Having worked in the addiction and mental health fields, I saw that each field suggested itself to be the solution for addiction and/or mental health. In my 10th year of being clean and sober, I had clinical depression, which lasted for 2 years. I am grateful that the idea of using alcohol was never an option. I am also grateful that the fear of suicide is what finally drove me to a psychiatrist.
Depression is so slow and insidious that each day is a little grayer than the day before. One in five Americans suffers from depression every year. If you are reading this and feel that your life takes all your effort and that you will never be able to enjoy much of anything, please go immediately to a psychiatrist or medical doctor and tell them that you want an anti-depressant. Medicine for chemical imbalance, which is what depression is, has only been on the market for 40 years so it still is much misunderstood by the public.
“Begin to observe your life more and try to awaken the observer in you, the high self. Thinkers from Plato to Freud have talked about the three selves we have within us. I call them the high self, the conscious self, and the basic self. The conscious self is the personality; the basic self is the child. When the conscious self decides to go on a diet, the basic self eats chocolate cake. The high self is the god within us, the part that is eternal and divine. It is always there but we need to activate it….Listen to the slow, still voice we call intuition.”
Arianna Huffington
The first experience I had with beginning to learn how to get control of my own thinking was with Transactional Analysis in 1976. I learned to recognize my inner parent, child and adult. Actually, when I started, I only had a parent and child. The adult took time..
TA was founded by Eric Berne as written about. As explained at this site: Parent is the “taught” concept of life; adult is the “thought” concept of life; child is the “felt” concept of life.TA is founded on two concepts: (1) people can change, and (2) we all have a right to be in the world and be accepted.
The ITAA organization has an extensive group of tools available. Good information is also given at this site.
It states: “With Transactional Analysis, Eric Berne made complex interpersonal transactions understandable especially the “games” that the “inner child” plays in order to gain recognition from others.”
Peaceful Mind: Using Mindfulness and Cognitive Psychology to Overcome Depression
John McQuiad and Paula Carmona
ISBN 1-57224-366-X
Amazon link
Quiet Mind, Fearless Heart
Brian Luke Seaward
ISBN 0-471-67999-2
Amazon link
Serenity in Motion: Inner Peace: Anytime, Anywhere
Mary O’Hara
ISBN 0-446-69085-6
Amazon link
Taming the Tiger Within: Meditations on Transforming Difficult Emotions
Thich Nhat Hanh
ISBN 1-59448-134-2
Amazon link
Turning the Mind Into An Ally
Sakyong Mipham
ISBN 1-57322-345-X
Amazon link
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