12 More Stupid Things That Mess Up Recovery

Whether you are facing relapse, learning to overcoming complacency, or taking responsibility for your feelings and actions, this book will equip you to overcome some of the most common relapse hazards you may encounter on your path to long-term recovery. This book gives you the tools you need to work through twelve pitfalls that you are likely to encounter on your path to long-term recovery. Whether you are facing relapse, learning to overcoming complacency, or take responsibility for your feelings and actions, this book will equip you to overcome some of the most common relapse hazards. Recovery from addiction is often compared to a journey where you meet new people, rejuvenate your mind, body, and spirit, and learn new things about yourself that give you hope for the future. But like all journeys, there are also pitfalls that can jeopardize your sobriety. With his popular book, 12 Stupid Things That Mess Up Recovery, Allen Berger has shown many people how to confront self-defeating thoughts and behaviors that can sabotage their sobriety. In this sequel, Allen gives you the tools you need to work through twelve pitfalls that you are likely to encounter on your path to long-term recovery. Whether you are facing relapse, learning to overcome complacency, or taking responsibility for your feelings and actions, this book will equip you to overcome some of the most common relapse hazards as you make your trek along “the Road of Happy Destiny.”

Did you know there are hidden rewards to making amends? Without a willingness to experience our painful feelings, we can never grow and mature into the person we'd like to be. We can never reach our potential. We can never become our true-self. To grow, we must stay in close contact with our experience, whatever it is. We need to stay in close contact with how we behaved in our relationships in order to make a thorough list of those we have harmed. We must face the wrongs we have done without running away from the truth. If we were rigorously honest with ourselves while making the list of people we had harmed, we probably felt one or more of the following feelings: anxiety, shame, discomfort, or guilt. This is exactly what we were suppose to feel. We were learning that we don't have to feel comfortable to be OK. In fact, another hidden reward is that the more willing we are to feel uncomfortable the more comfortable we become. Yes, another paradox! One of the many hidden rewards in working Steps 8,9, and 10 is to stay in close contact with our experience so we can learn from it. This self-understanding is at the heart of self-forgiveness and emotional recovery. --Excerpted from 12 Hidden Rewards of Making Amends

The author of the recovery mainstay 12 Stupid Things That Mess Up Recovery offers a fresh list of "smart" things to do to attain and sustain emotional sobriety. The author of the recovery mainstay 12 Stupid Things That Mess Up Recovery offers a fresh list of "smart" things to do to attain and sustain emotional sobriety. Whether it's called "dry drunk" or "white knuckle sobriety," it's that stage in recovery when we realize that "putting the plug in the jug" isn't enough. The next step is taking responsibility for the emotional immaturity that fuels our addictive personality and has a tremendous impact on ourselves and others. Allen Berger, Ph.D., draws on the teachings of Bill W. and psychotherapy pioneers to offer twelve hallmarks of emotional sobriety that, when practiced, give people the confidence to be accountable for their behavior, ask for what they want and need, and grow and develop a deeper trust in the process of life. These smart things include:understanding who you are and what's important to youlearning not to take others' reactions personallytrusting your inner compasstaking responsibility for your reactions to problematic situationsIt is in these practices that we find release from what Bill W. described as an "absolute dependency" on people or circumstances, and develop the tools to find prestige, security, and belonging within.

In addition to staying connected to our support systems and avoiding opportunities to use during the coronavirus pandemic, we can also keep confronting and conquering the self-destructive things we think and do that undercut our health and sanity. Concise advice on hunting down the personal culprits that sabotage sobriety and personal happiness. To grow in recovery, we must grow up emotionally. This means getting honest with ourselves and facing up to the self-defeating thoughts and actions that put our sobriety at risk. Although there are as many ways to mess up recovery as there are alcoholics and addicts, some general themes exist, which include: confusing self-concern with selfishness; not making amends; using the program to try to become perfect; not getting help for relationship troubles; and believing that life should be easy. In simple, down-to-earth language, Allen Berger explores the twelve most commonly confronted beliefs and attitudes that can sabotage recovery. He then provides tools for working through these problems in daily life. This useful guide offers fresh perspectives on how the process of change begins with basic self-awareness and a commitment to working a daily program.

Stop the Chaos is a practical guide that identifies the telltale signs of addiction, offers suggestions for living alcohol- or drug-free, and teaches the skills necessary for healthy living Stop the Chaos, a comprehensive, practical guide, identifies the telltale signs of addiction, offers suggestions for living alcohol-or drug-free, and teaches the skills neccessary for healthy thinking and living.

A guide to all kinds of addiction from a star who has struggled with heroin, alcohol, sex, fame, food and eBay, that will help addicts and their loved ones make the first steps into recovery “This manual for self-realization comes not from a mountain but from the mud...My qualification is not that I am better than you but I am worse.” —Russell Brand With a rare mix of honesty, humor, and compassion, comedian and movie star Russell Brand mines his own wild story and shares the advice and wisdom he has gained through his fourteen years of recovery. Brand speaks to those suffering along the full spectrum of addiction—from drugs, alcohol, caffeine, and sugar addictions to addictions to work, stress, bad relationships, digital media, and fame. Brand understands that addiction can take many shapes and sizes and how the process of staying clean, sane, and unhooked is a daily activity. He believes that the question is not “Why are you addicted?” but "What pain is your addiction masking? Why are you running—into the wrong job, the wrong life, the wrong person’s arms?" Russell has been in all the twelve-step fellowships going, he’s started his own men’s group, he’s a therapy regular and a practiced yogi—and while he’s worked on this material as part of his comedy and previous bestsellers, he’s never before shared the tools that really took him out of it, that keep him clean and clear. Here he provides not only a recovery plan, but an attempt to make sense of the ailing world.

Mel B. and Bill P. offer a unique look at the historical and spiritual roots of the principles of recovery and how they apply to staying sober, building emotional stability, and fulfilling human potential. The key principles of Alcoholics Anonymous are widely familiar as seven popular slogans: First things first. Live and let live. Easy does it. Let go and let God. One day at a time. Pass it on. Keep it simple. This inspiring book explores the deep wisdom behind these simple sayings and shows how the underlying principles relate not only to recovery but also to living happily and well in a confusing world.Mel B. and Bill P. offer a unique look at the historical, spiritual, and Twelve Step roots of the main principles of recovery. Full of practical help and support, this book gives readers a clear and useful sense of how these principles apply to the main goals of recovery: staying clean and sober, building emotional stability and maturity for successful living in sobriety, and finding the will and the way to get along with others and fulfill our full human potential.

Passages through Recovery presents an action plan for preventing relapse, one that can help us understand how recovery works and what is needed to move from active addiction to sobriety. "Abstinence from alcohol and other drugs is only the beginning of sobriety. It's the ticket to get into the theater, not the movie we are going to see."--Passages through RecoveryOne of the most important things we learn in recovery is that there really is a way out of all the misery--if we know which way to go. But abstinence from alcohol and other drugs is just the beginning of our journey, not our destination. And, that journey can be a rough one if we don't know what lies ahead.Based on the experiences of thousands of recovering men and women, Passages through Recovery presents an action plan for preventing relapse, one that can help us understand how recovery works and what is needed to move from active addiction to sobriety. Gorski's pioneering work describes six stages of recovery from chemical dependency and offers sound advice for working through the challenges of each stage--challenges that can create frustration and lead to relapse.Passages through Recovery clearly demonstrates that sobriety is more than just healing the damage. "It's a way of thinking, acting, and relating to others," Gorski writes, "that promotes continued physical, psychological, social, and spiritual health. The skills necessary for long-term sobriety are all directed at finding meaning and purpose in life."Use this book as a compass in your recovery to help you stay on course.