by William C. Moyers

Many addicts and alcoholics want help expecting that they never will get high again.

I understand their sentiments. There was a time in my life, too, when the pain and suffering of drinking and drugging were more than I could bear. Desperate, I sought relief and a way out of my intractable spiral in the whirlwind of addiction. Treatment gave me that chance.

But as I and many others have learned — sometimes the hard way — treatment does not offer a cure for alcoholism or drug dependence. The solution requires a lifetime commitment, including vigilance and a healthy…

The topic at my homegroup meeting last night was “how to tell your story”. Telling your story is one of those opportunities to serve that is part of the Al-Anon legacy: “Recovery through the steps; Unity through the traditions; and Service through the Concepts.” It is also an honor to tell your story.

We talked about some of the components in telling about your self. It’s important to talk about what your life was like, what happened, and what it’s like now. This is basically what the “old” you was like, how you wanted to change, what changed you and what…

by Susan Jeffers, Ph.D.

There are times on our Journey through life that we feel lost, unloved, helpless, and defeated. Until we find the huge amount of power and love that lives within us, these times happen much too frequently. What do we do when we find ourselves in such an unhappy space?

Some of us escape into the land of danger and defeat. We “get out of ourselves” by drinking too much, or taking drugs, or feeling sorry for ourselves, or complaining, or doing whatever stops us from doing what is truly necessary…and that is…taking responsibility for our experience of life.…

by Dr. Allen Berger

What is recovery? Here are a few thoughts for you to consider. I see recovery as doing two things: first it helps us break the bonds of our addiction and secondly it helps us recover our lost, true self. Another way of saying it is that it helps us mature. Let’s discuss this further.

For many years, mental health professions tried to help their alcoholic or addicted patients by focusing on the underlying causes of their problem. Their thinking was something like this, “if I help a person resolve the underlying causes of their addiction they will no…

Last week, I got a call from the guy that I had taken to an AA meeting the week before. He is a coke addict without an addiction to alcohol. He picked up a one day chip at last week’s meeting. Since I was going to an Al-Anon meeting, I took him along to the AA meeting that is in the same complex. Yesterday, he called again and wanted to go to the closed AA meeting on the other side of town. I was working out downtown so I picked him up and took him to the meeting. Because it…

I am honored to be contributing to The Second Road. In the future I will be addressing issues relevant to recovery and relationships. My hope is to both inform you and challenge your beliefs. I want you to step back and take an honest look at yourself and what you are doing in your recovery and in your relationships. New information creates change. In fact, I believe much of our suffering comes from ignorance and misinformation. Later I discuss several ways of looking at recovery, but before I do I want to share some of my story.

I have been…

by Mark Harris

I am a mandatory reporter for a system I would not trust a single blood relative to. Nor could I wholeheartedly, unreservedly, recommend or refer any person who looks like a blood relative of mine. I have to honestly say that even if you are blond haired blue eyed and wealthy, that the system will take adequate care of you. To be sure, many parts of it will be happy to take your personal wealth, or insurance wealth, in the elusive pursuit of mental health and well-being. For the most part it will do well by you, by…

I have to admit that I typically will defend the inappropriate, senseless, hurtful and sometimes illegal actions of an active addict or alcoholic as being a part of their disease almost 99.9% of the time.  What I mean by this is that, being an addict myself, I know the depths I went to achieve my next high, sometimes I hurt people emotionally, broke laws, stole from people, cheated, lied etc.  I did all these things because the driving force was my addiction and I didn’t care of anything but that.

by William C. Moyers

John McCain and Barack Obama were on the never-ending campaign trail again last week, and for once, one of the candidates actually talked about the never-ending war on drugs.

The problem is that Sen. McCain was doing his talking in Colombia, where the fight to control the production and distribution of cocaine to America never has succeeded, despite billions upon billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars being spent to do so. And what he said was nothing new.

“There is a long way to go to stem the flow of drugs into the United States of America,” McCain said. “The…

Josh Hamilton’s story a reminder of the crossroads between Sport and Real Life

Posted by Ryan Terpstra | WGHN-AM July 15, 2008 18:11PM

Josh Hamilton was all smiles on Monday night, a far cry from where he was three years ago.

All of us have scars, some physical, some emotional.

Sometimes we joke about them. Say that chicks dig them. Sometimes we hide them. And some are too big to hide.

Josh Hamilton has scars. His body is painted with them in the form of 26 tattoos he embroidered himself with in the days of his drug addition. His eyes hold them as well, with the…

Thanks to Congress voting overwhelmingly to override the president’s veto, The Medicare Reform Bill (HR 6331) finally became a law! (If you’d like a FUN reminder of exactly how a bill becomes law, click here)

Apparently, Congress heard the screams from doctors, seniors, and the mentally ill. We bombarded them with our displeasure over The Shrub’s veto, and in a win for the system, our representatives responded.

This is big news for doctors, seniors, the disabled, and people like me–those of us with a mental illness! Doctors will be paid more. Private insurers will be paid less, as they’ve been overpaid for…

As of late my life is a stream of flowing change…ever moving and always shifting. The plan I had—ha—just saying that is funny, isn’t it. But, anyway, the plan I had of course isn’t unfolding in my life. In the rooms there is a saying—if you want to hear your higher power laugh—tell your plan for your life. It is so true. I still don’t know what is best for me all the time and just when I think I have it all figured out…WHAM! It all changes.

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