Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-08-29
New recovery post: Feeling Overwhelmed? http://addiction-recovery-blog.com/just-life/feeling-overwhelmed/ # Powered by Twitter Tools
If you are active in a 12-step program like AA you have likely seen people come and go – it can be heartbreaking when someone you admire relapses and disappears from the rooms. Your greatest hope is that they will show up again, but sometimes they simply don’t. For this reason, avoiding relapse is absolutely [...]
Picking Up the Pieces After Major Relapse by Guest Writer Suzanne K
In recovery, sometimes people slip. Sometimes they fall big time. It can be frustrating and crazy-making trying to figure out what to do in either case, but when you completely collapse, doing what’s right may mean the difference between life and death. With so much at stake, how should you go about picking up the [...]
Feeling Overwhelmed?
Recovering people do not have a monopoly on feeling overwhelmed. Historically, however, we have turned to mood-altering substances to deal with stress and emotions, so being overwhelmed can be a significant trigger for many people in recovery.
Making Amends After a Loved One Dies by Guest Writer Suzanne K
Losing a loved one is always painful. It doesn’t matter if the person you care about so deeply was in a long-term illness or died suddenly. When they’re gone, you’re left with a void that seems so deep that it can never be sealed over. The bereavement process, while different for everyone in the length [...]
Giving it All Up for Love, and What That Means in Recovery by Guest Writer Suzanne K
There’s no question that being in recovery is a continually evolving process. For some, it’s a journey of discovery, or rediscovery, while for others, recovery is a daily struggle just to get by. Two major linchpins of a successful recovery are having a stable and supportive family and stable employment. Here, we’re concerned with the [...]
Why 12 Step Recovery Works
I heard a really interesting lecture the other day on the "scientific" reasons the 12 step programs help people with alcoholism and drug addiction. I wanted to share it because I think it’s powerful stuff, and recently I saw an op ed in the Washington Post that essentially dissed 12 step programs as ineffective.
Clean Out the Cobwebs and Make Sense of Recovery by Guest Writer Suzanne K
Starting recovery is a bit like entering the funhouse at an amusement park: You never really know what’s ahead. It could be exciting and fun or terrifying and filled with unexpected twists and turns – or both at the same time in varying degrees. The fact is that none of us knows what to prepare [...]
Desperation Leads to Desperate Measures to Get Prescription Pain Pills
I recently read an article in a Chicago paper about a "polite…white-collar professional" who had figured out he could get prescription drugs by going to open houses and garage sales and asking to use the bathroom. Naive homeowner after naive homeowner said, "Okey dokey" to the stranger, who then scoured their medicine cabinets for Vicodin [...]
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Asides
Is Your Job Destroying Your Spirit?
Everyone says these days, “Be glad you have a job.” But that doesn’t help the person who is downright miserable. Maybe you have an abusive boss or you feel like your spirit is dying in a job you hate. The thing to do is make a plan. Start thinking about what job you would like [...]
Please Join & Comment
I know you’re here. I see my statistics. Come out of the woodwork and comment! I’d love to hear your thoughts and get a discussion going.
How Do You Deal with AA Dogmatists?
It’s a provocative issue. I’m talking about the ones who say my way or the highway and conveniently forget the words in the Big Book such as “suggested.” I think the people at most risk are newcomers who are so turned off by hard-core dogma that they might not come back.
