In her book The Recovering Heart: Emotional Sobriety for Women , Beverly Conyers provides guidance on achieving emotional sobriety and self-acceptance. This excerpt explains the ways that trauma can affect our emotions and our lives, and how the defensive strategies we may use to protect ourselves from the pain of trauma can backfire and prevent us from healing.
In Finding Your Moral Compass: Transformative Principles to Guide You in Recovery and Life , Craig Nakken outlines 41 universally accepted principles, paired as positive and negative counterparts, that guide our behavior and are tools for discovering options and making choices. In this excerpt, we learn the difference between willfulness and willingness.
In his book Addictive Thinking: Understanding Self-Deception , Abraham J. Twerski, MD, explores the origins of addictive thoughts and offers hope to those of us seeking a healthy and rewarding life in recovery. In this excerpt, Dr. Twerski explains how we addicts may have a distorted concept of time and discusses why a "one day at a time" approach is key to long-term sobriety.
In this excerpt from his book Craving: Why We Can't Seem to Get Enough , Dr. Omar Manejwala examines the "apparently irrelevant" choices we make that can either set us up for failure or help us succeed in avoiding a return to use. Using data and science, Dr. Manejwala shows how a combination of beliefs and behavior can reduce our cravings and help us maintain abstinence - the cornerstone of recovery.
In her book A Woman's Way through the Twelve Steps , Dr. Stephanie Covington explores the Twelve Step program from a woman's perspective, but the invitation to self-connection in this excerpt applies to all of us, regardless of gender. Now that we are reclaiming ourselves from addiction, we need to ask, "Who are we? What do we need and what do we want for our future?"
In her book A Sober Mom's Guide to Recovery: Taking Care of Yourself to Take Care of Your Kids , Rosemary O'Connor addresses issues that mothers face at all stages of their recovery. Whether you're a mom or not, you can use the wisdom offered in this excerpt to develop self-care routines and rituals that will help you build well-being and find hope for the future.
In the book Unwelcome Inheritance: Break Your Family's Cycle of Addictive Behaviors , Lisa Sue Woititz discusses the generational trauma of addiction and explores how we can break the cycles that continue to harm our families. Woititz co-authors the book with her late mom, Dr. Janet Woititz, an early leader in the Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACoA) movement. This excerpt helps us imagine and embrace our personal role as a change-making bridge between our family's past and its future....
In her book Sex in Recovery: A Meeting Between the Covers , Jennifer Matesa argues that the language and practices of recovery are as appropriate to the bedroom as they are to the church basement meeting. Just like every other aspect of our recovering life, we're invited to approach sex and intimacy with courageous self-examination and humble honesty.
In her book Addict in the Family: Support Through Loss, Hope, and Recovery , Beverly Conyers offers important lessons on love, detachment, and self-care for families who are dealing with addiction and codependency. This excerpt is for anyone who wants to understand how people change and what progress in recovery - or any significant life transformation - can look like.
In her book A Kinder Voice: Releasing Your Inner Critics with Mindfulness Slogans , Thérèse Jacobs-Stewart shares tools for calming a self-critical mind. This excerpt introduces a Tibetan breathing meditation called tonglen. We can use this practice to develop more compassion and become willing to send as well as receive love and kindness in our lives.
In their book Get Your Loved One Sober: Alternatives to Nagging, Pleading, and Threatening , Dr. Robert Meyers and Dr. Brenda Wolfe offer advice for people interested in helping their loved ones who have substance use disorders. This excerpt describes the process of building a "road map" to identify addictive triggers, signs of drinking or drug use, and "exit ramps" to help redirect the person's behavior....
Relieve Stress: 5-Minute First Aid for the Mind , by Dr. Katrin Schubert, is a welcome guide to coping with stressful situations in recovery and daily life. Selected from the twenty exercises that comprise the book's how-to content, this excerpt offers a pair of step-by-step techniques for calming anxiety and managing stress.
In his book Addictive Thinking: Understanding Self-Deception , Dr. Abraham Twerski reveals how self-deceptive thoughts can threaten the sobriety of a recovering individual. We can use this excerpt to help us identify and sort through any distorted realities we have and correct negative self-images.
In his book Undrunk: A Skeptic's Guide to AA , A. J. Adams describes how joining Alcoholics Anonymous changed his preconceptions of the program. In this excerpt, Adams introduces the Twelve Steps to people in early recovery and discusses how he learned to navigate the first two Steps during his own journey.
In her book Rein In Your Brain: From Impulsivity to Thoughtful Living in Recovery , Cynthia Moreno Tuohy offers ten techniques that can help with the compulsive thoughts and behaviors that most of us still struggle with in recovery. In this excerpt, Tuohy discusses how control in relationships and addictions are similar, and how to develop different skills and behavior patterns to improve our relationships....
In their book Living the Twelve Traditions in Today's World: Principles Before Personalities , Mel B. and Michael Fitzpatrick celebrate the history and development of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and interpret the program for the twenty-first century. This excerpt discusses the very first Tradition and how its focus on humility and unity continues to guide decisions and solve problems within AA groups today....
In his book The Addictive Personality: Understanding the Addictive Process and Compulsive Behavior , Craig Nakken discusses the genetic factors, cultural influences, and progressive nature of substance use disorders to help readers understand the process of addiction. In this excerpt, we explore two practices that are beneficial in the early stages of recovery: defining abstinence and developing positive rituals....
In her book Sane: Mental Illness, Addiction, and the 12 Steps , Marya Hornbacher opens the discussion of recovery from co-occurring addiction and mental health disorders. In this excerpt, Hornbacher discusses her early experience with the Twelve Step program and her struggle with Step One, as someone who also deals with a mental illness.
A Program for You: A Guide to the Big Book's Design for Living is an intensive study of the basic text of Twelve Step recovery - the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous. This excerpt offers insight on what it means to be allergic to alcohol or other addictive substances, and how "willpower" is an unhelpful myth when it comes to a substance use disorder.
A Place Called Self: Women, Sobriety, and Radical Transformation by Dr. Stephanie Brown is an insightful guide that can help readers unravel painful truths and confusing feelings in the process of creating a true sense of self in recovery. In this excerpt, Dr. Brown defines recovery, addresses the myths surrounding it, and discusses the truths of the recovery experience.
In their book Of Course You're Angry: A Guide to Dealing with the Emotions of Substance Abuse , authors Gayle Rosellini and Mark Worden help readers understand and manage the powerful emotions that often accompany early recovery. Anger won't go away on its own, and reasons to be angry won't disappear, but how we choose to process and act on our anger can and will change. That's the promise of recovery....
The Grief Club , by Melody Beattie, offers powerful healing wisdom to help us through life's most difficult times. In this excerpt, Beattie shows us how we can acknowledge and work through the grief that comes with any kind of change. Those of us in early recovery are in transition all the time. Beattie's insights can help us manage these moments while also maintaining our sobriety.
For decades, the book A Program for You: A Guide to the Big Book's Design for Living has helped millions of people understand and apply the Twelve Steps to their lives and find an authentic path to recovery. In this excerpt, the authors guide us through the concept of giving up our self-will and letting our Higher Power take control.
Passages through Recovery by Terence Gorski presents an action plan for preventing relapse. Gorski describes six stages of recovery from addiction and offers advice for working through the challenges of each stage. In this excerpt, Gorski explains the effects of repressed memories and how working with others in a safe environment can help us process our feelings and be more honest in our recovery.
In her book Fearless Relationships: Simple Rules for Lifelong Contentment , author Karen Casey offers wise counsel about what helps and what hinders relationships. Drawing from her own life experiences and lessons learned the hard way, Casey provides tips and steps on how to practice gratitude throughout recovery.
In the book Sober but Stuck , author Dan F. has compiled testimonials from people in recovery to remind us that we're not alone. These voices offer insight into issues that often act as barriers to our continued sobriety. In this excerpt, Matthew describes how he overcame his struggle to reach out, gained the courage to tell his story honestly, and received genuine help to move forward in his recovery.
In this excerpt from her book Recovering Spirituality: Achieving Emotional Sobriety in Your Spiritual Practice , psychotherapist Ingrid Mathieu shows us that we don't have to be stuck on unhelpful definitions of God. We can let go of images and attributes that don't serve our sobriety. We get to be free to choose our own conception of a Higher Power we can trust - one that helps us heal.
In his book Feed Your Head: Some Excellent Stuff on Being Yourself , Earl Hipp offers a framework for recognizing and dealing with feelings that can come with uncertainty, loss, and crisis. This excerpt introduces techniques for reducing stress and gives specific tips to guide us through problem management. We can use these tools to help navigate the difficulties in recovery and our daily life.
In their book Six Essentials to Achieve Lasting Recovery , Dr. Sterling Shumway and Dr. Thomas Kimball have identified six principles that reinforce the Twelve Steps and that are key to maintaining lasting recovery. This excerpt compares recovery to a greenhouse and describes what we need to keep our recovery, and healthy relationships, flourishing.
Those of us in recovery have a unique lens when it comes to pain and trauma. We have a sense that we can learn from our suffering, but how do we actually do that? In his classic book A Gentle Path through the Twelve Steps , Dr. Patrick Carnes shows us how learning from our painful past can help us find meaning. Together with others, we can heal our hurting brains, find our spiritual power, and discover our life's purpose....
