Carol's Example
About a year after I was out of the hospital I was sitting home one evening watching TV. Suddenly a line of dialogue from the TV. took on a special meaning that had nothing to do with the story plot and seemed to be directed at me.I knew instantly knew that this was delusional type thinking and I became very frightened. I had racing thoughts and a feeling of unreality. I tried to get rid of the delusional thought but it would not go, which scared me even more. Plus I felt a sense of hopelessness that I would never be well, So what's the use of trying?
At that point I began to spot and became objective. Since I did not believe this delusional thought, it was distressing but not dangerous. The fact that this delusional thinking frightened me meant that I recognized it for what it was, which was very good insight. I further spotted that the only reason the thought stayed with me was because I was still attaching danger to it. So I replaced my insecure thoughts with secure thoughts. The return of the symptom is not necessarily the return of the illness. I knew then that because I did not believe this particular thought, it didn't matter if it stayed or went. The minute I didn't care if the thought remained or not, it disappeared. I became calm, finished the evening doing the usual things I always do, and had no after-effect. I endorsed myself.
Without my Recovery, Inc., training I would never have been able to objectively reason my way though an incident like this. I would have panicked, wallowed in self pity thinking there was no hope for me, and gone into a depression that might require hospitalization.
Further Spotting!
Mary--Mental Health Through Will Training gives examples of this type of spotting, Carol did a terrific job of handling her fearful thoughts about her delusional thought.Harry--Carol has good insight into this symptom which allowed her to become objective. I'm impressed, and I know her past practice and study of Recovery techniques has resulted in this wonderful improvement.
Alice--Carol was self led and not symptom led. It's hard to reject the idea of danger in connection with such thoughts. She's learned that in Recovery even delusional thoughts can be a triviality with little or no after-effect.
