Steps on the Road to Recovery

Steps On the Road to Recovery for 21 to 27 December 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 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.

21 December 1998

This week we are on "Impulse Control Disorders Not Elsewhere

Classified". As I pointed out last week ICDNEC's are classified most

everywhere else, but they do not know that yet. That is because ICDNEC's

are bursts of anger that manifest in many ways. The first set of symptoms

is "312.34 Intermittent Explosive Disorder". This is when you are feeling

that you are walking on eggshells to avoid ticking off the other explosive

person so that they do not do it enough to tick you off. This is where you feel

that you can not be free to do what you want to do because you expect the

other person to explode when they do not get their way. There is some degree

of this in any relationship when we are honest to look close enough. Although

we do not like to admit that we are recovering from anger and hurt, that is

what we are recovering from. One can substitute the name of any emotions

that we want, but when we look close enough we have or had a difference

between what we have or had and what we wanted. This is usually a combination

of our conscious desires and unconscious desires and our conscious fears and

unconscious fears. The card below had the first secret to start healing those

angers and hurts.

22 December 1998

The example today is "312.32 Kleptomania". Kleptomania is described

as an impossible to resist impulse to do the act, tension before the act, pleasure

or relief doing the act. What does that remind you all of? It reminds me of sex.

The DSM says this stealing is not about anger or vengeance. I am sure they would

say the same about sex. However, I have a more generic definition of anger.

Anger is just energy to get what you want. In kleptomania these may be some

unconscious wants. In sex there is certainly some unconscious wants, one of

which is to reproduce.

Some part of all that we do is from impulses to act, tension before the act and

pleasure or relief doing the act. One could call that our fate, one could call that

our karmic path, or one could call that our programming. I call that our programming

and our road to recovery reprogramming.

When you are enjoying what you are doing, why not keep doing that until you are

not enjoying what you are doing? When you are not enjoying what you are doing,

why not learn how to reprogram what you will be doing?

23 December 1998

Today we have "312.31 Pathological Gambling". Here is another addiction.

It is interesting that it is in this category of "Impulse Control Disorders". I have

watched some that I knew gamble and saw how addicting it could be. There are

just different strokes for different folks. All of the addictions are forms of lack

of freedom. With gambling it is a priority to gamble and getting money to gamble.

With working it is a priority to work over most anything else. With spirits or drugs

it is a priority over most anything else. The bottom line is that when we decide to

put our spiritual birth and growth as our first priority, we return to our road to

recovery.

Gambling like other addictions requires a larger risk to get our adrenalin fix

over time. There is some comparison with spirit in that over time we grow larger.

There are upsets over not gambling and yet trying to stop. That sounds like a

stuck illogical loop, like compulsions sound. These are all the same symptoms

from the same illnesses. The form is the same, the expression is different.

There is more and more social and financial pain over time until we get

sick and tired of being sick and tired. That is when we get ready to admit

that we are powerless over our "disorders". That is when we start our road to

recovery. We are powerless because we are ignorant about what will get us

on our spiritual path. The cure is about learning all the time better way for

better things.

24 December 1998

Today we have "312.33 Pyromania". An addiction to fire setting. Where there

is "deliberate" fire setting, arousal before the act, pleasure during the act, relief after

the act and an interest in the subject of the act. Sound like sex again?

The words in the DSM are more judgmental here, but the addiction process is

the same. The DSM calls it "deliberate" while they do not call gambling or other

obsessions, compulsions or addictions "deliberate". But to me, these processes are

all just degrees of the same "addiction" process and recover is just degrees of different

wiser processes. It would be most helpful for society to take the view of seeing all of

these processes and illnesses processes, just like colds to cancer that we all get from

time to time and we all need some assistance, respect, and encouragement to recover.

Not that we "should" recover, because in our heart of hearts that is already a given.

God wants recovery for everyone, we just sometimes have too much "stuff" in the

way and or rapid recovery would be too difficult and we are being shown mercy.

We can learn to come to agree with God and our heart of hearts that they want to

recover and they sometimes have too much unconscious "stuff" in their way and

they have too much to recover at once, and so do we.

Have a great peaceful day before Christmas.

25 December 1998

"312.39 Trichotillomania" is our addiction of the day. This one is about pulling our

your hair. Actually doing that is the same set of symptoms as all the above addictions.

They did not include cutting yourself in this group in this version, but that is the same pattern.

We sure say we could pull out our hair enough. Perhaps we do it slowly with male and

female pattern baldness. :))

There is a ritual sacrifice pattern to a lot of these addictions. They are coming out of

our unconsciousness since they are not coming out of our conscious desires. What does

this tell us about some of our unconsciousness? Does this make it easier to understand that

we are doing the best we can with what we are conscious and unconscious of? Does this

make it easier to understand that transforming our unconscious desires and fears to peace

is the bottom line of what I am writing about?

26 December 1998

May your pay,

from what you say,

be the gold of heaven,

for those you leaven,

with the yeast of wisdom,

that leads to our kingdom.

What kingdom you say,

that has the pay,

of the gold of heaven,

and the wisdom of leaven?

Oh, that's just where we love,

with the golden light from above.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to All

Very Respectfully, Michael Foster, MA

27 December 1998

There is a pattern to "impulse control disorders "or "addictions".

There is an interest in the act, impulse to act, doing the act, feeling better,

feeling guilty and then a new impulse. One way to work on breaking this

chain of events is the feeling guilty part. That is where forgiving ourselves

for judging ourselves as whatever we call those that do these acts. Another

way to work on breaking this chain of events is to take the impulse to act to

your own sacred space and just get in touch with this impulse to act until

there is no longer an impulse to act.

There are some clues in these impulses. Setting fire could be about

setting fire to some part of ourselves. Stealing could be about stealing

away some part of ourselves. Exploding could be about wanting to

explode some part of ourselves. Gambling could be about wanting to

really take a risk on finding out who we really are. Wanting to pull our

hair out could be about wanting to pull some part of ourselves out. Those

that cut themselves are resolving some guilt and what they may really want

is to find out how to resolve all their guilts.

Perhaps all of this DSM book is about "312.39 Impulse Control Disorder

Not Otherwise Specified". :))

Very Respectfully,

Michael Foster, MA

Mental Health Coach

https://www.recoverybydiscovery.com

Coachemail

"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.