Attention Newcomers
Hi. It's been a while since I last posted anything here. I've been busy with work, married life, child rearing, etc. This in itself is amazing because when I started attending RI meetings almost 13 years ago, I didn't have anything to keep me busy.
I was recently married but my nervous symptoms interfered with the harmony at home. Shortly after getting married, I had a pretty bad setback that preceded a short hospitalization. My hubby and I were arguing a lot of the time, too.
Enter RI. A friend of mine tried it and claimed she wasn't having as many problems with angry outbursts. So I attended a meeting.
I hated it. That's right. I thought it was ridiculous. Nothing I heard made sense to me. What was this "angry temper" and "fearful temper" these people were talking about? What was spotting? To make matters worse, no one would answer my questions. They made me wait till the end of the meeting, and even then, I didn't get satisfactory answers. I was told to attend more meetings. The nerve.
Then I had my "setback," although that's not what I called it. But sitting on the hospital bed one day (or night) I realized that RI was my last chance. So I took it.
I attended meetings three or four times a week, sometimes more if I could (after all, I had nothing else to do, being unable to work). This was before spot sheets were allowed, so I learned the spots by repeating other people's spots. And I read the book as if it was the best thing ever written. And to me, it was. I underlined everything that applied to me, over and over again, and wrote notes in the margins. I still have the book. In some places, it is hard to read the printed words because of all the highlighting, underlining, and note taking I did.
The gist of all this? Keep coming back to meetings even if they bore you, you don't understand the format or the Recovery language, you're too tired, too scared, too depressed. Please keep attending meetings, as many as you can each week, at least for a month, maybe longer. Buy the books and read them: "Mental Health Through Will Training," "Selections," and "Manage Your Fears, Manage Your Anger." These three books replaced all the self-help books I bought in the previous decade. I still don't buy self-help books because everything I need is in these three. Go online. Join a chat or online meeting. Post an example on the discussion board. Go for it. You never know: you might end up with a whole new life, or at least a better one.
I was recently married but my nervous symptoms interfered with the harmony at home. Shortly after getting married, I had a pretty bad setback that preceded a short hospitalization. My hubby and I were arguing a lot of the time, too.
Enter RI. A friend of mine tried it and claimed she wasn't having as many problems with angry outbursts. So I attended a meeting.
I hated it. That's right. I thought it was ridiculous. Nothing I heard made sense to me. What was this "angry temper" and "fearful temper" these people were talking about? What was spotting? To make matters worse, no one would answer my questions. They made me wait till the end of the meeting, and even then, I didn't get satisfactory answers. I was told to attend more meetings. The nerve.
Then I had my "setback," although that's not what I called it. But sitting on the hospital bed one day (or night) I realized that RI was my last chance. So I took it.
I attended meetings three or four times a week, sometimes more if I could (after all, I had nothing else to do, being unable to work). This was before spot sheets were allowed, so I learned the spots by repeating other people's spots. And I read the book as if it was the best thing ever written. And to me, it was. I underlined everything that applied to me, over and over again, and wrote notes in the margins. I still have the book. In some places, it is hard to read the printed words because of all the highlighting, underlining, and note taking I did.
The gist of all this? Keep coming back to meetings even if they bore you, you don't understand the format or the Recovery language, you're too tired, too scared, too depressed. Please keep attending meetings, as many as you can each week, at least for a month, maybe longer. Buy the books and read them: "Mental Health Through Will Training," "Selections," and "Manage Your Fears, Manage Your Anger." These three books replaced all the self-help books I bought in the previous decade. I still don't buy self-help books because everything I need is in these three. Go online. Join a chat or online meeting. Post an example on the discussion board. Go for it. You never know: you might end up with a whole new life, or at least a better one.
Thank you nervous girl. Your words are right on, a good reminder.
ReplyDeleteYes, indeed. I have been in Recovery for 14 years. Because of Recovery I have kept a fulltime job for all that time, raised a daughter (she just turned 24), went back to studying a musical instrument, and earned 15 credits at a community college. Not bad for a nervous patient, hey?
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