Can you please describe your current level of recovery? Are you employed, self-employed, on assistance, living on your own, living with supports, living with parents, married, etc?
I feel it is reasonable for those you are dispensing advice to show that advice has worked out for the person who is dispensing it.
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Starting off, I’m married, have a kid, and own my own business. I’m self-sufficient. Also do some part-time work to cover slow patches in my business (photography/video/DJ). I do a lot of volunteer work in my community and am higher functioning than many neurotypicals. I’m med compliant. My doctor has never met someone else with Sz who functions at my level, which I attribute to a combination of finding the right med and living by 12 Step principles.
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Hey there,
My current level of recover is no drinks two days, naltrexone for alcohol abuse every day. I’m on va and ssi assistance. I live with my girlfriend, we’ve been together over a year and a half. I have three cats to take care of, and things seem to be going okay.
I’m also a divorcee, and have a 8 year old daughter that lives in Indiana currently yet will be moving to new York with her mother.
We recently just moved from a secluded and distant farmhouse to an apt downtown. It’s been a huge change and we’re still trying to get organized.
i went through 17 years of severe addiction/alcoholism/dual diagnosis - & severe schizophrenia - 8 years in severe florid psychosis across 8 major breakdowns/episodes, & a year spent in psychiatric hospital over 4 admissions - half of that time in a secure unit.
Am now over 13 years t-total clean & sober. Have been living independently in the community on my own for 13 years, with some financial support from the Government. In the past i was in 8 years of full time work at various times (between hospitalisations), i’ve also passed 7 years of further education qualifications in art, computers, catering & various other subjects. i’ve done all kinds of voluntary work & been engaged in all kinds of activities. It’s been 16 years since i was last in hospital, & over 10 years since last psychotic episode, & have been fully discharged from all psychiatric services for over 2 & a half years. The last psychiatrist concluded that i had made a remarkable recovery. i maintain a very low dose of one neuroleptic medication.
Currently it is enough for me with overall circumstances to maintain independent living, sobriety & stability. There are a number of ongoing difficulties. Am currently helping care for my Mother who has had severe/advanced Alzheimers for the past 4 years.
i have always been interested in spirituality & have been following an alternative/complimentary healing path for the past 13 years as well. Am also highly trained in alternative healing areas. i live a very independent life, & have had little in the way of any support from services - currently none.
Does that qualify me to say what i have found helpful & to share some of my opinions/perspectives?
For the record i don’t favour Shamanism/Mysticism - Have explored & looked into many areas - i do however take a comprehensive/integral view on these areas/experiences & am Not very impressed with the current orthodox understandings & approach - i think it’s in the Dark Ages.
Isn’t that a form of spirituality? Same as the Shamanistic/Mystical & many other areas?
Nor am i aware anywhere of having dispensed any advice? i haven’t told anyone what they should/shouldn’t do & i never do that.
I think it depends on how far you take it. Do I have a Higher Power? Yes. Do I have any idea how it works? No. Do I believe it’s some extradimensional/powerful being? No. I suspect that the act of reaching outside yourself is the first step to begin healing within yourself, and that’s why this works, but I haven’t investigated any further. I get too much benefit from this particular magic trick to ruin it by trying to figure out how it works. (Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, etc., etc.)
In over 23 years of AA my advice to other members has always been: Think of GOD as Good Orderly Direction, something we can all use more of. However you choose to interpret that is up to you.
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Condolences. Few things in life cause stress like caring for an aging/ailing parent. 
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i feel it’s a very individual thing as to how someone interprets & applies 12 step. i studied a lot of 12 step literature & felt there was nothing exclusive to it all - it’s based on sound spiritual principles - it’s also been for me a beginning of things, a boat/bridge across the river, onto other things - haven’t done a meeting in over 6 years & am content with that, & secure in sobriety. i have a lot of my own opinions on the fellowships.
Thank you - it’s been an incredibly stressful & difficult time with everything. i get severe anxiety/fear at times - i think it’s a combination of factors - But i live with it all.
@shutterbug, the 12 step comment by @Apotheosis is very valid. Without shamanism/mysticism as you put it, you’d probably be dead, or at least have none of the things you mentioned.
I’m on meds and also in a 12 step program, so I’m not having a go at you.
But, I think Apotheosis’s comment is food for thought at least.
All I’m asking is that those who are providing guidance about alternate therapies lay their cards on the table so that those who are looking at following them have an idea of where the information is coming from.
Worth pointing out that the AA concept of a Higher Power may have nothing to do with mysticism or actual spiritual beings and could just be a useful psychological trick. I make no claims in this department. It works for me, but others may find their mileage varies.
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[quote=“shutterbug, post:13, topic:24277”]All I’m asking is that those who are providing guidance about alternate therapies lay their cards on the table so that those who are looking at following them have an idea of where the information is coming from.
Worth pointing out that the AA concept of a Higher Power may have nothing to do with mysticism or actual spiritual beings and could just be a useful psychological trick. I make no claims in this department. It works for me, but others may find their mileage varies.
[/quote]
i presume this thread was directed at me, due to recently joining here & the theme of some of my posts (many of which have been deleted).
i’m honest & have laid my cards on the table. i haven’t offered guidance - simply opened up discussion on a broader view of what people experience.
i gave a brief overview here - Complimentary Healing
Carl Jung was critical in the formation of AA, & it’s spiritual basis (without Jung AA wouldn’t exist) - as was the temperance movement & all of it’s religious overtones. There is a lot within 12 step that has it’s basis in religious & spiritual systems - & any deeper look into it all shows that. Don’t want to get into a long discussion on my opinion on it all - But the core message was/is that alcoholism at core is a spiritual dilemma with a spiritual solution, & the entire program centers around God & spiritual principles/transformation, universal to many areas of spirituality.
My own views on mental health have come from my own personal experience, & a lot of reading/research into this area - hundreds of books, thousands of hours of research, & many thousands of hours of conversations. i think there is a spiritual/transpersonal component to psychosis - that is all, & i think there should be far more of an awareness around it all, & capacity for people to explore that element of their experiences, if they so choose to. That there ought to be far more comprehensive, humane & compassionate approaches to it all.
i think the current dominant biomedical psychiatric/scientific reductionist view on schizophrenia is wrong & i think it can be very well argued as to why it’s wrong. i think that people should be freely allowed to express whatever their view is on these matters without censorship or attack.
No mater - i won’t change the system & the system isn’t going to change - am still entitled to an opinion - Despite the continuing closing down of free speech in our societies & the almost exclusive materialist paradigm that everyone it seems must conform & acquiesce to.
I definitely don’t think the thread was directed at you. Certainly not.
What do you consider recovery, working for a corporation, following a great program at a university, or managing the truth of our condition as human beings in such a way that the most of of those that suffer that see my words find some way to have hope that many will see the light of our condition and actually transcend the suffering?
What is success, saving up for retirement or saving a dude named LOT from destruction of Sodam or Gameora, or from crucifying figure like $$$ for profit in the hands of the few at the expense of the many?
Bold question, I like it. Continue to question, especially those that have the most power over you.
I am convinced (not in a paranoid way) that my mother needs to be tested for Alzheimer’s. She forgets names and words. She has also left her keys in almost strange places. Should I be worried?
Might be old age, that is the signs and symptoms of dying being, I forget to tell those I love how much I love them and give them a good hug… far to much. Youth forgets worse than old agers. The real young, now they remember more than you would of this life, at such a young age. If it would not be for forgetfulness we would remember how warm heaven is or how hot hell is, and we might not be honest enough. Sometimes forgetfulness is a good thing, keeps you in the moment and living honestly.
Be kind, compassionate, and co-passionate, make others missions your own, and you will forget how much you are suffering and remember how much others are, way worse than you. You can always find some one way better off than you and way worse off than you. Meet them where you really are.
Aint incarnatiing fun! All the â– â– â– â– you been through you forget and start with clean slate to make the same punctuation marks or change them to one big long ?