Chat! — Current Time: 4:08:45

mollyc: and physical clutter. I have to be careful, however, because if I think about it too much, I get overwhelmed and don't want to do any of it. —04:08:09

Spring Angel: (((Molly))) —04:07:19

mollyc: I want so many changes for 2009. Diet, exercise, more energy, get rid of the "clutter" in my life, both mental clutter —04:07:07

beautifulsomeday: Hi Molly! —04:06:21

mollyc: Hi, I'm Molly, skin picker. I'm glad I'm here. I'm feeling a little blue. It looks like I'm not the only one. —04:05:58

Bobbie: Hi, Molly! —04:05:56

SJM: Thanks, Beautiful, Hi Molly! —04:05:36

Spring Angel: Hi Molly! —04:05:27

mollyc: * —04:05:02

Spring Angel: Molly or Jackie? —04:04:54

Bobbie: Thanks, Beautiful! —04:04:45

Spring Angel: Thank You, I'm glad you are here, keep coming back!! —04:04:37

beautifulsomeday: I think that's all. Thanks for listening. Done. —04:03:57

beautifulsomeday: I also need to accept that I'm not going to know everything in my future right now, and that I'm not going to make my life perfect, and to let go of the worry. —04:03:21

beautifulsomeday: I DO know I'm powerless on my own, I just don't always remember to live that on a day-to-day basis —04:02:10

beautifulsomeday: I'm also setting a goal of spending time in prayer and reading the Bible every day, because that's something that really helps me when I do it consistently —04:01:51

beautifulsomeday: I'm terrified of it but I think it will probably end up doing me a lot of good —04:01:20

beautifulsomeday: So I'm setting a couple different goals - my friends have talked me into going to some form of counseling for some different issues —04:00:54

Bobbie: (((beautiful))) —04:00:50

beautifulsomeday: The weird thing is that even though I'm happy about the not picking, and other things in my life are going well, I've felt pretty down lately, like there's not much color in my life —03:59:30

Bobbie: Good job! —03:59:20

beautifulsomeday: Thanks!! Now I am working on not picking at little things, and it is going pretty well, today was really good. —03:58:47

mollyc: Wonderful! —03:58:43

Spring Angel: Yay!!! —03:58:17

SJM: Congratulations!! —03:58:14

Bobbie: Hi, Beautiful! —03:57:53

SJM: Hi Beautiful! —03:57:53

beautifulsomeday: I am in a place of making good progress right now - I haven't had a "mirror session" since before Christmas, and that's a record for me. —03:57:50

mollyc: Hi Beautiful! —03:57:20

beautifulsomeday: I'm Beautiful, skin picker. (And I didn't think about the awkwardness of abbreviating my username when I picked it, lol) —03:57:03

Spring Angel: Go ahead please... —03:56:44

Spring Angel: Hi Beautifulsomeday!! —03:56:04

beautifulsomeday: * I will —03:55:38

Spring Angel: Who would like to share next? —03:54:51

Spring Angel: Thanks Bobbie, we aren't perfect are we? We are "normal" ha ha. —03:54:38

SJM: Thanks, Bobbie! —03:54:29

Bobbie: I"m human and sometimes I do stupid things and it's not a big deal. That's all. *done* Thanks for the topic! :D —03:54:04

Bobbie: Yesterday I did something that i thought was stupid, and I got very upset initially. But today I thought, "oh well, sometimes i do stupid things." *shrug* —03:53:27

Bobbie: I love the topic "progress not perfection." It's a great barometer for me to see I've made progress. —03:52:24

Bobbie: I came up with the "classics" diet and exercise. Plus I want to start journaling at home and then working more actively on my program. —03:51:48

beautifulsomeday: Hi Bobbie! —03:51:09

mollyc: Hi Bobbie! —03:50:19

SJM: Hi Bobbie! —03:50:08

Bobbie: Thinking about what I'd like to change for the coming year. —03:50:08

Bobbie: Hi, I'm Bobbie, recovering skin picker. I am feeling and thinking much the same way right now. —03:49:41

Spring Angel: Hi Bobbie!! —03:49:27

Bobbie: * —03:49:06

Spring Angel: Or would someone else like to share next? —03:48:18

beautifulsomeday: Hi Molly! —03:47:00

SJM: Hi Molly! —03:46:14

Spring Angel: Hi Molly!! —03:46:01

beautifulsomeday: good stuff —03:45:53

SJM: Thanks, Spring, great plan! —03:45:50

Spring Angel: Thank you, would you like to share next Bobbie? —03:45:48

mollyc: Thanks Spring!, Hi Everyone! —03:45:36

Bobbie: Sounds great! Good job! Thanks, Spring! —03:44:57

Spring Angel: That's my focus right now. Done. —03:44:36

Spring Angel: Recovering from a trauma, one day at a time. —03:44:24

Spring Angel: And have faith that everything is going to be all right and that I don't have to live in fear of this man who tried to get me fired. I can live in peace and trust in God. Progress, one day at a time. —03:44:08

Spring Angel: So my focus needs to be on reaching out to others to bring the activity level back up in OSPA and get Spring out of Spring's head, follow my therapists directions and get back into my prayer. —03:43:16

Spring Angel: I got way into the overeating, and that has to stop now. —03:42:05

Spring Angel: I can see I fell down, then stood back up and am making forward progress now, so that is encouraging. —03:41:43

Spring Angel: So I guess my topic is recovery, and progress not perfection. —03:41:13

Spring Angel: I'm a lot better, I just want to be far, far away from that place. —03:40:48

Spring Angel: So I hope to blend that in with a shot in the arm of a ramped up 2009 OSPA program and pull myself the rest of the way out of the pit I fell in in early December. —03:40:26

Spring Angel: It's called the Feeling Good Handbook and it's about Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for starters. —03:39:32

Spring Angel: Well it's a new year, and I think that's good. I bought a new book at the direction of my therapist and started it today. —03:38:58

beautifulsomeday: Hi Spring! —03:38:44

Spring Angel: Hi, Still Spring, skinpicker. —03:38:14

Spring Angel: After I have introduced the topic, if you would like to share please type an asterisk * as an indication that you are raising your hand, and you will be called on in the order your hand was raised. When you have been called on, introduce yourself, ?My name is ___ and I am a skin picker?, type your share, and when you have said all you wish to say, type ?Done? Please avoid cross-talking and interruptions during the meeting. Let each person share and type Done before raising your hand. After the meeting is closed we can chat openly. Please Remember this is an Anonymous program: ?Who you see here ? What you hear here ? When you leave here - Let it stay here? —03:37:52

Spring Angel: And there are more Promises, quoted from the Big Book of AA, page 84 . ?And we have ceased fighting anything or anyone ? even alcohol. For by this time sanity will have returned. We will seldom be interested in liquor. If tempted, we recoil from it as from a hot flame. We react sanely and normally, and we will find that this has happened automatically. We will see that our new attitude toward liquor has been given us without any thought or effort on our part. It just comes! THAT IS THE MIRACLE OF IT! (my caps) We are not fighting it, neither are we avoiding temptation. We feel as though we had been placed in a position of neutrality ? safe and protected. We have not even sworn off. Instead, the problem has been removed. It does not exist for us. We are neither cocky nor are we afraid. That is our experience. That is how we react so long as we keep in FIT SPIRITUAL CONDITION (my caps)? —03:37:39

Spring Angel: The Promises (from the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, page 83.) which occur during Step 9: ?If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are half way through. ?We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. ?We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace. No matter how far down the scale we have gone we will see how our experience can benefit others. ?That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows. ?Self-seeking will slip away. Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change. Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us. ?We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us. We sill suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves. ?Are these extravagant promises? We think not. They are being fulfilled among us ? sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. ?They will always materialize if we work for them. —03:37:22

Spring Angel: 1. We admitted we were powerless over skin picking and that our lives had become unmanageable. 2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. 3. Made a decision to turn our Will and our Lives over to the Care of God AS WE UNDERSTOOD HIM. 4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. 5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. 6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. 7. Humbly asked him to remove our Shortcomings. 8. Made a list of all persons we have harmed and became willing to make amends to them all. 9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. 10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it. 11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God AS WE UNDERSTOOD HIM, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out. 12. Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps we tried to carry this message to other Skin Pickers, and to practice these principals in all our affairs. —03:37:08

Spring Angel: ?God, Grant me the Serenity to Accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, and Wisdom to know the difference.? This is an Open 1-hour meeting, which means that anyone who is interested may attend. Please bear with me while I post some basic stuff. OSPA is an organization of people who share the common problem of Obsessive or Compulsive Skin Picking, We seek to recover by working the twelve steps together, and sharing our experience strength and hope with each other. —03:36:47

Spring Angel: I would like to welcome you all to the Meeting of OSPA (Obsessive Skin Pickers Anonymous) and would like to thank you all so much for being here! I would like to open the meeting with a moment of silence followed by the Serenity Prayer: —03:36:22

Spring Angel: Hi, I?m Spring and I?m a skinpicker. (and you respond: ?Hi Spring!? if you want.) —03:36:16

Bobbie: hi, jackie! —03:36:15

Spring Angel: Hi Jackie! —03:35:49

SJM: Hi everyone! —03:35:46

Spring Angel: Shall we start? —03:35:35

SJM: —03:35:34

Spring Angel: Got a kitty cat on my lap. —03:35:17

Spring Angel: I'm fine, thanks! —03:34:55

beautifulsomeday: I am well, thanks —03:34:38

Bobbie: good, thanks. and you? —03:34:33

Spring Angel: How are you Bobbie, beautiful?? —03:34:00

Bobbie: hi spring and beautiful! —03:33:50

Spring Angel: Hi and Hi!! —03:33:32

beautifulsomeday: Hello! —03:33:03

Bobbie: —03:32:58

Spring Angel: The first Monday OSPA Meeting of 2009!! —03:28:39

Spring Angel: Hi, Welcome to the Monday 6:30 OSPA Meeting!! —03:27:49

Spring Angel: —03:27:19

Nidea: Good night! —03:58:19

megan: Good night everyone! —03:57:08

SJM: I need to run, good night, everyone! —03:57:07

Bobbie: Thank you, everyone. Have a good night! —03:56:37

megan: Thank you Jackie! —03:56:35

SJM: Thanks for a great meeting, everyone! Megan, I wish you well with your meeting. Remember, you are not responsible for that woman's happiness. : ) —03:55:44

SJM: Don't Pick no Matter What, and Don't Pick Between Meetings! Keep coming Back! It works, if you work it so work it 'cause you're worth it! The meeting is now closed, and if you would like to stay and chat please feel free. —03:55:17