Leaders and Victims Leaders make mistakes and say, “I made a mistake,” and make up for it. Victims make mistakes and say, “I’m sorry,” but do the same thing the next time. Leaders say, “I’m good, but not as good as I can be yet.” Victims say, “I’m not as bad as a lot of…
Recovery Blog
The Next Frontier : Emotional Sobriety by Bill Wilson
I think that many oldsters who have put our AA “booze cure” to severe but successful tests still find they often lack emotional sobriety. Perhaps they will be the spearhead for the next major development in AA—the development of much more real maturity and balance (which is to say, humility) in our relations with ourselves,…
How Wounded the Healers? The Prevalence of Relapse Among Addiction Counselors in Recovery from Alcohol and Other Drugs
Tristram Jones PhD,James N. Sells PhD &Mark Rehfuss PhD Pages 389-408 | Published online: 02 Oct 2009 Abstract This descriptive survey, designed to ascertain frequencies of relapse among drug and alcohol counselors recovering from addictions to alcohol and/other drugs studied 657 male, 580 female, and 2 transsexual professionals ranging from 18 to more than 70 years…
Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12‐step programs for alcohol use disorder
Authors’ conclusions There is high quality evidence that manualized AA/TSF interventions are more effective than other established treatments, such as CBT, for increasing abstinence. Non‐manualized AA/TSF may perform as well as these other established treatments. AA/TSF interventions, both manualized and non‐manualized, may be at least as effective as other treatments for other alcohol‐related outcomes. AA/TSF…
Identifying as Recovered vs. Recovering has bearing on sobriety rates.
Typically we see two recovery genres in the rooms of 12 Steps: The ‘Recovered’ Addict versus The ‘Recovering’ Addict narrative. Recovery stories are consequential for the person’s experience of recovery, since it seems that the telling and retelling of an empowered “Recovered” narrative, with its clear beginnings, turning points, and felicitous, institutionally condoned endings may…
Its in the Big Book Song
by Doug Rowell http://www.carverdoug.com/audio.htm
The Slogan Slapper
The Myth of Addiction as a Disease
“The concept of disease is fast replacing the concept of responsibility. With increasing zeal Americans use and interpret the assertion “I am sick” as equivalent to the assertion “I am not responsible”: Smokers say they are not responsible for smoking, drinkers that they are not responsible for drinking, gamblers that they are not responsible for…
Tradition One: Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon C.A. unity.
Case Study Three: A member continuously disrupts group meetings with loud abusive and bullying behaviour towards fellow members and newcomers. Membership in the group continues to decline. New people coming to the meeting for the first time often do not return. Suggested Readings: AA, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, P. 143-144 The elders led Ed…
10 Types of People You’ll Meet at 12-Step Meetings
by Lisa Page Rosenberg on April 26, 2015 in 12-Step Recovery In recovery meetings you’ll encounter a cross-section of humanity with seemingly nothing in common except their addictions. There are, however, a number of stereotypes that exist in the 12-step world, and they exist largely because they are true. Do You Recognize Any of These…
‘Books That Shaped America’ from the Library of Congress
By Deirdre Donahue and Lindsay Deutsch, USA TODAY To kick off its new exhibition, “Books That Shaped America,” the Library of Congress asked curators and experts to compile a list of books that have influenced us as a nation. The selections come from different centuries and different experiences. They range from Thomas Paine’s Common Sense,…
Every Day Is Christmas
AA Grapevine, December 1952, Vol. 9 No. 7 THE seventeenth Christmas for Alcoholics Anonymous is here. Considering all that has happened since AA’s first Christmas in 1935, no words can portray the meaning of Christmas 1952. The only thing of which we’re really sure is that we have given of ourselves, and have received gifts…
The Passing of a Giant — Mark Houston
Mark David Houston, died suddenly on February 19, 2010. He was 63. Mark was born in Iowa on October 14, 1946. One of four boys, Mark spent his childhood years working on his family’s farm in Corydon, Iowa. Mark’s accomplishments include: U.S. Army Vietnam Veteran, BA – University of South Dakota, Director of Admissions –…
Alcoholics and Faces
In a recent Globe and Mail article, (August 20, 2009, Globe Life – Facts and Arguments) it said… “Of the many things that long-term alcohol addiction can steal – careers, lives, health, memory – one of its most heartbreaking tolls is on relationships,” Melissa Healey reports in The Los Angeles Times. “Alcoholics, researchers have long…