Rockford Day 5 Treatment Summary

 


7/26/2024

Day 5 summary at Rockford at the Orchards:
-Maintained same early morning wake-up routine. i.e. girls are happy.
-9:15 arrival, nothing eventful.
-Check in process:
  1. Current state-calm
  2. Status of goal from yesterday. Answered questions on the "understanding your past" form. As I was told this was an emotional exercise & one that could be an indicator of the source of at least some of my anger. As instructed, I immediately took a walk afterwards to decompress.
  3. Weekly progress. Significant drop in level of anxiety and feel more emotionally balanced. Became more engaging with the group as the week progressed.
-Did a peer Q&A exercise. Each person was given a blank piece of paper and on it instructed to ask a question pertinent to their condition for which the group would then offer suggestions to help. Example questions are
  • How can I fend off self-destructive thoughts that impact my self-esteem?
  • What can I do to be happy?
  • How do I forgive a parent for compromising the welfare of a child?
  • What books, podcasts, or apps are best suited to help a person working to overcome a mental health challenge?
Outstanding responses to all questions but the best takeaway for me was the APP "Emoods". The application can be used as a way to track your mood and improve your well-being. It's specific to bipolar disorder but can be used to assist with the challenge of overcoming any mood-altering mental health condition.
-The exercise above consumed the entire morning leading the group to a lunch period.
-The afternoon session consisted of another peer QA using a truth or dare format. Pre-populated questions and or dares were put into a basket and passed around to each member of the group. One by one the person selecting the question either answered/performed or was given one pass and allowed to pull a second question.
Example questions are
  • Tell me 3 things/activities that you miss as a kid. I said ice cream truck, little league baseball, and playing chase outside until all hours of the night.
  • Look around the room and identify a tv character that resemble three of the group members. I reached out for help from the group because I could only come up with two. See highlight to find out how this ended.
  • The one dare I pulled from the basket was to step in the middle of the room and do a karate kid pose.
The value of this exercise was never fully explained to us at the start but as it progressed it was obvious that it taught us to actively accept and allow anxiety to happen.

Key takeaway from day
You cannot have courage without vulnerability.

Highlight:
I became the 3rd person in the room who was identified as someone who resembles a tv character. After bumbling and stumbling the facilitator offered up to the group that I have the appearance of Jason Statham. I don't watch a lot of tv but I'll go with it.

Weekend Goal
Maintain emotional stability. Keep routine but also step outside the comfort zone and do things that make me feel vulnerable.

Concerns:
None

Response
25 total hours of therapy and 5 doses of Abilify. As simple as feeling good and optimistic. Multiple people have reached out to me to express how proud they are of me for pursuing help. In almost 60-years on this Earth this is the first time I can recall anyone expressing pride in me. I come from a time when this wasn't said but instead something that was just supposed to be known. Yesterday, for the first time in ten years I broke down crying. It could be a breakthrough in that I have recovered that emotion as an alternative to anger.




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