Radical Recovery
12 Recovery Myths: The Addiction Survivor's Guide To The Twelve Steps
by
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A CIRCLE OF FRIENDS I don’t care about the highs you got from shooting heroin, popping pills, snorting cocaine, or drinking alcohol. I want to know about the lows you felt the morning after, when you looked in the mirror and remembered what you said or did, the night before; the panic you felt if you ever woke up not knowing where you were, how you got there, or the person sleeping next to you. I want to know if you’ve learned the lesson that there is no future in addiction, just a regrettable past that keeps repeating itself, over and over again; that when you numb your ability to feel pain, you also numb your ability to feel joy.I want to know if you understand that there isn’t enough Scotch in Scotland, Cocaine in Columbia, or Opium in Afghanistan to fill the hole inside you; that inner peace comes from taming, not feeding, your cravings, compulsions, and obsessions. I don’t care if you’re a Leo, Aquarius, or Libra. I want to know if you’re willing to embrace and comfort the shell-shocked child inside you, the child who lost its innocence when a sacred trust was violated. I want to know if you are willing to reclaim the courage of that two-year-old who learned how to walk without using a crutch; who, after falling down, got right back up again. I want to know if you can still access the laughter and spontaneity of that kid, who, without being self-conscious, or worrying what others would think, would race along ocean shores and play tag with waves as they crashed along the beach. I don’t care if you’re afraid of being hurt, who isn’t? I want to know how you conned yourself into believing that emotional and spiritual starvation is less painful than the risk of loving, or being loved. I want to know if you are willing to grow beyond that false sense of security you feel when you numb your feelings, and isolate yourself behind the walls of your safe and solitary prison. I don’t care if you’re infected with the disease to please and be accepted by everyone you meet. I want to know if you can please and accept yourself, let go of the lie that you’re not worthy of unconditional love; stop being seduced, battered, and betrayed by a counterfeit lover who unleashes tidal waves of insatiable cravings which kill trust, abort hope, shatter dreams, and transform a few minutes of heavenly bliss into weeks, months, or years of a hellish nightmare. I don’t care if you never received the love you needed. I want to know if you’re willing to stop playing the role of victim, and give yourself the love you never got; if you understand that behind each mask of manicured manners and proper pretense is a person - just like you: someone with a story, someone whose heart has been broken, someone whose smiling eyes camouflage a lake of unshed tears, someone who has sought out imaginary lovers to comfort them with illusions of intimacy and satisfy unspoken passions and desires, someone who carries the weight of guilt, shame, regret, and sorrow. I want to know if you can stop whipping yourself for failing to measure up to illusions of perfection. I don’t care how many notches you have on your detox belt. I want to know if you understand that you are not your disease, but simply a person with a disease, that you are not powerless over your disease, that you are power-full; that the same Power which transforms a crawling caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly, can transform your cravings for pills, alcohol, or drugs into a craving for courage, to do what it takes, to become an addiction survivor. I want to know if you are willing to awaken and nurture the Sleeping Giant deep inside you by sitting still for twenty minutes a day, until you truly love the person you become in that time of sacred solitude. I don’t care about the terror you feel when you have to face a day without the possibility of being numb. I want to know if you’re ready to reach out, take my hand, and not look back; if you can believe that, just as there isn’t enough darkness in all the galaxies of the universe to put out the light of one small candle, there isn’t enough darkness in all the galaxies of your guilt and shame to put out the light of hope you’ll find in A Circle of Friends standing in the light of freedom.
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About the Book
In reading this book, you will discover that you are much more powerful than your addiction, much more powerful than the obsessive thoughts, compulsive feelings, and physical cravings that create so much pain and suffering in your life and the lives of those you love.
You will learn that there is no future in addiction, just a regrettable past that keeps repeating itself over and over again. You will cut through the recovery myths that result in an endless cycle of relapses.
It can inspire and motivate you to reach deep inside yourself and awaken the extraordinary powers that nature has bestowed on you as it guides you through a process that transforms cravings for alcohol or drugs into cravings for courage, freedom, honesty, integrity, humility, and peace.
According to HBO's documentary, Rehab, of the 2 million people who seek treatment each year in the United States, 1,840,000 will relapse within twelve months; some the first day. That's a 92 percent failure rate. This is a national disgrace.
THE ANTIDOTE FOR ADDICTION
With more than thirty-five years of continuous sobriety, Kelly presents not a cure but a powerful antidote for addiction, something that counteracts or relieves a harmful or unwanted condition.
About the Author
Kelly is a graduate of Marist College, Poughkeepsie, New York, and is certified in addiction counseling, neurolinguistic programming, trauma therapy, and hypnosis, and is a licensed HeartMath provider. Kelly's innovative and therapeutic approaches for treating addiction have been adopted by treatment centers in the United States and Great Britain.