I often reminisce and go over my past and I can remember a lot of it. Sometimes I can’t remember the exact year an event took place, or I can’t remember which years I lived in a certain place or what exact years I worked at one of my many jobs.
Through old papers and much focusing I have been able to see exactly when I was in Soteria and afterwards, the long term hospital for 8 months. Those were in 1980-82 and I figured out those years by remembering songs that were popular that were playing on the radio and then looking up the years those songs came out and then matching them to the places I was living. In 1983 I got out of the hospital and moved into a group home called La Selva in Palo Alto, Ca. I was able to figure out which year I was in that house because Michael Jacksons Billie Jean was constantly on the radio and it came out in 1983. Also Men at Works A Land Down under played all the time and that was 1983.
I stayed 8 months in the hospital and then moved into this residential treatment home with 6 other clients and around the clock staff there at all times. For years, I thought it was a typical group home, it wasn’t until 20 years later I realized it was a very special, intensive home whose main focus was on structure. So we had to go to bed at a certain time every night, get up in the morning at a certain time, do chores at the same time twice a day, go to groups, cook and shop for food. Everybody had to eat dinner together, no getting out of it. And we had regular group outings.
It was a big house but I had to share a room. Looking back I can’t believe I actually lived there. I moved in directly from the hospital, everybody who lived there had to be high functioning including me. No violence or crazy behavior was tolerated, you had to behave 24/7. But I fit right in.
I went to their vocational program and 9 months later I got my first job since getting sick and stayed there for four years; through being psychotic, heavily medicated, drug addiction, through 6 moves and dealing with schizophrenia.
I digressed; I just discovered something about that house from researching it online. Its changed a lot since I lived there for a year but when I moved into La Selva it had only been in existence for three years! I never knew it was that new until tonight. I always thought it was a well established place that had been around forever but it was founded in 1979 and I moved in in 1983.
Another interesting thing I just learned is that there was this guy there who ran it when I was there and he’s still running it 40 years later. I just watched a video about La Selva on YouTube and he was interviewed. The poor guy is old but I recognized him.
So the pieces of the puzzle fall into place and I can see the exact year I lived in those places and which years that a lot of stuff happened to me. It’s very interesting to me.