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Recovery Stories | Jerry Moe: Helping Kids at Betty Ford

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Jerry Moe worries about full-grown alcoholics and addicts, but he worries more about their children. He’s been dedicated for 36 years to mitigating the damage to boys and girls 7-12 years old. He leads a model Children’s Program at the Betty Ford Center, to help kids understand the past and present chaos in their lives. Jerry shared his story with The Recovery Book.

I’m focused on the one disease that tries to convince you that you don’t have it, thereby preventing you from reaching out for help until it’s close to destroying you and all you love. But children who’ve lived in fear and confusion can’t wait. They need help as soon as possible: explanations of “Why do my Mom and Dad fight and scream at each other all the time and do those wild weird things?” And they desperately need assurances that it won’t happen again … Read more...

My Recovery | Frank: Staying Sober on Campus

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College campuses can be minefields for recovering drinkers and drug users. Many of them are as well known for partying as for scholarship. Frank B. dodged that bullet when he registered at Georgia Southern University. With support from the Willingway Foundation, Georgia Southern opened a Center for Addiction Recovery, a program that serves the needs of students in recovery. It is one of a growing number of colleges where students in recovery can find a “safe harbor.” Here’s what Frank experienced.

I had quite a few concerns about transitioning from a halfway house into college. The main one was the fear of losing my newfound sobriety in an environment where a lot of students were probably there as much for a good time as for an education. I worried, too, that there’d be a stigma on campus to enrolling specifically in the university’s Center for Addiction Recovery (CAR). Good news. … Read more...

37 Ideas to Help You Stay Sober During the Holidays (part 2)

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For tips 1-20, see 37 Tips to Help You Stay Sober During the Holidays (part 1).

Sober Holidays Tip #21 Bring your own beverage. If a holiday celebration includes the use of alcoholic beverages (such as wine at Passover), make sure in advance that there are substitutes (such as grape juice) for you and anyone else who doesn’t want to drink the harder stuff.

Sober Holidays Tip #22 Stay sober at the party: Don’t go it alone. Bring along an AA buddy or a hired sober companion. Or take someone at the party into your confidence (the host, a friend, even a waiter); candor will serve you better than pride, embarrassment, or guilt. Tell them that you can’t drink, and enlist them as bodyguard. It will make the event easier for you, and will keep you from winding up in a relapse. If you can’t take someone with you, … Read more...

My Recovery | Carla: Transgender and Alcoholic

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Before she became Carla, she was Carl. Being transgender was private and not something she ever felt comfortable opening up about at meetings, but her sponsors always told her: “It’s no big deal. In AA we don’t judge. You are one of us.” Says Carla,“They were right. AA became my best support system. Not only for my recovery. For my gender change, too.”

I had my first drink at 12 and at 14 was drinking most weekends. I goofed around in high school, took minimum credits the first half of college and spent the rest of my time partying. Halfway through college, as my girlfriend was breaking up with me she declared, “You’re going nowhere!” Resentment worked. I’d show her and I did.

For the next two college years, I only drank on weekends, and in law school limited myself to one weekend a month and graduated with honors. I … Read more...

West Coast Book Launch ~ at the NAADAC Conference

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West coast launch of The Recovery Book – done!

Dr. Al Mooney and Catherine Dold recently attended the NAADAC annual conference for addiction professionals in Seattle, signing and giving away more than 400 copies of The Recovery Book.

Dr. Mooney also sat down for a chat with Recovery Coast to Coast radio host Neil Scott, who called The Recovery Book the “Bible of recovery.” Listen to Neil Scott’s interview with Dr. Mooney:

Many thanks to Carol Lind Mooney and Recovery Houses Services for sponsoring The Recovery Book at their exhibit booth.

Recovery Zone ReCheck – New in The Recovery Book

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The Recovery Zone ReCheck is a simple relapse prevention plan.

In every Recovery Zone, at all times, you will be at some risk of relapse, often when you least expect it. The Recovery Zone ReCheck helps you avoid relapses by regularly taking stock of your life.

Once a month or so, use the three Recovery Zone ReCheck questions to assess your life. They will help you see when changes are coming up—relationships, work, health, medication and so on—that could trigger a relapse. These changes can be almost anything: dental procedure, divorce, getting a raise, having a baby, moving to a new town.

When you spot such road blocks, you move back a Zone or two, brush up on the guidelines of that Zone, re-commit to sobriety, and re-focus on recovery. See pages 18-21 in The Recovery Book for all the details.