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- Addiction and Recovery: Plan Your Vacation, Not Your Relapse! - by Submitted on Aug 26, 2009 from Peggy FergusonWhen facing the loss of most of one’s structure in situations like vacation or business trips, relapsive thinking can return, even in established, stable recovery. The relapse thoughts can include some of the below, but this is not an all inclusive lists. When planning a vacation or business ...
Views: 3902(2 votes) - Addiction As Disease Does Not Equal "Get Out of Jail Free" - by Submitted on Aug 04, 2009 from Peggy FergusonSometimes family members have a hard time with the idea that addiction is a disease. When this is the case, it often has to do with the issue of responsibility. Sometimes family members believe that "disease" is equated with a "get out of jail free card" or not being held responsible. This is ...
Views: 2156(2 votes) - Addiction Recovery: 12 Do's and Don'ts For the Family While the Alcoholic is in Rehab - by Submitted on Aug 04, 2009 from Peggy FergusonYour significant other finally went to rehab. With all the events leading up to his agreeing to go to treatment, it may feel like a let-down. You may have breathed a big sigh of relief as you drove away from the airport or the treatment center after dropping him or her off. You may feel hope. ...
Views: 4412(2 votes) - Addiction and Recovery: Drinking or Using Dreams as a Normal Part of Recovery - by Submitted on Aug 04, 2009 from Peggy FergusonWhen you have a drinking or using dream, you may wake up not really knowing if it actually happened. Many people in early recovery find it disturbing and frightening when they experience a "using" dream. Drinking and using dreams are those dreams where the central theme or experience is about ...
Views: 4746(2 votes) - 12 Steps And The Bible - by Submitted on Aug 01, 2009 from Robert And Shelley JakobsenThe 12 Steps are tools that have helped millions of people overcome their addictions, whether it be to alcohol, drugs, sex, gambling or even food. Originally, the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous were developed by Bill Wilson in the 1930's after he had a spiritual awakening and overcame his ...
Views: 3381(3 votes) - Addiction and Recovery: Prevent Relapse By Making Good Choices - by Submitted on Jul 29, 2009 from Peggy FergusonRelapse is a process that occurs over time, in the context of significant decisions. Many people who relapse say that drinking or using was the furthest thing from their mind just before they consumed the chemical. In reality, most of the time, relapse was in process some time before the ...
Views: 4478(2 votes) - Guide to Eliminating Deception and Dishonesty - How to Get Real in Addiction Recovery - by Submitted on Jul 29, 2009 from Peggy FergusonMany people, while active in addiction, engage in deceptive, dishonest behavior, and diversionary tactics. These are part and parcel of addiction and the need to keep the extent of their problem hidden. It is difficult to juggle all the demands of being addicted with all the "normal" demands of ...
Views: 7164(2 votes) - Addiction and Recovery: Cross Addiction and Relapse: 5 Cross Addiction Relapse Prevent Tips - by Submitted on Jul 29, 2009 from Peggy FergusonAlthough definitions of "Addiction" seem to be continuing to evolve, addiction is still "a primary, chronic, progressive, and relapsing disease". The last decade of research has led to a refined definition of addiction as a "brain disease which is manifested by compulsive behavior". Cross ...
Views: 3766(1 vote) - Cross Addiction and Relapse - Examples and Relationships - by Submitted on Jul 29, 2009 from Peggy FergusonCross addiction is one of the leading causes of relapse in early recovery. Cross-addiction involves being addicted to all mood altering drugs. The following are illustrations of cross addiction. 1. Some people become cross-addicted in their efforts to camouflage their addiction. ...
Views: 4751(2 votes) - Addiction and Recovery: Understanding The Nature of Addiction to Understand Cross Addiction - by Submitted on Jul 29, 2009 from Peggy FergusonEarly addiction recovery is a fragile thing. One of the most frequent contributing factors in relapse is something we call "cross-addiction". Essentially what cross-addiction means, is that if you are alcoholic or addicted to other mood altering drugs, you a potentially addicted to all mood ...
Views: 2754(1 vote) - Addiction and Recovery: Ten Common Myths about Alcohol and Drug Addiction - by Submitted on Jul 25, 2009 from Peggy FergusonPeople who don't know much about alcohol and other drug addiction, often buy into common myths and stereotypes about addiction and addicts. It is important to replace mistaken assumptions and judgments about addiction, so that you can approach those afflicted with the illness, with compassion ...
Views: 4062(1 vote) - Addiction and Recovery: Do You Really Have to Hit Bottom to Recover? - by Submitted on Jul 25, 2009 from Peggy FergusonThere is a generally misguided notion that you have to "hit bottom" to be able to get sober and stay sober. "Hitting bottom" is usually seen as the loss of the things that you value in your life. It is an individually defined event and the concept has probably hindered the recovery efforts of a ...
Views: 2675(1 vote) - A Relapse Prevention Tool - Emotional Cues for Cravings in Relapse Worksheet - by Submitted on Jul 25, 2009 from Peggy FergusonWe experience sensory, emotional/psychological, cognitive, environmental, and physical cues on a daily basis in early recovery. These cues or triggers, if left unchecked can turn into powerful cravings for the chemical. Cravings can lead to relapse. In order to avoid relapse it is crucial that ...
Views: 13957(2 votes) - Addiction and Recovery: The Social and Environmental Triggers Worksheet - by Submitted on Jul 25, 2009 from Peggy FergusonAssociations between particular feelings, people, places, and events becomes intertwined with the alcoholic or addicts drinking and drugging behavior. When alcoholics and addicts find their way to recovery, the old associations between the drinking and drugging and the old feeling, people, ...
Views: 10513(2 votes) - Family Dynamics of Addiction And Recovery - Deciding What to do about an Adult Child's Addiction - by Submitted on Jul 25, 2009 from Peggy FergusonWhen an adult child with addiction problems lives with his parents, those parents are faced with hard choices. The addict believes that he is only harming himself, yet the truth is that the addiction is hurting everyone and is typically tearing the family apart. Parents and significant others ...
Views: 1786(2 votes) - Family Members Know You are Going to Relapse in Your Addiction Before You Do - Listen Up - by Submitted on Jul 25, 2009 from Peggy FergusonThe family dynamics of recovery is rarely smooth sailing. Relapse, which is a process, has a tremendously negative effect on significant others. Family members who have labored and struggled to remain with the addict through all the active years of addiction, to assist them in finding their way ...
Views: 4677(1 vote) - Working Through Feelings in Addiction Recovery - by Submitted on Jul 25, 2009 from Peggy FergusonOne of the most important tasks necessary for maintaining abstinence and growing in recovery is learning how to appropriately work through feelings. Many people use alcohol and other drugs in place of dealing with or managing emotions. Alcoholism/drug addiction often involves skill deficits. ...
Views: 8101(1 vote) - First Sober Fourth of July: Surviving the Holiday Without Addiction Relapse - by Submitted on Jul 25, 2009 from Peggy FergusonThe fourth of July is significant for alcoholics and addicts in several ways. The Declaration of Independence was a statement of separation from a tyrannical ruler. With separating from the past they embarked on a new way of life. Many people come into treatment just after the Fourth of July, ...
Views: 2859(1 vote) - Have total control over body and mind - by Submitted on Jun 17, 2009 from Greg FrostWe are living in a state of flux. We are living in a state where we are in total un control of your mind and our body. This statement comes from the very fact that we are no longer a focused, organised and empowered race of humans walking on this earth. Why do we say this? We say this because ...
Views: 4329(2 votes) - Addiction Recovery Tools: Why You Want to Learn to Forgive in Recovery - by Submitted on Jul 23, 2009 from Peggy FergusonAlthough forgiveness is an important part of working through feelings, and thus, a tool of recovery and the healing process, it is an often neglected topic. People often erroneously equate forgiveness with forgetting. The best definition that I ever heard for forgiveness is simply "giving up ...
Views: 3667(2 votes) - Family Dynamics of Addiction: Family Systems Can Work for or Against Your Recovery - by Submitted on May 24, 2009 from Peggy FergusonAlcoholics/addicts do not normally live in a circle made up exclusively of alcoholics and addicts. Most people suffering from addictions have a multitude of people in their lives who are affected by the addiction. Even alcoholics and addicts that are estranged from their significant others, ...
Views: 5462 - Quitting Pot: 16 Steps to Help You Quit and Stay Quit - by Submitted on Jul 25, 2009 from Peggy FergusonOk, so you have decided that your life needs a little help and to accomplish this, you have decided to quit smoking pot. You have flushed or given away your stash. You have gotten rid of the paraphernalia. It has been a couple of days since you smoked pot and you're feeling cranky. You are not ...
Views: 8206(3 votes) - Family Dynamics of Addiction and Recovery - How Can I Tell If My Partner Is Serious About Recovery? - by Submitted on May 24, 2009 from Peggy FergusonMost spouses of alcoholics or addicts have been down this road before. Something has happened. Some crisis has gotten the attention of the alcoholic/addict and now he is motivated to get clean and sober. This time he is going to AA/NA and going to counseling. Promises made by the addict to stop ...
Views: 2586(3 votes) - Addiction Bible Scriptures - by Submitted on May 21, 2009 from Robert And Shelley JakobsenAlcoholism, drug abuse and eating disorders are often misunderstood. These diseases include a soul-sickness. The people in the grips of these afflictions are spiritually ill, too. The illness can even spread to family members and friends. The recovery process has produced countless untold ...
Views: 7773(3 votes) - Addiction and Recovery: Preventing Relapse After Surgery - by Submitted on May 19, 2009 from Peggy FergusonYou are ultimately responsible for your own addiction recovery. When you know that you have to have surgery, it is important to keep everyone treating you informed about your recovery and addiction history, including the names of the drugs, the amounts, the lengths of time that you took them, ...
Views: 4438(1 vote) - The Life and Death of a Drunk - by Submitted on May 17, 2009 from David HarmMy favorite recovery author is John Bradshaw. He is the one who introduced me to the idea of the inner child. And he also helped me understand that alcoholism is never a primary illness, but rather it is a secondary disease. Bradshaw believes that the primary illness is co-dependency or as he ...
Views: 1963(1 vote) - Sane After Bipolar Disorder - by Submitted on May 12, 2009 from Marilyn RedmondIn the past, the medical community and most people were under the impression that Bipolar Disorder would be a life long ailment. Often Bipolar Disorder is destructive to relationships, careers, can wreak havoc on family life, and is a potentially fatal disease. According to Edgar Cayce, the ...
Views: 7353 - Sexual Addiction: Are You a Sex Addict? Part 2 - by Submitted on Apr 27, 2009 from Peggy FergusonSexual addiction is a dysfunctional pattern of compulsive sexual behavior that continues even after the addict knows that it is causing major problems in their life. The sex addicts has a compulsion to engage in the problem behavior despite the fact that it has become emotionally dissatisfying ...
Views: 1996(1 vote) - Sexual Addiction: A Brief Description, Part 1 - by Submitted on Apr 27, 2009 from Peggy FergusonIf you see yourself in this brief description of sexual addiction, it can be the beginning of achieving recovery and getting your life back. The hope is that there is recovery, that it is possible. "The journey of a thousand miles begins by taking the initial step". The good news is that you ...
Views: 2697(1 vote) - Sexual Addiction: Defining Recovery From Sexual Addiction - by Submitted on Apr 27, 2009 from Peggy FergusonRecovery from sexual addiction is slightly different than recovery from alcohol and other (AOD) addiction. With chemical dependency recovery, the goal is to abstain from all mood altering drugs. The primary goal from sexual addiction is not abstinence from sex, but the development of the ability ...
Views: 3217 - If I Found Freedom You Can Too: From Addictions, Mental Illness, Domestic Violence and More - by Submitted on Apr 23, 2009 from Marilyn RedmondI chose to grow into heaven on earth by healing my ghastly past. My road in life was not smooth; many events were rocky and traumatic. Chaos and violence impacted my life severely from an early age. Retracing the events of my life, I found that I had perpetuated fear, shame, and turmoil from ...
Views: 1956 - Serenity and Expectations - Intimately Interrelated - by Submitted on Sep 14, 2011 from Robert Burney"I spent most of my life doing the Serenity prayer backwards, that is, trying to change the external things over which I had no control - other people and life events mostly - and taking no responsibility (except shaming and blaming myself) for my own internal process - over which I can have ...
Views: 2254 - How To Increase Self Esteem with Inner Child Dialogues - by Submitted on Apr 21, 2009 from Dr. Jane BoltonBefore describing how to use dialoguing with your Inner Child to increase self esteem, I'd better say what your Inner Child is, for those who may not be familiar with the term. What is an Inner Child? We all have an Inner Child. It is who we are when we were born, our natural core self. That ...
Views: 3479(3 votes) - How to Dialogue with Your Inner Child - by Submitted on Apr 21, 2009 from Dr. Jane BoltonWhat is “dialoguing” with my Inner Child? Dialoguing is talking with your Inner Child, caring for her/him non-verbally. The word dialogue implies a back and forth exchange between the two of you, rather than just “talking” which could be understood as a one-way communication. When do I do ...
Views: 3891(1 vote) - Thank you, Norman Vincent Peale:The Twelve Steps Work for Everything - by Submitted on Apr 20, 2009 from Marilyn RedmondNorman Vincent Peale was right. Years ago in one of his articles in Guideposts, he talked about the 12 steps, including the comment that they would work for most any problem. I then read his book, “The Power of Positive Thinking” which has since become a classic. Putting these two models ...
Views: 3075 - ***Lindsay Lohan 07: What Makes Rehab Successful? - by Submitted on Mar 29, 2009 from LB WishLindsay Lohan 07: What makes rehab successful? You might be tired of the media coverage about Lindsay Lohan’s struggles with alcohol, but, if you know someone with substance abuse problems, then you probably have seen firsthand the difficulty of recovery. Some people think that the much ...
Views: 1595 - 12 Steps to my Higher Power - by Submitted on Aug 28, 2009 from Asoma MusicWhile spending a wonderful weekend at one of the Spiritual Retreats at the Earthship, I picked up some of the many products available from Asoma Music (their solar powered studio). One in particular touched me in a most profound way. It was the Asoma Music/Dan Millman composition entitled “Song ...
Views: 2765 - Letting Go - by Submitted on Feb 24, 2009 from james robinsonLetting Go James Robinson Copyright 2009 Many people ask, “how am I supposed to let go”, or “what does it mean to let go?” Most people have attachments to others, to money, to beliefs systems (“BS”) or to self-image. People are most attached to how other people think about them. All of this ...
Views: 1293 - Overeaters Anonymous, A Professional’s Perspective - by Submitted on Jan 27, 2009 from Marty LernerFor well over the past two decades, I have had the privilege of being professionally involved with people who suffer from many types of eating disorders - compulsive overeating, bulimia, binge eating disorders, as well as some forms of anorexia. Very often I’m asked whether joining OA and ...
Views: 2961(1 vote) - Dick B.'s A.A. Story - by Submitted on Nov 02, 2008 from Richard Burns, J.D. (pen name Dick B.),I was born in Stockton, California in 1925. I was the only child of two loving parents. My dad was a successful securities salesman. My mother was a concert pianist and a daily student of the Bible. My dad had quit smoking before I was born, and neither parent gave evidence of any problem with ...
Views: 2040 - A.A,'s "Big Book," Rev. Sam Shoemaker, and Bill W. - by Submitted on Sep 06, 2008 from Richard Burns, J.D. (pen name Dick B.),A.A.’s “Big Book,” Rev. Sam Shoemaker, and Bill W. By Dick B. © 2008 Anonymous. All rights reserved Lois Wilson’s Observation as to Sam Shoemaker’s Big Book Role The biography of Lois Wilson states: “Dr. Shoemaker was to play a significant role in ...
Views: 3590 - Addiction Help: A 12 Step Recovery Programme - by Submitted on Sep 05, 2008 from Rosemary Grace BrooksThe 12 Steps and 12 Step recovery programme were founded by a group of approximately 100 people in Akron and New York in the United States of America and led by Bill Wilson (Bill W) and Dr. Robert Smith (Dr Bob), both recovering alcoholics and responsible for the world famous Alcoholics ...
Views: 1780 - Self Help And The 12 Steps Through The Lens Of Transpersonal Psychology - by Submitted on Sep 03, 2008 from John SmethersIn the course of a week approximately 15 million Americans will attend some kind of self-help group. Why is this happening? Because people have discovered that talking and listening to their fellow sufferers has a soothing effect on the psyche, sometimes more so than doing the same thing in the ...
Views: 3312 - An Approach To Recovery Using Alchemy And The Twelve Steps - by Submitted on Aug 25, 2008 from John SmethersWhat is alchemy? Many of us are drawn to the mysteries of the past to enlighten the quality of the present. Mythology, astrology, the tarot, runes, and I-Ching have drawn the interest of many in recent years, and is being enjoyed and utilized in fresh and innovative ways. Ancient wisdom imbued ...
Views: 5376 - Filling the A.A. History Gap - by Submitted on Aug 25, 2008 from Richard Burns, J.D. (pen name Dick B.),Dick B.. © 2008 Anonymous. About 1990, I began looking for the evidence of A.A. history, and I looked in many parts of the United States and England. I found that nobody had unearthed and reported the books in Dr. Bob’s Library. Next, I found that nobody had researched or described ...
Views: 1666 - Living A Clean, Sober And Prosperous Life! - by Submitted on Aug 18, 2008 from Dan Callahan, MSW www.HappyRecovery.com“Success is the attainment of a worthy Goal or ideal” Earl Nightingale. Recovery begins at the onset of abstinence from the individual’s drug of choice. Successful recovery is the attainment of a worthy goal or ideal. There are two phases of the recovery process, ...
Views: 3162(1 vote) - Christians in A.A.? - by Submitted on Aug 16, 2008 from Richard Burns, J.D. (pen name Dick B.),Christians in A.A.? I don’t have any statistics! I don’t know of any statistics. And I’m not sure I care about any statistics that might exist. But I think it would be valuable if we knew for sure that, among the two-million members worldwide, the A.A. fellowship contains a ...
Views: 3850(2 votes) - Alcohol Withdrawal Can Be Fatal - by Submitted on Jul 27, 2008 from Karen PriceAlcohol withdrawal can be fatal. If you are having some physical problems, and you think they may be due to drinking alcohol, or quitting drinking alcohol, then read on. You may be suffering from alcohol withdrawal. It can be a serious health risk that may lead to a withdrawal seizure, and even ...
Views: 8567(1 vote) - Becoming Better Equipped For Ministry - by Submitted on Jul 19, 2008 from Frank LandreyWebster's New World Dictionary of the American language defines ENCOURAGEMENT as meaning: to give courage, hope, confidence to, hearten, to help, give support to, be favorable to, and foster. Now, one good word leads us to another if we seek it out. Right? So, I looked up FOSTER to find out why ...
Views: 2022 - Original 12 Steps - by Submitted on Jul 18, 2008 from Paul Kovatchsource wikopedia reference to the bible, Christianity and Jesus Christ have been removed over the years....... These are the original Twelve Steps as published by Alcoholics Anonymous.[10] We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable. Came to believe ...
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