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Living with Alternative Perceptions
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By Eric Ayers, CPS
An Alternative Perceptions Experience In 1980, with only a few months left in 9th grade on a beautiful spring afternoon, I heard the voice say “Get out of Here! Leave your newspapers NOW, go home and wait for your dad to get back from work. He will help you get through this. He will know what to do.” Prior to this voice and for some time after, I was terrified of listening and…not listening to the voice.
Alternative Perceptions
Looking back now, I understand and I’m thankful for that inner voice of common sense and good reasoning. At 13, I had no idea of what would transpire in the next few years or the decades to come. The situation of hearing the inner voice had been proceeded by early childhood trauma and then later by three separate attacks from groups of bullies in my neighborhood over a 3-year period during adolescence.
meetings are self-directed, self-designed social environments of hope for persons who see, sense, hear and feel unusual, spiritual, or extreme experiences.
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The first was in 6th grade when I had shared my football with some schoolmates. When the ball was not returned, I received a severe concussion when my head was repeatedly struck on a sidewalk while trying to regain possession of the ball that was given as a gift from my parents. Additional incidents occurred of having rocks thrown at me while delivering newspapers and the 9th grade “experience of warning” after fighting a bully in the street a few weeks before hearing the voice. An “I can’t beat them, might as well join them” attitude followed in the next several years where I began attempts to make friends through mutual drug and alcohol use as well as trying to quiet the experiences I began to see, sense, feel and hear as an awkward teen. By 17 years old, having distressing as well as spiritual experiences otherwise diagnosed by professionals as psychotic episodes, I had a suicide attempt and a psychiatric hospitalization during the first three years of a self-deprecating, self-abusive and self-inflicted 14-year period of active addictions. At 28 years old and by the grace of God, I found lifesaving twelve step programs, supportive friends, intensive outpatient groups and individual therapy to get me started on a road to recovery. Four relapses, four psychiatric and co-occurring hospitalizations, unemployment then public assistance occurred until 1997. Social Security Insurance, occupational vocational rehabilitation and continuous sobriety followed. In 2000, I obtained full-time employment at a Montgomery County Pennsylvania D&A rehab for the next 16 years. In 2011 I was encouraged, certified, and became the first Certified Peer Specialist at that facility. There I was introduced to the local county’s support groups for persons who see, hear, and feel unusual or extreme experiences. Gratefully, my recovery excelled to the next level through the kindness of my peers. May 2016, I was hired as the Delaware County Peer Advocate, CPS. By July 2016, we as members co-founded and began to facilitate the Upper Darby Alternative Perceptions Groups. As a group we thrived and grew during the COVID-19 Pandemic, adding two
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