Steps on the Road to Recovery

Steps On the Road to Recovery for 1 to 8 November 1998.

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.

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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.

2 November 1998

Last week I was continuing writing about some of the symptoms of Generalized

Anxiety Disorder [GAD]and some hints on what to do at first. What one does later

is a matter of how much we are getting in contact with our intuition and guidance

from our lord most high within. The first symptom this week is the 17th symptom

out of eighteen to qualify us for GAD when we have at least 8 symptoms. That

symptom is "trouble falling or staying asleep". Boy, who has not at some time

has not had trouble falling or staying asleep. Especially as a side effect to mental

or other medicines.

Again we have a common symptom that is only a challenge when it is around

too much. This symptom has that common element of either too much energy or

too little. Shades of manic and depressive.

You can find many suggestions many places to resolve sleep problems, but you

will find less suggestions here. When I could not sleep that was just something

else to get through. Since I did not for weeks, I have some experience with the

value of getting through that. When I could not stay awake that also was just

something else to get through. Sort of like when you are hungry, eat and when

you are full, do not eat. One could even shift one's attitude to when we are

awake, enjoy the daydreams and when we are asleep, enjoy the night dreams.

3 November 1998

The last GAD symptom is "irritability". We all have times when we are

irritable. So, what to do when we are irritable. One way is to recognize that

we are sensitive at this time. We could take advantage of our sensitivity and

take some time to nurture ourselves, perhaps get off by ourselves to explore

our sensitivity. Of course, we may find some objections from others. That

is when it is more necessary to get off by ourselves and to take really good

care of ourselves. We may be irritable with ourselves just because we have

not taken as good care of ourselves as other aspects of us want to be taken

care of. Especially our inner baby, child and youngsters.

4 November 1998

The good news about GAD is that we can use our extra energy from

GAD to transform ourselves into SAD and then GLAD. Any anxiety is just

spirit blowing through our tree of life telling us to change our minds to

something that works better.

That something that works better is that spirit blowing through our trees.

It just knows more since it has been doing what it has been doing a lot longer

than we have been on this planet. Something that is ancient of days has the

advantage of those days and that ancient of days is part of us. That is a part

that it would be wise to get to know as much as possible. In fact that ancient

of days part may know better how to help us get to know it than we know.

5 November 1998

The same is true of "300.00 Anxiety Disorder Not Otherwise Specified"

as is true of GAD. In this case they have the catch all for fears that they have

not invented a category for yet. Anxieties and fears are just from differences

in what we have and what we want.

That brings us to the next category of differences between what we have

and what we want, "300.70 Body Dysmorphic Disorder". This one is about

exaggeration of physical differences from normal. Another form of perfectionism.

This is simply perceiving a difference between what we see and what we want

to see and generating energy to change what we have. That energy is sometimes

admitted to be anger. This is the energy that is keeping plastic surgeons rich.

Some others choose to use their larger nose like Jimmy D. or larger chin

like Jay Leno. There are many other solutions to anger. The first spiritual way

is accepting what we see. There are always more solutions available when we

try the first way and come to peace. When we are at peace more solutions can

show up. Our solutions are clouded by our anger.

6 November 1998

As I have continued to resolve more of my upsets my solutions have expanded.

Many times I have asked myself, why didn't I think of that before and realized that

I could not have in the past when I have thoughts clouding my solutions.

Someone asked me "What is a friend?" The answer is going to be different for

all of us and different as we learn more. For right now, for me, my being a friend is

wishing that my friends find more health, wealth and happiness and yet my being willing

for any of my friends to seek sickness, poverty and unhappiness as long as that is what

they want. I can help people get what they want and to become more aware of what they

want. From my perspective I consider all my readers and people I know and work with

my friends and that is why I share hints about finding more health, wealth, and happiness.

That is why I am interested in the processes of recover of our inner health, inner resources,

and the ultimate truths that bring more happiness.

There are consequences of being my friend. Since I am choosing to find more

inner health, wealth and happiness, that can be catching.

7 November 1998

Today, we are back to the DSM "disorders" with "300.11 Conversion Disorder (or

Hysterical Neurosis, Conversion Type)". This is where there is a physical disorder

that is related to the psychological disorder. This is just where the doctor can see the

mental connection and can not see a physical connection. Even when there is a mental

reason for the disorder and it shows up physically, there has to be some physical change

for the physical to show up.

When we have a physical disorder from our mental processes we have hyptnoized

ourselves and or let others hyptnoize us. So the way back is the way we got there. We

need to dehyptnoize ourselves. We need to wake up from our trances that we put

ourselves in and or our trances that we let others put us in. This is a generic challenge

for all of us, since we are in complex trances. Our trances show up in our personalities

that we play and the personalities that upset us on the outside. Tomorrow I plan to write

about a way to work on waking up from our personality trances.

8 November 1998

One way to wake up from some of our trances is to take the 9 fundamental architypes

of the ennegram and use them to our advantage and advancement. The start of this secret

is to use the 9 fundamental "sins" of each of the 9 architypes to be part of a forgiveness

ritual. Why all 9? Glad you asked that. Because we all have each of the 9 architypes.

We have the one we are most conscious of and lesser degrees of consciousness of the

other 8.

Some ritual words are: "I forgive myself for judging myself as a/an ___________.

The nine blanks to fill in are:

1. "Righteous Person" for our Inner Critic.

2. "Hysterical Person" for our Inner Moourr.

3. "Jealous Person" for our Inner Creator.

4. "Martyr" for our Inner Actor.

5. "Dissector" for our Inner Scholar.

6. "Afraid Person" for our Inner Child.

7. "Manic Person" for our Inner Clown.

8. "Dominator" for our Inner Father.

9. "Disassociated Person" for our Inner Coach.

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

Michael Foster, M. A.

Mental Health 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.