Steps on our Road to Recovery

Daily Steps On Our Road to Recovery for 5 to 11 July 1999.

I made a mistake and copied the "wrong" file last week, so I am missing my column for 4 July. If anyone has a copy please send to:[email protected]. Thank you.

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.

5 July 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 "ideas of reference". This is the last

week of symptoms. Somehow I managed to not save and upload today's

column today. These things happen from time to time and the blessings

I have found is that I get another chance to do better, based on what I

already did for practice. My practice was for real for me, but here I

am retyping today's subject. Ideas of reference may indeed be a good

topic.

The very few associated labels were:

Hallucinogen hallucinosis, Schizophrenia, Schizotypal personality disorder.

Ideas of reference are about different perspectives. We all have

somewhat different perspectives. A doctor could discern that someone

was way out and had the symptoms of schizophrenia and that person

could be further along in their process of returning to the Garden of Eden.

It is interesting to me that there are so few labels, and they are serious

labels, for something that we all have to some degree.

Ideas of reference are about what we think including what we believe

consciously and unconsciously. Those are different frames of reference

for all of us. From each of our frames of reference we are doing the best

we can with that frame of reference. So is everyone, and we can not

really see that until we have been in some of those frames of reference.

That is why I can understand more than most doctors about being

disassociated, I have been more there than most doctors. I have also

been through the return road and therefore know more of the signs

from the inside, not outside.

6 July 1999

I am not sure why I needed to redo yesterday's column, but in

time I expect to. Today's symptom is the last symptom from this

part of the DSM-III. This one is called "paranoid ideation (nondelusional)".

The associated labels are:

Amphetamine or Cannabis or Cocaine intoxication, hallucinogen hallucinosis, Organic personality or Organic anxiety syndrome, Paranoid personality or Schizotypal personality or Late luteal phase dysphoric or Overanxious or Panic or Panic with agoraphobia or Separation anxiety or Somatization or Undifferentiated somatoform disorder, Hypochondriasis, and Opioid or Uncomplicated alcohol withdrawal or Uncomplicated sedative or Uncomplicated hypnotic or Uncomplicated anxiolytic withdrawal.

When we are afraid and it is nondelusional, I wonder why it

is a symptom! Fear is a useful emotion telling us that we have

something that we do not want. We have something that we want

to get away from. We are in danger of being hurt, when the fear

is nondelusional. When the fear is delusional we have to clear the

delusions first. Just sitting in the fear and watching the process

and using somethings like "E R" and or "Focusing" can help

in the clearing process. When we are clear enough our fears can

tell us what we really want. What we want to get away from tells

us what we want to get towards. For example when we fear death

we want to go towards life.

7 July 1999

We have finished all the symptoms. Now we can consider how

the DSM-III suggested the therapist use the symptoms, to nail us

with labels. First they look for the defining symptom, like having

late hours. Then they find the classification in the outline that we

started with, like Sleep Disturbance. Then they find the defining

symptom, like insomnia. Then they check out all the labels and

find what other symptoms match the picture of what they are seeing.

Then we get an official label. When we look for a matching picture

it is easier to find matching symptoms. When we are looking for

symptoms we miss signs of health. When we do not understand

what symptoms are for, we think in negative terms. Then we miss

what is really going on.

8 July 1999

Today I am celebrating having completed going through my

DSM-III-R Desk Reference. I will be returning to this book, to

keep getting our "disorders" in context.

I am also celebrating a successful update to my computer.

In the past, every time I added a new hard drive, I managed to

make some mistake. Each time I had to reload my programs

and Windows 95 or 3.1. This time I correctly copied all my

files on my slower drive, on to the correct partitions of my

larger faster new drive. This is indeed a new milestone for

me. I slowed down enough, to get each step done and to

understand each step. I showed myself that I learned from

my past mistakes. When we do that, that is all we need

to do. Now I can move on to correcting my other past mistakes.

9 July 1999

I found that there was more to do on my computer, after

it was working better. There were new things, to still learn,

refinements to make, minor errors to correct. Life is like

that, with us also. There are always new things to learn after

we learn some of the major things.

What would be a good title for what we have been through

on the DSM? "The DSM for the Truly Ignorant"? Ignorant is

not a bad thing to be called. Ignorant only means that we do

not know something so far. If it was "DSM for Dummies", that

would imply that we were dumb and might not be able to learn.

If it was "The Complete Idiots Guide to the DSM", that would

imply that we were idiots and might not be able to learn. You

see, labels need to be carefully used.

10 July 1999

Eating Our Mistakes

When I make a mistake, like picking up white rice, when I

prefer brown rice, I get to eat my mistake. I can literally eat the

white rice or the cost of the white rice or get the grocer to

exchange it for brown rice or ... In other words, there are many

choices on how we can eat our mistakes. There are also other

considerations, like who we are living with. In my family system,

my wife and my daughter, both prefer white rice. So it is a matter

of negotiation ,to get a reasonable percentage of brown rice. It is

a good thing that "they" are getting around to finding the value of

fiber and the trace minerals and vitamins that we lose by making

white rice. Of course, they have to "enrich" the white rice, like

white flour, to try and put back what was lost.

I remember reading somewhere, I think it was in something like

Diet for a Small Planet, the story of how they found that white

rice was dangerous. It was in Indonesia, where they were feeding

chickens with white rice. The chickens were dying from lack of

nutrition. It would be interesting to feed chickens today with just

enriched white rice and see what happens in the long term over

generations. So just like with rice and grains, the whole grains

are better if only for the fiber, so is the whole spirit.

11 July 1999

Priorities

I am being visited by one of my sisters and her daughter. I

may not get to writing a column today.

I found I made a mistake and copied the "wrong" file last week, so I am missing my column for 4 July. If anyone has a copy please send to:[email protected]. Thank you.

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.