There is a concept in recovery that a person is not going to come out of his addiction until he is ready. There is another concept in recovery that no one enters into recovery until he has hit bottom. These are two commonly accepted concepts. Believing in these concepts leads to the question, “At what point will a person decide he has reached bottom and be willing to make a change?”
Continue Reading Addiction is a disease that affects its prey in many facets of life. Whether the addiction is alcohol, drugs, or some process, many people in recovery find relief by working through the famous 12 steps.
Continue Reading “Just waking up in the morning, gotta thank God. I don’t know, but today seems kind of odd.” These words are spoken at the beginning of an Ice Cube song, “It Was a Good Day,” where he describes a very unordinary day for himself, a day where everything seems to go right. Many times, people in recovery run into this once they make changes in their lives, which helps lead to the types of good days when everything seems to just fall into place.
Continue Reading I was wrong, just so wrong. I believed addicts were people who didn’t have self-control. They were poor, had no loving family, and lived in tough urban areas. I would read stories in the paper about an overdose death and think, “I’m so happy that my son will never be an addict. My son is a happy, straight-A student who is an artist and violinist, lives in a nice home, and has two loving parents. He even won first place in the D.A.R.E. essay contest!” And I thought it was all because I provided such a good environment for my son. What a great parent I was!
Continue Reading There were things that tried to kill me, such as the alcohol and different drugs. I almost let it happen without defense. But there was one more powerful obstacle in my life that finally brought me to the hospital and made me stop breathing and my heart stop beating. It was the fear of asking for help! Was it fear? Or was it stubbornness, arrogance, pride, shame or guilt? Or maybe all of this combined?
Continue Reading Every year, millions of people decide to turn their lives in the midst of addiction into lives in the midst of recovery. One of the problems people encounter when making this change is that some of the close relationships they formed with people through addiction are lost and they may feel that they lose their support system.
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