Steps on the Road to Recovery

Steps On the Road to Recovery for 16 to 22 November 1998.

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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 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.

16 November 1998

Today we are continuing with "300.81 Somatization Disorder". This is

where we have at least 13 of 35 physical symptoms for several years after age

30. As I have written before, there are levels of anything and there could be

a range of 1 symptom of any level to all 35 symptoms at a high level. Like

Hypochondriasis above, the doctors can not find a physical cause and the

patient is concerned enough to take some remedy and or change their life

style. Symptoms are significant and need to be paid attention to and we

need to verify medically that there really is no physical cause that can be

cured. After we have given the doctors their chance we can see if we can

help ourselves by changing our minds.

Today is the second group of symptoms, pain. The first pain is pain in

our extremities. We can ask "What do we want to keep away from us?"

The next pain is back pain. We can ask "What is it that we think we can

not stand?" The next pain is joint pain. We can ask "What movement

restrictions do I resent?" The next pain is pain during urination. This one

is easier to find a question to ask. What am I pissed about? Then the DSM

has its general article, any other pains than headaches. Why not headaches?

Is that not the best indication of mental pain? Any pain is just an indication of

a difference between what we have and what we want. In this case we usually

want to return to health, peace, a better life. That can be good information to

know.

This is a good place to keep in mind that changing our mind and changing

our physical conditions can support each other. There is no mind body split

so there is no reason to not nurture both parts.

17 November 1998

This is also a good place to say that these hints are just first steps. They

are the beginning of a conversation with the lord most high within you. These

questions start on the surface and there is usually a way to go down to the

depths via our road to recovery.

Next we have some more physical symptoms to help us from our surface

to our depths. These are basis symptoms from our heart and lungs. The heart,

our spiritual center of our being and our lungs, our breath of life, our tree of life.

First we have shortness of breath when not exerting yourself. We are not getting

enough energy. How have we cut off some of our life energy? I had by being

born by forceps. Then there are palpitations that ask us? What is happening?

How can we just watch our energy doing funny things? Then there are chest

pains. What needs healing in our hearts? I know that sometime all it turn out

to be is just allowing my heart to be open to more spiritual energy. Then the

last is dizziness. This could be from too little energy. What is this telling us?

Or this could be from too much energy in the form of whirling energy? What

does our energy want to do? What have we consciously and not consciously

asked for?

18 November 1998

The next symptom is amnesia. Like any other symptom there are degrees

of amnesia. When we have no amnesia we would have access to who we are

and where we came from and where we are going. Since most of us do not

have conscious access to all of that, we must have some amnesia. So to

re-member, that is put back together who we are and where we came from

and where we are going is to recover from amnesia. We all have that challenge

or remembering and recovering. What has been hinted at here is just to join

with me an others that are on the road to recovery and to remember.

The next symptom is difficulty swallowing. Sometimes we have difficulty

swallowing many things. The natural question is what do we have difficulty

in swallowing?

The next symptom is loss of voice. These are significant symptoms. What

is it that we do not want to say? There are a lot of times that "The cat has got

our tongue." There are a lot of times we want to say something and can not.

There are a lot of times that we say something and wish we had not. Sometimes

we get that wish later. Since we can not please everybody, it would make more

sense to learn how to please ourselves and be true to ourselves.

19 November 1998

The next symptoms are serious symptoms that demonstrate the power of the

mind. They also must be checked for possible medical cures.

Deafness is the first serious symptom for today. The obvious question is:

What is it that we do not want to hear? A necessary tool in our road to recovery

kit is to be able to listen to anything. A necessary tool to be able to listen to

anything is to be able to forgive ourselves for any names that come up in listening

to anything.

Double vision is the next serious symptom for today. An obvious question is:

What is it that is not in alignment in our life? We are asking these questions of our

lord most high within. Learning to listen to that gentle soft voice is another

necessary tool in our tool kit on our road to recovery. Another vision symptom is

blurred vision. We could ask: What is it that we do not want to see sharply? The

last symptom for today is blindness. The obvious first question is: What is it that

we do not want to see in our life? These are all first questions. They are only the

beginning of a life long conversation with our lord most high within.

20 November 1998

Part of our conversation with our lord most high within, is our symptoms. When

we get a cold we "got a chill" and need to chill out. The cold is like a small fear

coming upon us . Cooperating with letting that chill go can help our cold to go. When

we get a fever we are having a hot flash or a power surge and we need to chill out.

The fever is like a small fear coming upon us. Cooperating with letting that fever go

can help our fever to go. The bible says to give thanks for everything. None of this

means to not do something. Doing something is prayer for things to change. Sometimes

it is better to increase the fever by getting in a warm bed. Sometimes it is better to

lower the fever by taking aspirin. Always it is better to ask our lord most high within

what to do.

How many symptoms are there? There are not really many symptoms. There are

many thousands of diseases or disorders. There are about 160 symptoms and the

average person has 49 according to Dr. Norman Shealy in The Creation of Health,

The emotional, Psychological, and Spiritual Responses That Promote Health and

Healing. [pg. 60] This book is co-authored with Caroline Myss, Ph.D. Their

co-authoring is an example of the needed cooperation between the spiritual and

medical communities. We need more teams of mental health coaches and physical

health coaches. I would be interested in working in that kind of team.

21 November 1998

Now back to the many symptoms of somatization disorder. Since the average

person has about 50 or the 160 medical symptoms we all have a lot to work with.

As usual I recommend also looking for medical assistance to handle the physical

level. Today we have the symptom of fainting or loss of consciousness. A first

question to our lord most high within could be: What do we not want to be

conscious of? Then: What can I do to gain consciousness?

The next symptom is seizure or convulsions. After determining that there is

no physical cure, then we can look at spiritual cures. I know this symptom

intimately. I experienced these symptoms as a part of my spiritual rebirth and

recovery from bipolar. What I learned to do was to swallow my pride long

enough to go along with where the energy of the convulsion was going. I also

turned my process over to spirit. What I found was that after a while what I

was doing was forms of movements that were familiar. They were like yoga

and tai chi movements. Perhaps this was how these movements were first

discovered. They were also like the chattering teeth of a just born baby that

had just gone through birth trauma that I saw in my grandson.

22 November 1998

To end this week we have two more of the 35 symptoms. The next symptom

is trouble walking. Why do we sometimes have a challenge with supporting

ourselves? Then there is "paralysis or muscle weakness". Boy do I remember

times when I had trouble walking and muscle weakness. I could barely move.

I had pneumonia for the third time and was at 105 degrees for days. The most

powerless feeling was from not being able to move much. A great lesson in

humility and patience. I have since come to think of pneumonia as "spirit moaning".

The symptoms were part of my lifetime recovery process. It makes sense to me

now, when I relate these symptoms to my disassociation from birth trauma. There

are times when we need to let our spirit moan through us. There are times when

we need to let our spirit laugh through us. We need to cry and laugh more. Have

a great week next week.

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.