Getting sober can be a life’s work—it may seem like a monumental effort, sometimes overwhelming. Right when you think you’ve got a foothold, something always goes wrong—something outside of you, beyond your control, that sucks you in and demands that you face and deal with situations and people that push you to your absolute limit. …
Don’t Let Family Dynamics Threaten Your Recovery Read More »
By now, the tinsel and streamers from New Year’s Eve celebrations have been swept away, party attire carefully put back into garment bags and closets, and it’s back to work and time to get serious about recovery goals. Faced with 12 months ahead and a list of resolutions you have no idea how to tackle, …
Drugs and alcohol are mind-altering substances. When you are deep in your addiction, these substances change who you are. Getting your next fix becomes your purpose in life—getting money to get the next fix, or enjoying the brief pleasure from finally getting it. Your world revolves around your addiction. Many addicts fear giving up their …
Celebrity status and addiction appear to be natural bedfellows, and in many cases the problem is allowed to continue unchecked until the individual reaches a breaking point. In some cases, the one “rock bottom” moment is enough to shock the star into making a concerted effort to get better. In the case of Jonathan Rhys …
Jonathan Rhys Meyers’ ‘Dracula’ Salary Delayed Due to Addiction Read More »
If it sometimes seems like you can’t escape the memories of your addictive past, there is a solution: The only way to get past the past involves forgiving yourself for whatever you have done and then to get busy living life in the present, making new memories. This holiday season, while others you know and …
Give Thanks for Sobriety, Make New Memories in Recovery Read More »
“We aren’t a glum lot. If newcomers could see no joy or fun in our existence, they wouldn’t want it. We absolutely insist on enjoying life.” (Alcoholics Anonymous, 132) Ten steps for making your sober life more fun and rewarding than the drinking days: Dive in head first. You can choose to stay aloof, sit …
Advertisements, television commercials, greeting cards and comments wishing Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas (Kwanza, Hanukkah) and Happy New Year may be enough to send you over the top and diving straight for a shot of alcohol or your drug of choice just to cope.
It’s not so bad, being an addict. And for those of us who fit that description, most have discovered that the biggest hurdle to jump is neither the actual quitting, nor the emotional and physical withdrawal symptoms. It is making the pure and honest admission that you have become what you feared, and if you …
One of the worst feelings of your life is waking up after drinking or drugging for a week straight and realizing that your hard-won sobriety has veered into the ditch. Not only do you hate yourself for relapsing, you know you’ve let your loved ones down as well. Swallowing the bitter taste of relapse – …
If you have struggled with drug or alcohol addiction, going through treatment and rehabilitation can be the beginning of a whole new life. But, not necessarily. In reality the relapse rate following rehab is disturbingly high for recovering addicts and alcoholics, proving that treatment is by no means a panacea or a miracle cure for …