Daily Steps On Our Road to Recovery for Week of 3 March 2003

Published Last Week. Page Down for the next days that are added a day at a time

Monday 3 March 2003

The Good Life is when we understand we are all in this together.

"Delirium" is defined by my Webster's Dictionary program as: "de-lir-i-um (di leer'ee uhm) n. pl. <-lir-i-ums, -lir-i-a>( -leer'ee uh)

1. a temporary disturbance of consciousness characterized by restlessness, excitement, and delusions or hallucinations. 2. a state of violent excitement or emotion. [1590-1600; < L delirium = delir (are) to be out of one's mind, lit., go out of the furrow (de- DE - + -lirare, der. of lira furrow) + -ium - IUM 1]"

The DSM - III goes into a lot more symptoms for "Delirium". We will see some symptoms that we have seen and some symptoms that we will see as we continue through the additional "disorders" of the DSM. I am commenting on each symptom as we go through the more extensive delirium of the DSM.

The first symptom is reduced external attention, like when questions need to be repeated and like when answers are repeated to previous questions. Been there and done that and heard that. My attention was on my symptoms that I was experiencing, so it was difficult to relate to an insistent doctor or wife that did not understand.

The next symptom is "rambling, irrelevant, or incoherent speech. Some could call that "speaking in tongues". This symptom can be quite useful in getting through whatever the complex is. It would be wiser to encourage the symptom, instead of the usual tendency to medicate and to encourage stopping the symptom.

The next set of symptoms are where the DSM is looking for at least two symptoms at once. The first symptom is "reduced level of consciousness, e.g., difficulty keeping awake during examination." Reminds me of some school classes. We all are not awake from time to time. Many mystics tell us that we need to awaken. The second symptom is "perceptual disturbances: misinterpretations, illusions, or hallucinations". We all have some degree of perception bias. This is just a matter of degree. This is just a matter of how much our dreams are still present in the day. The third symptom is "insomnia or daytime sleepiness". Again symptoms we all have had to some degree at some time. The fourth symptom is "increased or decreased psychomotor activity". That means we are sitting there like a stump or like an agitated person. Who has not done at least some of that at some time? The fifth symptom is "disorientation to time, place, or person." Sound familiar? The sixth symptom is "memory impairment" that it describes as not able to remember several things in five minutes or past events. We have all had "senior moments" even when we were kids. Same comments.

Another criteria is that this condition develops over a short time and fluctuates. This is where the condition has the characteristics of temporary and will go away easier than "mental" disorders. The last DSM criteria is either evidence of an organic disorder or presumption of an organic disorder since it does not fit a classical mental disorder. A catch all clause.

Tomorrow "Dementia". We are just laying the groundwork for DSM codes later involved with "dementia" and "delirium".

Tuesday 4 March 2003

The Good Life is learning how some of us are temporarily trapped.

From my Webster's Dictionary program: "de-men-tia (di men'shuh, -shee uh) n. 1. severely impaired memory and reasoning ability, usu. with disturbed behavior, associated with damaged brain tissue. [1800-10; < L dementia madness = dement-, s. of demens out of one's mind (de- DE - + mens mind) + -ia - IA]"

Interesting that this word comes from "demens out of one's mind". The "demens" I have seen in practice are subpersonalities, that most people have created out of their anger. The good news is that they can transform their "demons" back into peaceful aspects, when they totally want to know how.

The dementia in the DSM - III is more involved. DSM defines the memory challenge as both short term and long term. DSM defines the reasoning challenge as challenges in abstract thinking, impaired judgment, disturbances of higher cortical function and personality change towards morbid.

Since we can all have, some of these symptoms, at some time, the issue is the degree of the symptoms. Since we can create these symptoms by giving the body the right poisons, we can also create these symptoms by giving our mind the right poisons. The antidotes are still the same, a daily sprinkle of loving with a teaspoon of forgiveness and a lot of assertiveness followed by daily demonstrations, of our change.

Wednesday 5 March 2003

The Good Life is good books.

Now for a break from the disorders of the DSM-III. Today I am writing about two new books in my library and in my bookstore here.

The first book is about the spiritual changes happening in the medical model, or paradigm. The book is Healing Words, The Power of Prayer and the Practice of Medicine by Larry Dossey, M.D. Of course the title tell the essence of the book. This book is more than about traditional prayer, this is about what kinds of prayer really work and how that fits into working with modern medicine. This is about research and an open mind on the subjects of prayer and the subject of healing.

The second book is about the spiritual changes happening in the business model, or paradigm. The book is Fourth Generation Management, The New Business Consciousness, How the Evolution of Management and the Revolution in Quality are Converging, and What it Means for Business and the Nation. This book is more than about traditional business, this is about what kinds of business really works and how that fits into working in this information age. This book is about research and an open mind on the subject of business and the subject of healing of our nation and our world.

Thursday 6 March 2003

The Good Life is learning how some of us are temporarily trapped.

Another diversion from the disorders of the DSM-III. This one is about the argument between the evolutionist and the creationist.

I am saddened by the fights between the evolutionist and creationist. Both have taken extreme positions on what they believe to be their truth. Actually, what I have found so far, says that both evolution and creation are true. Creation is just very fast evolution. Evolution is just very slow creation. Both have left evidence of their existence. There in fact, may be a continuum from instant creation to very slow evolution.

The joke on the creationist, is that much of the evidence for creation, is in much of what the evolutionist cite. The record in the rocks, shows quantum jumps in what animals and plants were in existence at different time periods. The largest jump in creation appears to be when there was a large catastrophic event on the earth. That is when the dinosaurs died out and birds appear to have been created out of the eggs of dinosaurs. At least the evidence is mounting in this direction. There definitely was a very rapid recreation of the species on earth, from the record in the rocks we see now. There is less records of the slow process of creation called evolution. But, it does exist. Just look at how bacteria has and continues to evolve to become more immune to antibiotics. Especially when we are foolish enough to give antibiotics in animal food to fatten them up and the bacteria gets in the animal workers and then in the general population.

The joke on the evolutionist is that it is a process of creation, just too slow for them to see. There are some "Bible Believers" that insist that the earth is not as old as the physical information tends to indicate it is. For them, the our earth is only less than 4 thousand years old. There are some "Rational Scientist" that insist on believing that the Bible is only a fable. They are both basing their beliefs on another belief that the 7 days of God's creation are like today's days in length.

Actually another place in the Bible says in essence that a day in God is like a thousand days. [2Peter3:8] That may have been the ratio of God time to man time at the time of that verse in the Bible, which was the time of Acts. What if the ratio has changed exponentially or something like that? What if the "first" day of God was a trillion years, the "second" day a billions of years, the third day less billions and so on until it was a thousand years, like when mankind lived to be about a thousand years, and today it is about a hundred years, our current potential lifetime. I am not saying that is what it is, I am just saying a day in God could have been changing in the form of an exponential curve or something like that. Then, one can find an exponential curve, that fits our current scientific estimates for the age of the universe we can see. When the scientist revise their estimates again, one can again revise an exponential curve to again fit the current theory. I do not see any thing to argue about here.

I find this comforting to know that creation and evolution are just another spectrum from one to the other.

Friday 7 March 2003

The Good Life is teamworking.

Now for another break from the disorders of the DSM-III. A lot of our disorders take a long time to create, so sometimes they take a long time to uncreate and to create something new. Our diversion today is my presentation on TeamWorking. I call it "Total Quality Leadership is TeamWork".

I use the Likerts rating scales for Leadership, Directing, Motivating, Informing, and Deciding. This is the heart of their classic book "New Ways of Managing Conflict" that is now out of print. I have automated the use of these rating scales in my spreadsheet files called The Secrets of Teamworking. This is an example of one of the ways I teach organizations to continuously improve their team. When anyone is interested they can go to my page on how I relate to teams.

Respectfully presented,

Michael

When you would like ask questions, or contribute some of your wisdom, or want to make some comments or tell your success stories, click Michael Foster, M. A.

I appreciate any feedback, questions and suggestions that you have.

Directory of Directories & Lists

I am continuing a Directory of Directories. Please tell me your favorites.

Leadership

I am starting a page on leadership. My first link is to some articles by

Steven Covey. His book is in my recommended books library.

When you would like a free rare newsletter with coach's hints on a single subject, click RBD's Free Monthly Newsletter Registration Form.

A daily hint has published each day since June 1996. This is past my fifth year anniversary, since starting my web pages. 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 us 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 and my parents to have passed on more of what they learned.

What is happening now?

I now have completed my second copy of my two CDROM's, full of free programs, for my college class. I am sending my current version, to anyone that sends me $7.

phone and http://www.recoverybydiscovery.com