Why People Choose to Relapse
Let me count the ways! First of all, pay attention to self talk. People say “I relapsed” as if it were the same thing as “I fell asleep” and were some mystical event. No. You chose [...]
A Magic Word to Keep You Straight
Addicted people who go to a treatment program voluntarily have said the magic word; they just don’t know it. When I point it out to them, they have indeed said the magic word, they all agree. [...]
Why Is It So Hard to Stop Using?
Why is it so hard? The brain’s biochemistry has been changed, a major habit has been formed, peer pressure, social pressure, not knowing any other way to be, needing to be numbed, needing to be accepted, [...]
Part three: Introduction to the therapists, counselors, and all those in the trenches
Dear helping professionals: Some of you are in recovery yourselves. Congratulations! You are the shining examples that recovery is attainable. You are the role models, the rock stars. Some of you are not in recovery, but [...]
The Stress of Recovery
Recovery is very stressful—good stress and bad stress. You are learning to cope with self-centered thinking and realizing that being in recovery does not mean everything automatically becomes wonderful. And recovery is not easy, so that [...]
The Stress of Rehab
Rehab is stressful. What? You thought it was like a vacation? Far from it. First off is the stress of not using. Depriving your body of what it is used to, what it wants, and when [...]
Sir Roger Bannister’s Four-Minute Mile
From the beginning of recorded time until 1954, the world knew that man could not run a mile in under four minutes. Then, in May of 1954, the most interesting and incredible thing happened. A man [...]
Part two: Introduction to the nonaddict
Dear nonaddicted friend: “Why can’t they just stop?” Such a familiar refrain. Well, “they” may not be unwilling, just unable. At some point in all disease, the body does what the body does. A cancer patient [...]
The War Room
My clients know once they enter my office and I close the door, they are no longer in the democracy of the USA. My office then becomes a dictatorship, and I am the dictator. The room, [...]
Restarting Your Body’s Chemical Factory
Our bodies are chemical factories. Feel happy about something, a little dopamine shower happens. Feel sad—well, you get the idea. This factory is always working and at the ready to do what factories do, which is [...]