The associated labels were:

Adjustment disorder with physical complaints, Amphetamine or Caffeine or Cocaine intoxication, Bulimia nervosa, Conversion or Generalized anxiety or Late luteal phase dysphoric or Overanxious or Panic or Panic with agoraphobia or Separation anxiety or Somatization or Undifferentiated somatoform disorder, Hypochondriasis, Organic anxiety syndrome and Opioid or Uncomplicated alcohol or Sedative or Hypnotic or Anxiolytic withdrawal.

Note that these labels are very similar to the labels for diarrhea. The difference

is that there are a few more labels associated with vomiting. The real similarity is

that vomiting and diarrhea are both ways of getting rid of something that is not

good for us. We often get well faster after we have gotten rid of whatever was

in us.

Vomiting can be associated with many things. First we need to eliminate

the physical causes like eating, or any other physical cause. After we have

"eliminated" the physical causes we can look at our conscious and unconscious

thoughts about elimination and throwing up. It just depends on what our process

may be telling us. In every case there is still a difference between what we have

and what we want. We want our system to return to peace. The question is

how. Vomiting is a way of letting go the hard way. Letting go easier ways

is wiser.

23 June 1999

Today's symptom is "gait abnormalities". The associated labels are:

Adjustment with physical complaining or Conversion or Somatization or Undifferentiated somatoform disorder, Alcohol or Inhalant or PCP or Sedative or Hypnotic or Anxiolytic intoxication, and Multi-infarct dementia.

In this case we even could have drug intoxication as a side effect

from people trying to help us. We also can get gait abnormalities as

our unconscious begins to become more conscious. As always, it

depends.

When we are young we have gait abnormalities, do we need a

label then or do we just need to grow up some more. Perhaps we

all need to grow up some more. How do we do that? One way is

to co operate with spirit. How do we do that? One way is to just

sit there until we know we are co operating with spirit. We certainly

can not have gait abnormalities then. We might even need spirit to

get us up when we have sat there long enough. Have a good day.

24 June 1999

The next symptom is "nystagmus". My dictionary says "a persistent,

rapid, involuntary side-to-side eye movement. When we do too much

of this eye movement we could get associated with the few following labels:

Alcohol or Inhalant or PCP intoxication and Multi-infarct dementia.

The first thing that side to side eye movement reminded me of was

E R. That is, Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing. E R

is a new therapy process where everything changes from the Reprocessing

in the brain caused by side to side eye movement. The book to read is

E R, Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing by Francine

Shapiro, PhD. and Margot Silk Forrest. Their book cover says: "The

Breakthrough "Eye Movement" Therapy for Overcoming Anxiety, Stress,

and Trauma".

Their book cover says: "The Breakthrough "Eye Movement"

Therapy for Overcoming Anxiety, Stress, and Trauma". Notice

that when we get intoxicated, we can have this eye movements

thing happen involuntarily. When we had let go enough, our spirit

takes over and begins to heal us. Of course we often get into a fear

loop then, and create a problem out of our healing processes.

The second thing that eye movements reminded me of is eye

meditations. This is where we consciously move our eyes in many

directions and just let go of what comes. What is happening in both

cases is that we are breaking up images that we carry in front of us,

in our unconscious. Sometimes when our trauma is too great, we see

those images in our conscious mind. Then it is harder to break up

those images and we may need a therapist that knows how E R

works to help us in our healing process.

25 June 1999

Today's symptom is "paralysis". The associated labels are:

Adjustment with physical complaints or Conversion or Undifferentiated disorder and Multi-infarct dementia.

A really short list. There are degrees of paralysis from sluggish to

coma. We all have some paralysis in some part of our lives.

I have experienced this symptom and I knew others that did. In

our cases we were so much in spirit that we had no control of our body

and could not move our body, temporarily. When I relaxed and followed

my own advice, of just letting go and watching the process, I was shortly

back in control. That is the paradox. When we try to take control we

lose control. When we let go, we return to our throne. When we let go,

we are at one, with our lord most high within. That is why they say:

"Let Go and Let God."

26 June 1999

The symptom for today is "tremor or trembling". This is an important

symptom. But, I will get to that after we look at the labels associated with

this symptom:

Adjustment with physical complaint or Conversion or Generalized anxiety or Late luteal phase dysphoric or Panic or Panic with agoraphobia or Undifferentiated somatoform disorder, Hallucinogen hallucinosis, Inhalant intoxication, Multi-infarct dementia, Organic anxiety syndrome, and Uncomplicated alcohol or Uncomplicated sedative or Uncomplicated hypnotic or Uncomplicated anxiolytic withdrawal.

Although there can be physical illnesses and diseases and drugs that

can cause tremor or trembling, there are tremors or tremblings that

can be from too much spirit to handle. At least, to handle at that time.

Just as it is important to rule out something that has a physical cause,

it is also very important to see if our tremors or tremblings are coming

from something deeper within us, our spirit. Sometime it is from both.

In any case, it is to our advantage to get in touch with the spirit within

us when we have physical illnesses and diseases or we are taking

drugs. Some of us are taking drugs to try to find the spirit within.

The difficulty is that drugs do not get rid of the baggage between

us and our spirit, but spirit can get rid of the baggage, when we are

ready.

27 June 1999

I know someone who has tremors. They actually have a close

relationship with God. The information they get from God is comforting

and wise and rings true. What they have trouble accepting is that their

relationship with God is the cause of their trembling. They are too much

in the spirit, without having integrated the spirit enough. I sometimes

wonder when they will realize that they are working out their salvation

with fear and trembling that they do not need. Their fear and trembling

will indeed lesson over time as they are learning their lessons of forgiveness,

assertiveness, consciousness and teamworking. The facts, so to speak.

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.

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.