-Everybody has a
story to tell-
Everyone is unique, different and
individual from that of everyone and everything else here in this world.
However at the same time we all have similar experiences and can relate to each
other in many various ways. I believe it is important for each person to share
their experiences and stories, to share their developed gifts, talents’,
interests and things they are passionate about. I believe that we share these
things not only will we find more joy and fulfillment in our life but we will
automatically spark inspiration, belief, hope and light in others lives who are
affected by their influence.
My Story
Since October 27th my family and I have been on a
sailing trip, traveling on my parents 47-foot Catalina sailboat, the “GabbyWray”
from San Diego to the east coast where my parents are relocating for their
retirement. We recently made it to the east coast and are back in the United
States. Before I set sail with my family on this journey I was living in San
Diego working full time (40 plus sometimes 50 hours a week) and going to school
full time (about 12 hours in class not including travel time and studying).
I have been working in the mental
health field for over four years now. In an effort to further strengthen my skills
and abilities to help people I have also been learning hypnosis and relating
modalities in combination with establishing my Major in psychology. Through my
experiences working in the mental health field I have been able to work with
people on both ends of the spectrum from adults that are labeled “severely
mentally ill” such as “schizophrenia” or “psychotic” all the way to youth that
are considered “at risk” for these and similar labeled “disorders”.
My path has led me to this place
where I am able to help these people with there sever life challenge because
I have my own personal first hand experience of being on the other side of the
table. I have been a recipient of “mental health” services by coercion
and force. These services projected their ideologies and beliefs that they
profess as science and facts, calming that I had an incurable disease that
could only be managed with a biochemical concoxion of psychiatric drugging.
Despite their misinformation they
attempted to “educate” me on or help me to gain “insight” to and “comply” with;
the second I got my rights back upon my release from the prison like hospital
is when I started to withdraw from their mind-altering drugs.
Taking myself off of their drugs I
was literally forced to take was one of the most challenging experiences I have
ever gone through in my life.
Looking back on these experiences it
has been close to five years now since that day and I am healthy! I feel the
best I have in my life in a general sense. Everyone has their ups and downs
but I am satisfied with my life in my mental, emotional, physical and spiritual
relationships with my self and others; I feel free. Aside from about 5 visits
with a psychologist (which was mandatory for my release) I don’t have any
therapists, psychologists or psychiatrists I resolve my own problems by relying
on family, friends and ultimately my self. I respect others choices to benefit
from such therapeutic relationships, as they can be beneficial but I bring this
point up because like me there are many others who are able to happily live
their lives as if there past challenges had never even happened.
Working with the many people I’ve
come into contact with in the mental health field there is a common
assumption that once the “label” you receive from a qualified authority
–confirms- a said to be “life long” “disorder” then you will always have to
“cope” with the problem. The term Recovery means something different to
everyone and this view is often infused with that word.
People often fire their loaded
suggestions saying, “You will always be in recovery” and “always have
to manage symptoms.” These things are false assumptions as they are not
always the case. People make them true but they don’t have to be. These
assumptions carry over into many other fields like..
Mental health and recovery from addictions.
From a young age I was using a
plethora of drugs continually throughout the whole day on a daily basis for
years and years. I have had to be hospitalized because of my dependence on the
chemical substances and even got to tremendous lows in my character such as
lying, cheating and stealing. I have gone through a long-term inpatient
drug treatment facility for close to two years and was educated on my problem
and that it would also have to be a life long challenge.
These experiences of going to the
hospitals and treatment center were in times of great need for help. I was sick
in many ways and needed help and had a huge problem that was consuming
virtually every aspect of my life. However it has now been my experience that I
don’t have to live with the challenges that I once had. I understand there are
support groups and different twelve step groups and I encourage people to
attend them if they are having a hard time, I know I have greatly benefited
from similar support groups.
• My point with these things is this; despite what people say,
despite the endless examples one can give, some people -at least some of the
time- are able to completely recover get well and stay well for the rest of
their lives and not need to continue the treatment that was once needed to heal
what ever kind of wounds physical, mental, emotional or spiritual.
There are many examples of “Miracles”
where people are able to have miraculous recoveries from things that surely should
have killed them or disabled them in some way. When these things happen,
whether we call them or believe them to be miracles or they are above
our understandings and explanations, they defy others projected truths. This
means that it is possible. I believe that when one calls such experiences
“miracles” it is because they have yet to understand the inherent principles
operating to get the intended change or effect. But, if the necessary process
or governing laws are met then anyone could get similar results in their own
ways.
For example, before the right
brothers we “knew” that “nothing heavier than air couldn’t fly.” Despite the
incongruence of birds breaking that belief, I’ve heard this statement made. But
today we have to employ air traffic controllers to help direct the multitude of
airplanes in the skies because there are so many flights.
• Are the airplanes breaking the laws, which we have some
understanding into, and label as gravity? No, a higher law or a higher
expression of the same law the law of aerodynamics supersedes our once imposed
and believed limitations of the laws of gravity.
This example can be used for many
facets of our lives but as you might be able to see where I’m going with this; just
because people tell you one thing or another whether they are in a place of
authority and power, it doesn’t make it true.
Not only have I no need for
professional help anymore to happily live my life without the challenges I once
had with chemical addiction and many other challenges that I was essentially
masking and self-medicating with them; but I also happily live with out the
need of an official support group like a twelve step meeting. Do I have
support in my life? Yes, absolutely, my fulfilling and loving relationships
with my family and friends offer me the support I need to live happily.
I view my ability to live my life in
the way I do from multiple perspectives. To explore one of these..
Neurologically
There are constantly changing
connections that are being made in your brain each time you have a thought,
feeling, emotion, each time you converse with others and basically at all
times. Each time you make one of these connections your neuro chemistry is also
changing. Each time you think of a friend, of a loved one, each time you eat
chocolate you brain is creating neurochemical changes. In general when you
make a new connection it is weak. When you reinforce that connection each time
your neural network grows stronger and stronger.
When it comes to neurology and
addiction, neuroscientists can demonstrate that when someone is addicted to
something lets continue with drugs in this example. There comes a point when
the connection becomes an automatic response much like Pavlov’s dogs
salivating with conditioning if your familiar with that. As much as you can
condition and reinforce something you can re-pattern your brain. You can
with help, when a sought after change has gotten to this point, change your
brains neurology and literally rewire the connections.
Think about it like this, when you
develop a skill, something your passionate about, a talent, lets take playing a
musical instrument for example. When you practice and practice and practice you
are building a positive habit and are creating positive neuro-connections.
However if for whatever reason you decide to stop the longer you stop the more
challenging it will be to remember the developed skill. The old saying if
you don’t use it you loose it is exemplified in this.
The problem with this is when
something has become unconscious competence or like muscle memory
even if you stop for a while and forget, when you start to play the instrument it
will be easier and quicker to relearn the pattern of behavior. It quickly
becomes as if you had never stopped learning. This is what researchers
usually point to when they push their ideas often coated in their quick fix for
their chemical solution, it seems they always come to that conclusion. Their
psychoactive (meaning drugs that cross the blood brain barrier) drugs are
better than your psychoactive drugs. Seriously I had a huge lecture from a
leading authority come to our school and educate us on all these things and
then finish it up with their soon to come magic bullets for “dependency” in
pill form.
What people don’t take into account
with these addictive behaviors is that rather than stopping for a while like in
the example of stopping playing a musical instrument. If you find a way to
re-pattern your brain, my preferred modality for such things would be
hypnosis, (many misconceptions still exist about hypnosis and I will be writing
more about this… you can look at the inherent hypnotic processes in things like
EMDR for trauma and more) than you can de-potentiate that effect or response.
• If you were to consider it in this way, which I consider
spiritually, the addictive behaviors labeled as “bad” are usually
things that are covering up a fundamental need.
• They are masking parts of our selves asking to be resolved. The
more we ignore signals from our bodies and minds the more the addictive
behaviors are needed to mask the signs.
• And even beyond the things the addictive behaviors mask, it
seems to me, there is a part of ourselves that seeks fulfillment which can not
be achieved through physical means or means that only serve only ones self.
If you can find a healthy way to feed
this part of yourself, this aspect of your being, then you can find a sense of
resolve, a feeling of content and live a more fulfilling life. I see people
that constantly try to avoid and push away these things in other ways, which
may even be in the form of attending “support groups”.
The unconscious mind does not
process negatives.
Meaning in the most basic example: if
I were to say don’t imagine a sunset in
your minds eye right now; do not imagine
this sunset right now; you can’t not do it. Same thing when people “try”
to not smoke or they “don’t” want to go back to their
old ways of living and their addictive behaviors. In their minds they
have to pull up these thoughts, memories, associations and connections, and
then they have to negate what they just brought up in their minds. This is like
a mental tug of war; it is mentally, physically and emotionally
exhausting.
• Then you hear the statements as “know ‘I am- an addict’ may have
always been and will always be one” because of this “I know that I need or have
to attend groups to stay sober for the rest of my life and I’m okay with that.”
• If people truly want this kind of life that is completely okay
and it is their choice. But if they truly, deep down inside don’t want to live
this way, do they have a choice really?
• When their own beliefs of the world their own statements force
them into a way of viewing and filtering for information so as to confirm their
beliefs, do they really have a choice?
This used to be my experience and
statements that I used to believe and at times there was nothing anyone could
do or say to convince me otherwise. Others attempts’ to have me see things
differently only further cemented in my beliefs the statements I was making and
the beliefs I had at the time.
I remember being relieved in one
sense but also miserable in another, in that I thought I always had to struggle
and fight just to be okay and survive. I remember looking around at others
“like me” at the time, who were there and I had the realization that my life
was still constantly consumed with drugs. Even though I wasn’t using drugs, it
was still how I related to others and the world around me. I would use my -now
not using drugs- to relate with other people that also had the same challenges.
Today things are different for me, I
am fortunate and grateful to have people come into my life that were able to
help me overcome these challenges by transmuting and transforming my
relationship, my understanding, and belief about them ultimately changing
forever my experience of them. I have been sober for close to five years now, I
have attended groups in the past but choose not to any more as I don’t need
them to stay sober or live a happy and fulfilling life. I am medication free
and happy.
I want to be clear that I believe
that I would not be here even alive today if it weren’t for such interventions,
for such treatments and groups. They have helped me at the points that I needed
them and I am grateful they were able to help me. I believe they could have
helped me in many more ways. I also believe the ways in which they helped
me discontinued to be helpful at turning points in my life which I was able to
receive further help to set me on my path now.
I see many of the principles in these
groups and different ways people are able to get help and how they show up in
my life in different ways. Among many of them support and giving back
are important aspects of my life. I don’t live my life in a way like I “need
to”, “should do”, “can’t do” such and such to be okay.
• Rather than putting my energy towards attempts to avoid the
things in life I don’t want, I instead focus my energy on the things in life I
do want.
• In this way I have attracted into my life as a result of my thoughts,
beliefs and actions the kind of life that I want to live.
Because I have been given much I
choose to give
I enjoy helping others it is what
brings meaning and purpose, fulfillment and joy into my life. I know that
people can overcome many things that they might not believe yet themselves or
that other family, friends or professionals might be telling them. I believe
that my experiences, though not the norm, are not necessarily unique. I know
that many people have had the same experiences as me and have been able to
overcome them. I know that people have gone beyond or have had challenges that
in their own ways have been more sever but still have been able to overcome
them.
• Through this blog I plan on mapping out my experience and the
process of what worked for me. Everyone is different and the specifics
on my path are going to vary from that of anyone else’s; however in terms of
the process I have observed that transformational change can be replicated. I
believe that everyone can heal them-selves. Everyone can change their beliefs
and change their lives.
Many of the huge challenges that
afflict people’s lives from that of addiction to things that are often
attributed to psychological or psychiatric disorders can sometimes be resolved
quickly, easily, and holistically. Again the details such as time frames and
degrees of change will vary person to person. I’ve personally seen people spend
years in therapy and paying lots of money for continual professional help and
then I’ve seen others with the same problems and to the same degree of
severity, intensity and duration be able to have almost instant change in sometimes
as little as a couple sessions.
• This might seem ridiculous for some to believe especially if you
or a loved one has been battling such challenges. It would be hard to even
accept that you could have had the problems resolved a long time ago but are
continuing to put your faith in a system that is failing you. No one wants to
believe that their well-intentioned doctors would lie to them. We would like to
believe that out of all the people who would know how to help people for their
challenges, wouldn’t it be the qualified doctor who is providing treatment for
these problems?
Well, just as our world was once
believed to be flat, just as it was crazy to think that we could fly,
and just as it would be crazy to try to explain the “smart phones” of
today to someone even 50 years ago; it can seem crazy to consider these
things in contrast to what we are familiar with and used to. These truths can
seem crazy when they conflict with how we already view the world and beliefs
about our problems and ourselves. Just because things may seem crazy doesn’t
make them not true.
If we are to evolve our
understandings and our conditions in life we need to expand our beliefs so they
incorporate the understandings that need to be true in order to actualize the
affects and results we want.
I invite you to consider new things
in new ways as you reading the parts of my story I share with you. I will share
more specifics of my story and information to provide more clarity and
distinctions about what has been helpful. If you would like to contact me about
any thing I’ve shared on this blog site or ask me any question please feel free
to comment or message me and I can connect with you that way.
Thank you!