Steps on the Road to Recovery

Steps On the Road to Recovery for 28 Sep to 4 Oct '98.

Published Last Week. A daily hint published each day since June 1996. This is past my second year anniversary since starting this site. 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 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 do 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.

28 September 1998

Last week I was writing about compulsions and concluded with our responsibilities.

This week I am concluding with responsibilities and moving on to new DSM "disorders".

Although I am totally responsible for what happens to me, there is some more to say.

There is a difference when I use my energy to push another to decide something different

than they would decide by themselves. Then I am becoming responsible for them along

with themselves. They are still making their decision, but I am also pushing their decision.

As long as I give them freedom to decide what they are going to decide and do not use any

of my anger at them to force them to redecide, I have not pushed them. I am still free to use

any of my anger, to set and defend my boundaries, but I am not free to violate their boundaries.

There are many examples, but sometimes it is more clear when we take them to the

extreme. Say I am in a mental hospital and acting weird, but not hurting myself or others.

But, the staff upsets their selves about my weirdness because of their own shadow weirdness

and forces me to take higher dosages of medicines than I want. In this case I am still

responsible since I could not defend my boundary and I took the medicine. But the staff

is also responsible to the extent they used force of any kind. However, if I was hurting

myself or others the staff is fully justified in isolating me and or drugging me the best ways

they know to stop my hurting myself or others. They are not justified beyond the level to

stop the harming. Perhaps we can discuss more subtle examples later.

29 September 1998

Now we come to PTSD, "309.89 Post-traumatic Stress Disorder". Again, we all

have some degree of this, if only from birth trauma. The question is always how much

and how to assist the healing process. We cope with traumatic events by parts of our

psyche [spirit] temporarily disassociating. That is what happened to me in my birth

trauma. The challenge is to reassociate and re-member by FACT, Forgiveness with gratitude,

Asserting wellness, Consciousness expanding and Teamworking with our fellow spiritual

beings. Tomorrow we will go into the specific symptoms and how they can help us heal.

30 September 1998

The first symptom is recurrent upsetting recollections of the events. Each reoccurrence

is an opportunity to forgive once again to plant seeds of healing. When children act out

some of the trauma it is another opportunity for them to find resolutions in their play. When

the dreams reoccur, it is another opportunity to say before each night that we are accepting

our night dreams as ways to clear the trauma so we can live a better life in the day. When

we feel the events reoccurring this is our opportunity to call upon our lord most high within

to go through it with us to watch it finally clear. We may experience hallucinations and

this just tells us more about how hallucinations happen. The hallucinations are just back

to show us what to clear, no matter what the DSM's code this as. These hallucinations may

happen more when intoxicated simply because some of our restraints are gone.

We may go into our upsets any time we are reminded of the trauma until we have come

to forgive ourselves, others and God, and come to finally see our blessings in disguise.

Techniques like E R help us to break up the patterns, but the fundamentals above need

to also be applied.

1 October 1998

Another set of symptoms are about avoidance of reminders of the trauma. The avoidance

itself is a reminder to remember. To remember with gratitude.

When you have clicked on the above "remember with gratitude" you will find some

elements of my story. That story continues as I continue to learn to remember with gratitude.

We may try to avoid thoughts and feelings associated with our trauma. It may have been

a trauma we do not even remember or a trauma from what must have been a dream. When

we avoid our thoughts and feelings we end up avoiding ourself and our healing. At some

point our trauma thoughts and feeling may be spiritually lifted from us, but in the meantime

we need to tell spirit what we want by letting as many thoughts and feelings go as we can.

We can let them go by just observing them go. We can just watch the thoughts go and the

feelings happen. We can get into activities and situations that bring back the thoughts and

feelings and continue to just let the thoughts go and the feelings happen. The more we do

this the more we have as sense of how vulnerable we can be and how much strength this

gives us.

When you do not yet have the skills to let go and let God, find someone who has and

learn from them.

2 October 1998

Now another break from the "disorders" of the DSM's. Let us look at what judging

ourselves really does.

When we judge ourselves as less than perfect, we get to be right. When we discern

that we are growing in perfection, we get to be right. When we discern that we are

recovering, we get to be right. When we forgive ourselves for the names we call

ourselves , we get to be right. Then we get to no longer experience what happens

to those that carry these names. When we are still experiencing what happens to

those that carry these names we are still carrying these names and we need to continue

our forgiving.

What do you want to be right about today?

3 October 1998

Here is a poem that Rich Walker and I created about what I do:

Live Your Dream

Live the Life of Your Dreams.

Let the Old Life,

Fall Apart at the Seams.

Create Vibrant New Life.

Recycle Wasted Life.

Get Guidance Without Pain,

Like Gentle Falling Rain

4 October 1998

Another symptom is the inability to remember the trauma. Perhaps it

is just not wanting to remember. That keeps the bear away from the door.

And yet, we must get to know and tame the bear through getting to know the

bear. We need to bare ourselves to what we have stored up and recycle

all that into our treasures. This is as true for someone with a labeled

disorder as for all the rest of us that have more in the storeroom.

Have a great day and see you next week.

I Foster Discovery and Recovery and the Life of Your Dreams,

Michael Foster, M. A.

Recovery Skills Coach

"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.

14 August 98