Tuesday January 01, 2008
Happy New Year, the first of 2008's one-day-at-a-times. For a person in recovery from addiction, this new year may be a chance to re-dedicate yourself to abstinence, to attendance of meetings of AA or NA, to involvement with an AA or NA sponsor (mentor), to daily spiritual disciplines, to helping others, to being a loving person with all whom you meet each day, to name a few goals.
Wednesday January 02, 2008
Drug or alcohol addiction is a powerful disease that most people cannot overcome on their own. Many people find long term recovery through use of spiritually based programs such as such as Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous. If you are new to recovery, attend meetings with an open mind and rely upon the strength and wisdom of the AA and NA groups to provide you with spiritual support until you develop your own individual source of apiritual strength.
Thursday January 03, 2008
Why do members of the Twelve Step Groups identify themselves at meetings as alcoholics or addicts? First of all by saying aloud at a meeting of spiritually based programs such as such as Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous that "My name is-----, and I am an alcoholic or addict", you are taking personal responsibility for your disease and identifying yourself by name and disease; doing this over many meetings helps you not only internalize you are powerless over alcohol and other drugs but also, paradoxically, helps you gain power over the disease. In effect this simple declaration becomes a statement of victory over the disease of addiction, based upon the spiritual support found in ongoing attendance of Twelve Step meetings and a relationship with a personal source of spiritual strength.
Friday January 04, 2008
The threshold requirement for a successful recovery from addictive disease is a gut level acknowledgement (not just intellectual) that you can no longer use drugs or alcohol without loss of control and ensuing negative consequences that outweigh any short term high or mood change from use. Any notion that you can somehow, some day, under some circumstance use drugs or alcohol successfully must be banished from your mind. Usually the only way to arrive at this state of mind is through much pain and proof to yourself that cannot use and get way with it. Are you there, yet?
Saturday January 05, 2008
How do you find spirituality in recovery in the Twelve Step Programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous? The best way to find spirituality in AA or NA is by experiencing it through attendance of meetings of those groups with an open mind. There you will hear real people sharing about their addiction and how they got into recovery and you will feel the strength of such sharing. That experience is a spiritual one. God or other source of spiritual strength works through people. Go to meetings and feel the power of real people helping one another to recover.
Sunday January 06, 2008
Here is the suggested mind set for an addict or alcoholic in recovery, especially early recovery: If I can say at the end of any given day that I have not picked up a drink or a drug, regardless of anything else that has happened, I have had a victorious day; if I can also say that I have attended a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous and have sought support from a source of spiritual strength, even better.
Monday January 07, 2008
Think the first drink or drug through is sound advice for a person in recovery from addiction. Don't entertain the thought of using when it pops into your mind or you have an urge to use; just immediately say to yourself, "I don't do that anymore", and then think of all the past negatives in your life that have occurred because you chose to pick up the first drink or drug.
Tuesday January 08, 2008
As an alcoholic or addict in recovery, are there any conditions to your recovery and abstinence? Are there any life circumstances under which it would be OK to use? In other words do you have any excuses left to pick up that first drink or drug? An honest look at your answer to these questions can help you to be certain that you have accepted your powerlessness over drugs and alcohol, or show you areas that need work.
Wednesday January 09, 2008
What are some common relapse factors for persons in recovery? One of the first factors to come to mind is feelings. When it comes down to it, how you emotionally react to situations can drive behavior, including relapse. Affirm your feelings, share them with a trustworthy person, go to a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous, ask your Higher Power for the strength to handle the feelings, think positively, but, bottom line, recognize that you do not have to act on your feelings in a negative way, including using them as an excuse to pick up a drink or a drug.
Thursday January 10, 2008
Persons in recovery from addiction used to use alcohol or drugs to handle feelings, especially when upset by perceived slights or offenses from others. One way to put this type of situation into perspective is to realize that remaining emotionally distraught over another's behavior is allowing that person to control how you feel, even though that person may have no inkling of the impact on you. So, focus on what you can change, namely, you and your feelings and reactions.
Friday January 11, 2008
Recovering alcoholics and addicts did many things while using that caused them, and people they care about, much pain and suffering. The good news is that in recovery, you no longer need to cause others pain from addiction. Indeed, the pain and consequences in your history of drug and alcohol use can be used now to not only help you to remember that you cannot use any more, but also to share with newcomers and help them in their recovery.
Saturday January 12, 2008
What are some of the rewards from long term recovery from addiction? Aside from the absence of active addition, many recovering persons describe the rewards under a general category of freedom. One way to describe this reward is: I'm free to be me, meaning the absence of the need to be tied down by self-conscious fear of what others may think, and the presence of the freedom to be who I am, plus, of course, the freedom to improve on who I am.
Sunday January 13, 2008
I've stopped using drugs or alcohol; why do I need to do the Twelve Steps and make the changes expected of those in recovery using Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous?--because the same person will drink or drug again. Addiction is not just the result of the physical effects of chronic use of addictive substances. The addict or alcoholic is a whole person with physical, mental and emotional, and spiritual aspects that have been adversely affected by addiction and need to be addressed.
Monday January 14, 2008
Keep it simple! is good advice for the person in recovery from addiction, especially in early recovery. One way to keep it simple is to just not pick up a drink or a drug today, and have that goal as the number one priority.
Tuesday January 15, 2008
Continuing discussion of keeping recovery simple especially early on, the answer to many questions that come up is to go to a meeting of AA or NA. It's not that a meeting will necesarily fix a problem, but attending a meeting with an open mind can help you change your attitude about the problem, perhaps from one of desperation to one of acceptance, or at least to a more positive apporach to the problem.
Wednesday January 16, 2008
Bring the body; the mind will follow is another reminder often heard in the Twelve Step Programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous to the newcomer to recovery from addiction not to complicate matters too much. Just don't pick up a drink or a drug and go to meetings, and put aside for now a lot of intellectual issues you may have; they will tend to work themselves out if you stay clean and sober.
Thursday January 17, 2008
Easy does it, but do it! is a slogan whose second part is as important for the newcomer to recovery in the Twelve Step Programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous as the first part. Not getting too upset or too excited helps one to avoid relapse, but there ARE things the recovering person must do: like sleep, eat, pay bills, go to work, attend AA or NA meetings, etc. So, easy does it, but do it!
Friday January 18, 2008
Feelings aren't good or bad; they just are. Many persons in recovery from addiction have problems with feelings. There are a few things to keep in mind. One is what is suggested at the beginning of this Tip, namely, that you need not categorize feelings as good or bad, just accept them as normal human responses to situations. As soon as you accept feelings as OK to have, you begin to gain control over them. The second thing to remember is that you do not have to act on your feelings in a negative way such as by picking up a drink or a drug or doing something destructive to you or someone else. Share the feeling with a trustworthy person, maybe in a meeting of AA or NA, pray on the issue causing the feelings, exercise, etc.
Saturday January 19, 2008
Honesty is one of the hallmarks of a sound recovery from addiction and has many aspects to it. The very first area in which an individual must learn to be honest is, of course, Step One of the Twelve Steps of Recovery in Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous. For a solid recovery you must achieve abstinence from use of drugs or alcohol and to do that, you must be honest about how your use has negatively impacted you in the significant areas of your life, and how you have been unable to avoid these negatives if you pick up the first drink or drug; in other words you must be able to honestly admit powerlessness over use of drugs or alcohol and how such use has hurt you (Step One).
Saturday January 20, 2008
Let's begin a discussion of reasons for complete abstinence for recovering persons. If a recovering addict or alcoholic uses a substance of abuse other than his/her drug of choice, the resulting high or feeling will not be the one he/she is used to or desires (from drug of choice). That being the case, and adding to this factor impaired judgment that always occurs with drug use, there will be a high risk of relapse into use of the drug of choice.
Sunday January 21, 2008
Continuing discussion of reasons for complete abstinence for recovering persons, one of the few absolutes of recovery is that one is either clean or sober, or not. There are no shades of grey here; either you are alcohol or drug free or you are not. Opening the door to use of any substance of abuse is dangerous for the recovering alcoholic or addict; it's all or nothing!
Monday January 22, 2008
Continuing discussion of reasons for complete abstinence for recovering persons, use of any substance by a recovering alcoholic or addict will undoubtedly bring the person into contact with individuals who are not supportive of abstinence, what is called in 12 Step terminology, "slippery people and places." In other words, obtaining and using substances of abuse will involve re-engagement in the using scene and pose risks to recovery.
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