Recovery Books

[irisblue]

Last edited Thu Jan 26, 2017, 02:48 PM - Edit history (1)

I just started reading Sarah Hepolas book Blackout Remembering the things I drank to forget. I've been having problems since the Pulse murders in mid June, I came out in a dance bar and those murders seemed so personal for me. Then the yam....dark bedroom warm cats purring & a sponsor telling me directly that the shrink perscribing semi effective meds was against sobrierty. BTW after asking where she got her MD/DO I fired her. I need some ESH. Thank you family.

[get the red out]

1. Nobody can give you medical direction

Except your doctor. Anti-depressants probably saved my life, sober. I felt like a piece of shit for needing them, but depression runs strongly through my family. Glad you fired that sponsor.

Take care of yourself, a lot of things in the news hit me at a personal level, the humiliation Trump gives to women on a regular basis took me back to a bad college relationship that I drank myself through, and that was 30 years ago.

Keep your head high and know that you aren't the only person who goes through stuff like you described. I tend to feel like I'm the only person who has the feelings I feel and have to remind myself that being human includes everyone. Someone once said in a meeting I was in that the best he could ever be was human, over 20 years ago, but I still think that may have been the best thing I've ever heard.

[irisblue]

2. a very few times since early November

I knew that doing really stupid stuff would 'orphan' 2 elderly cats and hurt my mom. I would/could not do that, maybe that knowledge is my rock bottom.

[Stuart G]

3. ...sponsors telling me about sobriety...

seen that...some anti-depressive/ anti-anxiety meds work...
these meds are between us and and our doctors..not our sponsors.

Our sponsors do not define for us.
Deep in our heart and soul.. We know...
I have had to fire three sponsors for various reasons..

We need to live in today..not them..
We do the very best we can do..that's it.
Deep in our heart, and HP,
We know.....

My meds saved my life.
Raised my mood.
Allowed me to see things and people that I could not see..

We have to hang in there, no matter what..
Let us not give up...

[progree]

4. The AA member - Medications & other Drugs, Pamphlet P-11

On prescription medications -- I don't think the Big Book EXPLICITELY says anything about medications, but it does say see doctors, psychologists and psychiatrists when needed, so its probably a distinction without a difference.

Big Book - Chapter 9 p. 133-134

But this does not mean that we disregard human health measures. God has abundantly supplied this world with fine doctors, psychologists, and practitioners of various kinds. Do not hesitate to take your health problems to such persons. Most of them give freely of themselves, that their fellows may enjoy sound minds and bodies. Try to remember that though God has wrought miracles among us, we should never belittle a good doctor or psychiatrist. Their services are often indispensable in treating a newcomer and in following his case afterward.

However, the A.A. Conference approved book, Living Sober, is quite clear about prescription medications.

So is the A.A. Pamphlet --
P-11 The AA member - Medications & other Drugs - Report from a group of doctors in Alcoholics Anonymous. AA members share their experience with medications and other drugs.
http://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/aa-literature/p-11-the-aa-membermedications-and-other-drugs

Boiled down to its essence, it's ultimately you and your doctor who decide. "No A.A. Member Plays Doctor".

[Stuart G]

5. Thank You ...progree...for the above post...last sentence says it all....

"Boiled down to its essence,... it's ultimately you and your doctor who decide. "No A.A. Member Plays Doctor".

[Rhiannon12866]

6. If you're looking for a good recovery book, I have a suggestion

One of the groups I belong to is a literature group which has kind of morphed into a beginners' group. We recently decided to read "Living Sober," good for beginners, and it's been quite popular in the group. We just had to order more books since attendance has been way up and we wanted to make sure we had a book for everybody. It's available online if you're interested:

https://sites.google.com/site/aspiritualrecovery/literature-pages/living-sober

[irisblue]

7. I am reading Blackout Remembering The Things I Drank to Forget.

By Sarah Hepola. I have been doing a lot of reading to blot out the tangtwit & company.
I do have the Living Sob1st book on the Living room bookshelf, time to move it next to my chair I think. 😊😁

[Rhiannon12866]

8. Since we started using Living Sober at that particular meeting

We've gotten a lot more regulars - both beginners and long timers - at that meeting, always a good thing. That book is relevant to all of us.

We used to use As Bill Sees It at that meeting - my favorite book - but the meeting had to move, we're now at a halfway house where many just got out of detox or rehab, so they find it helpful and it's exciting that we're now getting "old timers," too, since they're so helpful to those who are struggling or just starting out...

[progree]

9. We tongue-in-cheek call it the "Living's Over" book

Excellent book.

Ooops, meant to post it as a reply to Rhiannon's mention of the Living Sober book. Oh well.

[irisblue]

10. it is a very good book. useful as all get out