Recapping psychotic episodes?

[Snakeskin]

Hello everyone!

What would be your advice on recapping psychotic episodes? I always knew what they were back when I had them and could separate them from physical reality; they were vision-like I guess is the best way to describe them. So even though I'm pretty sure this will trigger them again, that doesn't worry me much; they weren't a threat to my or anyone elses physical safety. I haven't had them in years and I don't particularly want to return to listening to endless screaming choruses of disembodied suffering voices echoing through the great shadowy voids when all I'm trying to do is sleep, but I have a feeling I dropped the nightmarish stuff at the cost of a lot of good; thinking back, I became a lot more apathetic in general back then. And that's a dumb trade. 

Still, I would appreciate any advice you may have. I just have a feeling there's a lot of pitfalls in here and that there are a lot of much wiser people here than I. I'd be grateful for whatever experience you have to share on the subject.

Thanks!

Edited July 1, 2020 by Snakeskin

[Karl]

hi Snakeskin,

I would get a good amount of experience recapping other material first, getting a lot of experience with the exercise itself, and a lot of your energy back. Maybe recap some things related to the episodes, if not the episodes themselves.

Then try some of the easier or shorter episodes, however you want to define it. Remember when recapping them, you want to keep yourself "in" the event you're recapping, but also separate from it. You want to take back the energy from it, not become the event and relive it completely. That's not the point of recapping it. You want to unwind it. It could be helpful to set an intent beforehand to hold to the present strongly, not let yourself fall into that past state of mind. There are reasons things slip into those visions and they don't apply anymore -- intend clearly and separate yourself from that "good". That will just be a temptation to experience it again for your emotions and your energy and mind.

If you feel yourself slipping into it, perhaps it would be better to do what we call a "sweep" in the classes -- cover the event broadly, as if from a remove, rather than directly in a sensory experience/memory way. Sort of an indirect recap, intending to break it down and recap the energy of it. It's often a way we deal with traumatic events. This isn't exactly traumatic, but in a sense you may want to avoid it all the same.

-karl