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  The following story is for entertainment only Although it is based on the truth of my life Remember, I am not a psychologist And this is not a prescription for anything It is simply one case study But I fear there may be more     I sat down to write a short list of things that bother me. 1. Have you taken your meds? 2. You’re lazy You don’t do enough for me 3. We’re getting you the help you need. 4. You’re on the wrong meds or not taking them right 5. You need more mental health...

Is art a competition?   Recently I was condemned for having told another artist she was improving. I guess her husband felt I was being too bold, arrogant and condescending. Of course, none were my intention. I simply thought her paintings were getting better than the last ones I saw and that was a kind way to state it. I was told I could never be an artist of her caliber, that she had been in competitions and won awards. But is art even a competition?  And what does an award winning artist mean? Van Gogh never won awards, Picasso...

  Is Alcoholics Anonymous Composed of Dangerous Criminals?   Shortly after the millennium at my family’s house, there was a knock on the door at nearly midnight. Two members of Alcoholics Anonymous boasting guns showed up delivering legal paperwork for a member who had on several occasions laid hands on me and threatened acts of violence including destruction and murder and frightened the hell out of my two 75 year old parents. They were well known AA members and also a history of violence. I felt they shouldn’t be doing that representing a known spiritual organization. Little did I know....

  Alcoholism and Mental Illness   I attend AA, but early on they realized I had a mental illness requiring medication. Immediately they opposed this saying I didn’t need it and that I was addicted to drugs. It seemed foolish and really quite ignorant to me that they had no idea about my condition, schizoaffective a light combination of bipolar and schizophrenia, or what the signs and symptoms could be or how to treat it. They took simple phrases from their book, the big book as they called it, which really isn’t that big, 164 pages. So they found terms...

C.J. The Weird Woman   In the early millennium I attended a small tight i2-step group in a church recreation room further on down my street. The group was mostly successful older women, a few older men and me. They were politically conservative and voiced it, although the rules of the program told them not to. One day we had a new member, an attractive thin blonde excited to talk about her success in abstinence yet struggling desperately to get there. The women were uncomfortable with her. At the break she brought out her therapy journal and asked the women...