Addiction Grief

How learning to deal with unresolved emotions leads to true healing—and authentic emotional recovery from addiction. Just as one needs to hit bottom with drinking or using in order to begin recovery, eventually one will also hit an emotional “bottom” of fear, anger, and grief. And recovery can only start by first understanding how, when, and where those emotions took control. Barb Rogers challenges readers in recovery to investigate the unresolved grief and loss in their lives and navigate the impacts of those emotions—emotions that can lead back to using if not resolved. Recovery from addictions involves more than getting sober. It involves finding happiness, which can only happen if the emotional work is done as well. Negative emotions have the ability to weigh on us and influence both our decisions and the way we handle life’s challenges. If we continue to live with fear, anger, and grief, we aren’t really free from our addictions. The steps to recovery—authentic and complete recovery—involve healing from the deeper issues in our life. Learn more about:The emotional healing that goes hand-in-hand with addiction recoveryDealing with grief and resolving underlying issuesHow to find happiness after getting sober

Grief and Addiction illuminates the role of grief work in addiction counseling, encouraging counselors to be more comprehensive in their treatment and to increase empathy for what the treatment process is asking of clients. Acknowledging that entering recovery includes a loss of coping skills, and that it requires building a new identity, this book focuses on addiction-specific grief work. Grief and Addiction integrates concepts like complicated grief, nonfinite loss, trauma, family grief responses, and treatment suggestions in one place—all with a focus on the application to addiction work. Featuring appendices with information and examples for clinicians, Grief and Addiction provides treatment strategies drawn from both the addiction and grief world for professionals and counselor educators.

When her brother dies of AIDS and her husband dies of cancer in the same year, Rosemary is left on her own with two young daughters and antsy addiction demons dancing in her head. This is the nucleus of The Art of Losing It a young mother jerking from emergency to emergency as the men in her life drop dead around her; a high-functioning radio show host waging war with her addictions while trying to raise her two little girls who just lost their daddy; and finally, a stint in rehab and sobriety that ushers in a fresh brand of chaos instead of the tranquility her family so desperately needs. Heartrending but ultimately hopeful, The Art of Losing It is the story of a struggling mother who finds her way—slowly, painfully—from one side of grief and addiction to the other.

How learning to deal with unresolved emotions leads to true healing—and authentic emotional recovery from addiction. Just as one needs to hit bottom with drinking or using in order to begin recovery, eventually one will also hit an emotional “bottom” of fear, anger, and grief. And recovery can only start by first understanding how, when, and where those emotions took control. Barb Rogers challenges readers in recovery to investigate the unresolved grief and loss in their lives and navigate the impacts of those emotions—emotions that can lead back to using if not resolved. Recovery from addictions involves more than getting sober. It involves finding happiness, which can only happen if the emotional work is done as well. Negative emotions have the ability to weigh on us and influence both our decisions and the way we handle life’s challenges. If we continue to live with fear, anger, and grief, we aren’t really free from our addictions. The steps to recovery—authentic and complete recovery—involve healing from the deeper issues in our life. Learn more about:The emotional healing that goes hand-in-hand with addiction recoveryDealing with grief and resolving underlying issuesHow to find happiness after getting sober

This "little green book," as it has come to be known to hundreds of thousands of C.O.A.'s and A.C.O.A.'s, is meant to help the reader understand the roles children in alcoholic families adopt, the problems they face in adulthood as a result, and what they can do to break the pattern of destruction.

In writing about grief, I hope my story can help parents and loved ones who are struggling with the death of a child. No matter the age, the death of a child seems unnatural. Untimely. It hurts, but you are not alone; the world is full of us. I am here to share my story with you and explain why I had to break my addiction to grief for my child, Alexus. After going through the whole ordeal, I told myself that I needed to finalize this process we all call grief. I had to be the mother that my kids needed. I needed to be the strong and courageous woman that God put me on this earth to be—the woman I was before Alexus died. I wrote this book with the hopes of helping others understand their own grief and, hopefully, find their way through the concepts that grief has imposed upon us all. In doing so, it helped me with my own process in more ways than I could have imagined.

Loss is always hard, but when someone you love dies of an accidental drug overdose, the grief that follows can be especially painful and challenging. In this compassionate guide, Dr. Alan Wolfelt, one of the world's most respected and beloved grief counselors and educators, shares the most important lessons he has learned from loved ones who've picked up the pieces in the aftermath of a drug overdose. Readers will learn ideas for coping in the early days after the tragic death, as well as ways to transcend the stigma associated with overdose deaths. The book also explores common thoughts and feelings, the six needs of mourning, self-care essentials, finding hope, and more. Yes, the road you are now walking is a heartbreaking one, but the principles in this guide will help you step through the darkness and back into the light. Understanding Your Grief After A Drug-Overdose Death is part of Companion Press's Words of Hope and Healing series—empathetic books on grief and other loss-related topics, with just the right amount of education and support.

Heegaard, a registered art therapist and certified grief counselor created the Children Can Cope series of workbooks to help children work through feelings about traumatic events and changes using art.