Recovery Tip: Live in the here and now.

In one of the daily meditation books that I read, I came across a quote that is familiar in its message to those in recovery from addiction who are guided by Twelve Step principles:

"The real enemies of our life are the 'oughts' and the 'ifs.' They pull us backward into the unalterable past and forward into the unpredictable future. But real life takes place in the here and now. God is a God of the present. God is always in the moment be that moment hard or easy, joyful or painful." --Nouwen, Henri. (1994). Here and Now: Living in the Spirit. Crossroad Publishing Company, page 18.

Of course, the Twelve Step programs talk about living one day at a time, at first, suggesting that the newcomer not take a drink or a drug just for today (or maybe just for this hour). Eventually, experience in applying spiritual principles leads one to realize that attending to the present, to what is happening in the moment, can be the key to serenity. A favorite question I try to remember when I am pestered by fear of the future or pain from the past is to ask: What bad thing is happening at this very moment? Usually the question brings awareness that the issue bothering me is from the past or the future, resulting in perspective and distance from the problem and the opportunity to apply spiritual principles, such as turning the problem over to God (my source of spiritual strength).

Over time in recovery and experience in use of spiritual principles, I have found the Nouwen quote to be true. The hard part is remembering to seek God's help in the moment of emotional, physical, or spiritual upset.

As always, comments are invited. Jan Edward Williams, 04/27/2016.

Selfishness, self-centeredness is the root of the troubles of the alcoholic

An article in Science Daily, published on the March 31, 2016, summarizing the results of a scientific study done at Case Western Reserve University, supports the frequently quoted statement from the basic text of the 12 Step Program of Alcoholics Anonymous (known as the Big Book or Alcoholics Anonymous) written around 1938, that self-centeredness is the fundamental problem of alcoholics, and also supports what has become a key to the success of the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous from 1938 to date, namely, altruism, or, one alcoholic helping another.

Here is a quote from the article"

"Developmental psychologist Maria Pagano, PhD, found adolescents  with severe alcohol and other drug (AOD) problems have a low regard  for others, as indicated by higher rates of driving under the influence  and having unprotected sex with a history of sexually transmitted  disease. The findings also showed that they are less likely to volunteer  their time helping others, an activity that she has been shown to help  adult alcoholics stay sober."

The AA Big Book states:

"Whatever our protestations, are not most of us concerned with ourselves,  our resentments, or our self-pity? Selfishness - self-centeredness! That,  we think, is the root of our troubles That, we think, is the root of our  troubles. Driven by a hundred forms of fear, self-delusion, self-seeking,  and self-pity, we step on the toes of our fellows and they retaliate.  Sometimes they hurt us, seemingly without provocation, but we invariably  find that at some time in the past we have made decisions based on self  which later placed us in a position to be hurt. So our troubles, we think,  are basically of our own making. They arise out of ourselves,  and the alcoholic is an extreme example of self-will run riot, though he  usually doesn't think so. (Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 62)."

Refreshingly, since most researchers do not understand the effectiveness of AA, Science Daily article reports that the author of the study, Dr. Pagano:

"...believes that alcoholics and drug addicts may be hindered by a low awareness of how their actions impact others. "The addict is like a tornado  running through the lives of others," said Pagano. Even when they are in  recovery there is little indication that they understand how their actions  impact those around them. "This is part of the illness," she added. Helping  young people to get out of that self-centeredness in the service of others  helps them in the recovery process. Service to others is a big part of the  12-step Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous programs."

I am always amazed at the wisdom and prescience of the authors of AA's basic text. Alcoholics Anonymous, who were able to capture the essence of alcoholism without the benefit of the modern science of the 21st century.

As always, comments are invited. Jan Edward Williams,AlcoholDrugSOS Services, 04/03/2016.

Basic Tips for Those New to 12 Step Recovery

Most individuals who have been advised to attend 12 Step programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous or Al-Anon and Nar-Anon (the latter two are for those in relationship with an alcoholic or addict), will have conflicting thoughts and emotions. Some may think: "Oh, my God, so this is what I've come to, attending meetings with a bunch of losers." Or: "Not AA or NA; they'll be trying to convert me to religion." Fear, self-pity, anger, loneliness and a host of other negative feelings may be present. All of these thoughts and feelings are normal. I know of few who have welcomed the suggestion of attending 12 Step meetings with wholehearted enthusiasm.

After this sentence, I'll give some tips that I offer to those starting attendance of 12 Step meetings, but there are many more and I invite comments from anyone registered with this site.

1)The very first suggestion I have is that you, the newcomer, try not to drink or drug, or engage in any other  behavior bringing you to 12 Step recovery, before attending a meeting. The 12 Step Recovery Programs work better if you abstain.
2) Have an open mind. Try to listen without judgment to what you hear. If the information does not immediately appeal to you, just file it away in your mind; perhaps it will be useful later on in your recovery.
3) Compare in, not out. In other words, try to listen for information that you can relate to, rather than being on the lookout for information that you do not relate to.
4) Try to avoid an all or nothing reaction to what you see and hear. Remember that members of 12 Step Programs are not professional counselors but people like you who attend meetings to help themselves recover from drug or alcohol addictions.
5) Strive for willingness to stay away from the first drink or drug or the behavior you are powerless over (for example, rescuing the addict or alcoholic), just one day at a time.

There are many more tips I could provide here. I hope that members of this site and others who read the post will share their own tips for success in the 12 Step Programs. Jan Edward Wiiliams, 02/22/2016, www.alcoholdrugsos.com.

Use of Spiritual Disciplines to Support Recovery from Addiction

Addiction to drugs, alcohol, gambling, the internet (Facebook, games, pornography, etc.) is so powerful that many find that seeking a spiritual source of strength can enhance other measures such as therapy and counseling. We are, of course, speaking here of spirituality that can be found in organized religion but often is found outside of religions.

The 12 Step Programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Al-Anon, Nar-Anon, Gamblers Anonymous, to name a few, wisely refer to a source of spiritual strength, as God (as you understand God), a Higher Power, or a power greater than myself; so that each individual can approach spirituality in his or her own way.

Rather than trying to figure out the what, who, how of a Higher Power, my suggestion is to avoid definitions and to just go ahead with a leap of faith and begin reaching out to a spiritual source of strength. The motivation for this leap of faith usually comes from pain and suffering caused by addiction and repeatedly failed efforts to stop alcohol or other drug use or other addictive behavior through will power, therapy and/or counseling. Attendance of 12 Step meetings can also provide a demonstration of spiritual strength evidenced by members of these programs who have stopped their addictive behaviors for significant periods of time.

Spiritual disciplines, as defined here, along with abstinence and attendance of 12 Step meetings, can, over time, result in the individual coming to believe in their efficacy. So, consider setting aside a quiet time every morning to focus on the fact that you are in recovery and to make a conscious commitment to yourself each morning to be abstinent from drug or alcohol use, or other addictive behavior, for that day. If appropriate for you, add a request (prayer) to your source of spiritual strength for the ability to be clean and sober that day.

At night before retiring for the day, take a few minutes for some quiet time to review the day. If you have not picked up an alcoholic drink or a drug, or engaged in other addictive behaviors, you can be grateful for that miracle regardless of whatever negative or positive events that have occurred. It is indeed a miracle for an addict or alcoholic to get through a day without using. Again, if appropriate, add a thanks to your source of spiritual strength for a day of abstinence.

These daily disciplines on awakening and before sleeping can become basic recovery tools for you and form the basis for a spiritual awakening and evidence to you of the power of spiritual disciplines. As always, comments are invited.

As always, comments are invited. Jan Edward Williams.
www.alcoholdrugsos.com, 11/14/2015

More on Powerlessness as a Spiritual Tool in Recovery from Addiction

The First Step of the 12 Step Programs for alcoholics and addicts (Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous) involves admitting that "we were powerless" over alcohol or other drugs and that "our lives had become unmanageable." This admission of powerlessness and unmanageability lays the basis for abstinence and recovery from addiction via a journey through the 12 Steps. Steps Two ("Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity") and Three ("Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him") provide a spiritual foundation for recovery. These three Steps have been given this shorthand: "I can't handle it; God (or other source of spiritual strength) can; I think I'll let God (or other spiritual source) do so.

This post suggests that learning to be on the lookout for incidents of powerlessness and unmanageability during a recovering individual's life can, by use of the spiritual principles summarized in the first paragraph, become a vital tool in maintaining emotional and spiritual balance, and, of course, abstinence and sobriety. Thus, the goal here is to try to recognize life situations over which one has little power and then to apply spiritual principles to those situations.

As everyone soon discovers, recovery from addiction does not provide immunity from the sometimes trying and traumatic realities of life. We all face such realities just like those fortunate enough to have avoided addiction. However, the point here is that recognition of incidents of powerlessness and unmanageability can trigger the individual to apply spiritual tools that worked in recovery from addiction. When serious life difficulties, such as, job loss, loss of a relationship, or diagnosis of a serious medical condition, occur, as they will, the recovering alcoholic or addict can recognize the situation as one where application of the well-learned spiritual lesson of Step One's powerlessness is appropriate; can take whatever action is indicated (look for a job, couples counseling, consult a physician); and then apply the spiritual principles embodied in Steps One, Two and Three: "Having take appropriate action, I now recognize I am powerless over the result of the situation and turn it over to God, a Higher Power, or other source of spiritual strength."

Not to be forgotten as an important spiritual tool is the value of sharing one's trials and tribulations with another trustworthy person. A passage in the meditation reader of Al-Anon (Courage to Change: One Day at a Time in Al-Anon II, October 1) has some helpful language applicable to this post: "If problems arise today, I will try to acknowledge them--and then put a little spiritual space between my problems and myself. If I can share about them with another person, I will further diminish their power. Recognizing that my life is unmanageable is the first step toward managing it."

As always, comments are invited. Jan Edward Williams, www.alcoholdrugsos.com, 10/01/2015.

Another Look at the Issue of Drug Addicts Attending Meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous

Should drug addicts attend meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous? My answer is, "Yes." However, I am aware of the controversial nature of this subject and that there are some complicated issues involved in drug addicts attending AA, including whether a drug addict who has not diagnosed himself to be an alcoholic, qualifies for AA membership.

I think a key point is this: The AA Traditions (Number 3) state that the only requirement for membership in AA is a "desire to stop drinking."; so, just on that authority, in my opinion, a drug addict without any history of problematic alcohol use, can become a member of AA without doing any violence to the AA traditions. For the following reasons, a drug addict in, or desiring to have. a solid recovery should have a desire to stop drinking: 1) alcohol is a drug; 2) use of alcohol will impair the recovering addict's judgment thereby making him/her more vulnerable to thoughts or occasions to use drugs; 3) either you are abstinent from all drugs of abuse, or you are not; and 4) use of any psychoactive agent including alcohol will tend to interfere with any spiritual relationship the recovering addict may have with a source of spiritual strength (Higher Power).

Bill Wilson, a co-founder of AA, however, came down on the side of not including non-alcoholic drug addicts as AA members, stating in a pamphlet titled, Problems Other than Alcohol (The AA Grapevine, Inc., February 1958):

"Our first duty, as a society, is to insure our own survival. Therefore, we have to avoid distractions and multipurpose activity. An A.A. group, as such, cannot take on all the personal problems of its members, let alone the problems of the whole world. Sobriety — freedom from alcohol — through the teaching and practice of the Twelve Steps is the sole purpose of an A.A. group. Groups have repeatedly tried other activities, and they have always failed. It has also been learned that there is no possible way to make nonalcoholics into A.A. members."

For the declaration that there is no possible way to make nonalcoholics into AA members, Bill Wilson cited how family members and nonalcoholic friends of AA were unable to relate to AA members and would have difficulty doing Twelfth Step work, not an argumentseemingly relevant to the issue of non-alcoholic or alcoholic drug addicts as AA members.

Although not wishing to appear presumptuous in arguing against a position taken by the founder of AA, an organization that has saved many lives including my own, I will go ahead and briefly address Bill Wilson's justifications of his position and apologize in advance for the lack of scientific research to bring to bear on this matter (there is very little).

Although citing the AA Traditions to support his position on non-alcoholics not being AA members, Bill Wilson does not even mention Tradition Three: "The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking."

In the 57 years since Bill Wilson's monograph on this subject (the 12 Traditions were adopted in 1950), there has been, at least anecdotally, a significant increase in young AA members, an increase in young AA members with a history of both drug and alcohol addiction, and an increase in young members in AA who are non-alcoholic drug addicts. There is also some research (not altogether scientific) suggesting that the number of AA members under the age of 40 has grown to 26% (Alcoholics Anonymous Membership Survey 2014). AA does not have statistics on how many of the AA members under 40 have a diagnosis of both alcoholism and drug addiction or how many may be non-alcoholic drug addict members. There are data that document (available on request) that the vast majority of individuals 30-40 years of age or younger with a primary diagnosis of alcohol addiction have histories of problematic drug use (often marijuana) and that those in that age range with a primary diagnosis of drug addiction have histories of problematic alcohol use. So, one can postulate that a significant number of the 26% of AA members under the age of 40 (AAMembership Survey) probably have a history of problematic use of both alcohol and other drugs.

AA seems to have absorbed the increase in younger members with both alcohol and drug addiction without any of the threats to its survival that Bill Wilson feared over 57 years ago. There are over 115,000 AA groups worldwide, with an estimated 2,040,629 members (AA statistics). Anecdotally, in my experience, AA members with significant drug histories either place the emphasis on the alcohol portion of their stories when sharing at AA meetings or speak generally about their non-alcohol addiction. Some meetings make a statement at the beginning of the meeting that those present should confine their remarks to their experience with alcohol. This admonition seems, in my experience, to be effective.

I have not made an exhaustive study of AA literature and historical documentation and, of course, do not have data about the AA experience with alcoholic drug addict and non-alcoholic drug addict members across the U.S. I invite those with additional evidence, scientific or anecdotal, to add to this, now unduly long. post about the issue of drug addicts attending meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous.

As always, comments are invited, Jan Edward Williams,www.alcoholdrugsos.com, 09/06/2015.

Another "Quick Fix" Treatment for Addiction: Erase Memories that Can Trigger Relapse

A major cause of relapse in individuals recovering from drug addiction, specifically in the situation under discussion here, methamphetamine addiction, involves triggers associated with memories of past drug use.

A recent animal study, summarized in ScienceDaily for August 04, 2015, reports on an experiment involving injection of a chemical called blebbistatin into animals with laboratory induced methamphetamine addiction. One injection resulted in erasure of memories pertaining to use of methamphetamine. Scientists at the Scripps Research Institute in Florida stated that "The results [of the study] showed that a single injection of blebbistatin successfully disrupted long-term storage of drug-related memories--and blocked relapse for at least a month in animal models of methamphetamine addiction."

The scientists were excited because "... the effect of this novel treatment approach was specific to drug-associated memories (not affecting other memories), and the animals were still able to form new recollections."

In my opinion, drug companies and allied medical organizations tend to seek development of drugs that will quickly fix the problem of addiction. The most objectionable examples, in my view, include methadone and suboxone maintenance that approach treatment of opiate addiction through use of legal opiate substances. Less objectionable are approaches that involve administration of opiate antagonists such as naltrexone that block the ability of opiates to produce their addictive effects and seem to also help reduce cravings in recovering alcoholics. The advantage of opiate antagonists is that they do not produce a "high", as do methadone and suboxone.

The approach reported on in this post seems like science fiction but is consistent with the attempts by science to offer a quick fix for addiction. My preference for long term recovery is, of course, to aim for abstinence through the hard work involved in therapy and use of spiritual principles in the 12 Step Programs.

As always, comments are invited. Jan Edward Williams,www.alcoholdrugsos.com, 08/08/2015.