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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...

Ask Dr. Al: Do people with addiction really need to “live in recovery”?

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Do people with addiction really need to “live in recovery”? Can’t they just get sober and go on with their lives? Can’t they just go to treatment and get cured and move on?

Sobriety is just the first step in recovery. Treatment, too, is just the beginning. Recovery is really a lifelong process; like dealing with diabetes or another chronic disease, it is something that needs to be tended to every day.

Once a person gets sober, there is much more work to be done. They need to learn about their own personal triggers for relapse, and how to live their life in recovery while minimizing the risk of relapse. They need to restore their relationships and health; indeed, many need to rebuild their entire lives.

People in recovery also need to focus on different issues at different times. You can’t do everything at once in the first week that … Read more...

37 Ideas to Help You Stay Sober During The Holidays

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For some people in recovery, the holidays can be tough. But you can make it to January with your sobriety intact. You don’t have to let unfulfilled expectations, stressful family dynamics, or crazy in-laws threaten your recovery. Not to mention all those holiday parties.

You just need a bit of preparation. Start planning your strategy now, with these #soberholidays tips from The Recovery Book and the workbook companion My Life in Recovery.

Sober Holidays Tip #1: Remind yourself every single morning how good it feels to be sober (and how great it will feel come January). Plant that thought in your mind right now, and think about it every morning. Stick a note on your bathroom mirror to remind yourself to think about it every day.

>> Download the first 3 chapters of The Recovery Book FREE at Amazon <<

>> Download a free sample of My Life in Recovery… 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...

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.

My Recovery Story

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Did you catch the video of Dr. Mooney’s grandson? He is sharing his family’s recovery story.

He’s only 6, but he already knows that the disease of addiction can do great harm to a family — AND that recovery can break the cycle for an entire family. Happy endings do happen!

What is your recovery story? Your family’s story? Share it on Twitter or Facebook using the hashtag #myrecovery, on our Facebook page, or in the comments below. (If you prefer to stay anonymous, email it to us at TheRecoveryBook@gmail.com and we’ll post it for you.)