Browsing all posts in "Relapse".

Thoughts On Hope

"Hope…is not a feeling; it is something you do." – Katherine Paterson, American author of children’s novels (born 1932) What do we mean when we talk about having hope in recovery? Does it mean that we hope we don’t relapse or that we hope that we’ll be able to withstand whatever obstacles may come our [...]

Make Today Special

"Life is meant to be a celebration! It shouldn’t be necessary to set side special times to remind us of this fact. Wise is the person who finds a reason to make every day a special one." – Leo F. Buscaglia, author, motivational speaker, best known for Living, Loving and Learning and Born for Love [...]

The Insidious Creeping of the Bad Old Days

Beware of those tentacles reaching out from the past because they have one thing in mind, leading you back to a drink or drug.  I’m talking about an insidious creeping in of old behaviors and attitudes that can take down anyone, no matter how much time you have in sobriety. I used the picture of [...]

The Risks of Relapse after a Decade of Sobriety

Relapse is always a traumatic and dangerous thing – who’s to say the person will make it back? I’ve always felt I never want to test it – I’d rather not find out that I don’t have another recovery in me!  I have written in the past about a friend who died after years of [...]

When Your Family Is Even Crazier than You Are

Face it: when you are an alcoholic or addict, most of the time the people in your family have a few shortcomings. Grin. I mean, I have rarely met a recovering person who had a story of perfect parents who never drank too much or who just lived these exemplary lives filled with continually good [...]