Jennifer Matesa's The Recovering Body: Physical and Spiritual Fitness for Living Clean and Sober seeks to provide "a roadmap to creating our own unique approach to physical recovery" and frames "physical fitness as a living amends to self--a transformative gift analogous to the “spiritual fitness” practices worked on in recovery." She focuses on five areas, … Continue reading Book Review: The Recovering Body
Category: Mutual Aid
Urban myths exposed
Points blog is back with a great interview with George Vaillant. Here's one of the questions and his response: 2. What do you think a bunch of alcohol and drug historians might find particularly interesting about your book? The value of the Grant study to the history of alcoholism is the number of urban myths that … Continue reading Urban myths exposed
Sober fun on St. Patty’s day
I teach at a local university and some years I teach on Saint Patrick's day. It's bad. Green beer starts flowing early, there are very drunk people wandering around all day, people passed out on the sidewalk, etc. Worst of all, it's the default thing to do if you're a young college student on St. … Continue reading Sober fun on St. Patty’s day
Hope, empowerment, capability, connection and purpose
Hopeworks Community recently listed his core beliefs related to his recovery from mental illness: The idea was simple. There are a few core beliefs about recovery that make a difference. To the extent you are able to live them your recovery will be positively impacted. My list of core beliefs was simple: Life can get better. … Continue reading Hope, empowerment, capability, connection and purpose
The Doctor’s Opinion – Dawn Farm Ed Series
Research continues to shed light on the neurobiology of alcohol/other drug addiction. Modern research supports much of what was intuitively and experientially believed by the medical specialists who supported the Alcoholics Anonymous program in its earliest days. This program will describe a physician's view of alcoholism, as presented in the literature of Alcoholics Anonymous and updated … Continue reading The Doctor’s Opinion – Dawn Farm Ed Series
Social connection as a mechanism of change
A new blog looks at social connection as an important mechanism for facilitating recovery: ...if having plenty of quality social connections is good for the next person in the street, is it also true for people trying to recover from addictive disorders? Mark Litt and colleagues from the University of Connecticut conducted a randomised trial on alcoholics … Continue reading Social connection as a mechanism of change
The Misconceptions Go Round
Anna David vents her frustration about recent distortions of 12 step groups in coverage of Philip Seymour Hoffman's death: ...I grow concerned about factually inaccurate information being spread in ways that are truly dangerous. That happened when I stumbled upon this io9 post which states, about 12-step, both that “the problem is that the sponsor system doesn’t … Continue reading The Misconceptions Go Round
Tough love?
In a public facebook post, David Sheff rails against "tough love" advice to kick addicted loved ones out of the house: Like so many others, he's been indoctrinated by counselors, therapists, and people in 12 step groups. Al-Anon is wonderful --it helped me-- but it doesn’t tell us to let a child or spouse or … Continue reading Tough love?
Tribes of the recovering community – Clergy
We'll wrap the tribes of the recovering community series with a few mutual aid groups for recovering clergy. Clergy Recovery Network - The Clergy Recovery Network exists to support, encourage and provide resources to religious professionals in recovery. If you are a pastor, missionary, religious professional--or a spouse of one--and you need help . . .welcome … Continue reading Tribes of the recovering community – Clergy
‘Recovering Alcoholic’: Words That Stigmatize or Empower?
• The more the individual identified him/herself as a recovering alcoholic (addict) the higher was his/her level of self-efficacy.• Higher self-efficacy was associated with more months clean and/or sober.• The more the individual leaned toward the recovering identity the less likely she/he was to report having relapsed into drinking or drug use during the pervious … Continue reading ‘Recovering Alcoholic’: Words That Stigmatize or Empower?
Recovery Review 