Summer 2014

Volume 8 Summer 2014

Chooper’s Guide to everything recovery

Philip Seymour Hoffman an addicted America

Magazine

In this Life Custom Getaways Skewer the Stigma

Anonymity

the never-ending argument ISSN 2372-2347

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Summer 2014

In Recovery Magazine

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In Recovery Magazine

Summer 2014

P.O. Box 11176 Prescott, AZ 86304 CEO/Publisher

Kim Welsh

Editor in Chief

Janet A. Hopkins

Executive Assistant Senior Copy/Proof Editor Copy/Proof Editors Subscriptions Advertising Sales Layout/Design Graphic Artist/Ad Design Photographer The Real Reality CrossTalk Book Review Meditations Dr. Deb Peer to Peer

Family Letter from the publisher

Julie Jaquette Rebecca (Becca) Fields Peggi Bird Barbara Schuderer John Schuderer Michael Lapointe 928.614.1759 Kim Welsh Patricia Mastrobuoni Gavin Searcy Kay Luckett Stephanie Mole Lena H. Michael Lyding Deb Laino Bill W.

Kim Welsh, Stefani Welsh (my niece) and Brandon Welsh (my nephew)

S

ummer has always been my favorite time of year. Since childhood, I have been a sun worshipper. From the days of running barefoot through sprinklers, family vacations and backyard barbeques to juicy fresh fruits and lush green trees, summer is the season when everything is truly alive, and the world is more colorful and vibrant.

Summer memories such as these were my inspiration while designing this issue. With the intent that each issue will be better than the last, I am always on the lookout for eye-catching images which grab the reader at a glance and editorial content that holds them to the page.

Like an intricate 1,000 piece puzzle, each issue slowly comes together word by word, image by image and piece by piece to create what I can only hope will be perceived as a work of art.

In Recovery Magazine (IRM) has grown significantly over the past two years. Our online issue reaches readers as far away as Norway, Australia and Panama. We plan to reach many more.

inrecoverymagazine.com Like us on Facebook In Recovery Magazine reserves the right to editorial control of all articles, stories and Letters to the Editor.

In Recovery Magazine assumes no responsibility for errors within its publication. The views herein do not necessarily represent the policies of In Recovery Magazine and should not be construed as endorsements.

The publication of any advertisement is not to be construed as an endorsement of the product or service offered unless it is specifically stated in the ad that there is such approval or endorsement.

In Recovery Magazine was established in February 2012 and is a nonpartisan publication that is published quarterly by founder, Kim Welsh. Entire contents copyrighted

by In Recovery Magazine in 2012.

Summer 2014

We could use your help. Our goal is to get a copy of IRM into the hands of anyone who wants one. Please help us spread the word. If you know of anyone who might benefit from our publication, please pass it along. We can be found on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+.

I can be reached by email or phone, and I would be happy to email our online magazine to anyone who wants to check us out. Help us help others.

I hope your summer is filled with family, friends and fellowship.

I give thanks to God for all who have taken that leap of faith and joined us in recovery.

Kim Welsh Kim Welsh CEO/Publisher

publisher@inrecoverymagazine.com In Recovery Magazine

3

Table of Contents Cover Story

8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . In This Life (Cover Story) 14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Clean Getaways Travel 16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rule 62 Travel Club 18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sober Celebrations 20 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .The Camping Trip 22 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Real Reality 24 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CrossTalk

In this Life with Bob Kocher

26 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cluttered Lives, Empty Souls 28 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Dr. Deb on Creativity

pg 8

29 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Southwest Recovery Resource Guide 95 . . . . . . Confessions of an Anorexic/Bulimic Theater Student 98 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Everyday Miracle 100 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Book Review 102 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Listen to Your Body 104 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Skewer the Stigma

Viewpoint Duel Recovery Center Pia’s Place Women’s Extended Residential Treatment Oasis Behavioral Health The River Source Treatment Center

106 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Counterfeit Bar

Chapter 5 12-Step Recovery Homes Taste Of Peace Sober Living Home Triple Point Recovery Homes Wilderness First Recovery, LLC Carla Vista Sober Living Homes Steps To Recovery Homes Prescott Sober Living Solutions/The Bridges Network

The Center for Clarity Life Coaching PASS Prescott Area Screening Services Arizona Neurofeedback Center Gallus Detox Center

108 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . From Peer to Peer

pg 29

110 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Which Came First?

112 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Philip Seymour Hoffman 114 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Never-ending Argument 118 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nevermore 120 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No Heroin in Heaven 122 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anonymity

Philip Seymour Hoffman Painting by Kevin Goff

4

124 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chooper’s Guide

pg 112

126 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Don’t Gamble with Your Recovery

In Recovery Magazine

Summer 2014

Letter from the Editor

I nd Lexie

belle a

Janet A

n wo gra

d her t

s an . Hopkin

na ters, An ddaugh

, r e m m u s ? u o y t ’ n do

It’s summer already – this year is flying by! On the first of May, David and I returned to our little cabin in the woods in Prescott, AZ. It was hard to leave the beautiful blue waters of St. Petersburg, FL, but not the rising summer humidity and heat!

A plethora of amazing articles dropped from the sky ...

and landed in my inbox just in time to delight our readers. From the deeply moving Nevermore by Donald George McDonald to the thought-provoking commentaries on the death of Philip Seymour Hoffman by Michael Carolan and Janna Greene, from the informative articles by our regular contributors Sheryle Cruse and Terry Shulman to the discussions about anonymity and AA by Leonard Buschel and LinMarie D, enjoyable articles about sober travel and more, this issue is sure to please!

Inspiring, informative new columns!

In Recovery Magazine columnists continue their efforts to deliver new information, answers, books and recipes to our recovery table. Bill W., a gifted writer, brings his life experiences to bear on the concerns of the dually-diagnosed addict and/or alcoholic with his first contribution in an on-going series of personal reflections, interviews and round table discussions called From Peer-to-Peer. Known as Delaware’s Premiere Sex Therapist, “Dr. Deb” Laino inaugurates her first column with an inspiring look at creativity.

Hope springs eternal ...

I enjoyed a visit from my two granddaughters. It was delightful to see the world through the eyes of these two beautiful young women. I was reminded that recovery runs in my family, and this is really good for our kids. Hope springs eternal as together we “... trudge the Road to Happy Destiny”.

The fall issue of In Recovery Magazine will celebrate our inner children, recovery schools and all things young at heart. if you have an article idea, please let me know. I’d especially love to hear from some teens and young adults out there.

You can contact me at editor@inrecoverymagazine.com.

Summer 2014

In Recovery Magazine

5

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In Recovery Magazine

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Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

– Mary Oliver

In this Life

By Kim Welsh and Janet A. Hopkins

It’s a warm and sunny day in March ...

A block away, the massive cranes are lined up like soldiers as they move containers on and off the huge cargo ships at the San Pedro pier. Inside the Crown Plaza Hotel, under massive crystal chandeliers, the lobby is a beehive of activity.

Bob K., the owner-operator of In This Life Travel, is manning a busy hospitality booth while answering a constantly ringing phone. It is check-in time for the roughly 280 passengers scheduled for his Mexican Riviera Twelve Step conference cruise. As his guests arrive, Bob steps out from behind the tables to greet each person with a hearty hug, making each feel like the most important person on the cruise. ««««« After a brief introduction to a Twelve Step program in 1977, Bob K. continued to struggle with his addiction for ten more years. He lost an opportunity for a professional football career as a kicker. In his addiction, his world went from large and full of promise to small and imprisoning.

Because he was tired of being fired for absences related to his alcohol and drug use, Bob opened an orange juice processing business in 1983. Five years later, he was broke and in trouble. Suppliers were knocking on his door looking for their money. Drugs and alcohol were no longer easing his pain and tension.

A car/pedestrian accident added pressure to his already chaotic life and led to a psychotic break. During this time Bob began to hear voices. Finally after a failed suicide attempt he decided to seek help.

Bob sobered up in February of 1988. O.J. Bob, as he was known in the program, enrolled in a local community college to study the travel business. Always an energetic entrepreneur, Bob busied himself with his recovery community, organizing sober adult softball and basketball teams, golf tournaments and short trips to sporting events.

Since Bob was a young boy of seven, he was a natural born planner and host. He quickly saw an opportunity to combine his passions for sobriety and travel. His company, In This Life Travel, was organized in September 1988 in Palo Alto, CA. During that first year in business, he started doing houseboat group excursions. “One of the reasons sobriety scared me was that I thought there would never be any more fun; so after I got sober, I created a way to be sure there would [be fun].”

Continued on next page

Beth Denham and Bob Kocher

“I saw how newcomers felt safe with other recovering people,” Bob continued. “On early trips, I noticed people were opening up and sharing about themselves. Because of the safe environment our trips provided, some people’s barriers to share [their] experiences were broken down. As a result, lifelong friendships often developed. Many, like me, shared the fear they wouldn’t have any fun in sobriety.”

Bob was forced to choose a different cruise line on a notso-desirable ship. After hearing the news, many who had signed on dropped out. More people cancelled when word spread about a massive case of salmonella which had broken out on the ship during the previous cruise. At the last minute, all but 15 passengers cancelled. “I went into fear, second-guessing myself,” Bob remembered.

The first group excursion was a house boat trip for twelve passengers. Bob organized meetings, fishing, water skiing and dancing for each day. The following year, In This Life Travel expanded to three houseboat trips on multiple boats.

The concept was catching on.

Naysayers came out of the woodwork. Feeling defeated, Bob went to his spiritual advisor, Earl. Earl reminded him, “Keep your promises to your speaker and guests, no matter what.”

Later Bob concluded, “I’m glad I followed my sponsor’s advice.”

At the recommendation of his sponsor, Bob took on some service work, serving as the “speaker seeker” for a large Twelve Step meeting in San Jose, CA. It was during one of those meetings that he met Dr. Earl Marsh, a close friend of the co-founder of AA, Bill Wilson. Bob and Earl made an immediate connection.

Sixteen more passengers signed up within a few days, which made the trip a go. “Steps Three, Six and Seven reminded me that there was really nothing to worry about.” Bob learned a valuable lesson. “It’s not about money. Do what you love and the money will follow.”

Bob’s orange juice business was floundering, needing more capital to move forward. He was in Greece on a personal vacation when he received the news his business partner had closed the doors of their orange juice business.

“Not knowing what to do, I suffered an identity crisis.” Bob said, “I was involved in that business from the beginning and wondered how I would start from scratch again.” Despite his great fear, he had a spiritual awakening. “A feeling of peace came over me ... I knew I could stay sober, no matter what.”

It was Earl who suggested Bob organize sober cruises instead of houseboat trips. Earl offered to be the keynote speaker for Bob’s first voyage. Overnight, 150 people booked the trip. It looked too good to be true. Bob was elated. But then the news came that the cruise company he had booked for this first trip had sold the ship.

10

It was on this cruise that Bob first witnessed what he calls the “safe container”. Earl was supposed to do Father Martin’s Chalk Talk on the progression of alcoholism. However, during one of his discussions, Earl asked the group to write questions on a piece of paper and drop them in a hat which he passed around the room. His method gave virtual strangers the anonymity to discuss things they might otherwise have been too embarrassed to talk about openly or share about in a meeting.

A guest named Bill had a sensitive question. When Earl responded, the group witnessed a bonding between Bill and his wife – a closeness experienced by the entire group. “We discovered it was safe to be open,” Bill shared.

Passionate, compassionate and with a huge heart for recovery, Bob brings these traits and an infectious enthusiasm to everything he does. Most of all, he’s not afraid to discuss his own alcoholism and recovery. Over the intervening years,

In Recovery Magazine

Summer 2014

Taking in the sights of the Mexican Riviera

On the deck of the Norwegian Star

Cynthia Moreno Tuohy and Bob Kocher Bob Kocher getting the crowd going

Fun in the sun onboard

Photos provided by Christopher Tuohy Summer 2014

Embarking on the Norwegian Star In Recovery Magazine

11

he has become a producer and operator of world tours. He takes addicts, alcoholics, their husbands, wives and siblings to places such as Russia, Jerusalem and the Holy Land and the Far East, including Thailand, China and Angkor Wat in Cambodia. He calls his trips “Recovery Conferences at Sea”.

Bob’s company also provides a travel venue for Sober Safaris and the AA International Convention, as well as trips for groups outside recovery, such as the Lions Club.

Today, In This Life Travel offers six to eight trips a year, including Sisters in Serenity, a trip designed exclusively for women. This year they are traveling to St. Kit’s, St. Martin and St. Thomas. In addition, there are two Alaskan trips scheduled for July and August, Tahiti in mid-November and three Caribbean cruises in November and December, departing from either Houston or Miami.

Bob’s better half, Beth Denham, organizes and hosts the Sisters in Serenity. Beth, an LVN, assists with special needs passengers on all of the trips. Bob and Beth met on an In This Life cruise a few years ago. While recovering from surgery, Beth stayed at Bob’s bed and breakfast in Cambria, CA, appropriately named Serenity Corner. They have been partners ever since.

On the In This Life cruises, a variety of meetings are scheduled every day. There’s always a chance to attend at least one meeting per day, even if you are sightseeing at the many ports along the way, swimming in the pool or just taking a sunset stroll along the bow.

In addition to the nearly nonstop meetings, there is a special guest or keynote speaker daily. Bob carefully chooses the conference speakers. “I simply get them on the phone and ask them where they want to go. I call people who inspire me.”

Bob explains, “The great thing about a cruise like this for the alcoholic and/or addict is that you get the best of both worlds. You will enjoy the sights, sounds and activities of the typical cruise, but within the ‘safe container’ of like-minded individuals who speak the same language as you, the international language of recovery.” ««««« Back to the Crown Plaza Hotel ...

Passengers continue to crowd the lobby. The ship departs the following day, and travelers arrive from all over the country for one last night on land before the seven-day cruise begins. Bob greets nearly every new arrival and seems to know everyone by name. He has a team with him; some staff, some volunteers, but all working together like a well-oiled machine. Bags are checked; and folders, badges and smiles are handed out to each and every guest.

Between hugs, Bob is on the phone helping guests find their way from the airport and checking on luggage.

Tonight meetings are scheduled in the hotel, and a brunch is 12

arranged in the morning before shuttles begin transporting everyone to the ship, the Norwegian Star.

On this cruise, Anne L., a bestselling author, will share humor, faith and her personal life experiences. She is joined

by Fr. Tom W., an inspiring speaker who has led retreats throughout the world for over 30 years. Additional speakers are Dr. Joy Miller, an internationally-known licensed psychotherapist, author and motivational speaker; and Rokelle Lerner, an international speaker and trainer on relationships, women’s issues and family systems. Cynthia MorenoTuohy of the National Association of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Counselors (NAADAC) will be giving a special reading from her not-yet-released book, Reign in the Brain.

A comedy night will feature Mary Carouba, a popular speaker, writer and performer who infuses even the most serious subject matter with her hallmark humor.

A Sober Social Networking hour will provide any and all the opportunity to talk about whatever they want, from business to ballgames and from hobbies to more personal topics. Passengers can’t help but have a wonderful experience.

Bon voyage all, have a safe trip!

Cruise conferences are In This Life’s specialty. Together their staff has logged nearly 800 cruises. They also have tour escort experience in Russia, the UK, Ireland, Alaska, the Caribbean and in the Mediterranean – especially Greece and Italy. In addition, they organize Sober Safaris and International Convention travel to foreign countries. Other areas of expertise include fundraising cruises, individual vacation planning, as well as family and alumni trips. You can contact Bob K. at the In This Life Travel website, travelsober.com or inthislife.com, on Facebook at In This Life Travel, LLC, by phone 800.531.7578 or 805.927.6910 or email trips@inthislife.com.

In Recovery Magazine

Summer 2014

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By Loretta-Maria Adkins

I

was born in Brooklyn, NY, and raised in New Jersey. As far back as I can remember, I had a passion for traveling.

Twenty-five years ago, I fell in love with the island of Key West, FL, and have lived here ever since. I was a radio personality for 15 years. When I am not traveling, I am driving a cab – a job I love!

When I gave up drugs and alcohol over ten years ago, a whole new world of travel possibilities opened up for me.

It’s amazing the places you can go when you are able to fully participate in life.

About six years ago, I was looking for an organized group trip to Italy. I couldn’t find any itineraries to this amazing country that didn’t pick you up at the airport and drive you directly to a vineyard. I am exaggerating, but not by much.

I knew there had to be more to traveling in Italy than vineyards, so I decided to start my own alcohol-free travel company. There were lots of hoops to jump through, paperwork to complete and studying to do; but it was well worth it.

Five years later my company is thriving. We have branched out to include health and wellness travel, placing an emphasis on nourishing the body, mind and spirit. Last year we had our first sold out “Yoga Retreat to Tuscany”. This was our second international trip. Everyone had a magical time.

14

It is inspiring to see people come together with common interests and goals, enjoying themselves as they explore new environments. Many of the people on our adventures forge lasting friendships.

We strive to make sober travel as effortless as possible for our adventurers. Our intensive research, experience and thorough planning help avoid the pitfalls a sober traveler might face on their own.

We love attending English-speaking recovery meetings in a foreign country; it’s very exciting. Integral to our itineraries is making meetings available wherever we may be, whether we’re on a farm in Tuscany or on a beach in the south of France. “Wherever you go, there you are.” As long as you bring your recovery with you, traveling anywhere can be rewarding and exhilarating, especially in the company of other like-minded, sober people.

This year we are thrilled to be taking a group to Paris and Bretagne, another collaboration with our friends at Yoga on the Beach. It is a wonderful company managed by people who share our travel vision. Together we plan to get our yoga on, learn some new water sports, explore, hike and, of course, enjoy Paris, The City of Light – sober.

In Recovery Magazine

Summer 2014

Clean Getaways Travels We also host many travelers here in Key West, the tropical island paradise I have come to know and love. While it may be a town notorious for its hard-partying ways, Key West has much to offer the sober traveler as well. Fine restaurants, snorkeling the fifth largest barrier reef in the world, historical tours, charming architecture and a host of colorful characters welcome you to the unique perspective of Key West’s official philosophy of “One Human Family”.

While we have no way of knowing where this path may lead us, we certainly have faith that we will be right where we are supposed to be. The sky is blue today. The birds are singing, and we surely are enjoying the journey!

Loretta-Maria Adkins Loretta-Maria Adkins, 50 years old and clean ten years, is truly a jack of all trades. She is the owner of Clean Getaway Travel, a cab driver and former radio personality. Travel and helping others is her passion. So far, Adkins has been to 49 of the 50 US states. Clean Getaway Travel is located at 1100 Margaret St., Ste 3, Key West, FL 33040. She may be contacted by phone at 305.240.1816, by email at loretta@cleangetawaytravel.com or her website: cleangetawaytravel.com.

Summer 2014

In Recovery Magazine

15

Rule 62 Travel Club

By Melissa McCallum

M

y name is Melissa, and I am a travel agent and an alcoholic. My husband, David, and I are avid cruisers who love sobriety. We met in the rooms and have been blessed with a wonderful sober life. We love to cruise; it is one of our favorite things to do. When I first sobered up, I found it intimidating to cruise with people who were drinking. David and I found we didn’t have much in common with the people we met on board. As we cruised through the years, we attended Twelve Step meetings onboard the various ships; there were many times when only one other person showed up.

This got David and me thinking. Were there others out there who weren’t doing exciting things like cruising because of the drinking associated with cruising?

We decided to start the Rule 62 Travel Club cruising venue for people in recovery. Rule 62 Travel Club was born out of the Rule 62 in the rooms, “Don’t take yourself so seriously”. We take that to heart. Our travel club provides the ability to travel with other sober people and share meetings and other activities while on board and ashore. David and I do all the planning. Part of our service includes finding shipboard meeting space, organizing activities and planning the excursions. Just show up, have a blast and enjoy the comfort of sailing with a sober group.

Our trips are a “group thing”. We have dinners together and meetings onboard in private areas reserved just for our group.

We do fun activities such as scavenger hunts, 70s dances and other activities which are just pure silliness. Some of our travelers join our port and land excursions, enjoying adventures such as zip lining, city tours, snorkeling, beach outings and, of course, visiting local AA meetings.

Our sober group cruises are aboard the ocean liners of major cruise companies, including Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Holland America and Norwegian. We have cruised to the Bahamas and all over the Caribbean. Our first Alaskan cruise took place this past May. Next year we plan to branch out with a trip along the northeastern US to enjoy the fall foliage.

I have made many friends over my years of sober sailing. These friendships have lasted far beyond the last day of our cruises together. The young and young at heart, from 17 to 82 years old, have enjoyed amazing travel experiences with us – experiences full of laughter, fun and fellowship. Each trip has something for everyone. Our common bond makes cruising an even more enjoyable experience.

Come join us as we sail the seas in sobriety!

Melissa and David McCallum may be contacted by email at info@rule62travelclub.com or via their website Rule62TravelClub.com. They may be reached by phone at 352.563.0307 or toll free at 866.765.4264

Sober Celeb

A

By Snow P.

sober vacation is a happy holiday anyplace, anytime you are active in your recovery. It’s good to take along a box of tools to help you stay sober. There is a popular term, sober cruise, which is a misnomer as there is no such thing as a ship without alcohol. The term merely defines a fellowship vacation organized by a sober travel company which brings sobriety tools and a sober group onboard.

Since I have specialized in sober cruises for over 13 years, people call and email me often asking if there will be any alcohol onboard. Of course, that is the right question to ask if you are someone who is conscientious about staying sober. It’s important to find out if there will be obstacles in your path. I recently received an email admonishing me for saying there are bars on ships. It would be a disservice to pretend there are no alcoholic drinks or bars on cruise ships, as that is untrue. Many people enjoy sober cruises and bring their “normal” family along for the vacation: kids, in-laws, aunts, uncles and grandparents. It is comforting for them to know that we sober cruisers are close by if they need us.

I spent eleven days in Europe touring Spain, Italy and France with 35 recovering alcoholics. We were moved to tears as we said the Eleventh Step Prayer at the grave of St. Francis of Assisi in Assisi, Italy. We held hands as we repeated the Serenity Prayer at St Mark’s Basilica in Venice. To be with people who have been brought back from the dead and have the good fortune to travel in safety together is an experience beyond words. We see the beauty we missed when we were drinking. We are tourists wearing God glasses.

There are so many moments when a wonderful presence is evident. All we can do is nod to each other in silent 18

recognition. When I saw the Sistine Chapel – that ceiling of all ceilings I’d only seen in pictures – all I could do was weep. How did such a lost kid like me become so found?

How did I get to be so lucky? How awesome is the Higher Power that saved us all?

It seems like just a short time ago when I didn’t think I was going to live through yet another hangover from hell.

Now I awaken at dawn, hungry for the next assignment.

It keeps getting better and better.

On one particular Halloween Gratitude Cruise, 333 people showed up for a seven-day cruise. The costume theme was Noah’s Ark. The result was hilarious! Alcoholics know how to belly laugh. We have won the ship’s best costume contest three years in a row.

No matter where we go, we are always the group having the most fun. In January of this year we went to the Bahamas for our Sober Sisters Cruise. Because one of the gals brought a guitar, we were singing and laughing in our section of the beach. It was the best party on the beach that day!

I never once woke up and said, “Dear God, make me a travel agent.” I was very successful in the architectural design business, but I was willing to go wherever He wanted to take me. Combined with the gift of hospitality; which my parents gave me and a true desire to be of service, I help people get away from their problems and enjoy their lives.

The sober cruise business is what I am best suited for.

I have held crying brides, who were sure they wanted to get divorced before going home. But before they left the

In Recovery Magazine

Summer 2014

rations

cruise, I had talked them out of it. I have married many couples and have pushed people in wheelchairs to airports in Mexico. I have inflated inner tubes and have done any number of things normal travel agents would never do.

I do these things because I love my alcoholics; they are my family.

I recently celebrated 39 years of sobriety. This astounds me. The moments I have been present for and have been able to share with the folks who travel with me are beyond my comprehension. It will be my honor to escort my sober family on these trips for as long as I live. I can’t wait to see what adventures we will have on our next trip!

How does someone like me get to see the sun come up in a hot air balloon over the jungle in Africa? When drinking in New York, I never even got to go to New Jersey!

Living a sober life has enabled me to have all these wonderful adventures.

Snow P. in recovery for 39 years, owns the website Sober Celebrations, has trademarked Gratitude Cruises (for anonymity purposes) and has a fullservice travel agency. She personally escorts fellowship vacations all over the world and weaves sobriety tools into the infrastructure of every trip.

She lives in Florida with her husband of 32 years, is active in the fellowship community and is a national speaker. snow@sobercelebrations.com

Summer 2014

In Recovery Magazine

19

The Camping Trip

By Michael W.

I

n January 1995, I found myself drowning in a morass of lies and chaos. I no longer had anywhere to turn. Through what I believe was divine intervention, I was presented with a single moment of clarity and utter desperation that only the dying can know. I picked up the phone and called my father to finally admit to another human being that I was an alcoholic and drug addict. At 24 years old, I found that my disease had progressed so far that I couldn’t get through any part of the day without something to “keep me right”.

In actions that seemed to occur without my involvement, I found myself attending AA meetings. Hopeless, helpless and spiritually bankrupt, I wanted the happiness that everyone else in the meetings had. I saw people around me enjoying life without the need for drugs or alcohol just to get through the day. I followed their suggestions and began seeing my life through new eyes. Although life was getting better, I had a feeling of “is this it?”. I was genuinely happy and loving sobriety, but I needed more.

Back in 1986, there was a group of young people in the Englishtown, NJ, area who attended weekend retreats together. The retreat center had organized many fundraising events in the past, but an excursion that included camping and canoeing seemed unlikely. A young John 20

“Goose” K. took the reins and planned a trip that soon took on a life of its own. That trip was well received and loved by all who attended. The Camping Trip began in a Barryville, NY, campground and grew slowly over the years.

In January 1995, I thought my life was ending, one hour at a time, in smoky church basements. In May 1995, I learned my life was just beginning. A friend handed me a flyer for The Camping Trip. It was a clean and sober outing on Memorial Day weekend. When I was drinking and using, I had been camping before; but those excursions usually concluded with park rangers advising us that our activities and behaviors were not welcome in the parks. Because I was sober, I was willing to give it another shot.

I arrived at The Camping Trip in Barryville, NY, barely four months sober. All I had with me was a tent with more holes in it than Swiss cheese, a sleeping bag, a change of clothes and a little food. Unfortunately, it began to rain; I was wet and a little chilly, but I was also feeling more alive than ever before.

Surrounded by almost 100 other alcoholics, carefree and enjoying life, this trip opened my eyes to the fact that there were no limitations to what I could do in recovery.

I fell in love with the trip and within a year, found myself

In Recovery Magazine

Summer 2014

involved in organizing it. With trips on Memorial Day, 4th of July and Labor Day weekends every year, it has become a spiritual retreat for people from all over the country for 28 years now.

In 2005, The Camping Trip had to move to a new location. After an exhaustive search and an entire weekend of touring nearly 50 campgrounds, we literally stumbled across a campground that was not on any list we had. We had found our new home in Bangor, PA, within five miles of Columcille, a spiritual retreat center. The campsite had an amazing energy. It is near the Appalachian Trail with lush foliage. This campground has been a loving home for us ever since. Â In 2011, I was blessed to be a part of the largest group The Camping Trip has ever seen. The 25th season of The Camping Trip kicked off with 244 clean and sober campers enjoying a special anniversary pig roast. Â For me, memories of proposing to my wife in front of the fire at the Saturday night big meeting, raising my two beautiful children with the extended family I have found on these trips and the spiritual refreshment I receive during each trip has given me an appreciation for life beyond my wildest dreams.

Michael W. can be reached at thecampingtrip.com or thecampingtrip@ verizon.net.

Summer 2014

In Recovery Magazine

21

The Real Reality

By Kay Luckett

L

ast fall I returned as a very tender soul from a fiveday workshop at The Meadows in Wickenburg, AZ. Our therapy groups dug deeply into all my personal issues: my family of origin where I was “less than nurtured” (that opened Pandora’s Box), relationship traumas (aren’t they synonymous?) and my core issues centering on the F word, “feelings”.

I discovered problems with intimacy, enmeshment, control and more. All of these problem areas would show up as some kind of feeling or another. I learned to identify the location in my body where I discovered the sensation, and that the sensation corresponded with a feeling or thought.

I began to see the intellectual meanings I had assigned to my feelings and the emotional assumptions I had fabricated about them. I learned that these meanings and assumptions were my own creations. At times during the process, I surmised that I was just plain nuts.

I explored my emotional sobriety and discovered that, despite all my so-called problems, I was, and still am valuable and precious. I am as worthy and valuable as everyone else. My mantra for that week was, “I am enough.” I wore a post-it note on my shirt proclaiming this fact. Though difficult, facing these challenges has brought me to my present bottom-line belief that in every instance the solution comes down to love. It’s all about finding love – God’s love, spiritual love, whatever love and that, in reality, is self-love in 22

our very core.

Now that I am back in the swing of life, I see that one of the surest signs I am backing away from my own mental health occurs when I lose the ability to laugh at myself. When I become dreadfully serious, the whole world becomes “all about me”. That is the moment I recognize my need “to be restored to sanity”.

I am able look at myself unconditionally and see that I am growing; I am not going crazy. I was told that in recovery we do not have nervous breakdowns; we have nervous breakthroughs. In keeping with my strong faith in that axiom and my growth experience at The Meadows, I find that trusting the help I receive from my God and from others in recovery is quite sane. GOD: Good Orderly Direction.

Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.”

My real reality is the experience I have when I have done my spiritual work and am able to get past my problems to find my core, my very being, which is always love. God is love.

So what does it all mean, this love, this core, this search for mental health and emotional sobriety? It means “Live, Love, Laugh”. It is doing the hokey pokey and turning myself around. That’s what it’s all about.

So while we are doing the hokey pokey, please turn yourselves around and have some of Sadie’s Chocolate Pie. Dance, love, eat and enjoy. That’s what it’s all about!

In Recovery Magazine

Summer 2014

YUM! Sadie’s Chocolate Pecan Caramel Pie

One store-bought 9” graham cracker pie crust

Filling: 40 vanilla or plain caramel candies, bite-sized (about 1½ packages of candy bites) ½ cup whipping cream 3 ½ cups chopped pecans

Topping: ½ cup semisweet chocolate chips 2 tsp butter 2 Tbs whipping cream Chop and toast pecans. Melt caramels with ½ cup whipping cream. Add pecans to melted caramel mixture and stir well. Spread onto bottom of pie shell.

Melt chocolate chips with butter in a fresh sauce pan. Add 2 Tbs whipping cream and stir to blend.

Pour and smooth over top of pie. Refrigerate at least one hour to make sure filling is firm.

Summer 2014

In Recovery Magazine

23

CrossTalk is based on the premise that recovery life is polytely: frequently, complex problem-solving situations characterized by the presence of not one, but several endings. This writing represents decades of recovery and its application to life and how to get over it, into it or through it with spunk, levity and a good dose of reality. What? You want more than happy, joyous and free? Get over it. Just sayin’. – Mollé.

Hey, Mollé: I have recently been offered a free trip to the UK with a new boyfriend. I am seven months sober and the older people in my home group are giving me grief about it. They think I am too new in recovery to come back clean. My sponsor also thinks it’s pretty risky. What do you think?

Flying Nowhere Fast Ms. Fast, First, slow down. We in the rooms are not there to judge or scare you. Second, don’t pit me against your sponsor. “Oh, Ms. Mollé said I should go!” That does not fly with me.

However, if you are asking me for my opinion, well, sit back and listen.

We can do anything we want to do … as long as we’re willing to pay the price. Problem is, we don’t always know what the price is until it is too late to get out of the hole we just dug ourselves into. Then we try to blame the outcome on something/someone else rather than own the responsibility of having made the decision ourselves. No one can make you fly; no one can stop you from flying. This is your decision.

The smart approach is to make an informed decision. That means taking counsel and being completely honest with no more than three people who have solid recovery and whom you trust. Then take the information and imagine every step of the process from getting your passport, packing and being on the plane romantic-eye-glazing at each other. Does 24

he drink/use? Does he know that you are in recovery? Have you checked out where you are going online? Have you written down where the meetings are in the UK? If things get dicey, do you have a plan?

I traveled to Italy when I was four months sober. My sponsor helped me get ready. I had a plan and phone numbers of people who would take my call. I had declared to my two friends (who both drank) that drinking was not in my plan; and if that made them uncomfortable, then I would stay home. Had my traveling buddy been a lover, it would have made the trip a lot more dangerous. Turns out my friends’ drinking nauseated me. I met interesting people every morning at breakfast while they were sleeping it off.

I came home sober with stories of a lifetime to tell including the stress of hunting down a meeting in the dark with guncarrying militia on the streets. Crazy fun, but only because I stayed sober.

Dear Mollé: I have a couple of problems troubling me. I am a man in early recovery. I think I may have been bi-polar my whole life, and I am going crazy in recovery. My sponsor says he can’t sponsor me if I take antidepressants because that would not be real recovery. As a man, I feel really weird asking other people about this because I don’t want them to think poorly of me. What do you think?

Feeling Judged

In Recovery Magazine

Summer 2014

Dear Judged, Okay, here comes a rant about recovery. We are not doctors, and who are any of us to say anything about another person’s mental health? Many people have been tremendously helped by physicians, therapists and clinical providers. Sponsors are not doctors! Unless your sponsor happens to be a doctor; and even if he is, I would recommend you make an appointment with a doctor whom you trust, be totally honest about your physical and mental health concerns and fears, listen to his/her input and only then make your decision.

You are responsible for your mind and body. God will not do for you what you can do for yourself – take the action that is in your best interest, not someone else’s. God will do for you what you cannot do for yourself. That means do your homework, be open-minded and honest, and trust that God will help you in the process. I salute you for admitting your suspicion that you need help. This truly is the First Step. Stay in touch and let me know how it goes.

Mollé: I think I might need addiction treatment. I’ve been in AA for two months now, and I am coming out of my skin.

I don’t have any money, but my mom just got insurance coverage and can help me until next year when I’m 26. I think I should go now. Or should I just stick it out in AA? A lot of people never went to treatment. I don’t want to waste the money.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place Dear Rock (or is it Rockette?), Treatment isn’t something that someone usually wants to do, but it sounds like you do. I can only guess it is because you are afraid you won’t stay sober if you don’t go to treatment. Money is an important issue; and you are correct, many people have and do get sober without treatment.

Many say that the Twelve Steps are a treatment program all by themselves.

There is no one solution. First, seek the counsel of a clinical professional who can help you understand your needs, fears and what treatment can offer you. If needed, he or she can direct you to a program most suited to your needs.

I admire the fact that you are reaching out. You obviously have a great desire to stay in recovery. I know the next right step will show up as soon as you move into action. Let me know what you decide to do.

The viewpoints shared or any implied actions suggested by Mollé are the opinions and ideas of the author only and do not represent those of In Recovery Magazine. The implied action is offered openly and is never intended to replace the advice of a counselor or physician. crosstalk@ inrecoverymagazine.com

Summer 2014

In Recovery Magazine

25

Cluttered Lives, Empty

By Terrence Shulman

Cluttered Lives, Empty Souls is a quarterly series with information and practical advice about compulsive buying, spending, theft and hoarding. Terry Shulman’s down-to-earth approach to these addictions comes from his own life experience as well as his extensive experience as a treatment professional. He was featured in The Truth about Shoplifting, recently aired by CBC and CNBC.

P

eople who steal, hoard, overspend or shop usually feel empty inside. The same could be said of many addicts; their lives are cluttered with stuff, food, drugs, busyness, relationships and chaos. But nothing fills the void deep inside. This emptiness may result from an absence of: love, a sense of purpose, community or meaning, spirituality or self-esteem, or the sometimes elusive essentials of fulfillment and self-realization.

As a chemical dependency counselor from 19972004, many of my clients asked if I was in recovery. When I told them I was in recovery for shoplifting, they’d almost always react in shock: “Really?” They’d often share how they’d “boosted” to support their alcohol and drug addictions; and even after they got sober, it was difficult to stop stealing – not just for the financial ease, but because of the rush they got from doing it.

From ages 15-25, I tried to fill those empty places with stealing, particularly shoplifting. My parents divorced when I was eleven, primarily due to my father’s alcoholism and its byproducts. My early issues were about losses: security, my childhood and my innocence. Though I took pride in helping my family, I also suffered the shame of coming from a broken home.

Interestingly, I’ve heard many shoplifting or theft addicts lament, “Why couldn’t I just have been an alcoholic or drug addict because at least that’s socially acceptable. When an alcoholic or drug addict says, ‘I have 30 days clean,’ people applaud. What do you think people say when a shoplifting addict says, ‘I have 30 days with no stealing’? They don’t say anything.”

I stumbled upon shoplifting as a teen. I was a good kid, but curious enough to test some boundaries and rules.

I never realized I could get hooked! Soon enough shoplifting not only filled the voids in my life, but seemed to give me a sense of power as I “made life fair” by taking. It was as if I was symbolically taking back – item by item, piece by piece – everything I felt was stolen from me: my childhood, my trust, my family, my life.

Stealing was this incredible rush...it was like getting something for nothing! – Addict I lived a secret life for ten years. I didn’t exactly lie or cheat.

I didn’t think I stole from any one – just from stores or work.

I dabbled in employee theft, taking product and sometimes small amounts of cash.

Though I knew right from wrong, I convinced myself I wasn’t hurting anyone; I deserved a break, a freebie. I now see my stealing was a cry for help. A part of me wanted to get caught, perhaps in hopes my madness would stop. The few times I was actually caught were some of the lowest, most humiliating experiences in my life. Despite my conflicted feelings, I couldn’t stop myself until I was ready to change.

I recently celebrated my 24th year as a recovering shoplifter. Though I haven’t had any shoplifting relapses in many years, I still have occasional temptations to get “something for nothing”. I have worked through personal issues underlying my shoplifting addiction and have made positive changes that keep it in check. I know addiction runs deep and I have so much to lose if I slip up.

26

A glance at the headline news on any given day reveals countless stories, low- and high-profile, about thievery. The recent recession brought a wave of retail fraud. Some of it is petty, but more of it is perpetrated by professional shoplifters or rings. Countless stars, athletes, politicians and dignitaries have been arrested for pilfering.

So, why did Lindsay do it? Why did Winona do it? Why do people shoplift? It isn’t usually for the lack of money. High profile shoplifters typically protest their arrests with initial cries of “I didn’t do it,” or “It’s all a mistake.” With the exception of Winona Ryder, who took her case to a jury and was found guilty, virtually every case ends quietly and often, as with Ms. Lohan, with a “no contest” plea.

I fantasize that one day a “famous” shoplifter will hold a press conference or release a statement saying, “I’m sorry for my actions; I take full responsibility for them. I offer no excuses, but am not entirely sure why I did what I did. I plan to do some soul-searching and get the necessary help.” We could use a positive poster child for stealing addictions.

Through my own recovery and work with thousands of people, I have found that people with this addiction have certain characteristics in common. They tend to be codependent caretakers or over-givers; they have a pervasive sense that life is unfair; they have unresolved money issues; and they have trouble speaking up or “treating” themselves. The Core Beliefs of Shoplifters illustrates the common core beliefs of most shoplifting addicts and those who compulsively steal. Most of my clients typically relate to at least five of these core beliefs.

In Recovery Magazine

Summer 2014

Souls There’s no such thing as something for nothing.

– Napoleon Hill

What about you? Have you shoplifted? Have you stolen from an individual? Have you stolen from work? Have you ever used someone’s identity, credit card or other personal information without that person’s express consent?

If you recognize that you might have a problem with stealing, take a few moments and circle the core beliefs in Core Beliefs of Shoplifters which might apply to you. If you need help, contact me.

Core Beliefs of Shoplifters Life is unfair.

The world is an unsafe place.

TERRENCE DARYL SHULMAN JD,LMSW,ACSW,CAADC,CPC Founder/Director Writer for In Recovery Magazine

The Shulman Center for Compulsive Theft, Spending & Hoarding PO Box 250008 Franklin, Michigan 48025 Phone/Fax: 248-358-8508 www.theshulmancenter.com

Nobody will be there to take care of me.

No one is really honest.

I’m entitled to something extra for my suffering.

Nice people finish last.

There’s not going to be enough money to live.

It’s a “dog-eat-dog world” out there.

No matter how hard I try, things never work out.

It’s not worth my speaking up about anything.

Terrence Daryl Shulman is a Detroit-area therapist, attorney, author and consultant. He is the founder and director of The Shulman Center for Compulsive Theft, Spending & Hoarding. He is the author of Something for Nothing: Shoplifting Addiction and Recovery (2003), Biting the Hand that Feeds: The Employee Theft Epidemic, New Perspectives, New Solutions (2005), Bought Out and $pent! Recovery from Compulsive $hopping and $pending (2008) and Cluttered Lives, Empty Souls: Compulsive Stealing, Spending & Hoarding (2011). He has been featured on nearly 100 television programs, including The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Email: terrenceshulman@theshulmancenter.com phone: 248.358.8508, web: theshulmancenter.com Summer 2014

In Recovery Magazine

27

By Dr. Deb Laino

I

am often referred to as “Dr. Deb” Laino, Delaware’s Premiere Sex Therapist. I am honored to have this title in so many ways. Since I will be a contributing writer for this amazing publication, In Recovery Magazine, from this point forward, I would like to introduce myself. In the past I have worked in everything from women’s health clinics, community centers and drug and alcohol treatment, to teaching at a university, working in my present private practice and authoring numerous books.

I remember working in a drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility several years ago, not only doing individual and group therapy, but also exploring creativity through the arts.

This was one of my favorite things to do with clients, as I believe using creativity – or learning how to tap into it – can be highly therapeutic and beneficial. It was most profound to see their transformation from using negative coping skills such as drugs, alcohol and sex, to learning how to use positive ways to express feelings – real and raw.

While there are many options for art therapy, I have found creative writing and drawing to be the most beneficial.

A good example was my group on writing imaginary stories, describing where one would want their life to be in three years.

I remember receiving some criticism based on the One Day at a Time mantra which is widely used in the field of addiction treatment and which I do agree with to some extent.

However, I believe there needs to be a conscious look into the future of our lives. The therapeutic use of imaginary story-writing draws heavily from neuroscience theory and may actually change the direction a person wishes to go. You see, when we humans decide on a path and when we begin to think in a way that is progressive, we send messages to our subconscious mind, which in turn sends messages to our conscious mind, which are manifested in our outward behavior.

The stories written in my group were amazing. The participants wrote about real feelings based on real desires such as wanting to be a good parent, husband, wife or citizen.

28

These were thoughts which many of these individuals were unable to contemplate while under the influence of alcohol or drugs. If they had thought about real feelings and desires, those thoughts were fleeting. Individuals went from confused and agitated to crying to relieved and ultimately to hopeful and inspired; there was a creative transformation which happened right before our very eyes.

With help, group members developed a plan of action they could initiate to move towards these “imaginary” scenarios. Writing and thinking about what they wrote were the first and most important steps to their final transformation.

A more detailed, step-by-step strategy kept them on the right track. When they felt lost, they could go back to their plan.

This exercise, coupled with individual therapy, group therapy and Twelve Step meetings, initiated the most transformative works I had seen to date. I continue to use this technique in my private practice where I primarily counsel individuals with sexuality issues. I have found it to be one of the most beneficial, long-standing creative tools for growth and transformation.

If you have not connected to your sense of creativity – everyone has one, some just need to be nurtured a bit more – I invite you to try this simple writing activity and help clear a path to your future. It is simple to do; it takes a little time, some paper and a pen. Be the driver of your life – design your own future!

Dr. Debra Laino DHS, M.ED, MS, ACS, ABS Board Certified Clinical Sexologist/Sex Therapist Private Practice/Wilmington, DE; adjunct instructor at Wilmington and Philadelphia Universities; president and cofounder of Delaware Association for Sexology; and author of Eleven Reasons Why Women Cheat and other books. She may be contacted through her website, delawaresexdoc.com.

In Recovery Magazine

Summer 2014

Viewpoint Duel Recovery Center Pia’s Place Women’s Extended Residential Treatment Oasis Behavioral Health The River Source Treatment Center

Chapter 5 12-Step Recovery Homes Taste Of Peace Sober Living Home Triple Point Recovery Homes Wilderness First Recovery, LLC Carla Vista Sober Living Homes Steps To Recovery Homes Prescott Sober Living Solutions/The Bridges Network

The Center for Clarity Life Coaching PASS Prescott Area Screening Services Arizona Neurofeedback Center Gallus Detox Center

Viewpoint Dual Recovery Center is a premier extended-treatment program in the US and is dedicated to individuals with co-occurring mental illness and substance abuse (dual diagnosis). The program provides clients with an individualized, transformative and nurturing experience designed to build self-esteem and skill sets needed to live their best life possible. This is achieved through our UHELPTM program model combined with long-term, structured sober living.

Most programs focus on substance abuse treatment while treating mental illness as a secondary issue.

Viewpoint properly addresses mental illness concurrently through appropriate medication and therapy.

Most programs in which the overwhelming majority of clients may not have a mental illness primarily focus on substance abuse treatment. In contrast, Viewpoint offers a program dedicated to clients with a dual diagnosis. This allows for a targeted, supportive and, therefore, more effective environment for treatment. Without properly addressing an underlying mental illness through appropriate medication and therapy, attempts to recover from addiction are often ineffective.

This is why dual-diagnosed individuals are often unsuccessful in recovery and find themselves admitted to multiple treatment centers. At Viewpoint Dual Recovery Center, you or your loved one aren’t treated as an exception, but rather are surrounded by people who understand and share your struggles. Our caring, professional treatment team possesses a combination of clinical and personal experiences which ensure a progressive and empathetic approach.

Our unique approach, in conjunction with our skilled team of experts, allows us to work in tandem with other treatment centers, supporting their clients who struggle to find help at traditional, non-dual-diagnosis programs.

“I have been to five different treatment programs in the last two years. What stood out to me the most about Viewpoint was that the program is actually individualized. The other programs I’ve been to claim to be unique for each person, but the treatment I received was always close to or the same as everyone else’s. I am so grateful for Viewpoint because now I have a recovery program specific to my needs and diagnosis. I am truly committed to facing my issues and learning how to live a life without drugs and alcohol while managing my depression.”

– Bret M.

Viewpoint Dual Recovery Center is committed to providing clients with the tools needed to support healing while providing an opportunity to live a rewarding and fulfilling life. Without properly addressing an underlying mental illness through appropriate medication and therapy, attempts to recover from addiction are often ineffective.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the use of behavioral therapies and treatment, alone or in combination with medication, is the cornerstone of successful treatment outcomes for most dually-diagnosed people. Research illustrates the need for individualized treatment approaches which address each patient’s drug abuse patterns and drugrelated medical, psychiatric and social problems.

Viewpoint is a true dual-diagnosis treatment program offering a structured-living environment, in conjunction with traditional recovery-based treatment modalities and cutting-edge behavioral therapies which help our clients make true and lasting changes.

Viewpoint’s comprehensive approach to treating dual diagnosis is achieved through our trademarked system, UHELP™ (Understand, Heal, Educate, Love and Practice). This system supports clients in going beyond short-term success to find true and lasting change.

Program

In the Extended Treatment Program, clients earn responsibilities as well as privileges based on input from the entire clinical team.

Depending on their needs and goals, clients are actively encouraged to become gainfully employed or enrolled in school.

UNDERSTAND

Accurate diagnosis, determined by our team of experts, is the foundation of the Viewpoint program.

HEAL

Intensive and ongoing therapeutic work, utilizing various therapeutic approaches, assists individuals in discovering the root causes of their personal issues.

EDUCATE

Clients receive educational support in such areas as mood management, healthy relationships, problem solving, self care, health and nutrition.

LOVE

Love and encouragement are essential components of treatment, supporting clients as they develop the confidence to become successful.

PRACTICE

A compassionate approach to client care provides a safe and secure environment where clients are encouraged and supported as they learn from their mistakes.

CALL NOW! 877-777-5150 Office: 240 S. Montezuma Street, Suite 201, Prescott Arizona 86303 Phone: 928-778-5907 • Fax: 928-778-5908 Email: info@viewpointdualrecovery.com More about us: http://www.viewpointdualrecovery.com/InRecovery/

At Pia’s Place, we believe the best way to help women empower themselves with recovery is by working closely with them.

Pia’s Place is located in beautiful Prescott, Arizona 615 West Hillside Avenue You may contact us for tours of our facilities.

Our office hours are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday thru Friday Contact Pia’s Place at 928-445-5081 or Admissions at 928-713-5129 www.piasplace.com

Women Helping Women Reach New Heights in Recovery At Pia’s Place, women become empowered by letting go of the past, developing their spirituality and moving into new behaviors which enhance their quality of life. The program is an open ended, genderspecific, dual diagnosis, extended-care residential treatment facility.

The professional staff at Pia’s Place supports women recovering from substance abuse by exploring the traumatic events in their lives which are negatively affecting their recoveries or are causing chronic relapse.

Women often cope with the pain of their pasts with self-defeating behaviors. They usually enter treatment when their lives become unmanageable and overwhelming. As they search for a sense of value or to simply feel better, they may engage in such behaviors as taking mood altering substances, consuming alcohol or using food to self-medicate. They may also engage in process addictions such as over-work, toxic relationships or compulsive spending.

The program is modeled on Pia Mellody’s recovery process. Mellody is the author of several books, including Facing Codependence, Facing Love Addiction, Breaking Free and The Intimacy Factor. She traces the origins of the disease of addiction back to childhood and suggests the structure of codependence as an operant behavior underlying all addictive behaviors.

In a three-part approach to recovery, Pia’s staff first teaches recovering codependents how to move beyond the denial of their childhood trauma issues. Clients are then taught techniques to identify the symptoms of codependence, as well as strategies and insights for addressing codependency in their everyday lives. Finally, the women identify and record specific instances of improvement in their lives, aiding them in developing greater self-awareness and continuing recovery.

We don't grow when things are easy; we grow when we face challenges.

“I’m happier now than I have ever been, and it would not have been possible without the love, guidance and daily tools I received from Pia’s. I am so full of gratitude every time I recall my time spent at Pia’s.”

– E.M. “The best part about Pia’s is the incredible relationships you come away with.”

– L.W.

Hope, Strength, Love, Fellowship Sometimes all it takes is a leap of faith.

• Alcohol and substance abuse treatment • Trauma issues • Family of origin issues • Codependence • Dual diagnosis • Love/sex addiction • Depression/anxiety • Eating disorder issues

Contact Pia’s Place at

928-445-5081 Janet Bontrager Admissions

928-713-5129 www.piasplace.com

Acute Psychiatric Hospitalization

•Adults 18+ •Adolescents 11-17 Residential Treatment

•Adolescents 11-17

JFI Suicide Prevention & Education

•Professionals & Community members of all ages TWO LOCATIONS

2190 N. GRACE BLVD. CHANDLER, AZ 85225 Acute Psychiatric Hospitalization Residential Treatment Suicide Prevention

1120 E. 6TH STREET CASA GRANDE, AZ 85122 Residential Treatment Suicide Prevention

1-800-844-6435 OBHHospital.com

MISSION STATEMENT Oasis Behavioral Health (OBH) approaches care with hope, purpose and optimism – one person at a time.

HOPE, PURPOSE AND OPTIMISM Oasis Behavioral Health is an Acute Psychiatric Hospital and Residential Treatment Center serving the inpatient needs of adults and adolescents. Oasis provides a safe, stable and secure environment for clients to stabilize in times of crisis, allowing them to move forward in their recovery process.

Oasis staff members offer hope to clients suffering from depression, emotional pain or trauma. OBH helps them realize their futures can be different from their pasts. Each client is approached with optimism about their future and their recovery. With staff support, clients learn to define their purpose beyond mental illness and addiction. Roadblocks to recovery are addressed independently and setbacks are used as growth opportunities. Discharge planning emphasizes and supports personal strengths and goals.

Children | Adolescents | Adults | Families

PROGRAMS Acute Psychiatric Hospitalization Oasis Behavioral Health Hospital provides inpatient crisis and stabilization treatment for children and adolescents ages 11-17 and for adults ages 18 and over who are experiencing psychiatric and/ or alcohol and other chemical abuse problems. The safe, stable and secure environment promotes stabilization and recovery.

Residential Treatment Center (RTC) Oasis Behavioral Health RTC is a Level 1 RTC providing services for dually-diagnosed adolescent males and females, ages 11-17, who are experiencing emotional, behavioral and substance abuse difficulties. Highly qualified staff addresses psychiatric, chemical and family concerns in a nurturing environment, while working with the adolescents to achieve academic goals and prepare for successful lives in the community.

Suicide Prevention Oasis Behavioral Health is a proud partner with The Jason Foundation, Inc. (JFI), a suicide prevention and awareness organization. OBH is committed to the education, prevention and support of community members affected by suicide.

The new JFI Community Resource Center in Chandler, AZ, provides free suicide prevention education to students, teachers, clinicians and community members.

“Cody has definitely changed for the better, thanks to all the time and effort you, Tina and the staff put into his treatment. [He is] opening up and embracing this gift ... what a great kid you sent home. He is focusing on him, and he straight up asks new friends, ‘Do you do drugs or are you in any trouble, ‘cause if you are, I can’t have you in my life.’ He does everything he is asked to do; and at this point, I most certainly feel very blessed and very grateful for the OBH program and staff.”

– Lisa P.

Healing doesn't mean the damage never existed.

It means that the damage no longer controls your life."

- Akshay Dubey

THERAPEUTIC SUPPORT SERVICES Recreation Therapy Oasis Behavioral Health clinical programs employ supportive recreation and music therapies. Art expression, music, yoga, team sports, aquatic recreation and other activities integrate leisure skills into treatment. These activities promote healing and support social and cognitive functioning, confidence-building, as well as the development of coping skills.

Oasis Recovery School Oasis Behavioral Health boasts an onsite, world-class learning institution which offers a high quality education in a therapeutic environment. The Oasis Recovery School enables adolescents to complete treatment and address mental health issues while continuing to work toward their educational goals. The Oasis Recovery School addresses the special learning needs of students through individualized curricula and alternative teaching methods and accommodations.

Services • Intensive assessment and evaluation • Group, individual and family therapy • Coping skills and stress management and groups • Patient education • 12 Step program education and meetings • Aftercare and discharge planning • Medication management and education • Substance abuse • Trauma • Dual Diagnosis • Psychiatric crisis

• Self-injurious behaviors • Behavioral/conduct disorders • Licensed recreational/art therapy • Vocational program • Culturally competent interventions • 24-hour nursing care • Continuum of care • Accredited school on site • Living in Balance Curriculum • Illness Management Recovery

1-800-844-6435 OBHHospital.com

The River Source is a 12-step holistic program with treatment centers for drug and alcohol dependency located in the Downtown Historic Mesa (20 minutes from Phoenix International Sky Harbor airport) and Santa Cruz Valley (45 minute drive south of the airport). They offer a 30, 60 or 90 day inpatient treatment (detox included), as well as a 5 and 10 day detox only program. Since 2003, The River Source offers the nation’s premier drug and alcohol treatment that has been proven to be effective in strengthening the mind, body and spirit.

The River Source has a unique integrative approach using both conventional medical and naturopathic medical treatments. This approach minimizes the detox pain and results in a faster recovery. This substance abuse detox program is an inpatient treatment with professional medical staff on site “24-hours” per day.

Their Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) is often used and recommended as a transition upon completion of an inpatient program. It is a treatment service and support program used primarily to treat substance dependency in situations when intensive residential services are not required. The program offers flexible times that allow individuals to participate in both their daily affairs and treatment. Some nutrition and clinical services are included in this program.

All programs offered at The River Source provide support for families and loved ones through educational workshops and family counseling sessions. Regardless of the origin of the problem and regardless of whether the client considers it an “individual” or “family” issue, involving families in solutions is often beneficial.

Aftercare and intensive follow-up is an essential part of recovery. Individual aftercare plans are designed by both the client and the professional therapists at The River Source to ensure a successful outcome.

The River Source philosophy is that recovery from addiction is a lifelong process and thus the focus is on healing the whole person including the Mind, Body, and Spirit.

TREATMENT AT THE RIVER SOURCE INCLUDES THE FOLLOWING MODALITIES: • Nutritional IV vitamin therapy helps put the essentials back into your body (Vitamin C, B-Complex, B5, B6, B12, Folic Acid, Calcium, Magnesium, Zinc and Selenium) • B-12 shots • Amino Acids therapy • Homeopathic remedies • Infrared sauna helps remove toxins out of your body (chemicals, heavy metals, waste..)

• Acupuncture • Massage therapy • 12 Step • Meditation • Yoga • Gym visits (Monday-Friday) • Individual Counseling • Family Counseling • Small groups and educational workshops • Neurofeedback (BAUD Therapy) “I was an opiate addict that had a moment of clarity, and asked for help. I came to The River Source because of the holistic approach and the feeling I got about the place. I have had a profound experience here physically, mentally, and spiritually.

I have reconnected with spirit, and have really opened my heart to things I didn’t know I could feel anymore. The staff at The River Source is excellent at what they do, and really helped push me to see me and my life for what it was, and what it could be if I followed suggestions. They were a vital part initiating the psychic shift that old timers talk about. It was very helpful to me to have that support and experience to see on a daily basis. My life is much more manageable now with Spirit guiding me and meditating when things are crazy. I really feel like there is a solution and I have just begun unlocking the beauty of life. I would definitely recommend The River Source. The naturopathic remedies, the yoga, and the approach they take to recovery are all vital in helping have that psychic shift. It is an amazing place to be. I would like to say thank you to the staff and my family that I found inside these walls. Without the support and guidance I got here, I would have neve rseen this program through. Namaste.”

– Zachary, Ohio Our son was addicted to prescription pain pills for years. As a parent, we felt powerless watching his life disintegrate. He finally reached out for help and thus began our search for a treatment facility for him. Knowing how vital it was to select one, which would be effective and this realistically could be a one-time shot; we found The River Source’s website. We liked what we read about the holistic approach. In particular, the use of vitamin and amino acids infused back into the addict’s ravaged body, as well as the 12 step program, counseling and mentoring. I cannot accurately describe the joy we felt as we watched his transformation over the next 30 days. He began to look stronger and healthier. His demeanor changed as he started to become more of his old self. He gained confidence and the twinkle was once again in his eyes. He said to us on the night he reached out, “If I could do it on my own, I would. I just don’t know what to do.” Now he does, thanks to The River Source and their wonderful staff and programs.

– Cheryl , Phoenix AZ

The River Source is the nation’s premier drug and alcohol treatment program, offering holistic therapies that are effective, affordable and convenient.

• Accepts most insurance • Proven 12-step, holistic treatment • Revolutionary naturopathic detox program • A sobriety guarantee for 90-Day inpatient clients (if a client relapses within a year of treatment, they are offered a full 30 day inpatient treatment at no cost)

• Travel to our Arizona-based facilities at no cost (for out-of-state residents)

If you or a loved one is looking for treatment for any type of substance abuse, please call The River Source.

Your call is always confidential.

A Spring of Hope - a personal journey At the onset of the 2012 St. Patrick’s Day snowstorm I came to Prescott. Considering the amount of snow here and the fact that everywhere I’d travelled a storm was passing through, it seemed fitting that I arrived that day. I drank and partied my way from Wisconsin to Harvard to Poland to Taipei and back, searching for the meaning of my life and for freedom. Unfortunately, the very chemicals I used for liberation eventually enslaved me. My once-promising life had slowly eroded. I had lost all hope of finding any meaning to my existence. I began praying to find the answer in death … and in death, find relief from my alcoholism.

Through a series of fortuitous events coupled with the unwavering support of loved ones, I emerged from detox and found myself at NOVA, an amazing treatment center in Oshkosh, WI. Broken and willing, I surrendered. I could not figure out my life on my own. I needed direction and guidance. My own ideas had nearly killed me.

While at NOVA, I found acceptance and realized the necessity of following suggestions. There I received the single most important suggestion for my new life: that I go to Chapter 5 in Prescott, AZ, where a chance of obtaining true, long-term sobriety resided. Thirty-eight days after my last drink and barely relieved of my shakes, I arrived at Chapter 5 scared and desperate amidst the stormy cold of a life I hoped to escape.

My feelings of despair and worthlessness were soon overridden by an optimistic hope, something I had not felt in a long time. The Chapter 5 family greeted me generously and warmly with open arms. I felt a bond of camaraderie immediately, a brotherhood of those sharing in the common purposes of sobriety and a better life.

Chapter 5 gave me the environment in which I could change and grow. Their experienced, caring and professional staff selflessly wanted nothing more than for me to succeed. The clinical support was just what I needed. I found how the Twelve Step program works and was told there were promises that would come true if I “ ... thoroughly followed [their] path.”

SPRING OF HOPE continued When I came to Chapter 5, I thought I came there to learn how to quit drinking. Instead, I learned how to live and how to love others and myself. I discovered how to give. I found freedom, happiness and meaning. I found myself living a life I never thought could exist. All of this I owe to Chapter 5, because Chapter 5 is, after all, “How It Works”.

Seth Born is the Marketing and Outreach Coordinator for Chapter 5 in Prescott, AZ. He can be reached at Seth@Chapter5Recovery.com.

“Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path.”

OUR MISSION Chapter 5 is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, residential treatment environment dedicated to providing men and women with the tools, structure and support necessary to be successful in their recovery from alcoholism and drug addiction. We offer a clean, safe and sober setting based on the spiritual principles of the Twelve Step programs.

We welcome adult men and women who are alcoholics or addicts, regardless of age, race, creed, religion, sexual preference or ethnic origin.

A desire to be free from alcohol and drugs, a willingness to commit to our program and the capability and commitment to become self-supporting are the only requirements to be considered for clinical or residential status.

Chapter 5 positively influences our guests’ lives throughout their recovery, encouraging them to remain closely connected with the program and its current residents through our Chapter 5 Alumni Program. We form a strong bond with one another because it’s tough doing recovery on our own.

• Licensed residential facilities • Partial hospitalization programming • Intensive outpatient program and outpatient therapy • Structured residential sober living • Alumni aftercare program • Transitional living • Outdoor therapy • Life skills/job readiness training

Seth Born is the Marketing and Outreach Coordinator for Chapter 5 in Prescott, AZ. He can be reached at Seth@Chapter5Recovery.com.

• Community service opportunities • Yoga/intramural athletics/gym memberships • 24/7 on-site management • Clean, safe, supportive environment

ADMISSIONS & INFORMATION

888-541-0690

AN UPSCALE HOME FOR WOMEN IN RECOVERY

Sabino Canyon, Tucson, AZ

A warm, caring and compassionate home environment in the exquisite desert surroundings of Southern Arizona

Contact us today to see how we can make a difference in your life!

www.TOPArizona.us • 520.425.3020 • Like us on Facebook

OUR VISION Our vision is to provide recovering women with a structured, caring compassionate home environment and to make their personal journey in sobriety more than just a possibility!

Recovery can be achieved one day at a time.

Taste of Peace Sober Living Home provides women who have completed a residential treatment program with a sober home environment as a prelude to a successful transition back into society. Our goal is to assist women in achieving and maintaining long-term sobriety in a positive, productive and spiritual home, while practicing the principles of the Twelve Steps through a Twelve Step program.

Taste of Peace Sober Living Home provides women the opportunity to live in a safe environment while learning

to incorporate their recovery into real-life situations. It is the perfect environment for women transitioning from treatment back into their community or for women needing a supportive residence while participating in intensive outpatient programs. At Taste of Peace Sober Living Home, while surrounded by like-minded recovering individuals, women are connected with the robust recovery community of Tucson, AZ.

Don't just count the days, Make everyday count!

WHO IS TASTE OF PEACE Taste of Peace Sober Living Home maintains a warm and supportive home for women in recovery where they can

learn life skills, personal responsibility and the habits of long-term, healthy living. Residents of Taste of Peace benefit from being part of a culture of wellness, surrounded by a community of people who share similar goals. With the help of support staff and peers, residents are given a balance of structure, support and increasing freedom to assist in living their lives to the fullest.

The home is beautifully furnished and designed to accommodate the needs of our residents. It is nestled in the canyons outside of Tucson, AZ, in a peaceful setting which allows relaxation and a focus on wellness. Taste of Peace is in close proximity to the University of Arizona and Pima Community College, as well as to a variety of other activities and attractions.

WHAT IS MY FIRST STEP? Your first step is admitting to yourself and to others that you have developed an addiction to alcohol and/or drugs. You must have recently completed a drug or alcohol addiction treatment program or must be actively involved in an approved intensive outpatient program. Your second step is to call our house manager to schedule a tour of our home and make an intake appointment. We look forward to helping you on your journey of recovery.

WHAT WE OFFER Taste Of Peace Sober Living Home employs a multidisciplinary staff that also helps women recovering from eating disorders. Whether guests are learning to live healthy lives free from eating disorders or simultaneously dealing with alcohol or drug addiction issues. Whether you are overcoming bulimia, anorexia nervosa, or a compulsive eating disorder, we assess and offer ongoing support for your relapse prevention plan and offer continuity of care, which is crucial to women in early recovery. We can help you embrace and live out values and self-esteem you acquired during your inpatient eating disorder rehab program.

Guide my path, that my footsteps may not slip.

MISSION STATEMENT

Taste of Peace Sober Living Home’s mission

is to create a safe, nurturing, positive, spiritual environment and program structured for women ages 18 and older who are recovering from alcoholism and/or drug addiction.

Amenities included are: • A breathtaking location near Sabino Canyon Park, one of Tucson’s most beautiful hiking areas • Partnership with some of the best intensive outpatient programs in the area • Leadership provided by individuals with many years of sobriety • Cardio exercise equipment • Panoramic views • Local transportation • Bi-weekly events or outings • Owners who are well-known in the recovery community • Weekly client schedules

“If you want to leave behind people, places and things, and take time off from work to focus on your recovery, our sober living home is the place for you. Contact us today to see how we can make a difference in your life!”

Leilonne Neylon Director

www.TOPArizona.us

520.425.3020 Like us on Facebook

Here at Triple Point, peers help peers understand the three points of life;

Two Locations Specializing in:

PRESCOTT

Structured and Transitional Sober Living

COTTONWOOD

Structured Sober Living

The Past, The Present, and The Future.

Through working a strong Twelve Step program we work together to understand the conflicts of our past and present situation.

Then we begin to plan for our future,

One day at a time.

For information contact:

BILL ORICK

928-899-2699

bill.triplepointhomes@gmail.com

If you are willing to be honest, open minded and want to change your life, we can help.

MISSION/PHILOSOPHY There are three points in life: the past, the present and the future.

Triple Point encourages clients to look at their past and their defects of character, which lead to their present reality. At this point, clients can learn how to live a structured, clean and sober, Twelve Step way of life and begin planning for their future, one day at a time.

Triple Point Recovery Homes opened in May 2012 in Prescott, AZ, by Ray Simmons, Ty Eden and Bill Orick. Bill and Ray had been working together in the recovery industry and both strongly felt that Yavapai County, AZ, needed another affordable, structured, Twelve-Step-based recovery program for men who were under the supervision of the county probation department. At that time, Yavapai County had only one other company providing this service.

Triple Point was designed to give men in recovery another affordable recovery choice. Their clients have been ordered by the probation department or the court system or have merely needed additional help to continue with their recovery.

In August 2012, Triple Point opened a second facility in Prescott, AZ. A third facility was opened in Cottonwood, AZ, in July 2013. The second Prescott facility is a less-structured transitional environment. Graduates of Triple Point’s 26-week program, as well as graduates of other similar programs, live in safe, clean and sober surroundings where they continue to work on their Twelve Step way of life.

Triple Point staff members are passionate about helping men change their lives. If a man is willing to begin changing his life, be completely honest and work on his recovery, Triple Point wants to support and help him.

I may not be there yet but I am closer than I was yesterday.

Triple Point’s 26-week program is a structured, Twelve-Step-based recovery plan for men.

There are three phases, which are called Points.

• Provisional Point – a minimum of five weeks. This is the point in a man’s life where he loses the resistance he may have felt about recovery. He is not able to move forward unless he stops fighting his addiction and surrenders.

He understands that he does not have to do recovery on his own and that it is not a sign of weakness to ask for help, including help from a power greater than himself and help from his peers. He is learning that a spiritual life is vital to his sobriety.

• Pivotal Point – a minimum of twelve weeks. During this phase of the program, the client continues to build the strength of his recovery. Once he makes his program his number one priority, he begins to see that everything else in his life falls into place, including family, relationships and employment. Through a process of meditation, prayer, patience, respect and anger management, hopefully during this point the man will develop an understanding of what a power greater than himself can do for him.

• Progressional Point – a minimum of nine weeks. During this final point, the client will begin preparing an exit plan. He begins to save money for the future when he moves on after graduation or moves to our transitional facility. The client will have progressed through all Twelve Steps with a sponsor and may have begun working with his own sponsees, with the recommendation and help of his own sponsor. He should be among the strongest residents in the house and should have built a strong, personal, spiritual recovery program.

“I ended up at Triple Point after I got my 3rd DUI in Prescott. My life was extremely unmanageable. I made a lot of money selling drugs, but I still didn’t have a penny to my name. Since being in Triple Point, I learned to use the tools to help relieve resentments and do the next right thing. I can even remember what I did the night before and can keep a $20 bill in my wallet for almost a week! Pretty Cool!”

– Myles S. “Before arriving at Triple Point, my life was utter chaos with no direction, full of dishonesty. With Bill Orick and the Triple Point team, I have been given the tools to better myself and build a foundation for a better, sober future for me and my family. For that I am truly grateful.”

– Matt R.

Never give up!

“Triple Point has changed my life! I was accepted with open arms and given a chance to change my life. It`s a peer-driven, structured and spiritual program.

I needed and wanted help, and the program gave me nothing but support and love to live a better life. I`ve learned to grow and understand my purpose in life.

Triple Point opened my eyes that we have real problems or issues, and we can deal with life on its terms. I can do it and take care of myself now, for my future sober and clean. I`m very thankful and grateful for this program.”

– Jayme M. “My values in life are GOD, myself and recovery. I`ve been at Triple Point for 15 weeks and my life has changed tremendously. I have a good job, great sponsor and a life I’d only dreamed of. Thanks to Triple Point, all the guys and most of all, manager Mike Hasbrouck.”

– Jonny J. “Being institutionalized is hard to accept; fighting the battle of addiction at the same time makes things so much harder. I thank GOD for helping me find Triple Point and its program. It has given me a cornerstone for my life on which to build a solid foundation. [It has given me] the tools I need to keep building a clean, positive life. For me right now, the sky is the limit. Triple Point has helped me see this and has pointed me in the direction to get there. Thank you, Triple Point.”

– David R.

For information contact:

BILL ORICK

928-899-2699

bill.triplepointhomes@gmail.com

JORY WISOCKI 928-899-8076

SOBER LIVING • SOBER ADVENTURES 2215 East Calvery Lane, Prescott, AZ 86301 (928) 899-8076 Wilderness1st@yahoo.com WildernessFirstRecovery.com

JAY WISOCKI 928-899-3882

Wilderness First Recovery is a sober living, retreat-style facility for men located in the beautiful Granite Dells, minutes from downtown Prescott, AZ. Wilderness First Recovery is a program designed for adult men in recovery interested in having a positive experience and a new appreciation for the great outdoors. Our model not only gives a positive wilderness experience, but also enhances an individual’s appreciation for the simple things in life. Most of all, our program gives an individual a strong sense of accomplishment, challenge and self-worth, and has a positive impact on the recovery process.

Wilderness experiences in recovery are proven to encourage a natural process of spiritual conditioning which allows our clients to experience a stronger connection to their Higher Power.

Adventures in Recovery Develop your natural instincts and learn to trust them through amazing wilderness experiences in the most beautiful, remote areas of Arizona. Enhance your spiritual conditioning as you identify metaphors for your life. Learn to balance your life using our Positive Mental Attitude (PMA) approach designed to initiate a thoughtchanging process for dealing with the “One Day at a Time� lifestyle important to your transition back into the community. Discover our breathing meditation exercise that we believe is vital to maintaining your recovery.

With a handful of awe-inspiring wilderness adventures on your resume of life experiences, our staff will assist you during your final month in researching employment and/or educational opportunities and help you locate sober roommates in your community of choice.

Simply put, Wilderness First Recovery provides the transitional time crucial for making these life-changing decisions and successfully handling the stress that may arise as you start a new life in recovery.

TESTIMONIALS “I’ve been a client in this sober home for about three months now and can honestly say this is all I could have asked for in a program. When I arrived I wasn’t forced to go to certain meetings. It’s more of a ‘Let’s go and find the meetings that fit you and start getting active.’ The house is BEAUTIFUL! I personally like the hot tub aspect after a long backpacking trip :)” – Matt M. “Recently I’ve figured out how to put a little fun, a little excitement back in my life. If you had told me I’d be backpacking for days at a time or rappelling off a huge cliff face into a natural pool, I would’ve told you that you needed more help than I did. When you’re out in the wilderness all worries just seem to dissipate.”

– Ryan D. “I don’t wake up ashamed of myself every morning, walking around with my head down; I’m proud of the things I’ve achieved in sobriety and some I’m still working toward. I have to hand it to these guys. What’s going on here is something rare. Simply put, getting outdoors you find yourself; through AA you find yourself. That’s what this place is all about.”

– Lee M.

An All-inclusive sober living-retreat style facility located in the beautiful Granite Dells, just minutes from downtown Prescott, Arizona.

Our Mission

We provide a positive environment and an opportunity for personal change. We teach our clients to develop a new way of living and thinking through amazing wilderness adventures, spiritual conditioning and personal challenges. Be prepared to have fun in sobriety!

Wilderness First Recovery Sober Living Home is an all-inclusive residential facility with the following amenities: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Room and board, all utilities, cable, Wi-Fi and house groceries One all-inclusive five-to-six day wilderness backpacking adventure per month One all-inclusive three-to-four day canyon exploration adventure per month Adventure transportation, food and gear provided, excluding boots and clothing Adventure education/skills providing potential career opportunities Opportunities to develop mentoring, coaching, team building and leadership qualities In-house Big Book and Twelve Step studies Onsite campfire meetings and BBQs Beautiful sunset meditations A place to read books next to our seasonal waterfall and flowing stream Over 100 AA/NA and other addictions meetings available Weekly meetings with sponsors in a spiritually relaxed atmosphere Monthly family communication updates In-town transportation, if needed. However, residents are encouraged to utilize the sober community for rides A crystal clear hot tub to soak in after a week of backpacking A low-volume music room where you can jam with our of selection of guitars and bass instruments

SOBER LIVING • SOBER ADVENTURES

2215 East Calvery Lane Prescott, AZ 86301 (928) 899-8076 Wilderness1st@yahoo.com WildernessFirstRecovery.com

YOU CAN DO IT.

GETTING YOUR LIFE BACK START

Carla Vista works! Carla Vista Sober provides a safe and sober environme from drug and alcohol addictions base 12 steps of recovery. We provide com housing that anyone would call home genuine life-long friendships are crea key to success is in a structured progr support from people that understand. do it. Your life is waiting.

ACTUAL COMMENTS FROM C A VISTA RE SIDE N TS

“For the first time in my life, I feel lik the chance to be the person I was mea I feel like I have a chance to be happy a promising life.”

“There was no way I was going to mo sober living even though I never tried did and it was one of the best deci I have ever made.”

CARLA VISTA WORKS!

Carla Vista Sober Living provides a safe and sober environment free from drug and alcohol addictions based on the 12 steps of recovery. We provide comfortable housing that anyone would call home where genuine life-long friendships are created. The key to success is in a structured program with support from people that understand.

You can do it Your life is waiting.

CARLAVISTA.COM FACEBO O K.COM/CARLAVIST 480.612.0296 | 888.591.4555

CARLAVISTA.COM • FACEBOOK.COM/CARLAVISTA 480.612.0296 • 888.591.4555

TS HERE!

ABOUT CARLA VISTA

A PLACE FOR POSITIVE CHANGE

r Living ent free When we opened our first sober home in 2008 on Carla Vista Drive in Chandler, AZ, we knew we were starting ed on thesomething important. We weren’t just providing housing; we were creating a safe, structured, supportive community mfortable that would combat the isolation which accompanies addiction. We were proving that people can rebuild their lives, one e where day at a time, one step at a time. ated. The ram with THE CARLA VISTA DIFFERENCE . You canWe are passionate about what we do. Every single member of our staff is in recovery and has experienced sober living.

ARL A

We’ve been there. We’ve done that. You’re unlikely to find a more dedicated, committed team of individuals. We’re here to provide our resident/alumni family, their families and our partnering treatment community with exceptional care.

WHY SOBER LIVING

ke I have Leaving an inpatient treatment facility can be overwhelming. The following factors may make leaving our structured ant to be.environment even more difficult: and live a• In the past, you were living with people who used drugs or alcohol.

• You have to stay sober before you can live with your family again.

ove into • You don’t have an outside sober support system. d it. Yet, I • You are new to recovery and the Twelve Step program. isions

TA 5

If this sounds like you, a Carla Vista home will provide you with the skills to stay sober while reducing your relapse risk. We give you more than just a place to live. We give you safety and support within a proven structure – all of the necessary tools to rebuild your life.

Carla Carla Vista Vista will will provide provide the the path path toto your your new new life. life.

CARLA VISTA MORE THAN A HOUSE

When we say we offer a home, we mean it. If you think “sober living” means staying in an untidy, crowded house in a rough neighborhood where people are still using, think again. We take pride in our homes; each one is 100% tour-ready at all times. Before you ever become part of the Carla Vista family, you can tour our homes and talk to our current residents. We know you will be pleasantly surprised.

WHAT TO EXPECT

We ask you to commit to 90 days; however, most of our residents stay between six to nine months. There are two residents per bedroom. A live-in house manager offers guidance, accountability and leadership.

To ensure a focus on recovery, men and women live in separate homes.

WHEN YOU LIVE WITH US, YOU WILL: • Attend Twelve Step meetings daily, have a sponsor, a home group and a service commitment.

• Attend two house meetings a week, one with a featured alumni speaker.

• Attend two Twelve Step meetings a week with your fellow residents.

• Help ensure your sober home is safe for everyone by taking random drug screens.

• Get linked to counseling and treatment if you aren’t already.

• Have a job within two weeks of your admission using our job placement services.

• Make friends, socialize and have visitors while respecting your home’s curfew.

• Free gym membership for all current residents

WE ARE A FAMILY

Our residents and alumni tell it like it is. They came to Carla Vista thinking they wouldn’t fit in or like anyone. They felt fear, low selfworth and shame. Each day at Carla Vista, our clients saw evidence of how people change through sober living and they themselves were changed as well. They became filled with gratitude and a new peace of mind. They became part of a family – learning, laughing and growing together in sobriety.

Believe in yourself

ALUMNI EVENTS

Anyone who thinks sobriety cannot be fun has not attended one of our alumni events. Each quarter current Carla Vista residents join our alumni to enjoy each other’s company, make new memories and expand their support group. Some of our activities have included: Carla Vista Super Bowl flag football, bowling, kickball and our version of capture the flag. With every event we are creating more fun and friendships!

CARLA VISTA ALUMNI NETWORK

By the time members of our Carla Vista resident family reach 90 days of continuous sobriety, they’ve reached many of the goals in their recovery. They have also reached another milestone by becoming Carla Vista Alumni. Each time this happens, we honor the event at our weekly house meeting and each alumnus finds a permanent place on their home’s Alumni Wall. We also recognize this accomplishment in our Milestone Mondays section of our Facebook page. Our alumni network is strong and grows stronger every day.

480.612.0296 888.591.4555 888.591.4555 480.612.0296 CARLAVISTA.COM CARLAVISTA.COM FACEBOOK.COM/CARLAVISTA FACEBOOK.COM/CARLAVISTA

Our mission is to provide a safe environment, free from any illicit drugs or alcohol, for people with substance abuse issues.

We focus on behavior modifications and are dedicated to consistency, structure and direction in our homes.

Call Anne at 928-821-3526 or Damien at 928-592-2603 stepstorecoveryhomes@gmail.com www.stepstorecoveryhomes.com

Hope House provides spacious living for men. Onsite accommodations include two separete spacious apartment. Both apartments are equipped with kitchen facilities and comfortable living areas. The top floor apartment has a large deck; the bottom floor apartment has a beautiful fireplace. A central common area provides computers with internet access, bulletin boards with resources, a recovery library, a laundry room and an additional bathroom, life coaching sessions and twelve step fellowship meetings.

All conveniences, including an onsite office, parking area, garden, barbeque and large back yard are within easy access. Block walls with iron gates surround the Hope House and provide security. Cottonwood Area Transit and other resources are within walking distance.

The Gratitude House, a women’s facility, is centrally located in the quaint town of Cottonwood, AZ. Clients enjoy comfortable accommodations in this seven bedroom house with a spacious living room, community kitchen and three full bathrooms. Roomy bedrooms provide a comfortable setting. Amenities include a laundry, computers with internet access, an outside smoking area, horse shoe pits, a fire pit, barbeque, garden and a very large yard. The Cottonwood Area Transit runs by the house which is located within walking distance of most supermarkets. An onsite manager’s cottage has an ample parking area.

After a scenic 90-minute drive north from Phoenix, AZ, through picturesque deserts and distant mountains, the fertile Verde Valley, known for its rivers and creeks lined with tall cottonwood trees is revealed. The town of Cottonwood is in the heart of this beautiful valley. The historic mining town of Jerome and the Red Rock Country of Sedona, voted one of America’s most beautiful places by USA Weekend, are within easy traveling distance. People come from all over the world for inspiration and renewal in the unique beauty of these settings.

By setting an example and providing direction, we assist our clients in developing integrity and responsibility, thus becoming assets to their families and communities. Our clients may have missed certain building blocks when they were younger. Most really do want to change but often lack the guidance and environment to do so. We provide that nurturing environment. We know from our own experiences that change is possible and know we will be able to help.

What What we we cannot cannot do do alone, alone, we we can can do do together. together.

My wife, Anne, and I watched people in the Verde Valley of northern Arizona move into area halfway houses, do their best to continue their recovery with what resources were available, just to end up relapsing.

It seemed like such a revolving door. We talked a lot about how the experience could be different. We knew these people needed direction and healthy examples.

When one of the best local options for a structured, safe, clean environment closed down, we knew it was time to take action. We started putting our ideas together, and in about two weeks we acquired our facility. On August 1, 2013, we opened The Hope House, a prototype of our vision of an example-driven recovery home. In January 2014, we expanded and opened a house for women which we named The Gratitude House.

Owners of Steps To Recovery Homes Anne and Damien Browning

Anne and I have both been through hardships and have turned our lives around by becoming assets to our families and our community. Our passion for our own recoveries and the lives we have been given inspire us to evolve and grow for the betterment of our recovering clients. Our personal experiences inspire us as we guide others. We know that people “need to want� a new way of life in order to have one. We also know that many people feel they cannot change. Our program is here to inspire hope, to set a visible example and to be present for that important and desperately needed extra personal time. We remain vigilant in our recovery and show our clients that recovery can be achieved, that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

We have developed a comprehensive daily life coaching program that promotes a robust recovery. Session topics include: relationships, boundaries, finances, resumes, budgeting, goals, sponsorship, traditions, parenting, hygiene, behaviors, communication, spiritual principles and more. We offer a financial savings plan to assist our clients in securing a place of their own when they leave. A requirement of our program is weekly community service to interact and give back to others. Being involved with our clients, spending time with them individually and addressing issues on a personal level are included in our services.

We take pride in offering affordable, comfortable living arrangements.

Hope is the seed that turns dreams into realities.

Our mission is to provide a safe environment, free from any illicit drugs or alcohol, for people with substance abuse issues.

We focus on behavior modifications and are dedicated to consistency, structure and direction in our homes.

TESTIMONIALS The Steps to Recovery Home has given me a rock-solid spiritual foundation that money could have never bought.

This program is based on solutions; [it] changed my freaking life.

– Andrew N. I can’t sum up in one sentence what this place has done for me. It’s a home that promotes real, responsible recovery.

It’s not housing for people who are buying time; it’s a place for people who want [recovery].

– Spencer M. This is a place where desperation meets hope and self discovers unity.

– Stephanie S.

Through doing this program, I am learning today to look at life differently instead of always seeing my life in a negative way like I once did. Today I can look at what I’ve been through and be grateful and know that because of these experiences, I am a better and stronger person today...that is something I couldn’t say or believe six months ago... today I can.

– Chanda M. Steps to Recovery has given me enough freedom, structure and support to help me rediscover myself as a recovering addict who is becoming a productive member of society, living one day at a time [and] accepting life on life’s terms.

– Jordan B.

Call Anne at 928-821-3526 or Damien at 928-592-2603 stepstorecoveryhomes@gmail.com www.stepstorecoveryhomes.com

Susan Padilla, B.S. Director

(928) 925-3455

OUR MISSION

Prescott Sober Living is a transitional living home which supports men in recovery who have a desire to live a clean and sober life. The program is faith-based, although we respect the “God-of-your-understanding” concept of a Higher Power. We provide a safe environment for our residents to flourish and grow in their quest for long-term sobriety.

OUR VALUES

• Integrity – doing the right thing when no one is looking • Respect – treating others as you want to be treated • Openness – being willing to share successes and opportunities with others • Accountability – taking responsibility for your recovery

Falling down is part of life, Getting back up is living.

ACCOMMODATIONS There are those in great need of a safe place to live who are not able to afford high-priced facilities. We believe access to a quality sober living environment should not be compromised by lack of funds or insurance coverage. Prescott Sober Living in Prescott, AZ, is an affordable facility providing a safe and sober environment for men in recovery. Residents are blessed with a family-owned building in a central location consisting of eight apartment units and 35 beds. Each apartment is equipped with two bedrooms, a kitchen, a living room and a patio. The apartments are arranged to comfortably accommodate up to five clients. Regularly scheduled trips to local businesses are also available.

WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT

Prescott Sober Living focuses on individual needs while helping our clients integrate into the community as productive members. We offer two levels of supervision: • Phase 1 is designed to offer support and supervision to those individuals not yet solid in their sobriety.

• Phase 2 is for individuals who demonstrate a higher level of personal responsibility and growth.

Residents are encouraged to use increased freedom to grow in their recovery and become more independent.

OUR COMMITMENT

Personalized supervision and care assists each client in his recovery and growth. Prescott Sober Living encourages residents to take personal responsibility while in a safe environment. With a strong faith in God, Prescott Sober Living staff provides quality care at an affordable price.

RESIDENT TESTIMONIALS “With its affordable facility and personal approach, Prescott Sober Living has helped me to grow as an individual in recovery.”

– Izaak R. “PSL helped me to develop my conscious contact with God. After attending their Bible study and church, I got baptized and found myself growing in my understanding of God, which over time has proven to enhance my sobriety and improve my quality of life.”

– Mike B. “Prescott Sober Living is a safe and affordable place. Thanks to the staff for giving me a chance. I am now a citizen who has a solid program, a job and friends. [PSL] has given me happiness and my life back.”

– Eric B.

(928) 925-3455

prescottsoberliving.com

Get There.

We’re Having the Time of Our Lives.

What a year this has been! The Bridges Network (TBN) grew from six to more than 150 clients in twelve months. There is a shift occurring in our recovery community. We would like to take credit for these changes, but God knows it isn’t our doing.

“When I left rehab in 2012, I’d been given the tools to embrace life, a life worth fighting for. But returning home to Los Angeles, CA, proved easier said than done. I was lost and couldn’t escape the desire to go back to my old drug use for comfort. I wanted to be back in Prescott, AZ, a town I’d never heard of prior to my family’s insistence that I pack up and move there. I needed the connection and support I had found in that community. It was a white-knuckled first few months in recovery.

“It was suggested to me to ‘Contact Laurie and Mark Temple, they’ll help you.’ Unlike my former visit to Prescott – one filled with apprehension, fear and guilt – this time I felt optimistic and passionate. What I discovered upon my return to Prescott had a profound impact on me and showed me how to live a sober life.

“I remember the warmth and kindness when first meeting the Temples, which was very different from the treatment business from which I had recently graduated.

“There is an understanding between those who have survived their struggle with addiction. It is a bit like sibling secret languages or an inside joke. We often communicate with a knowing look. We recognize our common pasts, but we have managed to escape the burning building alive.

“Our mission is to absolutely insist on doing GOD’s work to compassionately provide a therapeutic 12-step community to support those seeking life in recovery.”

“Fast forward to early 2013, the Temples had partnered with the Thomases to form The Bridges Network. Their extended family of recovering clients now numbered in the hundreds. I relapsed with a death wish, alternating between the barrel of a gun and a bottle of liquor in my mouth. Once again, I reached out to Mark and Laurie, not even sure I wanted help. In a matter of hours, I was back in a safe place.

“My story isn’t unique. Most everyone familiar with The Bridges Network, or more accurately, the people there, has had a similar experience. Fellow addicts and alcoholics, friends and families together with professionals working with addicts and alcoholics will often tell you, ‘They’ll help you if you’re willing.’ At TBN they help you with compassion, kindness and a shared smile.

“We know each others’ families; we hold ourselves accountable; we hold each other up; and we believe, with God’s guidance and grace, it is our purpose to embrace anyone brave enough to ask for help, the newcomer and the relapser alike. “‘The God within me greets the God within you.’

“Thanks for letting me share.”

– Jeff

The God within me greets the God within you.

Stay There.

The Bridges Network (TBN) is a licensed drug and alcohol treatment center. The program is designed to provide the best possible support and community for individuals suffering from drug addiction and alcoholism. TBN’s program includes: individual and family therapy; relapse prevention; addiction education; neurofeedback and Beyond Therapy, which is a rigorous, activity-based program designed to help people with a variety of neurological disorders. We advocate a lifelong Twelve Step commitment.

“What would I tell someone’s parents about Roy, Mark and Laurie? I would tell them that nobody would try harder and be more compassionate in helping their loved ones fight substance abuse” - Dave

Our support in recovery program includes • A Twelve Step model

• Adventure and experiential programming

• Cognitive and dialectical behavior therapy

• Family workshops and couples’ therapy

• Sex compulsivity treatment

• Trauma, PTSD and EMDR therapy

• Support for eating disorders recovery and a healthy body image

• Neurofeedback for anxiety disorders

• Equine-assisted therapy • Motivational Enhancement Therapy

• Outpatient and transitional sober living

Welcome Home.

Adventure & Experiential Therapy Beautiful mountains, low-elevation deserts and the breathtaking vistas of the Grand Canyon are within two hours of The Bridges Network’s facilities. A multitude of trails, peaks, valleys and rivers surround Prescott, AZ. At The Bridges, breakthroughs in recovery often occur in the out-of-doors, not in a traditional office setting. Amazing progress frequently happens within a very short time.

In these inspiring surrounds, groups develop – form, storm, norm and perform – where clients’ physical, mental and emotional resistance is met, processed and moved to resolution. Here, as we experience our vast and natural surroundings, we often feel most connected with our spirit. Our program neither promotes nor restricts personal belief or faith, but seeks to increase an individual’s awareness of something larger than self.

We spend time in silent reflection or journaling, practicing guided meditation and teaching intentionality with presence in thoughts and emotions.

We incorporate camping, building fires and pushing the personal limits clients thought they had … what a gift that is. We surprise ourselves. Clients will often say, “I can’t remember the last time I laughed so hard, was so tired or slept so well.”

Housing for Women and Men It is easier to explain what The Bridges Network doesn’t offer, as opposed to what we do offer. If you are looking for professional addiction help, most facilities will give you a safe place to sleep; we are no different in that respect. We are neither a vacation resort, though a few of our houses do have Jacuzzis, nor a boot camp or a Tent City. And you probably won’t have your own bedroom or bathroom here.

By most standards, our houses are quite nice. There is plenty of water to drink, WiFi and sometimes a lawn to enjoy. On holidays, Mark Temple likes to barbeque for a few hundred of his closest friends; and Laurie, his wife, always makes fancy goodies.

Though our ten men’s houses and eight women’s houses are not up to spa standards, they beat living in your parent’s basement or trying to access WiFi while living on the street. Life at The Bridges Network is comfortable and supportive.

The friendships and camaraderie developed between our clients, the therapeutic environment and our caring, professional staff provide a strong foundation for a lasting recovery.

(928) 515-2373

www.thebridgesnetwork.com www.thebridgesnetwork.com

(928) 642-7077

The Center for Clarity

115 E. Goodwin Street, Suite C, Prescott, AZ

928-231-2351

ForClarityCompany.com forclarity2@gmail.com

THE HISTORY OF CLARITY For Clarity began as an inner drive that couldn’t be ignored. The founder, Ann Balowski, made a desperate commitment that she would bring others the opportunity to create a life of design. An opportunity that she considers a personal second chance. After many years of her own recovery and training, Ann created the container for this commitment. That container is For Clarity, LLC. After becoming official in 2009, For Clarity began providing group facilitation services to local treatment facilities, individual transitional coaching and staff trainings. It has grown to include three amazing Coaches that bring offer different skills and experiences to their clients.

The Center for Clarity officially opened its doors in May of 2013. The Center, located in Prescott Arizona welcomes recovery groups, individual and group coaching in addition to those that just stop by to sit for a while and allow their souls to catch up with them. It’s an oasis for those wishing to grow, move forward and to rest in between.

Clarity Clients come from all ages, walks of life and all stages of life‌..in short all who are interested in moving past challenges and toward living a more satisfying life and fulfilling life of design. Located at 115 E. Goodwin, in the Courtyard Building, Prescott Arizona, the center has become a haven for change.

A positive mind will give you a positive life.

WHAT IS LIFE COACHING? Life Coaching is based on the premise that each individual holds their own solutions to obtaining their goals. Coaching is a strengths-based approach. We walk beside you on a journey of self-exploration, shining a light on the things that may be eluding you.

We assist you in taking stock of your abilities, talents and strengths – those that you are able to identify, as well as those that you may not realize you possess. We coach you to utilize what you have, to get where you would like to be. We do our work with one thing in mind – to see you actualize your goals.

• Recovery Coaching believes that clients who are clear about their life goals and values are better able to achieve and maintain a fulfilling life, healthy living and long-term recovery.

• Recovery Coaches help recovery clients succeed through normal effort. We promote the development of healthy lifestyles and balanced living.

• Recovery Coaching doesn’t explain why addictions occur nor does it attempt to identify cause.

• Recovery Coaching doesn’t address past issues or trauma. A Coach may guide the client to discover what early messages were learned and coach them to discover new healthier messages.

• Recovery Coaching recognizes that it’s normal for recovering clients to have gaps in their skills or development, and we support our clients in recognizing and filling in gaps such as poor math skills or poor money-handling skills.

Life isn't about finding yourself, It's about creating yourself.

“Ann Balowski is a gifted coach. She has been working with me for about a month now and, after every session, I feel positive and hopeful that I will reach the goals that she has helped me to clarify and set. Whether I am moving with the smallest of steps or daring a leap, Ann is there, exactly in pace with me. She is a strong and reassuring presence. She leads with intelligent questions and gentle probing. Ann actively listens, gives positive feedback and gives genuine praise for my every movement forward. I find myself looking at my past and present with new eyes, new imagery, new vision for my future; but, most importantly, I feel a new sense of confidence burgeoning, a new feeling of capability growing that will allow me, at some point, to be my own best coach.”

– Janvier R.

Dream, Laugh, Achieve

e

OUR MISSION Our mission is two-fold. For Clarity provides a container for individuals in transitional life phases to confront selfdefeating choices and to move toward healthy life changes. Through a team oriented approach, our coaches deliver services in the most professional and compassionate manner possible.For Clarity provides a creative, empowering, supportive and independent environment for Coaching Professionals that encourages personal strength, vision and growth.

OUR VISION

OUR SERVICES: • Life Coaching with a Purpose • Life After Treatment • Adoption Triangle • Self Regulation through Somatic Experience (S.R.S.E.) • Professional Track • Staff Training • Program Development & Consultation • Equine Assisted Coaching • Group Facilitation • Professional Staff Training

Ann Balowski Director

“Sometimes we need a warrior, someone that won’t leave our side when the road gets too tough to bear. For Clarity shines a light of healing and understanding for those who yearn for a different way. Through individual, group peer coaching and transitional life skill products, we help tip the scale from defeated too directed”.

The Center for Clarity

928-231-2351 ForClarityCompany.com forclarity2@gmail.com

• Parole and probation departments • Treatment providers • Recovery homes

Delivering quality drug testing services Designed to provide immediate and accurate results

• Child Protective Services • Employee Assistance Programs • Employers (both

1040 Whipple Street Suite 205 Prescott, AZ 86301

928-445-PASS(7277) www.prescottpass.com

pre-employment and random employee screening)

• Therapeutic Courts • Self-referrals

OUR STORY Prescott Area Screening Services (PASS) is structured to provide a solution to the high number of “diluted� urinalyses results being reported to the legal system, treatment providers and recovery homes. These professionals were concerned that legal sanctions and life-altering decisions were being determined based on the results of diluted testing.

At PASS, samples are immediately tested for dilution. If the sample is diluted, the individual is allowed an opportunity to return to PASS within the same business day for retesting. This procedure decreases the number of diluted urinalyses results reported to our clients. It also offers the individual an opportunity to advocate for themselves and their sobriety.

It affords the legal system, the employer or the treatment provider with more definitive information on which to base their decisions.

PASS provides the hallmark service of a real-time response to positive results of urinalyses. An immediate communication from PASS apprising our clients of the results is sent via email, telephone call or fax. This allows clients to make a more timely response to a positive test. The tested individuals are also informed of the results on the spot, providing them with the opportunity to discuss results directly with their referring agency.

The PASS Executive Director, Shelley Taylor, has been a licensed independent substance abuse therapist since 1982.

She brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the agency. Shelley provides individualized case management for each person enrolled for testing and personally reviews their bio-psycho-social histories to determine their testing needs. Medical issues, such as diabetes, can impact testing results. To ensure the most accurate results possible in these situations, adjustments may need to be made.

The individualized PASS approach to urinalysis creates an atmosphere of collaboration and cooperation with each testing individual. As we meet the needs of our third-party referrals, each individual tested is treated as the unique person they are.

Each test is conducted at Pass’s on-site lab utilizes the most up-to-date resources available in the drug testing field. Frozen storage of positive samples is maintained on the premises for six months or longer, if needed. When necessary, PASS contracts with an outside laboratory for independent corroboration of test results. The lab is certified by The Drug & Alcohol Testing Industry Association and the Society of Forensic Toxicologists, Inc.

OUR SERVICES At PASS we are committed to providing superior customer service. With our customized testing panels, we make it trouble-free for our clients to access accurate testing for a variety of substances including alcohol, street drugs, synthetic drugs and prescription drugs. We offer clinical recommendations and suggestions to create comprehensive and clinically sound test panels for each individual, utilizing more than 30 years of experience in substance abuse treatment and familiarity with common addiction behaviors and the testees’ personal histories. For example, some individuals being tested for one substance, to avoid detection will substitute the use of another substance, with the assumption they will only being tested for the initially-identified substance. At PASS, the test spectrum may be broadened to address these types of scenarios.

We pride ourselves on: • Customized testing panels • Rapid and accurate results • Minimal diluted reports • Confirmation testing, utilizing an independent lab as needed • Competitive pricing • Visual monitoring, including monitoring for tampering and/or adulteration of the sample • Strict enforcement of chain of custody

TEST MENU: Tests available include:

• Amphetamine • Methamphetamine • Cocaine • THC • ETG (Alcohol)

• Benzodiazepines • Ecstasy • Spice • Ketamine

PASS delivers premium drug-screening services to our clients, including: • Social service agencies • Probation and parole agencies • Employers • Treatment providers • Sober living facilities • Employee placement services • Individuals who desire external accountability as an addition to their recovery program • PCP • Opiates • Methadone • Suboxone

Testing and Reporting Methods: PASS utilizes urine screens as the primary testing method. If required, hair sample tests may be taken on an individual basis. We do not provide saliva testing, due to the unreliability of results. All urinalyses are visually monitored to minimize the opportunity for adulteration, tampering and/or use of devices while providing the sample. An individual caught utilizing one of the above methods is immediately reported to the referring individual or agency.

PASS utilizes reporting methods as preferred by each client, and recognizes that immediate and timely results are vital to achieve the goals of our customers. Methods for reporting each test result, as well as comprehensive compliance reports, are: • Fax • Telephone • Email • Other individual client preferences

PASS specializes in serving the criminal justice system agencies. We pride ourselves on efficient case management in tandem with judges as well as parole and probation officers. We recognize the vitally important role drug screening plays in the legal system.

• • • •

Fast and reliable testing results, making case management more timely and effective Large menu selection for drug testing, including the latest synthetic drugs of abuse Visually monitored specimen collection No diluted results! Confirmation results will either be positive or negative, which is particularly beneficial to therapeutic court programs which rely heavily on results to enforce sanctions on participants

Our on-site lab provides immediate urinalysis results. If clinically indicated, the test may be sent for additional confirmation to an off-site lab certified to the highest forensic standards and utilizing the latest state-of-the-art technology.

We guarantee quick testing and results delivery.

We offer both random and scheduled testing, based on the preference of the referring party.

Specimen collection: PASS takes pride in adhering to the highest standards in both specimen collection and testing protocols, particularly as required by the criminal justice system.

Visually observed: PASS uses certified and highly-trained staff to conduct gender-specific and visually observed specimen collection.

Chain of custody: Strict chain of custody procedures are utilized to ensure legal standards are maintained.

Staff: Our staff is trained in specimen collection procedures and adulteration techniques.

Customized panels: We customize testing to each individual’s drug history as well as to the requests of the referring agency. Our test menu includes typical drugs of abuse as well as increasingly abused prescription drugs and synthetic street drugs.

1040 1040 Whipple Whipple Street Street Suite Suite 205 205 Prescott, Prescott, AZ AZ 86301 86301

928-445-PASS (7277) 928-445-PASS www.prescottpass.com

Shelley Taylor PASS Executive Director

ROBERT P. DIAMOND, M.A., DIRECTOR 222 W. Gurley Street, Suite 203 Prescott, AZ 86301

ADD/ADHD • ADDICTIONS • ANXIETY • PTSD

(928) 227-2900 www.azneurofeedbackcenter.com rdiamond@azneurofeedbackcenter.com Member, Assoc. for Applied Psychophysioiogy and Biofeedback

WHAT IS NEUROFEEDBACK? Neurofeedback is a scientifically-proven technique using electroencephalographic (EEG) monitoring which can help people retrain their brain function. Brainwave training enhances the functioning of the central nervous system, thereby improving mental performance, emotional control and physiological stability.

Neurofeedback targets the bioelectrical activity of the brain, which is thought by many to be a more important concern than the oft-discussed “chemical imbalance”. This process addresses the brain’s regulatory networks, creating new neural pathways which can override the brain’s dysregulation. By detecting the moment brainwaves go off-track, neurofeedback can provide a person the opportunity to recondition and retrain the brain, thus enhancing mental stability and performance.

Neurofeedback is somewhat like forming new muscle memory with physical training; it reconditions the brain by creating new bioelectrical pathways. Neurofeedback can be applied to a variety of functional deficits.

Finding a Place to be at Peace with the World.

WHO CAN BENEFIT FROM NEUROFEEDBACK? Neurofeedback has played an important role in improving addiction treatment outcomes. It allows people with a substance abuse history an opportunity to regulate their brain function from within in order to enhance and improve a stable, healthy recovery. Neurofeedback can assist people in dealing with a variety of problems, including nightmares, attention deficit disorders and other forms of disrup-tive or disturbing behaviors. The physical and emotional symptoms of migraines, seizures and PTSD can be alleviated by neurofeedback. In addition, it is effectively used to help adolescents and adults struggling with depression and anxiety.

Individuals of any age and with any needs may benefit from this therapy. Neurofeedback can support healthy brain function as one experiences the aging process. Peak performers use this EEG monitoring and training to enhance their abilities in business, sports and the arts.

HOW IS NEUROFEEDBACK PERFORMED? Sensors similar to those used for an electrocardiogram are attached to the scalp with water-soluble gel. These sensors pick up brainwaves which are then interpreted by a computer software program. It is a painless, non-invasive procedure and does not involve the application of any voltage or current to the brain.

Through the use of specialized computer software and EEG technology, brainwaves are represented visually on a computer monitor. Individuals undergoing this treatment are able to see the ebb and flow of their brainwave activity via an interactive video game and are taught to play the video game using only their brainwaves. Anyone can do it!

Cranial Electro Stimulation (CES) Therapy

CES Innovation – Proven for over 50 Years as a Remedy for Stress, Anxiety, Depression and Insomnia We also offer Cranial Electro Stimulation. CES research began in the former Soviet Union during the 1950s. Its primary focus was the treatment of sleep disorders, hence its initial designation as “electro-sleep”. The use of CES as a treatment for insomnia was soon overshadowed by the psychiatric application for depression and anxiety. Since then it has been referred to as transcranial (across the skull bones) electrotherapy (TCET) and neuroelectric therapy (NET). For more information about this groundbreaking procedure, please call us at (928) 227-2900.

IF NEUROFEEDBACK CAN DO SO MUCH, WHY HAVEN’T I HEARD ABOUT IT BEFORE? Neurofeedback is not yet taught in most medical schools or psychology graduate programs. Many professionals are unaware of this powerful technique. One of the goals of the Arizona Neurofeedback Center is to fill that gap by providing professionals with information and education regarding the use of neurofeedback.

OUR MISSION

We seek to provide our clients with the opportunity and resources to optimize the way their brains function. By teaching them to exercise their brains in novel ways, we seek to help them develop new ways of living and thinking.

Through the use of neurofeedback and related therapeutic modalities, we support individuals in experiencing increased functioning and improvement in various aspects of their mental and emotional well-being.

NEUROFEEDBACK IS A NON-MEDICAL ALTERNATIVE/ADJUNCT FOR MANY CONDITIONS, INCLUDING THE FOLLOWING: • ADD/ADHD • Addictions • Anxiety • Asthma • Autism Spectrum • Chronic Fatigue Syndrome • Chronic Pain • Depression • Epilepsy

• Fibromyalgia • Insomnia • Learning Disabilities • Migraines • Obsessive Behavior • Parkinson’s • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder • Stroke Recovery • Traumatic Brain Injury

ArizonA

neurofeedbAck center (928) 227-2900

Robert P. Diamond M.A., Director Arizona Neurofeedback Center

WE CARE...

Gallus Detox Centers offer the better way: a safe, comfortable medical detox with IV therapy that relieves withdrawal symptoms and ensures your safety.

Our board-certified emergency medicine physicians will create your customized detox program, and our team of registered nurses and technicians will provided personal attention 24/7, all in an upscale setting with private rooms.

Call us. Let’s talk 855-338-6929.

WE CAN HELP. Let’s talk.

Call Gallus Detox today 855-338-6929 www.GallusDetox.com Most insurance accepted • Licensed medical detox facility • Comfortable, safe, IV-therapy • Maximum 6 patients • Upscale private rooms • HDTV & Wifi • Home-like non-judgemental environment • Board Certified emergency medicine physicians and ICU-level registered nurses.

After more than 15 years of emergency room experience, Dr. Patrick Gallus had seen far too many patients with serious substance abuse problems. He felt there was a need for a safe and comfortable detoxification method – a better way to detox than was currently available. To this end, Dr. Gallus developed the Gallus Method and designed a fully licensed sub-acute medical facility staffed by a caring, non-judgmental team of professionals. He developed exclusive intravenous (IV) protocols that allow medications to be adjusted moment by moment to quickly relieve painful withdrawal symptoms. Upscale amenities help provide the positive environment so vital to successful completion of detoxification providing encouragement and a positive attitude for patients going into aftercare.

What happens when a patient arrives at a Gallus Detox Center? Patients are given a thorough assessment, including vital signs, lab testing, history and physical examination. These are essential because substance abuse can hide other health problems such as diabetes or a heart condition which can be exacerbated by withdrawal from alcohol or drugs. A psychological and social assessment is conducted to determine a patient’s mental status and functioning. These factors are addressed in an aftercare plan which supports successful abstinence following the detoxification process.

Don't try to escape your Reality, make it everything you want it to be!

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A team approach is utilized to develop each patient’s treatment plan. The team includes board-certified emergency medicine physicians, ICU/ER-level registered nurses, licensed substance abuse and chemical dependency counselors and, of course, the patient. A personalized detox treatment plan is implemented immediately. Throughout the detox process, the individual is fully monitored with cardiac telemetry, video surveillance and personal attention from our registered nurses and technicians who are on duty 24 hours a day. Patient comfort is a priority; comfort levels are measured throughout the entire detox process and medication adjustments are made as necessary.

TESTIMONIALS I was treated with the utmost kindness and compassion. The amount of comfort I experienced while detoxing off heroin surpassed all expectations. They helped me get a plan for when I left the facility, showing genuinely that they wanted me to succeed.

– C.C. Gallus Detox provided me with excellent care and attention.

Their entire mission is to manage the detox as safely and easily as they can. My experience was that of a bed and breakfast with a staff that tends to my needs. I would definitely recommend them.

– D.L. I came here a hopeless alcoholic with a rapidly growing dependency on prescription narcotics. I left a hopeful alcoholic with better medication and a plan. They care. They love what they do. The patient gets the benefit of getting healthier and gaining knowledge as opposed to what is typically a horribly unpleasant experience.

– D.F.

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Gallus Detox Method – “The Better Way”

• Board-certified emergency medicine physicians with extensive critical care backgrounds • Highly-qualified registered nurses with ICU and emergency room experience • Exclusive IV medication therapy providing immediate relief from withdrawal symptoms • Private counseling with licensed substance abuse and chemical dependency counselors • Comprehensive, personal detox and aftercare plans • Caring, non-judgmental clinical team treating every patient with absolute dignity • Private rooms with HDTV and WiFi • An upscale, comfortable and relaxing setting to ensure our patients feel at home • A maximum of six patients under our care at one time to ensure personal attention and safety • Communication with family and friends allowed, including cell phones, laptops and iPads • 24/7 video and cardiac monitoring ensuring the ultimate safety of our patients • Fully-licensed sub-acute medical facility • Best care-per-dollar in the country for a medically-supervised detox with IV therapy • Most insurance accepted

855-338-6929 www.GallusDetox.com

Summer 2014

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Confessions of an Anorexic/Bulimic Theater Student

By Sheryle Cruse

I

am a recovering actor. I’m not talking about healing from auditions here. No, my recovery is from eating disorders and the oft emphasized importance to actors of their physical appearance and discipline.

I’m not saying theater ruined my life. In many ways, it was quite the opposite. It provided me with a release valve of emotional expression. It was also where I met my wonderful husband, Russell.

As I have worked on my recovery throughout the years, I’ve realized how the emphasis on outward appearance and discipline unfortunately played a confusing role in my burgeoning eating disorder.

At age nine, I made my acting debut. I played a baby doll in a Christmas play. As the play was presented to my third grade class, I became obsessed with the role. More than anything else, I wanted to be that character. It occurred to me I needed to audition in a baby doll voice. When the teacher who was casting the play howled with laughter at my reading, I knew I had it locked. That was intoxicating! I was bitten by “the acting bug”.

For that debut there was no pressure to have a thin physique. It was, however, the last time I would experience that freedom in any role I played.

Throughout my elementary, junior high and high school years, I was in numerous school plays. As adolescence unfolded, my body image issues continued to worsen. I was often cast as the dumpy friend or the humorous comic relief character, never the beauty. I was, in short, “the fat girl”.

My self-consciousness followed me into my senior year of high school. During a production of the musical South Pacific, I was doing double duty. I was cast as the French maid and an island native, because I had brown eyes and brown hair.

My coloring worked in my favor since many of my peers were blue-eyed and blond-haired. My drama teacher joked about the Scandinavian presence in our school by saying, “The Sons of Norway portray the Pacific Islands.”

Summer 2014

My native girl costume consisted of a strapless top and a grass skirt. As I sang and danced to the Bali Ha’i number, I obsessed about whether my arms and shoulders were too big to effectively convince the audience I was a beautiful South Pacific ingénue. Was I too fat?

As a speech and theater major in college, I still wrestled with that question. Anorexia kicked in. College was all about reinventing myself. I needed to be someone else, someone thin. That became my main focus. Because I was only a production assistant or assistant director in my first two years, and not cast in plays, the “fat and ugly” arguments in my head solidified. I wasn’t thin enough or pretty enough to be a leading lady. Instead I was the grotesque gorilla who worked behind the scenes.

So, with my anorexic mindset, I starved and exercised compulsively for hours at a time, gradually weighing less and less, until finally reaching a two-digit weight. This stage in my eating disorder was short-lived. My bulimic behavior took over during my sophomore year. Because of my misery and physiologically ravenous state, I became an eating machine and put on over one hundred pounds in less than nine months. My attempts at damage control – obsessive exercise, diuretics and laxatives – failed me. I was devastated. My predominant thought was that I wasn’t dedicated, disciplined or deserving enough as a theater student and as a human being. I certainly didn’t deserve any ingénue roles, but that didn’t keep me from wanting those parts.

I again became a stage actress when I transferred to a new school in my junior year of college. After a fear-driven starvation and exercise-obsessed summer, I won a few lead roles in auditions. I was cast mostly in character actor roles, playing crazy women. Nope, no ingénue, pretty leading lady roles for me; but hey, at least I was onstage. That was progress, right?

But this behavior was not without complications. During costume fittings, I again ran smack dab into my insecurities.

One had to dress the part, and that was about measurements and fitting into clothes. Oh, the fun of shouting down all the weight and body image voices in my head!

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When I was cast as Claire in Neil Simon’s play, Rumors, I was asked what size dress I wore. According to my perfectionistic fears, I wasn’t good enough or thin enough, so I wrote a large dress size. The costume department immediately argued with my assessment and instead gave me a smaller-sized dress. It actually fit! You would think that would have set me at ease and given me some reassurance, but it didn’t.

I was studying the importance of discipline, fitness and adaptation in acting classes, and the importance of the body as an instrument. This emphasized training one’s physical body as part of artistic preparation. A minimum of two hours of exercise a day was recommended. I dutifully obeyed the rule.

Years later, I squirm about this. From a recovery perspective, I realized this two-hour-a-day exercise mandate triggered my eating disorder yet again. Yes, I believe physical exercise is a necessary part of life and health. However, exercise in an eating-disordered mind is often coupled with a set of ritualistic rules or is used as punishment. At the time, I didn’t see exercise as taking healthy care of my instrument (body).

I only saw it as a way to punish myself for being a horrible failure of a human being or to compete with other females to win the elusive title of “The Thinnest Actress of Them All”.

Having the body portrayed as an unruly thing that must be subdued by a dedicated, worthy theater student prompted guilt, fear and, yet again, the predominant thought that I was “not good enough”, not now, not here, not ever.

If that was not difficult enough, I also had an incident with a fellow student which further emphasized the “instrument” theory in my head. To be fair, I believe he did not intentionally want to hurt me. He probably saw himself as being helpful.

Oh good, more help.

During a rehearsal for Rumors, this fellow actor pulled me aside backstage. I immediately knew what the topic of our conversation would be. I had put on some weight, and it was visible. He told me he had noticed. He went on to tell me how our bodies are our instruments (there’s that word again), how we need to exercise and take diligent care of them. We couldn’t let ourselves get out of control.

I felt exposed.

I had not revealed to anyone, much less my theater comrades, that I’d ever been anorexic and bulimic or that I was struggling with the entire issue. I did everything I could to hide, lie and deny this ugly and shameful reality.

So, in this cornered moment, I did my best to laugh it off.

But it stung. I felt I was a worthless failure.

From that point on, my self-consciousness escalated. Now I not only deeply feared gaining weight, but I also feared being taken to task for it in the name of theater. I feared being labeled, not only as fat, but also as uncooperative, lazy, ugly 96

and untalented. I feared losing roles if I wasn’t aesthetically pleasing (thin) enough for them. I feared any weight changes would be revealed in costume fittings. I feared life would only continue to show me I was a worthless human being, and there was nothing I could do to change that.

My eating-disordered mind was in high gear. I constantly thought, “I’m fat and ugly. I’m unacceptable. I’m a failure.”

Mercifully, I somehow managed to complete my college degree, but I was riddled with anxieties, perfectionistic standards and self-rejection.

Since those theater days, my life has taken a different direction, one that involves recovery from my eating disorders and their underlying issues. I am blessed to have written a book and to have numerous articles published on this subject. My faith, hindsight and therapy have helped me come to terms with many memories and erroneous beliefs, including those revolving around my acting experiences.

Theater is an environment for rejection. Anyone who has been told “no” at an audition knows that reality. Critical standards are attached to anything emphasizing art, dance, theater and beauty. I get that. I understand that dedication, hard work, talent, appearance, costume design, set design and the actors themselves all must factor into the final product. My observations are not about demonizing the study, pursuit or performance of theater.

They are, however, about raising awareness and sensitivity when teaching theater principles. Unfortunately, there are individuals who may be triggered by these regimented disciplines. If there’s going to be so much emphasis on exercise and training, then I believe there should be equally as much education on the potential pitfalls, including eating disorder behavior. Safe havens of support should be in place for those who are struggling with these issues. Indeed, there are acting students who are struggling.

I love the theater. I love seeing an opera, a play or a riveting piece of performance art. I don’t think that will ever change.

I also love acting. Only time will tell if I participate in any more productions.

I now know myself and the triggers which still lurk in unexpected places. Situations with an emphasis on appearance and image are probably not the best for my continuing recovery.

This exploration of my experiences is not about bashing the theater world; it is a love letter to it. I searched for information and statistics on eating disorders in the theater setting and found nothing. I contacted major American drama schools to ask for their help on this subject and was informed they could not help me.

I did discover considerable information about eating disorders relating to dancers, models and celebri-

In Recovery Magazine

Summer 2014

ties. I know it is an issue in the theater world, perhaps even a dirty little secret no one wants to discuss. How many people fear losing a role or being labeled and stigmatized if they reveal their struggles?

Not everyone who pursues acting has an eating disorder. But for those of us who do, words like discipline, training, instrument and dedication may be interpreted in a radically different way. Unfortunately for someone struggling with an eating disorder, these words can have a literal “do or die” meaning.

That kind of death does not belong in the theater.

Copyright © 2013 by Sheryle Cruse

After running the gamut of eating disorders, author and speaker Sheryle Cruse found healing with the help of therapy, the Christian community and – most importantly – God’s patient love. Her recovery experience is chronicled in her book, Thin Enough: My Spiritual Journey Through the Living Death of an Eating Disorder. Now living in St. Paul, MN, Cruse writes, speaks and ministers to other sufferers around the spiritual aspects and the underlying causes and issues of eating disorders. Web: freewebs.com/daughterarise.

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Everyday

By Belinda T. to me. As soon as they turned eighteen they each moved to Prescott, AZ, to be near me.

I also had to understand and accept that being shot by my ex-boyfriend was not my fault. In September 1997, when the shooting incident occurred, I was blamed for putting myself in a position to be shot. I was told the attack was my fault and I deserved what happened to me. I was a survivor entangled in the lies of others. Staying drunk allowed me to separate myself from this terrible event. Eventually I came to understand that other people’s ignorance is not my responsibility.

I had been trying to get the help I needed to stop drinking. I had tried everything from controlled drinking to going back to the Navajo Reservation where I originally lived.

I was unsuccessful each time and would find myself wasted and homeless again. On July 31, 2004, while incarcerated for the umpteenth time, I finally got sober for the first time.

I moved to Prescott, AZ, in October 2004 and attended a seven-month program at Women in New Recovery. While at the halfway house, I was told that recovery was unity; we each had failed; but now we had support groups to help and encourage us. I learned to accept my life the way it was which was a huge concept to accept. Other alcoholics showed me that living life on life’s terms was going to release me from my past. I was given the exercise of looking into a mirror at oming into recovery has been a life-altering experi- myself. This helped me learn to love who I was again. ence for me. I struggled in the beginning to completely surrender myself to the AA way of life. The I didn’t know what was the “next right thing” to do until program was a new experience for me, and I was full of fear. someone told me to take the “next indicated step”. That To cover my fears, I had perfected staying drunk every day. worked for me. I did a moral inventory of myself with my sponsor. I learned how to be still and to let feelings and As a part of working my AA program, I had to go back and emotions process through me. That may seem easy, but find the reasons why I chose to stay drunk. Was it the inad- I had a hard time with it since I had avoided my feelings by equacies I felt over losing custody of my four children? Was drinking. it getting shot five times by an abusive ex-boyfriend? The only thing I knew was that I felt nothing. I no longer had any Accepting and forgiving myself has been a gift from God, ambition to better myself, nor did I believe I could ever rid my Higher Power. This relationship with God is an experimyself of my discontent or my sense of myself as a failure. ence I have never had before. I actually talk to Him. The scars from getting shot are still there; they will never go I soon realized that my guilt about abandoning my four away; they are reminders that God is doing for me what children when they were small was keeping me down. I had I cannot do for myself. to accept the reality and consequences of my past. Despite what had happened, I had to learn I was still worth some- March 18, 2009, is my actual sobriety date. That was the day thing. I stopped looking back and started to work forward. I fully and wholly surrendered to the AA program. I wear My sponsor told me the one thing I had to hold onto was AA as a badge of honor; everyone I know is aware that I am that, no matter what, my children would one day be back in a recovering alcoholic. Admitting to myself and to others my life. But, first I had to get well. She was right. Today I talk that I do not know how to drink releases temptations that to my children regularly; and more importantly, they talk may be around the corner. It lets me off the hook.

C

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Summer 2014

Miracle I am a walking example of a survivor. I empathize with other women who have been abused. Blaming one’s self for what happens in an abusive situation is a disease; I know that now. What others say about me is none of my business. I like that saying because it reminds me that, no matter what, I can mind my own business. When I own what I do, I make my life my business.

My sponsor sat with me and consoled me. She sometimes would say to me, “Belinda, you stay sober no matter what.

Job or no job, kids or no kids, man or no man. As long as you stay sober, everything else will fall into place.” She never gave up on me and always said there was something about me worth saving.

A SOBER LIVING RESIDENCE DEDICATED TO COLLEGIATE RECOVERY

I have five years of sobriety. At times it has been tough going, but I know that my worst days in sobriety are still better than my drinking days. I take life one day at a time and try to live my life to the fullest. I know that all things happen for a reason. For me, each day sober is a miracle. I never want to forget how it was when I drank; I never want to discredit the hard personal work I have done.

I know today that drinking is but a symptom of my underlying problems. For me, working through them takes away the need to drink. Every person who comes into the rooms of AA is a miracle. There are many who don’t make it. I am so grateful I found AA – AA is the reason I am alive today.

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Book Review

Recovery Reads Recovery is the subject of countless books. Below are three titles worth a look. Contact me if you’d like us to include your book. — Editor, editor@inrecoverymagazine.com

The Years of Silence Are Past: My Father’s Life with Bipolar Disorder (Stephen P. Hinshaw, Cambridge University Press, Amazon, $11.24) is the compelling biography of a philosopher who experienced a severe, recurrent and misdiagnosed mental disorder. It is an in-depth look at mental illness, poignantly written by his son, an academic psychologist. (Recently revised under the new title of Driven, available soon.)

By Lena H.

I

f you’d like serenity to settle into your daily tasks – say, washing dishes, making a stew, answering the phone or taking out the garbage – read this book. Maybe you could use simple suggestions for letting go of an addictive habit or for adopting short breathing or meditation sessions: This book is shot through with them. Follow cues in the chapter called “Keep Coming Back”, and you might read – or write – a verse that will “bring you back to life”. This book could be a thirst quencher on many counts.

Second Edition

Lauri’s Story

Punished for Purpose is a compelling true-life story of abuse, hardship and inspiration—the vivid tale of a beaten child turned prostitute and heroin addict who could only reconcile her tragic existence as punishment for sins committed in a past life. Close to the ultimate self destruction, she is guided by thirteen people, virtual angels, each of whom crosses her path at exactly the right moment to lead her back to the light. Far beyond coincidence, she can only view it as a sign that her life was meant to be, that she was returned from the darkness for a purpose: To rescue those left behind, to save as many of America’s throwaway children as her time on earth will allow.

William Alexander has packed these 145 pages with little ado about everything to do with traveling a serene lifelong path, and the book flows like cool water. Rip-roaring stories from the author’s alcoholic past splash among calming Buddhist principles and precepts from AA’s Twelve Step program in such a way that they blend into a soothing stream from beginning to end.

“Powerful, inspiring and courageous. Lauri’s story will open your heart.”

– Justin Carroll, writer & actor “Living proof of the power of forgiveness. This book demonstrates that every life has a purpose. I highly recommend it.”

– Melissa Brown Levine, Book Reviewer In California alone, an estimated 20,000 to 25,000 youth are homeless and living on the street, most of them refugees from abuse, bound for addiction, exploitation and death because nobody cares.

The notion of ordinary recovery came as a revelation to Alexander. He realized that “...recovery from addiction was a gift, and that the gift was revealed to [him] in the ordinary stuff of daily life. So ordinary, this extraordinary gift...”

He says it’s simple: “Ordinary recovery is about waking up to what is real.”

In grappling with the need for a God of his understanding, he settles on the power of things-as-they-are. The ordinary is miraculous.

Such paradoxes abound. “AA is a selfish program,” the author says, but also, “... selfless.” Contrary to AA’s teachings, he believes that one does not remain in recovery, but that recovery ends – and then recovered life can begin. “Drinking causes suffering, and suffering causes drinking,” he admits. But he also says, “The lotus flower blooms best from the mud.”

Bill Alexander learned with the great Zen Buddhist Thich Naht Hanh; he also learned with dozens of resilient AA members, some of whom he quotes. He continues both these practices within the support of community, believing we all depend on inter-being.

As you read this book, you will inter-be with the author – and I believe you will experience, through the gentle stream of words, life made clear and tranquil as cool water.

Cool Water: Alcoholism, Mindfulness, and Ordinary Recovery (Ordinary Recovery: Mindfulness, Addiction, and the Path of Lifelong Sobriety, 2010) by William Alexander Paperback. 145 pp. Shambhala Publications, 1997. Both editions are available online.

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LAURI BURNS

Lauri Burns is a corporate executive, an inspirational speaker, a mother to over twenty unwanted children and the founder of The Teen Project, which she established in response to her overwhelming feeling that no matter how many teens she fostered, it was never enough. It is her dream that no teen should ever be without a safe home or a family.

LAURI BURNS

Punished for Purpose (Lauri Lynne Burns, Savannah Star Publishing, Amazon, $22.46) is the true-life story of abuse, hardship and inspiration – the vivid tale of a beaten child turned prostitute and heroin addict who could only reconcile her tragic existence as punishment for sins.

Head to Heart (Jenifer Madson, Red Wheel/Weiser 2014, $16.95) guides us to cultivate (and sustain) the awakenings of everyday life – and to embrace and grow from them all. The book will inspire you to take specific actions to grow in love and usefulness, creating an unshakeable sense of well-being with which to meet all of life’s demands.

Summer 2014

Key on page 119

marijuanaharmlessthinkagain.org / A Movement that Focuses on the Facts of the Harms of Marijuana Summer 2014

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LISTEN TO YOUR BODY TALK

By Victoria Abel

D

iets these days are all about the NOs. NO carbohydrates, NO sugar, NO caffeine, NO dairy, NO gluten, NO meat, NO fruit. There are diets that are NO food diets, except shakes and snack bars all day. We have heard enough NOs – we need to find the YES in our relationship with food.

During new and ongoing recovery, good nutrition is essential. Most likely, people recovering from chemical and other addictions have not eaten well during their using days.

Many have sustained physiological damage as a result of their behavior. Both the brain and the gut are starved for nutrients. Getting the necessary nourishment to rebuild the damage done to both the body and the mind through well-chosen foods is imperative. But getting the necessary vitamins, minerals and other important building blocks does not have to be the result of restrictive “healthy” diets. No more NOs! Recovery is a lifestyle change and a big one! Nutrition plays an important role. Diets that limit certain foods or amounts for the sake of weight loss or increased muscle are usually temporary fixes. As we don’t just go to a few meetings and “get fixed”, our relationship with food doesn’t heal through dieting. For example, eliminating all carbohydrates is not realistic, freeing or sustainable. Our relationship with food heals through slow, moderate and conscious choices that listen to the YES from our body.

Remember to listen to your body, not the instantaneous response from the taste buds or the brain. Our brains obtain a temporary rush from processed or sugary foods. Our taste buds get a jolt from intense flavors. Unfortunately, the body and brain will soon experience a crash as the overstimulation from sugars and big flavors dissipates, perhaps kicking in cravings or acting out, and then a shame cycle may start.

After we eat overly processed foods, such as fast foods, our bodies sometimes do not respond in a positive way. We may feel tired, cranky or have stomach cramps. Listen to your body; pay attention to the effects of food on your body. If you really want a burger and fries – have them. Just don’t eat them all the time and remember to surrounded them with YES foods.

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Pay attention to the foods that cause your body to respond positively. If that is meat, go ahead and eat it! Eat it and then continue to listen; your body may tell you just what it needs next. That doesn’t mean you need to eat meat at every single meal of every single day. Your body’s needs change, just as other personal needs change.

If you feel energized for a few hours after certain foods, or you notice your mood is lighter, listen to that feeling in your body and mind. Notice what you ate. Maybe it was the protein you had with your breakfast. You felt more productive and happier throughout the morning. Listen. That voice is your body telling you YES! If you slept great last night and woke up easily, listen to that. Make a note of what you had for dinner the night before. If you aren’t craving sugar or caffeine as much, pay attention to how you may have shifted your food choices.

Just as your recovery constantly changes and deepens, so too can your relationship with food. Try new things, take a cooking class, buy a cookbook and once a week try something you have never eaten before. Go to new restaurants.

Listen to what feels good. You and your body deserve it.

• • • • • • •

Foods that say YES

Dark chocolates: A small amount every day is wonderful!

Veggies: Any and all that feel good in your body!

Fruits: Mangos, papayas, apples, berries and pears Whole grains: quinoa, brown rice, whole wheat and sprouted grains Lean proteins: lentils, beans, chicken, fish, turkey and quality beef Fats: coconut oil, olive oil, nuts, nut butters, organic butter and avocado Ethnic foods: Thai, Indian, Mediterranean, African, Peruvian, authentic Mexican, and other cuisines that tend to have more vegetables, less saturated fat and more diversity of ingredients

In Recovery Magazine

Summer 2014

Serenity Place 12 Step

Meeting Facility

“Healing relationships with food.”

Weekly Schedule

Develop and present nutritional programs and educational lectures at treatment centers.

One on one nutritional consultation, meal planning, weight management, and assessment for disordered eating.

Nutrition and supplementation to ease detox, stabilize mood and reduce cravings.

Instruction on budgeting, shopping and cooking.

TESTIMONIAL

“Victoria helped me to manage the daily struggles of meal planning and grocery shopping - the mundane tasks we all must do. I am grateful for those things but am mostly grateful for the caring way in which she operates. I have lived in so much shame for as long as I can remember regarding anything to do with food. Victoria let me cry and was always genuinely interested in what was going on with me. We would talk about the things that seemed to have nothing to do with food but in fact were leading me to binge, purge, or starve myself.

Victoria has been an incredible light in my life - she was always so accepting of me - no matter if I had a “good” or “bad” food week.”

See the last February issue of the New York Times and the Summer issue of In Recovery Magazine for more informaton on CAN Nutrition and Recovery.

Victoria Abel MA, MNT, CAN

vabel@cannutrition.com www.centerforaddictionnutrition.com

Summer 2014

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103

Skewer the

By Jana Greene

H

e had enjoyed 23 years of clean time prior to his relapse. Phillip Seymour Hoffman.

In the announcement of his recent death from a drug overdose, CNN refers to Hoffman as “everyman”; and indeed he was extraordinarily talented while still remaining personable. I know in my head that people with two decades of sobriety “fall off the wagon”, but it is always jarring to my heart when I hear about those occasions. Addictions will not be taken for granted.

There seems to be a slight shock that Hoffman, who suffered the same disease as Amy Winehouse, died from that disease. His spin was not that of a train wreck, but of an accomplished and revered performer.

The article goes on to describe Hoffman as an actor so versatile that he “could be anybody”. I’m not sure the author of the piece really appreciates the truth of his statement.

If the silence of those ripped from the landscape of the entertainment world is deafening, the gaping voids left by loved ones lost to addictions are life-swallowing sinkholes.

We alcoholics and addicts ...

We are not weak. The strongest people I’ve ever met have been recovering alcoholics.

We are born with super-dopamine-seeking brains, susceptible to hijacking by our brain chemistry. We know that our choices can keep our disease at bay, but we usually have to learn that the hard way.

We don’t want to make excuses for the train wrecks we cause; we just want you to know they are not engineered by design.

We are sensitive and often creative forces to be reckoned with.

Hoffman is Winehouse,

We contribute to the landscape of the world. We make music and poetry and art. We make business deals and partnerships. And we value relationships more than you can imagine.

who is the twenty-year-old kid who died in the bathroom of a fast food joint with a needle in his arm,

We love deeply, intrinsically ... sometimes so deeply that our souls cannot seem to bear it sober.

who is the elderly gentleman in the nursing home, stealing pills from a roommate,

We punch time clocks and live ordinary lives. Truth be told, it isn’t always the pain that makes us want to drink and use, but fear of the ordinary.

We are everyman and everywoman, we alcoholics and addicts. We are legion.

who is the wealthy businessman drinking in the wee hours of the morning to get going, who is a soccer mom who cannot stop at three glasses of chardonnay ... who is me.

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We love our children fiercely. Yes, we would change “for the sake of the children”, if only we could.

We have heart. We grieve so for hurting people. We often lack the instincts to handle that grief without self-destructing.

In Recovery Magazine

Summer 2014

We really don’t want to self-destruct at all, but we don’t always know how to keep that from happening once the pernicious process has begun.

We crave the ability to handle life on life’s terms “normally”, as others are able to do.

We don’t mean to embarrass anyone.

We don’t mean to inflict the pain on others that our disordered brain chemistry urges. Addiction is as a plaque in the arteries of the spirit. Like any mental illness, nobody wants to have it.

A good portion of any recovery program worth its salt is accountability. We want to make amends (and if we don›t want to, don’t despair ... we are working on it).

We are brought to our knees in a desperation that normallywired brains cannot fathom. And we can get better – if we stay on our knees.

We need each other for survival. We sit in meetings in drab church basements drinking lukewarm coffee with others like us who are cut from the same colorfully brilliant, thread-bare, sturdy cloth – because we want to go on living and contributing to the world, just like you.

We need God most of all. He is the Power Greater than Ourselves that can restore us to sanity.

We are “everyman” and “everywoman”.

And we get sober. We even stay sober, with work, with the understanding that our disease will not be taken for granted.

But we need you to understand some things: You can support people who are trying to win - and winning daily - the foot race with tragedy.

You can try not to shame them. They feel guilty enough.

You can begin to educate yourself on the realities of alcoholism and drug addiction.

tion is NOT YOUR FAULT. You did not cause it.

You can be tender with us in recovery, just as you would anyone in treatment for a disease.

By simply talking about it, you help strip away the stigma.

The only thing worse than battling a disease is battling a disease that many people don’t believe exists; a disease that, if treatment is not embraced as a way of life, can be fatal.

For everyman and everywoman.

Take a moment to consider the loss of life and talent that alcoholism and drug addiction has taken from the cultural landscape: Amy Winehouse, musician; Brian Jones, musician with The Rolling Stones; Chris Farley, comedian, actor; Cory Monteith, actor, singer; Darrell Porter, American professional baseball player; Elisa Bridges, model, actress; Elvis Presley, musician, singer, actor, cultural icon; Freddie Prinze, actor; Hank Williams, Sr., country music singer-songwriter; Heath Ledger, Australian actor; Howard Hughes, business tycoon, aviator, engineer, investor, movie producer/director; Janis Joplin, musician, singer; Jim Morrison, musician, singer; Jimi Hendrix, musician, singer-songwriter; John Belushi, actor, comedian; John Entwistle, bass guitarist for The Who; Jon Bonham, drummer and songwriter for Led Zeppelin; Judy Garland, actress, singer; Keith Moon, drummer for The Who; Kurt Cobain, Nirvana singer; Len Bias, Boston Celtics player; Lenny Bruce, comedian; Marilyn Monroe, actress, model, singer; Michael Jackson, singer, cultural icon; Philip Seymour Hoffman, actor; Richard Burton, actor; River Phoenix, actor; Sigmund Freud, considered by many to be the founding father of psychoanalysis; Tommy Dorsey, jazz musician; Truman Capote, writer; and Whitney Houston, singer, actress.

For a more comprehensive list of famous people who have died due to substance abuse, see Wikipedia’s List of Drugrelated Deaths.

Finally, think about the voids left by the vastly important “everyman” lost or still in the trenches of addiction – the children, spouses, friends and family that you love.

You can know that you are not alone – if you, too, are everyman or everywoman.

You can ask someone who struggles with addiction to church. Our spirits, above all else, need to be nourished.

You can ask a recovering friend to go to the movies with you or out to dinner or for a walk on the beach. Our minds and bodies need to be nourished, too.

You can ask questions.

You can pray for us.

This article originally appeared in Jana Greene’s blog, thebeggarsbakery. com. It is also a featured piece in her book, EDGEWISE: Plunging off the Brink of Drink and Into the Love of God available at Amazon.com.

Jana Greene is a Jesus freak, wife, mother, recovering alcoholic, author and blogger at thebeggarsbakery.com. In 2001, she surrendered her will to Jesus, and is still surrendering it on the daily. She writes to let others know where to find the Bread of Life. She lives with her husband, daughters and kitty cats in North Carolina.

You can just not give up on us.

You can know this, mothers and fathers. Your child’s addicSummer 2014

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By Liz Petty

F

ollowing a meeting on March 9, 2013, my fiancé, Paul B. and I returned home from yet another average meal at a late-night diner with our sober friends.

We are all in our 20s and 30s, and we were tired of our alcohol-free options: pizza places meant for kids, average hamburger or breakfast diners, coffee shops, juice bars and sandwich shops. This thought crossed my mind, If I had financial backing, I’d open a nice eating place for people in recovery.

I’d serve all sorts of delicious food, gourmet sodas, energy drinks, fresh juices, creative mocktails and, of course, good coffee and tea. Phoenix is the 5th largest city in the country, and we have a huge sober community. I bet it would do well.

Plus, it could provide legitimate jobs for people in the program. Sober communities deserve something special too!

I posted my thought on Facebook and the rest, as they say, is history. The next day we found an angel investor who thought it was a terrific idea and wanted to see us turn my thought into a brick and mortar restaurant.

It took Paul and me a week of brainstorming to come up with the name, Counterfeit Bar. We knew it was exactly what we wanted. It branded our concept perfectly. Soon we had a tagline created for us by a sober friend, “Good Times You’ll Remember”.

An integral part of our mission was to help employ people in recovery, so we enlisted the help of our sober friends whenever possible. We looked for sober advisors from all walks of life: interior designers, chefs, cooks, mixologists, bartenders, electricians, plumbers, engineers, mural artists, realtors, front-of-house experience, back-of-house experience, general construction, tenant improvements, business law and securities law. We drew upon the wealth of knowledge and experience amongst people in the program. We made some mistakes, but we kept learning.

Originally I wanted a menu with a southern, Creole focus until I started listening to others. We found a renowned sober chef, the incredibly generous Jeremy P. He was willing to help us create the menu and the recipes; and eventually train our kitchen staff. He suggested a New American focus, upscale comfort food, classics with a twist. We started a Facebook page which has attracted over 5,000 fans. Aaron P, an amazing graphic designer, collaborated with us to design our logo and social media icon.

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Because the process was somewhat intimidating, I was off to a slow start. I have a professional background in corporate restaurant accounting, but that was a few years ago. Opening a restaurant was a long way from crunching numbers and paying bills!

My fiancé and I started reading books on opening a restaurant. We talked with commercial realtors, and we started to learn about neighborhoods, buying vs. leasing and how to negotiate a lease or purchase. During our research on similar concepts, we found no big successes. A non-alcohol sports bar in Kentucky, Bar None, had closed. The Other Side in Crystal Lake, IL, opened while we were working on our concept. They received favorable press, but they didn’t serve food.

In talking with people who had attempted similar undertakings in the past, we knew we had to learn from their experience. At the end of the day, one thing was clear. Our idea started within recovery, but we wanted to be inclusive of everyone who wished to enjoy a good meal and a quality alcohol-free beverage. There are many reasons people don’t drink today: health issues, religious beliefs, recovery or pregnancy. We’d like them all to feel welcome and comfortable in our restaurant.

Our biggest hurdle was time. Paul and I had full-time jobs, a new baby, meetings, sponsees, service commitments and a beans-and-rice budget. We couldn’t afford to quit our jobs or quit recovery.

We didn’t have time to write the business plan, but we realized it was the first thing we needed to do. I reached out to my old corporate contacts and one offered to fly in and help with the writing. I took three days off work in late December; my friend flew in; and we worked day and night until the plan was finished. At the end of the day, the numbers made sense.

We knew we could do well, but we had to be smart going forward. We needed more investors; I needed a business suit; and Paul needed to trim his beard.

In January 2014, now that we had our business plan, we began to get serious about fundraising. We started small with a goal of selling 50 t-shirts, just to see how it would go. We met and exceeded our goal. As an added bonus, our friends and future customers would wear our wicked-awesome t-shirt with our logo and slogan! This gave us some free advertising and, at the same time, created a buzz about our restaurant.

In Recovery Magazine

Summer 2014

People began calling every day to see if we had opened. When our baby was asleep at night, we’d reach out to national and local media, local purveyors and sober celebrities. We had created our corporation, opened a business bank account and had business cards printed.

Then we stumbled upon a new trend, sober bars in the UK: Sobar, The Brink, Redemption, Mr. Fitzpatrick’s, Accents, Whistle Stop Temperance Bar, Kennedy Street and others. The good people in the UK were eager to talk with and help us. There was a general feeling that when one of us steps forward, we all step forward. We all had the common goal of trying to make the world of addiction and sobriety a little less lonely. The Institute for Research, Education and Training in Addiction in Pittsburg, PA, published an article on this trend and included our Counterfeit Bar. In March 2014, we initiated a well-executed Kickstarter campaign with a two-minute video filmed

by Aiden F, another friend in recovery. We talked with investors who wanted to help financially and with people who might be willing and able to contribute in other ways. With hope, faith and action, we will be able to raise enough funds to open.

We continue working patiently and persistently each day: employee packets, training manuals, food handler’s cards, OSHA certifications, etc. Each business decision is made with attention to detail. Sometimes those decisions are difficult, especially working within recovery principles. No half measures. We recently returned from the Real Soda Warehouse in CA where we purchased for sampling 350 different varieties of organic and natural sodas, bottled waters, classic favorites and energy drinks from around the world.

We are frequently asked if we will have live music, a dance floor, poetry readings, pool, darts, etc. The answer is always, “We’re not sure.” Many of these decisions depend upon the amount of affordable space we are able to find.

Although we haven’t opened our doors yet, in some ways we feel we have already succeeded. We’ve learned to follow through, keep our word and always be courteous and respectful when faced with doubt, criticism or challenges. The personal lessons we’ve learned keep our business moving forward. For these grateful recovering alcoholics, more will be revealed.

Paul B. and Liz P. live in Phoenix, AZ, with their 18-month-old daughter, Millie, and dog, Cowboy. They have a combined nine years of sobriety and are actively involved in their recovery.

They can be reached at comments@counterfeitbar.com, on their Facebook page, The Counterfeit Bar or at 480.251.2708.

THE TEEN ADDICTION ANONYMOUS PROGRAM was created by teens for unconditional peer to peer support addressing all addictive behavior, meaning any behavior that causes personal harm.

Eating disorders-depression-drugs/alcohol abuse-relationshipsgrief-bullying/anger/violence-disconnect with self and others, and any reason that a teen chooses to join the meetings.

TEEN LEAD MEETINGS Teens developed a structured, interactive format AA World Services has ‘no objections’ to the Teen Addiction Anonymous steps as used within the format of this program Training seminars are available to certify and license organizations, high schools and youth support services to run Teen Addiction Anonymous Meetings.

This program integrates: the universality of addictive behaviorthe 12 step program as edited by teens for state supported agencies-the challenge of recovery-10 Life Challenges, inclusive of: addressing depression, grief, listening skills, co-dependency and abusive relationships, others-Empowerment through Outreach to Others Thousands of meetings held since 2008 Thousands of teens committed to healing and recovery Teens came up with a plan for all teens looking for a “better way”.

Teen Addiction Anonymous has been proven.

Several two-day training plans are available.

Contact: SUSAN ROTHERY, CEO at: srothery@teenaa.org Website: www.teenaa.org

From Peer to Peer From Peer to Peer is a new column by Bill W. Bill brings his life experience to print in a series of articles dealing with the many aspects of recovery. In a series of personal reflections, interviews and round table discussions, he will share with the reader, from peer to peer, some effective and helpful insights into the world of recovery.

By Bill W.

H

i everybody … I’m Bill W. Not the Bill W., of course, but a Bill W. I introduce myself like this in AA meetings sometimes because it usually gets a little laugh, and I like to make people laugh. I think that’s partly because I’ve had so much sadness in my life that the laughter helps me keep that sadness in the past. You see, I’ve been living with bipolar disorder (with psychotic features!) for some 36 years now. On top of that, I’ve got a dual diagnosis going on that adds the alcoholic/ addict stuff. That’s about all I’ll say along those lines because I’m sure you can fill in the blanks with the struggles I’ve had.

What I’d really like to write about is the mental health maintenance program I follow that has turned my life into a relatively happy one. I have come through a life of regular, hellish psychotic episodes, broken relationships, rocky employment history, fear, guilt and despair, to a life of mended family relationships, a steady job, a little house of my own, a wife and cat who love me, friends who trust me and much more.

I believe I may have something to say that could be helpful to others struggling with mental health issues. Why? Because I’ve been working at my recovery for a long time, I practically have a PhD in street smarts by now and most in my community circle consider me somewhat of a success story. Granted, I’m a slow learner, a work in progress and have my setbacks, but hopefully some of the things I do to “keep my train on the tracks” will resonate with others. I strongly believe that there is no one-size-fits-all approach. So consider this, take what you can use and leave the rest.

When people ask me what I do to stay mentally fit, my short answer is that it is more than just taking my psychotropic medications. It’s a big package deal with lots of different things in the box. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not downplaying the importance of taking my meds. On the contrary, it is one of the most important things I do. What I am saying is I need to combine them with a variety of other things. I’ll list these, with observations, in no particular order.

•

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Keep the stress level down - Any mental health worker will tell you that stress is the number one culprit for causing relapses. That has certainly been the case in my life, and I need to manage it or the results could be terrible. I’ve learned to say no to activities that push my stress level up too high, even if they are something I really want to do. From self-help classes and books, I’ve developed a good tool kit to manage stress I can’t avoid.

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Get balanced sleep - The first thing I notice when I’m having trouble with my mental health is that I’m not sleeping well. So I pay particular attention to getting a good night’s sleep. I try to go to bed and get up at regular times. I don’t go two nights in a row without my full eight hours. I’ve invested in a comfortable bed. I follow the expert advice that works for me: don’t exercise before bedtime, avoid caffeinated products later in the day and don’t drink too many fluids that wake you up in the middle of the night for a bathroom break. When I can’t sleep, I lay still and just rest.

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Exercise - I find when I exercise, my life goes a lot better. After exercise, I get a feeling of overall wellness; I sleep better; it helps chase the blues away; and my anxiety level decreases. I’m older now with the associated aches, pains and fat cells; so I have a relatively easy routine. Walking, biking, stretching and such do it for me. I’ve found I don’t have to strain myself too much to get the benefits.

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Eat a healthy diet - It’s not rocket science! I am what I eat. My body tells me that more fruits, veggies, whole grains and lots of water; and less sugar, salt and fat are good for both mind and body.

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Maintain regular contact with mental health care providers - I feel more secure and less vulnerable knowing I’ve developed a strong alliance with my psychiatrist and associated case workers through our one-on-one meetings and time spent in talk therapy groups. Over the years, we have developed a trust level that allows me to freely disclose my situation. Because of this, the last time I was slipping into a relapse, I had a strong safety net of professionals who knew me well and could help me quickly and effectively. Knowing that I have this team in my corner gives me confidence that I can continue to overcome the problems that plagued me for years.

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Nurture relations with a group of supportive people - I was told many years ago by a wise old woman to keep the friends you have and continue to make new ones. I took this suggestion to heart, and it has served me well. My circle of support includes others in recovery, family, co-workers, Twelve Step

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Summer 2014

and mental health group folks, neighbors and church members. It takes work to keep all these relationships going, but for me it is well worth the effort. There is always someone to talk with or a partner for a fun outing. The ones with whom I’ve felt comfortable enough sharing my history help me to monitor my symptoms and check in with me to make sure I’m doing okay. If my truck is broken down I can always get a lift. These little things mean a lot.

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Develop some meaningful activities - I find it easier to get up in the morning and face the day if I have some things to do that are special to me. It can, but doesn’t have to be, anything on a grand scale. Doing a good job at work, spending some quality time with my wife, performing volunteer work, listening to a friend in need or writing an article for In Recovery Magazine does it for me.

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Pay attention to staying physically healthy - There was a time when I found myself slipping into depression. I was sleeping a lot, I felt lonely and the activities I normally enjoyed didn’t interest me. After talking about this with my psychologist, she advised me to get a check-up to determine if this difficulty had anything to do with my physical health. Sure enough, I had developed diabetes, and the symptoms related to it were affecting my mental state. I learned my lesson from this experience. The mental and physical are closely related and both need to be nurtured.

•

Continue to build a strong relationship with a Higher Power - I know it is not for everyone, but it sure helps me to know there is always Something there for love, companionship, guidance, comfort and to take the burden off of my shoulders.

Sometimes, when I am feeling despair, a simple prayer to the Higher Power is all it takes to get me through the dark times. Bill, we’d like to change this to Higher Power, what do you thing?

•

So there it is ... Bill W.’s basic guidelines for his mental health maintenance program. Tried and true, it was developed over 36 years of living life with bipolar disorder. I hope there is a thing or two in this article you can use to help you cope with whatever your circumstances may be.

Meditation

By Mike L. Rationalization is giving a socially acceptable reason for socially unacceptable behavior, and socially unacceptable behavior is a form of insanity. – AA Big Book, p. 552.

I did not want the life I was living. I was doing things I did not want to do. I drank excessively.

I did not enjoy drinking any longer – but I still drank excessively.

I treated other people in ways I did not want to be treated. This behavior was not the way God made me to be, and my actions resulted in an inner turmoil so painful that I could not be honest with others or with myself. I rationalized that these people deserved it, that it was really their fault. If they treated me right, I would not treat them the way I did. Is that insanity?

How could it be anything else?

From society’s view, sanity means that I must act responsibly. I should neither kill, nor have illicit affairs, nor deliberately try to ruin someone’s life.

These and other rules of conduct may be found in any society’s law books.

Unacceptable behavior – insanity – also includes acting outside my personal nnermost standards of integrity. If I feel badly inside when I mistreat people, even if my conduct is not criminal, then something is wrong. If I repeat negative behavior, especially if it is behavior I do not want to repeat, is that not insanity?

Is there any wonder I did not like myself when I got to the Twelve Step rooms?

The Twelve Steps have the answers for me. The Steps are why people with such miserable stories are no longer miserable. They are happy, joyous and free much of the time. They are useful. They work the program and choose to continue to do so.

You will be amazed before you are halfway through.

– AA Big Book, p. 83

Mike Lyding was born in 1945 in Phoenix, AZ. Since becoming sober in December 1993, he has been drawn to prayer and meditation. While meditating at age 58, he learned he had a desire to write. So far, the result has been two daily meditation books primarily for the recovering communities, Grateful Not Smug (2006) and Gratitude a Verb (2009).

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Which Came First?

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By Amy Baumgardner

hat do you say to the person who thinks addiction is a choice? How do you respond when someone looks at you and laughs when you use the words alcoholism and disease in the same sentence? Not everyone will agree that addiction is a disease.

Can you deter them from judging you and your illness? Does it matter?

Regardless of whether someone believes alcoholism is a choice or a disease, the causes of addiction are deeply rooted within the individual. Unless a person is willing to seek help for the addiction and its underlying causes, it’s inevitable he or she will suffer from the symptoms.

For me, the most terrifying companion of my addiction was depression. For many addicts there is a definite connection between the two, as there was for me. Early in my drinking, I found I was using alcohol as a means to relax, decompress or drown my sorrows. Anytime there was a major stressful event, like a break-up or an argument, my alcohol was there. A few beers always took the edge off just enough so I could negotiate the pitfalls of my day. The tranquilizing effect of alcohol gave my emotions a time-out so I could regain some control, or so I thought.

Did my drinking cause my depression or did my depression cause me to drink too much? It is quite possible that both my drinking and my depression shared some environmental factors that triggered both conditions simultaneously. Anytime I met with conflict or discomfort, I sought refuge in a drink. Although I would feel a release, that release was short-lived. Before I knew it, I was ingesting more and more to get the same effect.

We know that environmental and social factors contribute to depression. But what I found most interesting were studies conducted in human genetics. A possible link was found between depression and drug dependency. According to research, cholinergic muscarinic 2 receptor (CHRM2) is engaged in some important functions in the brain, such as memory and cognition. CHRM2 has been implicated in depression. Other research suggests that those who carry CHRM2 will have a predisposition to alcohol or drug depen110

dency. Interesting!

No doubt about it, alcoholism can cause serious damage to a person’s life. It wasn’t long before I was in deep financial, relationship and legal troubles. Not to mention the moral and ethical dilemmas I created. My poor choices and crippling hangovers threw me into a downward spiral of depression and self-defeating behaviors. And now my genetic makeup may influence me towards both depression and chemical dependency? Wonderful!

We can also find studies showing increased alcohol consumption has neurotoxic effects on the brain, effects which increase the risk of depression. Great, wonderful, marvelous, good to know, but what does all this mean? From what I have read, this may mean there is a correlation between substance abuse and a substance-induced mood disorder.

I was not surprised to find my own addiction’s co-pilot was depression. During my drinking I was miserable, sad, overwhelmed and hopeless; in a word, depressed. Because of these despondent feelings, I chose to self-medicate instead of seeking the help of a professional – bad decision. Drinking made my circumstances worse; and the worse things became the more I drank. I ignored my emotions and wished they would go away.

Once I was ready to admit I had a drinking problem and was willing to talk with someone about it, my outlook on life, though not necessarily my circumstances, improved. Over time my circumstances slowly improved, and I began to feel hopeful. Through the help of both a treatment program and a mental health professional, I was guided through my depression and into recovery.

No matter the causes of my addiction and depression, today I feel good about my life and the direction in which it is heading. I no longer ride the wave of despair. I stand confidently in my own skin and am living the life I had always imagined.

Amy Baumgardner is an author, freelance writer and truth-teller. She is committed to her recovery and sharing her message of faith, hope and forgiveness.

In Recovery Magazine

Summer 2014

Free Event – Everyone is Welcome!

11th Annual Prescott Area Recovery Day Saturday, September 13, 2014 - 10 AM to 2 PM Yavapai County Courthouse Square Live Music – Entertainment – Free Food Door Prizes – Children’s Activities Speakers Sharing Their Experience, Strength & Hope Information Booths – Fun for All Ages ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For additional information, contact Becca Fields at (928) 713-7227 or prescott.recovery@yahoo.com.

For exhibitor information, contact Steve Emery at (928) 273-3936 or steve.emery03@yahoo.com. th

September is National Recovery Month. In its 25 year, Recovery Month promotes the societal benefits of prevention, treatment, and recovery for mental and substance abuse disorders. This year’s theme, “Join the Voices for Recovery: Speak Up, Reach Out,” encourages people to openly speak up about mental and substance use disorders and the reality of recovery, and promotes ways individuals can use to recognize behavioral health issues and reach out for help. Recovery Month spreads the positive message that behavioral health is essential to overall health, that prevention works, treatment is effective and people can and do recovery.

Summer 2014

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Painting by Kevin Goff

Philip Seymour Hoffman

By Michael Carolan

L

An Addicted America

ike many who saw him perform, I won’t soon forget Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman. Not because I saw him on Broadway in a performance that drove me to tears; nor because I show one of his movies to my students at the university where I teach; but it’s because he was undeniably human, both on screen and now most certainly off.

Hoffman was the latest of the seemingly singular American phenomena of the high-profile celebrity death by accidental self-infliction. In his case, succumbing to the most ignoble of deaths. His body was found in early February in his New York City apartment, a syringe in his arm. It turns out he was a struggling addict and alcoholic who had only begun using again last year, after 23 years clean.

At age 46, he leaves behind not just three children and a longtime partner, but a lifetime’s worth of memorable roles in television, film and theater. He never went for showy, leading-man-megastar roles.

On hearing of his passing, many people might say, “Oh, the guy in the movie with Ben Stiller and Jennifer Aniston (Along Came Polly).” He didn’t play characters that audiences idolized; he played those that were memorable.

Much of the time, he played characters that no one would want to be or to have come near their children. But he also played some larger-than-life figures such as the cult leader 112

in The Master and the maverick CIA agent in Charlie Wilson’s War. From loser-loners to men both strong and shattered, he did self-loathing, rage and coolness at the drop of a hat. Intense, intelligent and relentless in his pursuit of becoming the character he portrayed, he seemed wholly new, beyond the previous generation’s method actors. He starred with them all: Meryl Streep, Al Pacino, Tom Hanks and the list goes on.

His finest performance was the one I witnessed in New York in 2003, in Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night.

That afternoon, it should have been called Hoffman’s Long Day’s Journey into Night.

Despite the all-star cast that included Brian Dennehy and Vanessa Redgrave, it was Hoffman’s portrayal of Jamie Tyrone, the bitterly ironic, alcoholic older brother to the sickly poet son, which reached into the wings of the Plymouth Theater and didn’t let me go for more than three straight hours.

Every line, every gesture, was that of a young man revealing his demons authentically — the self-deprecating humor, the guilt, the shame, the grief. That night, Hoffman seemed to me the only one making something entirely new — not from the lines of a fusty play that takes place on a single evening in 1912, but from his own insight and sensitivity.

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Summer 2014

I knew nothing of Hoffman’s specific demons at the time.

(I still don’t.) One thing was for certain. He had them. That’s because actors who are great, but who aren’t real addicts, fail to convincingly play them on stage or screen. I knew he had those demons because I had quit drinking myself for eleven years when I saw the play. I knew also because by the end of the show, when the sharp light of a late summer New York afternoon struck me in the eye, I wanted one of two things: a stiff scotch or to bawl my eyes out.

I thankfully chose the latter. My reaction was, in part, for the real human being Hoffman played. I had read playwright O’Neill’s biography: his older brother Jamie drank himself to death by age 45. (Hoffman was 46 when he died of a reported heroin overdose.) But my tears were for Hoffman, too. What he grappled with was so honest and true and exhaustingly painful that there seemed no right response other than to applaud for ten straight minutes afterward, my eyes watery. I remember turning to my wife.

How can he sleep at night? I asked. The performance would have sapped the life out of an actor twice as experienced.

I wonder now whether the tears were premonitory – for the demons that came barreling into my own life within a month after the play. My baby sister – an artist, age 35, mother of two young children – died in an automobile accident on the California coast. When I heard that news, I wanted a drink more than I ever had before. Instead, I bawled, just like after I saw Hoffman’s performance. But even harder.

I lived. Mr. Hoffman died. So it goes with the afflicted.

In the aftermath of his passing, the media chorus rewrites his story, calling him “selfish”, among other things. Of course he was. Most people are; addicts are notoriously worse.

It appears Hoffman stayed clean for years before recently turning to painkillers, then to heroin, after which he immediately entered rehab. He went back to a Twelve Step recovery program, but then began drinking. He showed up for his kids, though his relationship with his partner was strained. He had a new lease on life, but he was ashamed he couldn’t stay clean. The speculation was endless – from Hollywood to psychologists to addicts themselves. Even EMTs who bring heroin users back to life with an effective overdose reversal medication jumped on board. One former EMT posted a response to this very article posted on the Newsworks.org website: “I won’t forget the countless times doing CPR on these wasted human beings who [overdosed] in their rundown apartments or woke up after the medic pushed [the overdose reversal medication] into them when they were in cardiac arrest,” the person wrote. “And [the addicts] were ticked off since their high was just taken away ... Tell me again how we are suppose to have sympathy for these pieces of trash that make poor decisions. We are supposed to feel sorry for them?”

Why is it that addicts and alcoholics are so misunderstood?

We still blame the victim. It’s been nearly 80 years since Bill Wilson and Dr. Robert Smith founded Alcoholics Anonymous, the organization that single-handedly changed the Summer 2014

progression of alcoholism and addiction for millions. Science continues to advance our understanding of addiction and the brain. Just like other fatal maladies, say cancer, there’s no cure; and it makes no sense when someone dies of the disease. When someone is tumor-free for five years and the cancer comes back, we don’t say, “It’s your fault. You brought this on. You didn’t take enough chemotherapy. By the way, how’s your marriage? Maybe that has something to do with your cancer coming back.” Or to the person with heart disease, “That hamburger you ate killed you.”

Answering the question of why one addict relapses and another doesn’t is too complex for addicts themselves and certainly for everyone else. The good news is that Hoffman’s passing has unleashed a national conversation on such issues: the return of heroin to most large American cities, suburbs and small towns; a front page New York Times article about deaths in rural Wisconsin; Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin’s January speech in which he focused solely upon addiction. And now there’s the U.S. Attorney General weighing in on what he calls an “urgent and growing public health crisis”. Eric Holder called for first responders to carry the overdose reversal medication, noting that drug deaths across the country are up nearly 50 percent and seizures of heroin on the southwestern border are up 320 percent.

Consumers are crossing over from prescription painkillers to the less costly heroin at alarming rates. And they are not just the young so much as a new group – suburban 45-to 54-year olds. Even more dangerous are the painkillers laced into heroin that are 100 times more powerful than morphine.

Beyond the issues Hoffman’s death raises, what remains for me is his work.

Every semester at the school where I teach, my students read In Cold Blood, the 1966 book that altered American literary culture and made and then unmade its writer, Truman Capote. Unlike Hoffman, Capote spiraled for years into a shamelessly, self-embarrassing shell of his former self and died an alcoholic and prescription drug addict in 1984.

Then I show the class the film, Capote. My students express surprise at hearing Capote’s voice as portrayed by Hoffman.

He didn’t really talk that way, they tell me. By the end, they are won over by his Oscar-winning performance. In the movie he says something like, “When I think of how good my book is going to be, I can’t breathe.”

Now that Philip Seymour Hoffman has left us so suddenly, when I think of how good his acting actually was, I can’t breathe either.

Michael Carolan lives in western Massachusetts with his wife and two children. He teaches writing and literature at Clark University and taught the course, The Thirsty Muse: Alcohol and Madness in Film and Literature, at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is also writing his first novel. His website is michaelcharlescarolan.com. Email him at michaelcharlescarolan@gmail.com.

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The Never-ending Argument

By Leonard Buschel

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dmitting that you’re in a Twelve Step group is officially condoned by the fellowship, while confessing you’re in AA is strictly verboten. What exactly is the point?

My name is Leonard Buschel, and I haven’t had a drink in 19 years. I am an addiction survivor. I checked myself into the Betty Ford Center on August 4, 1994. I am also a proud member in good standing of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) – well, until I just wrote this last sentence. I’m still proud, but my good standing is no doubt now in question.

I’m neither here to speak for AA, nor endorse or recommend it. I won’t tell you the name of any member I know, no matter how brilliant, compassionate, loving, wonderful or famous. But if they want to tell you they’re in AA, that’s okay with me. I thought I’d mention it just to explain to people where I disappear to for an hour several times a week.

Several members of my home group (an AA meeting that someone attends every week when physically possible – I’ve attended mine religiously for 14 years) insist on introducing themselves by their full names. Why? It is because a few years ago, one of our regulars, Jack D., was hit by a car and hospitalized. We wanted to visit our fallen comrade; but since no one knew his last name, the hospital couldn’t tell us what room he was in. I see no reason to hide your last name from the members of your home group. It’s not like Akron, OH, in 1935, when even a street-sweeper would be demonized if he was openly an alcoholic seeking help – let alone a doctor, pastor or teacher.

One of AA’s strongest suggestions to its members is to live a life of rigorous honesty. How does one reconcile that with being told you can’t tell a reporter you’re in AA? The organization is Alcoholics Anonymous, not Alcoholics Secretive.

If someone can say, “I used to have a problem with alcohol, and now I’m in recovery and attend Twelve Step meetings,” 114

why can’t they just say, “I’m in AA”?

The main cliché used to support the “anonymous” rule in AA is that if a high profile celebrity, politician or sports star revealed to the world that they were in Alcoholics Anonymous and then they relapsed, the entire world would conclude that AA doesn’t work. I think that’s ridiculous. Society would cite the individual, or perhaps even the disease of addiction itself, as the culprit. How many people really blame AA for Lindsey Lohan’s relapses or Charlie Sheen’s career trajectory?

I believe the rule is that I can’t tell anyone (reporter, girlfriend or neighbor) that “you” are in AA, and no one can “speak for AA”. No one person represents AA. I love the idea that an international organization has no official spokesperson. AA is a very successful grassroots organization with no president or elected officials, except local secretaries and treasurers who chair neighborhood meetings, usually for no more than six months in a row.

Step Twelve says, “Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions.” Is this a de facto insistence that you have to be a spiritual person in order for this tradition to be important to you? It would, therefore, not apply to an agnostic, a pagan or someone who does not believe that only by living a spiritual life can he or she stay sober and be free from addiction.

Everybody knows somebody who’s either in recovery or has a close friend or family member in recovery. It’s not like 1935, when the only visible drunks were the ones on Skid Row, while “good” families kept their alcoholic relatives in seclusion. People now have more information and personal experience with addiction, thus have a better understanding and more compassion for those of us who suffer from addictive disorders. Except the media, which loves to sensationalize addiction and relapse at every opportunity.

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Summer 2014

In America and the UK there is a vibrant and effective recovery movement, but the only media attention given to this is not about the healing, just the hell. This demonstrates that a cross between Ripley’s Believe It Or Not (Celebrity Rehab), The Lone Ranger (Intervention), or the Orwellian with a twist of Charles Dickens’ Bleak House (Sober House) sells more soap than sobriety.

Society has awakened to the dilemma of the alcoholic, whether in recovery or not. The prejudice against addictive disorders has diminished, thanks to such organizations as the American Medical Association (AMA), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD), Faces and Voices of Recovery, Renew Magazine and The Fix (online magazines) and, of course, the publication you are currently reading, In Recovery Magazine.

Recently there was a staged reading of the play Bill W. and Dr. Bob at the Geffen Theater in Los Angeles starring Martin Sheen, Hank Azaria and half a dozen other well-known actors. During the Q&A afterward, William Cope Moyers asked one of the performers why he gave up a Monday night to perform in this play for free. The actor had several good answers, but would not come out and say, “It’s because I’m in AA, and it saved my life.”

Sometimes the way people skirt around the issue of being “in recovery”, but not mentioning AA, reminds me of being in a school music recital and being afraid to tell anyone that you take piano lessons.

The issue of anonymity was recently addressed by Susan Cheever in a much-publicized article she wrote for The Fix. She wrote, “We are in the midst of a public health crisis when it comes to understanding and treating addiction.

AA’s principle of anonymity may only be contributing to general confusion and prejudice. Talking about being in recovery without mentioning AA is like pretending to be a little bit pregnant.”

Speaking about AA in his review of The Motherf***er In the Hat, David Carr says, “As a matter of course, we don’t say the name of the program aloud. It is both a superstition and a matter of tradition. But anybody who has ever been in one of those rooms knows exactly what he is talking about.”

I think of Tevye at the beginning of Fiddler on the Roof insisting his family practice TRADITION! Then, little by little, one daughter after another doesn’t adhere to the traditions – and Tevye learns that times change and love is what matters most.

The Twelve Traditions are not the Ten Commandments; AA is not a religion; Bill Wilson wasn’t Moses; Dr. Bob wasn’t Jesus. Those who attend AA meetings do so simply because they don’t want to drink and because they enjoy the energy and fellowship that meetings provide.

Summer 2014

Last year, while preparing for the REEL Recovery Film Festival in Los Angeles, I was at lunch with Roberta Monroe, a maven of the film festival circuit. A well-known actress whom I met in AA joined us. Roberta had no problem acknowledging her homosexuality, but the actress was afraid to mention that she was in AA. These are obviously both huge and important aspects of their lives – why should one be a secret?

I smile at the coy quote in Counselor magazine (February 2011) from a review of Jane Velez-Mitchell’s book Addict Nation: “Those who read her book, I Want, are familiar with Velez-Mitchell’s struggles with alcohol, food and work addictions, and how she embraced the Twelve Step methodology to move past her destructive behaviors and achieve both physical and mental sobriety.”

A well-known criminal attorney and frequent guest on CNN related that when he had a few months sober, he was having some doubts about continuing what he felt was a monk’s way of life. He was at a local market about to purchase some vodka and OJ. While waiting in line, thumbing through a celebrity magazine, he read that Rob Lowe had quit drinking and was in a Twelve Step program for alcoholics. The attorney put down the bottle of vodka and the magazine, paid for the OJ and went directly to an AA meeting. He has not had a drink in twelve years. If Rob Lowe had kept his recovery on the down-low and secretive, Los Angeles would be minus one powerfully effective criminal attorney and a very handsome pundit.

If an actor can use his name to sell tickets, maybe it’s time to use his name to save a few lives.

According to Dr. Bob and The Good Old Timers, a book about the early days of AA in the Midwest, Dr. Bob is recalled saying, “If I got up to speak and gave my name as Dr. Bob S., people who needed help would have a hard time getting in touch with me.” Dr. Bob often introduced himself as “Dr. Bob Smith, a member of Alcoholics Anonymous”, as did Betty Ford.

In New York during the REEL Recovery Film Festival at the Quad Cinema, on October 1, 2013, my nonprofit organization, Writers in Treatment with the Writers Guild of America-East, produced our prestigious event, Chasing the Muse … Stone Cold Sober: A Candid Conversation About Creativity and Recovery. The panel consisted of David Carr, author and award winning New York Times journalist; author Lawrence Block; Michael Winship, president of the Writers Guild America East; author Susan Cheever; and Renaissance man, Malachy McCourt with William Cope Moyers moderating. No one mentioned AA, but none of the audience members didn’t know what they were talking about when they referred to “working the steps”, “calling their sponsor” and “going to meetings”. After the discussion, Robert Downey Sr. came over to me to extol the courage, honesty and personal integrity these artists and writers had demonstrated, and was again inspired by the remark-

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able stories of people in recovery, stories that left out any mention of AA or NA. How does denying AA and/or NA any praise or credit help anyone, including the addict or alcoholic who still suffers? How does anyone know that AA works, if no one in AA can say it works?

In his article for The Fix, Charles Fleming quotes Brian Freedman, an executive producer with the Oprah Winfrey Network, who says, “I don’t know if there’s greater acceptance of addiction, but there’s certainly a greater acceptance of recovery.”

The Internet and social media have affected every aspect of life and the way we live it. How can we expect it not to change the way people practice and participate in Twelve Step programs? The point is there is a new paradigm emerging. I have at least 500 friends on Facebook who openly discuss being sober and in the program. I’ve seen a woman invite people on her wall to hear her speak at a Cocaine Anonymous meeting, giving out the address and time of the meeting. I’m sure not all her 1,800 Facebook friends are in the program. I have even seen postings from lazy AA secretaries asking if any friends were available to be the speaker at her meeting. To me, that’s an appalling absence of the necessary and essential intimacy that AA encourages from its members. Sometimes people stretch boundaries and go too far, even for me.

The truth is I really love AA. It is an organization I have felt closer to, more indebted to and prouder to be a part of than the Boy Scouts, Beth Judah synagogue, the NRA, Naropa University, United Airlines Frequent Flyer Emeritus Club, the Mile High Club or the Green Party. Only my membership in the Buschel family counts for more.

David Dodd writes in the preface in his 1996 book, Playing It Straight (a compilation of more than two dozen profiles of prominent celebrities in recovery), “… [M]any people in Playing It Straight who frequent AA meetings and attribute their successful recovery to the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous are unable to mention the program by name.”

Ironically, the only people, save some heroic memoirists, who write about AA are not in AA. It’s like an open secret. Everyone knows, but nobody’s willing to take a stand.

But why is that? AA is not the Cosa Nostra, the KKK, the Skull & Bones Society or the Illuminati. Indeed, one of AA’s favorite aphorisms is, “You’re only as sick as your secrets.”

So why do we continue to deny our association with this life-saving program? Times and attitudes toward addiction have changed radically in the past few years. Isn’t it time for AA to change with them?

Leonard Lee Buschel is the founder of Writers in Treatment, a nonprofit organization based in Studio City, CA, that helps individuals in the writing industry suffering from addictive disorders. Writers in Treatment also produces numerous educational and cultural events including the yearly REEL Recovery Film Festival in Los Angeles, Vancouver and New York City. Buschel is a California Certified Substance Abuse Counselor.

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NEVERMORE

By Donald George MacDonald

M

y mother kept our apartment perfectly arranged and very, very clean. It was part of her rather compulsive nature. At home as a young child, I silently followed and watched her as she performed what I later realized was a self-inflicted penance. Although I did not speak until I was three, I was an observer of details. Today my memories of that time produce vivid images because as a child I observed without the encumbrance and filter of internal or external words. I still relive in detail those memories, replayed like movies on my mental screen.

Until I was eleven years old, my housewife mother, my brewery-working father, my older sister and I routinely ate meals at the kitchen or dining room table. We watched TV together in the evenings. My parents frequently took my older sister and me to fine restaurants to practice good table manners. We visited or were visited by relatives during holidays. We went on vacations to parks, to movies and many other interesting outings. We were routine occupants of the outfield bleachers where we cheered the Milwaukee Braves during the 1950s.

When I was eleven, I clearly remember one very hot day at the Braves stadium. I was a little surprised when my father returned to the bleachers holding two cups of beer. I saw my mother look at him quizzically as he coaxingly nudged the cup toward her. I had never before seen either of my parents drink any kind of alcohol. Unbeknownst to me, before that day’s first cup of beer, they had steadfastly been sober for about 15 years.

For those 15 years, my mother and father had both soberly and steadfastly tried to repent for and return from their past shortcomings and failures due to severe alcoholism. They had sincerely attempted to reclaim their lives from their wasted pasts. They had remained sober until I was eleven. Until then, 118

my childhood had seemed almost idyllic. Until then – until my family was let down by a sudden, enormous, body-slam known as alcoholism.

After that day at the Braves stadium, my parents both began to drink alcohol occasionally, but over a few months their shortcomings and past failures resumed. After a few months, their “social drinking” became daily, which soon became always. Soon “always” for them became dead-drunk for days.

Our previously perfectly arranged and very clean apartment became routinely cluttered and dirty. Family meals, outings, Braves games, evening TV together and vacations ended. With the occasional exception of brief holiday displays of kinship, our family of four became four people alone spending our time in different rooms.

I lived alone with my parents during my teens. It was sadly fortunate that my parents’ binges could last only about three or four months at a time since one of them, especially my dear mother, would time and again reach death’s door.

I still relive memories of one such occasion when I was about 16. I remember sitting on the edge of my mother’s bed as her body involuntarily convulsed with the symptoms of withdrawal. Her clothed body was white and cold, and she sweated profusely. Her hand was cold and clammy as she tightly gripped my hand. Her hands, arms and legs trembled and jerked as I sat numbly watching. I held her hand and silently waited. Then the doorbell chimed; and as he had before and would again, the family doctor arrived. He sedated my mother and, yet again admitted her to the hospital. He took me aside and asked me kindly, “Are you doing okay?”

I replied only, “Yes,” and was once again silent.

Many times my parents stopped drinking alcohol, but they seemed only able to endure six months or so of sobriety and

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Summer 2014

healing before they resumed drinking. They could never stop once and for all.

For about twelve years during my teen years and early adulthood, I witnessed extreme, clinically compulsive urges for alcohol by my parents, especially by my dear mother. It still confounds me how my mother could experience the failures of a very deep alcoholism, maintain sobriety for 15 years, reclaim her life from her wasted past and then ultimately relapse over and over again.

My mother was 5’7” and weighed about 120 lbs. A month or two after she would resume alcohol use and take an “occasional social drink” she thought she “could handle”, she would be drinking more than a quart of scotch a day.

I try not to think bitterly and say that my mother and father both should have known better than to try to return to The Days of Wine and Roses.

I try not to linger on the fact that my mother and father both should have known the door was marked “Nevermore” for a very good reason.

I try not to so clearly remember one very hot day at the Braves stadium when I was eleven and he coaxingly nudged the cup toward her.

Donald George MacDonald was born and raised in Milwaukee, WI. After completing military service in 1972, he majored in psychology at the University of Florida. He then worked for the next decade or so providing mental health services. In 1990, MacDonald became a probation and parole agent with the State of Wisconsin and also supervised a department of agents for many years until he retired. He is tolerated by his wife, two adult children and two grandchildren.

Summer 2014

In Recovery Magazine

PRESENTS

A documentary about the life of Bill Wilson co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous 7:00 p.m. Friday, June 20th, 2014 Unity of Prescott, 145 S. Arizona St., Prescott

A POSITIVE path for spiritual LIVING

A Reel Spirit Movie Presentation

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No Hero

By Jennifer Echols

E

lizabeth’s funeral was held on Monday, February 18, 2013, at Transfiguration Catholic Church, the same church where she had received first communion and made her confirmation. She was laid to rest in the Sacred Heart section of the Kennesaw Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Marietta, GA. Her grave is just beyond the outstretched hands of a statue of Jesus with Kennesaw Mountain in the background.

Elizabeth was born in August 1988, in the suburbs of Philadelphia. She was raised in an all-American home with her older sister and brother. Her mother was a stay-at-home mom, and her father was in the information technology industry. As a result of her father’s job transfer, the family moved to Georgia when Elizabeth was seven. She swam on the neighborhood swim team, was a Girl Scout, took dance lessons and played the flute in the middle school band. She did well in school and quickly made many friends.

Throughout her childhood, Elizabeth was a trusting person, but in high school she encountered people who would betray her trust, turn on her without warning and hurt her feelings. She started experimenting with alcohol and marijuana before the age of 16, hiding it well from her family.

Despite her experimentation with these substances, she continued to do well academically and appeared, at least on the surface, to be mature beyond her years.

In 2006, Elizabeth enrolled at Auburn University, where she was introduced to Oxycontin. Her grades quickly plummeted. By her second semester she was addicted and failing her classes. Her parents asked her to return home to finish school at Kennesaw State University, which she did.

Over the last six years of her life, Elizabeth went through many highs and lows. She was eventually diagnosed with bipolar disorder. She overdosed many times, ending up in the ICU, but had always been able to pull through. She was arrested for two DUIs and entered multiple rehab facilities. In one of her rehab classes a “friend” introduced her to heroin.

During this time, Elizabeth saw 16 of her friends buried due to addiction.

Three months before Elizabeth died, she was receiving help for her heroin addiction and was “clean”. She had a fulltime job and was looking forward to starting an internship at a dental office. On February 8, 2013, Elizabeth went out with “friends” and never returned home. She had overdosed on heroin, was brought to a hospital and was in a coma. She was pronounced legally brain-dead on February 11, 2013. Since her death, six more of her friends have died.

oin in Heaven Elizabeth’s four-year-old niece gave us a sense of comfort after her aunt’s passing by pointing out, “There are no drugs in heaven.” We remembered those words a year later when our family created a social media campaign to promote drug abuse awareness. The No Heroin in Heaven web and Facebook sites were created in January 2014.

We initially focused on sharing Elizabeth’s story; but after just a few short weeks, our efforts quickly became a much bigger campaign. We now share the tragic stories of a different person each day. No matter the zip code, age, gender or socio-economic background, many people relate to these stories. They are the experiences of children and young adults who underwent painful surgeries, sports injuries, undiagnosed mental illness and rape – even stories of normal teenagers just trying to fit in and be accepted by their peers. Every story is so different, and yet so much the same. The common denominator is the destruction caused by the use of alcohol and drugs.

We told ourselves that if just one person is touched by Elizabeth’s journey, we would consider our family blessed.

Every day we hear from other families who have lost their own loved ones. Our website gives them the sense that they are not alone. We hear from recovering addicts that our Facebook page serves as a powerful daily reminder of just how much is at stake if they use again. We will continue to serve our new friends until there are no more stories to share. With close to two million website hits in six weeks and a Facebook presence of 12,000 followers, our small task of sharing Elizabeth’s story has created a strong and positive community.

How powerful to have a mother or father who has lost a child to substance abuse cheering on a recovering addict they have never met! Equally powerful are the messages from those in recovery who share their journeys and explain the “behindthe-scenes” of addiction to families who have lost loved ones.

In conjunction with our social media campaign, Elizabeth’s older sister, Jennifer, is working with middle and high school children. She shares the warning of the slippery slope of drug abuse. This campaign has drawn the attention of our local news media. Jennifer has worked with WSB TV Atlanta, Channel 2 News and our local newspaper, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which draw attention to our message. She is visiting schools and churches in the Atlanta area, sharing the stories we publish and providing literature encouraging parents and children to begin speaking early and often about the dangers of drug abuse.

In addition to our social media and education campaigns,

we partner closely with our local animal rescue organization, Inspire Pet Rescue. Inspire has dedicated their rescue work to Elizabeth’s name and now endeavors to place pets in the loving homes of recovering addicts. We’re proud to work with Inspire and share their goal of creating bonds between animals and our neighbors in recovery.

Our Elizabeth was beautiful – inside and out. It is our family’s mission to share her story and to do our part to erase the stigma associated with prescription drug and heroin abuse.

We are not experts on addiction; we are simply the family that Elizabeth left behind. We will continue to share her story and the stories of others as long as there is a need for people to hear them.

Jennifer Echols can be reached at the No Heroin in Heaven Facebook page or on their family website at noheroininheaven.com.

To submit your story to No Heroin in Heaven: •

• •

•

•

Indicate the name, age and picture of your loved one. If you are a current or recovering addict, you can submit your story and ask to remain anonymous if you prefer.

Please proof and edit your story. We are unable to do this for you and publish all stories “as is”.

Stories of more than one paragraph will be published on our website and Facebook. Longer stories will be published in our Facebook album.

Feel free to include links directing us to your personal website, blog, Facebook page, etc. You may also include ways for readers to reach-out to you via social media.

Wecannotguaranteeiforwhenaspecificstorywill be published. If you have a suggested date (i.e., on a birthday/ special anniversary), we will do our best to publish on that date. Thank you!

ANONYMITY

By LinMarie D.

I

n April 2012, Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) General Service Conference in New York carried the theme, Anonymity: Our Spiritual Responsibility in the Digital Age. The purpose of this theme was to drive home to our worldwide society both the awareness of the shifting aspects of anonymity in the 21st century, and how vital an underpinning anonymity is to Alcoholics Anonymous.

When asked to write on this topic – especially in the “recovery Mecca” of Prescott which has 1,200 recovery “beds” and growing at last count – I cringed, but at the same time gladly accepted the task. As a member blessed to serve for about twelve years at the General Service Representative level and beyond (or below, considering our quirky upsidedown triangle where the groups are the boss), I witnessed the principle of anonymity in action; I saw the discussion of anonymity come alive both for the good and the “Oh, my gosh, get me OUT of here!”

I avoid sharing my opinion on topics as precious as our traditions and concepts of World Service; instead, I speak and write from both the dual focus of my experience with our three legacies of Unity, Recovery and Service, and the prin122

ciples our co-founders and current trusted servants have found helpful in keeping our tradition of anonymity thriving and relevant.

Alongside any meaningful exchange on this hot topic, we are wise to reflect on our Preamble, published in our AA Grapevine and read at nearly all of our meetings. It reads in part, “AA is not allied with any … politics, organization or institution; does not wish to engage in any controversy ...”

That statement brings us to the question, what constitutes a break of anonymity at the public level? It is the only kind of break that is of grave concern and has the potential to threaten the foundation and future of this sober society.

I marvel at how, nearly 80 years ago, the Higher Power brought together such a yin and yang, polar-opposite couple of drunks to launch our program! Bill W. was the sales-driven stockbroker zooming around the country on his motorcycle with his long-suffering wife beside him. Dr. Bob was the reflective physician for whom sobriety did not arrive in a flash of brilliant and mysterious light, but instead arrived educationally and gradually. Dr. Bob more easily embraced humility, sacrifice and the necessity of anonymity for the survival of our early and struggling fellowship.

Box 4-5-9 (Vol. 58, No. 3, Fall 2012), published quarterly by our General Service Office (GSO), led with an article entitled When is Breaking your Anonymity not an Anonymity Break?, in which the staff shared a number of examples of typical exchanges fielded by GSO on this oft misunderstood subject. A bit of Dr. Bob’s quiet wisdom is offered in response to a member wanting to know how he and his group should approach a newly-relocated fellow who insisted on giving his last name when sharing in the meeting: “Since our Tradition on anonymity designates the exact level* where the line should be held, it must be obvious to everyone who can read and understand the English language that to maintain anonymity at any other level is definitely a violation of this Tradition. The A.A. who hides his identity from his fellow A.A. by using only a given name violates the Tradition just as much as the A.A. who permits his name to appear in the press in connection with matters pertaining to A.A.* The former is maintaining his anonymity above the level of press, radio and films, and the latter is maintaining his anonymity below the level of press, radio, and films whereas the Tradition states that we should maintain our anonymity at the level of press, radio, and films.” (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, pp. 264-65) [*emphasis added] That brings me to my own byline for this piece to be published by In Recovery Magazine. Since I am writing at the public level in a magazine that is accessible in print and online by anyone with a subscription and internet access, I haven’t used my last name and no photo will appear.

Furthermore, the magazine maintains a social media site.

Most of us with any experience with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and countless other wide-open access

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e-outlets are well aware of how much we can learn about relative strangers in just a few clicks!

On the other hand, if I am sharing in a meeting of AA, even an open meeting – let’s face it, there are at least ten times more open meetings than closed – you knowing my last name, my telephone number, and my email address is the appropriate level of anonymity. If I don’t disclose my details on the phone list maintained by the group’s secretary or share it with you after the meeting or at lunch or coffee at the “after-meeting”, how will you find me and connect?

Without a last name or a phone number, how can I follow up with a newcomer named Mary within a group of 60 or 70 members, four of whom are named Mary? Unfortunately, we’ve all had the experience of desperately wanting to support an AA member with a visit, a call, card or gift when he or she is hospitalized or in some other institutional environment, only to realize we have three guys in the group named Tom; and we don’t even recall our stricken member’s last initial!

Similarly, when engaged in service to the AA fellowship at the group level and beyond, last names are always used from the microphone on the floor or on the dais and included in password-protected or selectively distributed reports of proceedings. When that report is placed in the public domain, particularly via electronic media, last names are redacted (think National Security). This is for the protection of our fellowship, to keep us out of public controversy, as well as to guard against my ever-present tendency to play the “big shot” with all the answers or to be identified as an AA expert.

A public relations policy based on attraction rather than promotion makes AA an odd duck in a world where status is frequently based on the number of Facebook friends someone has or how many others are following him or her on Twitter! The long form of the Eleventh Tradition ends with, “There is never a need to praise ourselves. We feel better to let our friends recommend us.”

Are you rolling your eyes? Are you wondering if I’ve used the Internet, chat rooms, blogs, websites, Facebook and e-books, or if I’m still partying like it is 1991? Rest assured, I have been online from the beginning, and have delighted in being able to communicate with AAs around Arizona, the rest of the US, Canada, Ireland, South Africa and Australia.

I am grateful technology has given us so many ways to carry our message to the alcoholic who still suffers, whether it be a virtual meeting room or face-to-face with overly-strong coffee, powdered creamer and Styrofoam cups.

Let’s return to another edition of Box 4-5-9 (Vol. 59, No. 1, Spring 2013), where a member’s query “How do we guard anonymity online?” and GSO’s response is discussed:

“An A.A. Web site is a public medium, which has the potential for reaching the broadest possible audience and, therefore, requires the same safeguards that we use at the level of press, radio and film.

Summer 2014

When we use digital media, we are responsible for our own anonymity and that of others.* When we post, text, or blog, we should assume that we are publishing at the public level. When we break our anonymity in these forums, we may inadvertently break the anonymity of others.”* [*emphasis added] (A.A. Guidelines on Internet) Our General Service Conference laid the foundation to revise the pamphlet, Understanding Anonymity, first published in 1981, to reflect the impact e-communications of all sorts have had on our fellowship and its place in an increasingly connected world. Thirty years later, Bill W.’s 1946 comment on anonymity is included, where he reminds us how vital that word anonymous is to our recovery in AA. We are to place principles before personalities, “to renounce personal glorification in public”, and to preach and practice a true humility.

I am deeply grateful for my own powerful lessons and egoflattening adventures during those years in General Service. I listened, learned and shared as electronic media was making its presence felt. Our Arizona Area set up a website and began distributing its newsletter via email. Instead of a webmaster, the position was named Webservant (think, trusted servant) and within the last two years was renamed Technology Coordinator.

None of that progress and expanded outreach will ever remotely inspire me as much as listening to the words of the long form of Tradition Twelve read from the podium as a hush fell over the Assembly floor. What? There is a long form of the traditions? Absolutely, and I cannot encourage any member enough to dive into them as soon as he finishes reading this issue of In Recovery Magazine!

I heard, “... we are to practice a genuine humility. This to the end that our great blessings may never spoil us; that we shall forever live in thankful contemplation of Him who presides over us all.” (© AA World Service, Inc.). This reminds me that if I strive for public acclaim, power or notoriety, no matter how well-meaning my intentions are behind breaking my anonymity at the public level, our spiritual unity, so essential to the work of helping fellow alcoholics, will soon be lost. The AA Preamble reminds us that this is our primary purpose.

While we have more choices than ever in how we carry AA’s lifesaving message, we behave unwisely when we disregard the principles upon which our fellowship was created.

I am again reminded how I treasure our enormous library of Conference-approved literature and our two publishing arms, AA World Services and AA Grapevine. In nearly 22 years of living in recovery, I have yet to come up with a question that isn’t addressed in our literature.

This assumes I make the time to do a dispassionate, agenda-free bit of research, of course!

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Tim Cheney

C

Adrian Hooper

hooper’s Guide was born on a Saturday afternoon in August 2009, on Pemaquid Beach in New Harbor, ME. Two guys, Tim Cheney and Adrian Hooper, who collectively had been in over 45 substance abuse treatment centers, mental hospitals and detox programs for alcoholism and drug addiction during their former lives, decided that too many drug addicts and alcoholics die or their disease progresses because: • They can’t find a bed in a local detox.

• They are misdiagnosed.

• They can’t find the right rehab center offering appropriate treatment for their needs.

• Their co-occurring mental illness is not treated concurrently with their addiction.

• They are given inappropriate referrals by clinicians, medical personnel and other addiction professionals.

• They face a host of other roadblocks placed in their paths by the social stigma and shame associated with the disease of addiction.

“To say our respective recoveries from addiction have been a journey is an understatement,” shared Adrian Hooper. “Like most drug addicts and alcoholics, we have our war stories: periods of homelessness, lock-downs in mental institutions, jail, inand-out of detoxes and rehabs, stays in therapeutic communities, long periods of methadone maintenance, near-death overdoses, $500/day heroin habits and treatments for hepatitis C, among others.

“Like most drug addicts and alcoholics, we kept try- Tim Cheney and Adrian Hooper ing, over and over and over again, to get a grip on our drug addiction and alcoholism, believing this time really would be the last time we’d go that far off the rails. For both of us, 124

recovery started when we finally accepted we had to do whatever it took to stop because dying was our most likely alternative.”

For Tim Cheney, addiction took hold by age 15. “I took the drug, and the drug took me,” he said. Cheney’s recovery work initially involved long-term methadone treatment and eventually progressed to abstinence (1981) with an avid commitment to a Twelve Step program and extensive therapy with psychiatrists, psychologists and drug counselors.

Hooper’s addiction roared down the runway at age 30.

“I used drugs to self-medicate my PTSD, and eventually the drugs and the PTSD took me,” he said. Hooper’s recovery initially involved a long-term stay in yet another rehab center, along with a great deal of Twelve Step program work. But eventually his recovery required having time-release Naltrexone embedded in his abdomen and extensive therapy with psychiatrists, psychologists and drug counselors.

For both Cheney and Hooper, the most significant problem back then was that the treatment field itself did not have access to the brain- and addiction-related research which is now available. As a result, the disease was not understood for what it is – a chronic and often relapsing brain disease. This, in turn, led to repeatedly experiencing incomplete diagnoses and, therefore, incomplete and/or ineffective treatment protocols for their individual symptoms. In the 1960s, for example, treatment consisted of a stay in a mental hospital because addiction was thought to be a psychiatric disorder. In the late 1970s, alcoholism and drug abuse were legally viewed as “volitional acts of misconduct”.

Additionally, the treatment field did not have the latest research which is currently helping all of us understand the

In Recovery Magazine

Summer 2014

and a collaborative vendors listing. They are also in the process of developing a diverse and inclusive compilation of premier addictionrelated resources. You can find this comprehensive website at: choopersguide.com.

Tim Cheney is the managing partner of Chooper’s Guide. He also owns and operates Clark’s Cove Farm and Inn in Maine. He received a BA in Sociology from Boston University and attended Yale Divinity School. Cheney has been involved professionally and personally with addiction treatment, research and advocacy for 35 years and has been in continuous recovery since July 1981.

Tim Cheney and Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

key role risk factors play in a person’s developing the disease of addiction; further they realized addressing and/or treating those risk factors is critical in treating the disease of addiction. The more risk factors, the more susceptible a person is to the possibility of “crossing the line” from abuse to addiction.

Hooper and Cheney were fortunate. In spite of it all, they did find their way into recovery, and were able to build successful, prosperous professional careers before retiring recently – all of which brings us to their building the Chooper’s Guide website. “Chooper’s Guide is our opportunity to give back, to help others find their way out long before they hit bottom,” explained Hooper. “We built the website to provide addiction treatment professionals and mental healthcare providers with a referral resource to share the latest brain, mental illness and addiction-related discoveries and treatment protocols. Another goal is to help family members and friends find what they need to help themselves and, thereby, help their loved one before it’s too late.”

Their objectives are simple. They hope to expedite the referral and placement process of individuals in need of substance abuse treatment by creating an easily accessed data warehouse of existing accredited facilities and treatment professionals. This resource will increase drug and alcohol treatment referral options and help the family members and friends which are an important group in and of themselves – a group that needs information they can easily use and immediately understand. It will positively impact substance abuse treatment outcomes by facilitating accurate matches between consumers and treatment providers. A primary goal of the service is to get the drug addict or alcoholic off the street and into treatment quickly but, most importantly to save lives!

Chooper’s Guide is an easy-to-use website with a plethora of information. Hooper and Cheney show their generous support of nonprofit programs by providing a free-of-charge platinum listing to 501(c)(3) facilities. Private programs enjoy the same listing for a modest price. In addition to an extensive treatment, prevention and intervention resource directory, they provide a compendium of interesting articles on a variety of addiction topics, an excellent events calendar Summer 2014

Adrian Hooper has extensive experience in yacht fleet management, maintenance, surveying, ocean sailing and navigation, and has engaged in an import-export business, several restaurants and large tracts of real estate in North Carolina and Maryland. In 2001, he retired to Maine and St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Hooper has witnessed some of the world’s most draconian substance abuse policies. He is an advocate and a very strong supporter of drug policy reform.

Five Key Risk Factors for Addiction •

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Genetics – If it runs in the family, there may be a genetic predisposition; not an “addiction gene” per se, but genetic differences such as higher or lower levels of neurotransmitters or receptors or the liver enzymes which break down alcohol or drugs.

Social Environment – Heavy drinking or drug use viewed as “normal” can provide permission for another person in that environment to drink or use heavily. If a person’s brain or genetic makeup is also involved, this compounds the risk for substance abuse and/or addiction.

Childhood Trauma – If verbal, physical or emotional abuse were present in the early years, this may have “hard-wired” unhealthy coping skills or actual physical brain changes, thus opening the door to substance abuse.

Early Use – Critical brain development occurring between the ages of 12 and early 20s can make the brain especially vulnerable to structural changes caused by substance misuse.

Mental Illnesses such as Depression, Anxiety, ADHD, PTSD or Bipolar Disorder – May also cause brain changes and often a tendency to “selfmedicate” with alcohol or drugs.

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Don’t Gamble with Your Recovery

By Michael Burke

E

very week I am contacted by people dealing with problems created by their gambling. Most of them have lost everything and are trying to figure out what happened to their lives. All are in deep financial trouble, and many are facing criminal charges. Some are contemplating suicide. Not surprisingly, compulsive gambling has the highest suicide rate of all addictions.

There are two primary aspects of gambling which allow the gambler to get lost in his or her addiction. First, compulsive gambling is known as the hidden addiction. There are no outward manifestations. There is no odor, no staggering and no slurred speech. Often people do not realize a problem is starting to consume a loved one or a friend until it is too late. Second, as long as the gambler has a token (a counter or a chip used to gamble or to operate slot machines), the gambler has hope. The compulsive gambler will only seek help when all the money is gone.

A large number of gamblers have one additional thing in common; they are in recovery from substance abuse. Many in this group have been clean and sober and in a Twelve Step program for many years. The last two people who contacted me both had an active gambling addiction, one with eight and the other with 15 years of substance abuse recovery.

Gambling is an insidious addiction. A person predisposed to developing a gambling problem may spend years gambling socially and suffer minimal ill effects. But that person may eventually cross the line into a full blown addiction.

The chains of addiction are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken. It can take a lifetime to repair the devastation we gamblers leave in our wake. Relationships are often fatally destroyed due to the betrayal of trust by the compulsive gambler.

Studies have shown that 12-20% of substance abusers attending inpatient rehab programs also have a co-occurring gambling problem. We should begin addressing the issue with this group immediately. This may be accomplished by implementing an aftercare program specifically offering treatment for a gambling problem.

ers, primarily alcoholics, for a gambling problem. Sixteen percent of the patients screened identified as having a gambling problem. Interestingly, the majority of the remaining 84% did not gamble at all. The reason for this turned out to be quite simple. The addiction that brought them into the hospital was working just fine; they did not need another addiction at that time. Unfortunately, after treatment for substance addiction, this group may well replace their substance addiction with a gambling addiction. They may leave their alcoholism or drug abuse at the hospital, but walk down the street and find a replacement addiction.

Recovering alcoholics and addicts are a large group of people predisposed to problem gambling. At the same time, they are the most economical and easy to treat. We must educate them about the dangers of gambling, just as we currently educate alcoholics about the dangers of other substances. The theme should be addiction is addiction is addiction. Education will hopefully lead to well-informed and appropriate choices for the person in recovery.

Educating people who are presently in a Twelve Step recovery program holds great promise. There is a need to begin discussions connecting gambling and other process addictions with substance addictions. Recovering alcoholics and addicts should be warned of the devastation gambling can cause a person in substance recovery. I am deeply saddened by the numbers of recovering alcoholics and addicts coming out of Twelve Step-based treatment programs who lose most of what they gained while in the recovery program because of a lack of knowledge about gambling addiction.

The message is simple. If you are in recovery, do not gamble. If you need help for a gambling problem, contact me at burkemichaelj@yahoo.com.

Michael Burke lives in Howell, MI, where he practiced law for 25 years.

Burke’s book, Never Enough: One Lawyer’s True Story of How He Gambled His Career Away, has been published by the American Bar Association. Proceeds from the book go to gambling victims. He travels the country speaking to groups on the topic of trading addictions and compulsive gambling.

I conducted a survey of substance abuse patients at Brighton Hospital in Brighton, MI. I screened 8,000 substance abus126

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Summer 2014

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.

- Reinhold Niebuhr

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