I always make comparisons, and this is one thing that Recovery Inc.(based in Chicago, IL) tells you not to do. I make comparisons with appearance, scholarship, humor ability--you name it and I've done it.
But there's one comparison I've never made, and that's using the Recovery Method. I am just as good as the average member of Recovery. Developed by Dr. Abraham Low, an American psychiatrist, Recovery is a self-help program that uses peers to effect change and relief from symptoms.
Nervous patients are invited to support groups that meet weekly throughout the country. It costs nothing and gives a lot in return.
Every meeting is conducted in a similar way. First, the members read aloud a passage from the Recovery book that Dr. Low authored and then members give examples of how they used the method (called spottings) to dissipate their anger or fear.
Much of the spottings can be compared to cognitive behavioral therapy, and both methods are equally useful. For example, a member may give the following illustration of a nervous reaction to an incident:
"I was shopping for a gift for my nephew who is barely 6 months old. I know very little about infants and less about their sizes. Looking at the racks of pastel-colored onesies and pajamas, I became afraid that I would make a poor choice. I started thinking that I never come in with the information I need--I should have asked my sister what size to get. I also blamed myself for not taking a knowledgable friend with me. I got so upset that I felt like rushing out of the store and driving home, but I knew that was wrong."
In a Recovery group, the leader would remind the member to state how he or she began to work themself up. The member would agree that the example involved both the fearful and angry tempers. Then members help the narrator cite spottings that would help that person to react less fearfully or angrily. Some of the spottings are: feelings are not facts; they rise and fall and disappear if you leave them be; be group,minded, not focused on the self; nervous patients never should compare themselves to others since they always come out on the losing end. Another important spotting is to endorse yourself for staying in the store and making a gift choice and not giving in to the impulse to run.
Before SSRIs and other meds entered my emotional world, I attended Recovery Meetings. For a while I might have gone to as many as two or three meetings a week. In NJ, there were many meetings since hospitals would refer their patients to them. That's how I learned about Recovery, and for a long time it was my lifeline. I read the materials over and over, and tried to apply them to my OCD, but it was a battle. One of my favorite spottings I used to calm myself was that my thoughts "were distressing but not dangerous."
But the best spotting of all is one I still use today: We know that we don't know.
This means that sometimes nervous, anxious people make their own torture by drawing incorrect conclusions and manufacturing problems that may not actually exist. Even cancer patients could use this spotting since no one really knows if one chemotherapy or similar treatment will work. We are not doctors or oncologists and what may not work for one person may work for another.
https://recoveryinternational.org
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