CASTIMONIA

Sexual Purity Support & Recovery Group

Character Defects

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Recovery Themes in Disney Animated Movies – VIDEO

I often wonder, of all the movies I have viewed in my life, how many of these movies had a recovery-related theme.  It wasn’t until entering recovery that the Holy Spirit gave me some special “recovery glasses” that have allowed me to spot recovery themes in various media; music, movies, photographs, etc…  These themes can include support groups, honesty, selfishness, selflessness, redemption, etc… that are portrayed in the movie.

I’m a big fan of animated movies, I think Disney (and others) have done a tremendous job of inserting some of these themes in their movies so I picked out a few of the movies and decided to compile them into one film.  Of course, because of the numerous amount of Disney movies out there and my limited time, I only chose four of these movies, of which I recall vividly. The first, “Wreck-it Ralph” is one of my favorites, showing good recovery and support, a trauma response, and self sacrifice.  The second, Monsters University, has a scene where friends become real with one another, something you rarely see outside of recovery rooms. The third, “Finding Nemo” is a classic “Father wound” (yes I cried), trauma response, recovery meeting, and relationship trust movie.  Finally, I picked out one short scene from a non-Disney movie, “Despicable Me 2.” You’ll understand why I chose it when you see it.

I hope you enjoy watching this video as much as I enjoyed creating it.  As always, take what you like and leave the rest.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This video may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for purposes such as criticism, comment, teaching, & education, etc. This constitutes a ’fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED! All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their owners.

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Golfer DQs himself from Open to clear conscience

This is a great lesson in rigorous honesty!  Being honest with yourself, and then with others, regardless of the consequences, is something that all of us in recovery should strive for.

Originally posted: http://www.bigstory.ap.org/article/golfer-dqs-himself-open-clear-conscience

By PAUL NEWBERRY

— Jun. 11, 2014 6:02 PM EDT

PINEHURST, N.C. (AP) — Jason Millard packed his bags, tossed his clubs in the car, and headed off to Pinehurst No. 2 to play in his first major championship.

It should’ve been the thrill of a lifetime.

Instead, he turned the car around.

“I couldn’t be at peace about it,” Millard said Wednesday, one day before the start of a U.S. Open he could’ve been playing in but will have to watch on television — if he can bear to watch at all.

What gnawed at him was maybe, just maybe, he had cheated.

Not intentionally, for sure. Perhaps not at all.

But the lingering doubt was enough for Millard to give up what could be the chance of a lifetime.

“I want to be at Pinehurst right now with a free conscience,” he said when reached on his cellphone. “I wish it never happened. Unfortunately, it did.”

What happened was a scenario unique to golf, the one sport that relies on its players to largely do their own officiating. Millard may have touched the sand ever so slightly with his club before hitting a plugged shot out of a bunker during sectional qualifying in Memphis, Tennessee, last week. It didn’t really affect his shot, but “grounding” a club is against the rules and requires a two-shot penalty.

No one else saw it. There’s no video of the shot. And Millard just isn’t sure.

“Right about the time I was taking my swing is when I saw what I think was an indentation in the sand,” he said. “That little image keeps popping up in my head right now. But it happened so fast. I really don’t know.”

Millard signed for a 68-68 score, without a penalty, and wound up earning a spot in the U.S. Open. He wanted to celebrate but couldn’t. Not with that shot playing over and over in his mind.

Did he ground the club? Was that tiny crevice in the sand really there? Was he just imagining the whole thing?

Last Saturday, Millard and his caddie (who wasn’t at the sectional qualifier) headed out from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, for the nearly eight-hour drive to Pinehurst. They made it about 90 minutes before Millard pulled into a convenience store and began searching for a number to the U.S. Golf Association.

He wouldn’t be going any farther.

He had decided to turn himself in.

“There was something in my heart,” he said, “telling me this didn’t feel right.”

Millard disqualified himself for signing an erroneous scorecard. If he had taken a two-shot penalty on the day of the qualifier, he still would’ve missed the Open by a single shot.

“I feel like the way I played that day, I deserved to make it,” Millard said. “I’ve never called a penalty on myself for grounding a club in the bunker. Unfortunately, it happened at the absolutely worst time.”

The timing couldn’t have been better for Sam Love, who just finished his college career at Alabama-Birmingham. He was the second alternate in Memphis; when Millard dropped out, Love got in.

“I really respect him for that,” Love said in the bowels of the Pinehurst clubhouse after a practice round. “He could’ve easily just played this tournament and nobody would’ve ever known.”

When Love tees off Thursday afternoon in the opening round, Millard will be at home in Tennessee. He plans to watch at least some of the tournament on TV, but knows it won’t go down easily.

“I haven’t really watched any of the coverage yet,” said Millard, a two-time All-American during his college career at Middle Tennessee State. “I’m sure I will at some point, especially the last round. I’ve played Pinehurst before. I like watching tournaments, especially on courses I’ve played before.”

Of course, he’d much rather be playing.

“Unfortunately, this is what happens in life,” Millard said. “Hopefully, I’ll be back there one day.”

He’s already dealt with issues far more serious than missing a golf tournament. His father Eddie, who steered him to the game and drove him to all his tournaments as a kid, died in April 2013 from leukemia. Millard’s mother, Debbie, can barely get around after being stricken with multiple sclerosis. Jason, in fact, still lives with his mom when he’s not on the road trying to qualify for PGA Tour and Web.com events. He pays her bills, does the grocery shipping, takes care of odds and ends around the house.

Millard was thinking about his dad when trying to decide whether to disqualify himself from the Open.

“He was pretty much my best friend,” Millard said. “When stuff would happen, I always called him first. In this instance, I definitely would’ve called him first, talked to him about it. Unfortunately, I couldn’t.”

Millard is only 24, with plenty of golf still ahead of him. He surely will have more chances to qualify for the Open.

That said, there are no guarantees in life.

This might be as close as he gets.

If that’s the case, at least he can go through the rest of his years with a clear conscience.

“I’m at peace,” Millard said, “with my decision.”

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Object of Their Affections

5798_fdfePeople develop addictions to shield themselves from intolerably painful feelings. An addiction always creates harmful, often ignored consequences. Only when the addiction becomes unmanageable will people do something about it. Love addicts spend much time, effort on a person to whom they are addicted. Love addicts value this person above themselves, and their focus on the beloved other often is obsessive. This behavior results in love addicts neglecting to care for themselves in a variety of ways, in essence abandoning important aspects of their lives and well-being to stay connected to the object of their affections. Love addiction doesn’t necessarily pertain only to romantic or sexual relationships. It is possible for a person to relate as a love addict with their friends, children, sponsor, guru or religious figure, or even with a movie star, whom they have never met. A love addict’s core fantasy is the expectation that someone else can solve their problems, provide unconditional positive regard at all times, and take care of them. When this unrealistic need isn’t met, love addicts may find themselves feeling resentful, and may create conflict in their relationships with others. Some love addicts find that when not involved in a love-addicted relationship, they are able to care for themselves quite adequately. However, when they become involved, the love addict quickly finds that their self-care capacity steadily declines. From “What is Love Addiction?” By Alexandra Katehakis, MFT, CST, CSAT
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2013/05/26/what-is-love-addiction/

“My fear of abandonment is exceeded only by my terror of intimacy.” – Ethlie Ann Vare

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An Illogical Extreme

An Illogical Extreme
Posted by James Browning on November 29, 2012

Being dependent in and of itself is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it’s a component of healthy relationships. Some people fear dependency, interpreting it as a sign of weakness or helplessness, or out of a fear of intimacy. If we grew up in a family that encouraged a sense of autonomy and independent growth, with parents who praised our achievements and showed us love, we will reach adulthood with a sense of security about ourselves and our internal worth and our ability to move through the world as successful people… Sometimes things don’t go the way described above, and what’s experienced growing up is criticism, rejection, conditional love (often based on achievement that validates the parents’, not the child’s, sense of self-worth), [and] over dependence promoted as valuable, making it impossible to feel adequate without another person around to shore up self-worth. In this scenario you are unable to take responsibility for your own sense of adequacy. You expect your good feelings about yourself to be validated from outside yourself – usually from another person. You feel weak and vulnerable. You depend on someone else to feel secure, comforted, nurtured, supported, lovable, or worthy. A codependent relationship is one in which someone else’s needs are met before your own. Everything becomes about looking after the other person, at your expense. It tends to be learned behavior, starting either as a coping mechanism to survive painful experiences in a severely dysfunctional family, or in imitation of other family members in your generation or the one above you, who are caught in the same trap. It is a coping mechanism gone to an illogical extreme and has become maladaptivee. By Katherine Rabinowitz, LP, M.A., NCPsyA
http://www.therapycanwork.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=49&Itemid=99

“If you need encouragement, praise, pats on the back from everybody, then you make everybody your judge.” – Fritz Perls

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Are You Detached From Your Mistress?

Did you ever look at the word “Mistress” and sound it out like an kindergarten student would?  It would be “MI – STRESS” or “My Stress” – sounds about right….

originally posted on: http://porntopurity.com/blog/2013/05/07/are-you-detached-from-your-mistress/

Guest blogger Tom Daniels has over a decade of experience leading groups and working with guys struggling with sexual sin.  Tom returns to share another blog with us. 

Check out his previous blog from last week called “Compartmentalizing, Getting Caught and Consequences”

Just as we need to connect the devastating consequences to our acting out, we need to detach from the bonds we have established with our “mistress”, our “drug of choice”.

When we engage in sex, we bond with whoever or whatever we are connecting to.  Our neural pathways don’t know the difference between a healthy relationship and an unhealthy one.  Our brains reach to repetition and create bigger pipelines for the flow to that area.  It’s like adding lanes to a freeway to accommodate more traffic.

We who struggle with sexual sin have developed an affection for our mistress.  Whether your mistress is an actual person, prostitutes, or porn, our mistress has been there whenever we needed her. When we’re stressed, lonely, bored, horny, feeling rejected or unloved, misunderstood, unappreciated, unaccepted she is always available.   With open arms she gives me the illusion of comfort, acceptance and love.

YOUR SPOUSE CAN’T COMPETE WITH YOUR MISTRESS The contrast to our spouses can be dramatic because no woman, regardless of how wonderful, could possibly hope to match the availability of our fantasy “mistress”. I say fantasy because even if it is a real person it is still an unrealistic relationship. You are not raising kids with this person, not paying bills, dealing with pets, school, housework, in-laws, yard work, etc., you just get together and have fun and resent that your marriage isn’t like this.

You may wonder to yourself:

  • How come my wife isn’t as understanding as my “mistress”?
  • How come she doesn’t desire me the way my “mistress” does?
  • How come it is so much work to have a relationship with my wife when it is so easy with my “mistress”?

It is because your wife is a real person and you have a real relationship with her. You are sharing your lives together, not merely an afternoon or a few minutes here and there.

The bond we create with our “mistress” is real and it is something that must be broken if we are ever going to be truly free from bondage.

DELIVERED FROM YOUR MISTRESS Many times I have seen men prayed for and delivered from addiction only to go back to it within a relatively short time. Were they truly delivered? I believe they were, but they chose to go back to their “mistress” because they still had affection for her.

Being delivered is only part of the healing, we need to break the bonds and connection in order to truly be free. Jesus will not override our ability to choose, it is up to us to do that, but the Holy Spirit will help us if we will take the steps necessary and turn our back on our idols. God will not share us with any other “gods”.

The most important step in breaking the bond of affection to our “mistress” is to recognize that she never loved us or cared for us in any way at all! She hated us and set out from the start to destroy us! The Enemy used her, whether in the form of prostitutes, affairs, porn, lingerie, sex toys, or even just fantasy, to set us up for destruction.

Satan’s goal is to make us ineffective for service to our Lord, to eliminate us as warriors, to wreck our marriages, to set our children up for failure because we are not the men of God they need as Dad, to cause us to worship created things rather than the Creator, and he uses sex to do it.

Sadly, I am not the only one fooled by this “mistress”, many men are caught in the same trap and I pray that they can see the illusion for what it is and how the Enemy has used them and break free from its terrible grip before any more devastation takes place.

Recognizing the “mistress” for who and what she really is, is a key step to full recovery as we will never cut her off completely unless we see her as she truly is, deadly and deceitful.

“What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God–through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Rom 7:24-25