It feels very significant indeed that the first blog on the official #EmergingProud website is my interview with David Lukoff, whose own spiritual emergency led him to work for the inclusion in the DSM-IV (1994; Diagnostic and statistical manual) of a diagnostic category called “Religious or Spiritual Problems.”
David knew the importance of the transformation process of spiritual emergence being acknowledged. At the time it was heralded as a significant breakthrough. It was intended as an acknowledgment of distressing spiritual experiences as non-pathological problems. But they continue to be pathologised and are little spoken about within the psychiatric world due to fear and misunderstanding, over 20 years later.
It’s ironic that David is now supporting a campaign to fly the flag for the work that he began so many years ago… It’s high time this was acknowledged.
Perhaps it’s because there shouldn’t be a category at all? That ALL mental disturbances are indeed just an initiation to awakening…
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Reframing Mental distress as a potential catalyst for positive change 
How can my son get the help to recognise his spiritual experience? Right now he is being pathologized as schozophrenic. I would like to send him to a live in facility. It looks like my only choice is a mental hospital or a drug rehab as he keeps finding ways to smoke weed.
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Sorry to hear about your son Josephine. Getting help will depend on your son’s perspective, and if he considers his experience to be a spiritual emergence then he can contact the network for support and information – are you based in the US? The US network can be contacted here:http://spiritualemergence.info/
The only residential facility currently specifically for spiritual emergence and addictions is here:http://www.centerforspiritualemergence.com
I hope he gets the support he needs.
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