Dear toddinrochester:

In my claim that I was never psychotic, there is no pride. there is no saying: I am better than you because I was never psychotic. Not at all. What I tried to express was respect for your particular manifestation of voices, that of schizophrenia. I think that all mental illnesses exist on a continuum and my internal critic is your Brian. I created my “chosen mother” I suppose in a similar way to how you subconsciously created Kelly. I did not think of my toxic internal critic as a voice within me or outside of me, it just was and i was miserable. With ongoing mindfulness I became aware of its voice and it sure does have its character. It definitely interpreted situations for me in certain ways. I often say it is not only psychotic that are deluded, that is believing in what is not true: most people do. CBT is an excellent practice of challenging false/ distorted beliefs and replacing them with realistic beliefs.

Your testimony strongly supports CBT as a skill and practice to help with distorted thinking as manifest in the extremes of schizophrenia. It is an excellent tool in helping with distorted thinking that extremely distress lots and lots of people.

I am very impressed and uplifted by your share and please post any time with any more. Best wishes to you:
anita