S.A. eLetter (11-8-10)

[John P.]

Greetings S.A. Family on the Internet,

Here is some more material on the nature of the S.A. program. For the
next six editions we will discuss the content of the Six Steps for
Recovery of S.A.

Here is the material on the first step from the S.A. Blue Booklet:

Step One - I SURRENDER…

I admit I need help. I can't do it alone.

It's not easy to accept that one has a mental illness, especially if
it's schizophrenia or a related disorder. Even when acceptance is
secure, it may be another hurdle to admit it to others in the group.
Yet in order to recover through the program, we must accept that we
have the illness. We do this in order to break down the denial that
hinders our growth towards wholeness.

How does the prospective member know that he or she has schizophrenia
or related illness? Sometimes he or she discovers it from a doctor's
diagnosis. Other times the person experiences schizophrenia-related
symptoms that can't be denied. They may involve hearing voices that
others don't hear, believing that he or she is an exalted person, or
believing without reason that he or she is being persecuted. There are
a number of other symptoms, including disorganized thinking, apathy,
thought insertions, thought broadcasting, and others.

If a person has these symptoms and can’t admit that he or she has
schizophrenia, the first step may be to at least admit that he or she
has schizophrenia-related symptoms, and proceed from there. Admitting
at least this much often leads to a great deal of relief for the
prospective new member.

The group will provide support when acceptance of symptoms is made. We
encourage the prospective member not to view this form of surrender as
a defeat, but rather as a challenge leading to recovery.

SOURCE: S.A. Blue Booklet (program text, first published in 1989)

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--Stress Management, part #40

More on Gratitude as a Release from Stress

We’ve discussed recent articles on the role of gratitude as a buffer
against stress. Another article on this appeared in a local Chamber
of Commerce publication and this article gives some additional
suggestions. The article was authored by Mary J. Lore of an
organization called Managing Thought, which helps folks achieve
personal and business success.

According to Ms. Lore, stress causes us to have “thoughts of fear,
self-doubt, worry, anger, and depression.” But, she further states that
—“One of the quickest and most powerful ways to create a change in our
circumstances is to practice thinking thoughts of thankfulness.”

Can this be true? Although Ms. Lore doesn’t provide any research data
to support this statement, earlier articles in this series do report
studies that suggest that some of what she is saying in this claim
could be true.

Ms. Lore does present a very quick and easy method for practicing
gratitude, which she calls Thankfulness. Here are the five steps in
the method:

1. List everything you have to be thankful for. Examples could be
home or apartment, enough food, clean water, family and friends,
transportation availability, areas of good health, skills, good
values, and others. [You might keep in mind in each of these, that
there are many people in the world who do not have some of these
things, and would be grateful if they could have them.]

2. At the end of the day, think back of everything that you had to be
thankful for that day.

3. During each day, from morning to evening, think of things that are
happening right this hour that you have to be thankful for.

4. When you catch yourself being angry or worrying, take a deep
breath, exhale deeply, and then ask yourself—“What can I be thankful
for in this moment?”

5. See what happens!

Will this method work for everyone? Will this method work for some
folks some of the time? If the answer even to the second question is
Yes, then that is surely something to be grateful for.

SOURCE: Adapted from article by Mary J. Lore, “Practicing Thankfulness…
Even in Difficult Times”—published in a local Chamber of Commerce
publication.

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--Website of the Week

At the risk of being self-serving, we wanted to this week make note of
our own website. Folks work hard on this, and we sort of wanted
people to be more aware of it.

For more information about Schizophrenics Anonymous.:

The new S.A. website is at:

http://www.sardaa.org

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--Our Suffering in Perspective

The suffering of schizophrenia patients is real. And other people
suffer too. We wish to also recognize the struggles of other
suffering people. For instance:

Cholera

There is a cholera outbreak happening in Haiti now. This is where an
earthquake hit in January, resulting in 1.3 million people being
homeless and living still in tents. The concern has been whether the
cholera will reach anything like an epidemic in these tent cities.

Cholera is transmitted through feces-contaminated water and food. If
left untreated, the mortality rate is 50 percent.

We do not suffer alone.

SOURCE: Time magazine (November 8, 2010)
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--Quote of the Week

“Courage is fear holding on a minute longer.”

-General George S. Patton (1885-1945), American general in WWII

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Bye for now, and everyone have a great couple of weeks.

--John P., member of S.A.

=============================================
For more information about
Schizophrenics Anonymous.:
The new S.A. website is at:
http://www.sardaa.org
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For the Google information group for S.A.:
http://groups.google.com/group/schizophrenics-anonymous
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For the Yahoo discussion group for S.A.:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/schizophrenics-anonymous
NOTE: Earlier editions of the S.A. eLettter and the Schizophrenia
News
Links are posted at the Google information group for S.A. (link given
above). Also, the S.A. eLetter will come
to your e-mail inbox when published by signing up at the S.A.
Information Group at Google.
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Fact Sheet Information about Schizophrenia and Schizoaffective
Disorder--
* National Institute of Mental Health--description of schizophrenia:
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/schizophrenia/index.shtml
----------------------
* Mental Health America ( formerly the National Mental Health
Association):
--description of schizophrenia:
http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/go/schizophrenia
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* National Alliance for the Mentally Il
--description of schizophrenia:
http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=By_Illness&Template=/TaggedP...
--description of schizoaffective disorder:
http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=By_Illness&Template=/TaggedP...
(Organization now called National Alliance on Mental Illness)