welcome to the recovery conference! tell us as much or as little about
yourselves as you're comfortable.

34 responses total.

   i'm void. i've been in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction for over
seven years, after spending eight years as a using addict. recovering is
something i've been doing my own way rather than through AA/NA, but i've
talked to a lot of people who are in the program and i'm pretty familiar with
how it works.

I've been in recovery for just about twelve years and am a member of aa/na
and pir (pagans in recovery). I'm wondering why you've not gotten involved
in any of these programs?

Thought you might like to see the pagans in recovery twelve steps! Here they
are:
 The are called the Empowerment Twelve Steps and where compiled by Salina Fox
through the pagans in recovery associated with the Pagan Spirit Gathering held
in wisconsin eaach year.
Step 1 We recognize that we have given away personal power by addiction to
substances or behaviors, that has resulted in dysfunctional living, and that
it is time to begin reclaiming our power and restoring balance to ourselves
and our lives.
Step 2 Came to acknowledge that the Divine Power within can bring about
healing change and harmony.
Step 3 Chose to allow the Divine within of our own spiritual path to be the
center guiding force in ourselves and our lives.
Step 4 Examined ourselves deeply and honestly on all dimensions - physical,
mental, behavioral, emotional and spiritual.
Step 5 Acknowledged to the Divine, to our egos, and to at least one ally what
is healthy and unhealthy in our bodies, thoughts, emotions, behaviors and
souls.
Step 6 - Were ready for the Divine within to work transformation to restore
balance to ourselves and our lives.
Step 7 - Sincerely invited the Divine within to dispel barriers to change and
to facilitate transformation.
Step 8 - Made a list of all beings we have harmed, and became willing to make
amends to them all.
Step 9 - Made direct amends to such beings as much as possible, except when
to do so would cause harm to them or others or make a difficult situation
worse.
Step 10 -Continued our process of self examination, acknowledging our
strengths as well as our problems, and promptly acknowledging our mistakes
and our successes when they occurred.
Step 11 -  Sought through spiritual activities to stregthen our relationship
with the Divine within and to allow this transpersonnal dimension of ourselves
to be the guiding force in our lives.
Step 12 - Having had a spiritual rebirth as a result of this process of
healing transformation, we continue our work with these principles and are
willing to share our story with those who come to us in need.
(c)salina fox, circle sanctuary, po box 219, mt.horeb, wi 53572 permission
for duplication has been granted as long as credit is given!


after years in aa, i felt a pang of sacralige (and bad spelling) when i first
saw these. Then I realized that looking at the process of recovery from a
non-patriarchal view point was a good thing. The more I think about how she
has written these steps, the more I find that I like about them.

 
   re #2: that's a good question. i'll put it in a separate item, since it
could go into a discussion of its own.

   re #3: thanks for posting those!

I'm so glad to see this item here. I'll always be amazed when I find how
many people around me - be it work or social - have been through or are
going through the same 
I was sober for the better part of ten yrs, but I forgot, became
compklacent (and a novel speller as well). Now it has been 4 years. 
So many issues _ i won't take up lots of space, but for a variety
of reasons I'll be eternallky greatful. Much is new now; the normal
everyday of lifes walk I have been thoroughly enjoying. Have a real
work eh -- ethic for the first ti,e in my life. 
<by the I haven't been able to configure  this to actually have
a backspace that works - hence - - -.

   welcome to the conference, uniontod. keep up the good work!

I'm here from a differnt tack, though I too am fighting to rid myself of the
need for drugs and drink. I'm a surivor of sexual abuse, and getting fucked
up has been my response to the way I couldn't deal with that fact. Now as I
start to get that part of my life under control, or at least understand it
better, I find that I'm having a real problem with that part of me that still
awants to bury the past ewith drugs. So here I am.

   pete!  welcome to the conference!  (this is dru, by the way).  sorry
it's taken me so long to get back here...i've had a mighty busy couple
of months.  glad to see that you're entering recovery.  :)

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   no, the reply i posted seems to have gone off to the land of dead
socks.  here it is again, more or less:

   lumen, i would advise two things: first, stay away from the booze for
a while.  the behavior you describe is far more indicative of someone
who has the brain chemistry of an addict rather than someone who
occasionally gets recreationally plastered.  second, i would suggest
finding either a support group or a licensed social worker who is in
private practice.  in my experience, those two tend to work better for
people who need help but have already run the shrink/head-meds gamut.
(please keep in mind that i am absolutely unqualified to hand out
psychiatric opinions or diagnoses.)

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   well, if your meds are holding up well and you get along with your 
shrink, more power to you.  i had suggested a private-practice social 
worker (i.e., a counselor with a csw or mcsw, but not necessarily 
attached to some greater social organization rather than an md or phd) 
because they can be jsut as effective, if not better, than their more 
expensive comptetitors.  i saw one for a while who worked on a sliding 
scale and charged my ex-wife and me $40/hr.  she helped us a lot, 
too...the story of how my ex and i parted ways goes elsewhere.

   saying that people who are bipolar are more subject to developing 
addictive behaviors is all well and good, but be careful not to let that 
become an excuse for addictive behavior.  many people (not necessarily 
you, but many people) develop the attitude that if their addictive 
behavior is part of some other, officially diagnosed condition, then 
they can go right ahead and be happy little addicts because they can't 
help themselves, or because it's even harder to overcome their 
addictions.  i guess what i'm saying is that it would be a bad idea to 
use bipolar disorder as a justification for addictive behavior.

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Forgive me for hiding my responses-- I decided I wanted them out of 
view of the general public.

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Hi - I'm Brooke and a recovering food addict and compulsive overeater.  I go
to OA everyday (I am doing 90 meetings in 90 days).  I am finding that I am
not as nice as people think I am because when I got angry, I ate, kinda to
squash the anger down.  

I am learning to take care of myself rather than through a box of twinkies.

   go, brooke!  :)

Thanks.  It feels weird being proud of taking care of yourself, but it's nice
to have the kudos.  I would also like to say that while I won't eat a box of
twinkies, I would do twinkie.

   tmi.

Oh come on - it's all in great fun:)  

   for you, maybe.  :)

power 

Hi, im John (not) I have been a drug abuser for 15 years, using lots of alc
too. this summer i tried to drink myself to death, but as you se, i am here
trying to get my life back. i have stopped using drugs, forever i hope because
of an experience i had this summer, i got home from a party and i maked myself
a joint, when i smoked it, i suddenly got a feeling that i was almost choked,
i got problems breathing and problems to swallow, my god that was bad, i still
fights with that feeling, i think i hurt myself some how. i just hope i will
get ok again, getting my life back from all those wasted years of my life,
im thirty year old, starting with drugs at the age 15.

Hi, i'm Walter Cramer, one of the cfadm's on grex.  User void, the sole
fairwitness of this conference, has resigned from that position.  The
users here may elect a new fw if you wish, or you can leave the position
empty (in which case you'd have e-mail a cfadm if you wanted any fw-tasks
done).  

Hi, I'm Julie Pratt

I am recovering from the effects of a childhood abuse that happened to 
me when I was ten.  I am not ready at this time to tell all the gory 
details, but I may at some future time.

resp:18  Brooke-- I empathize.

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Just roaming around!  I'm Sylvia and have been a grexer off and on 
since around '94.  I've been back on since June '00.  I was diagnosed 
with major depression in April of this year and have been in therapy 
and on antidepressants since then.  Issues contributing to depression 
are just now being discovered or explored, as is learning that this has 
been a problem for a long time without me or those I was close to 
realizing it.

unipolar and bipolar disorders are both being treated better, and new 
research is finding more.

Good to see you here, Syl.

I wonder how much of the Unipolar/Bipolar population actually suffers 
from poor nutrition (from the processed foods and poor fruits and 
veggies). I would imagine most people would see a marked improvement 
from a healthy diet that included some regular exercise.

Barry

Well, Barry, my first psychiatrist, as a Seventh-Day Adventist, was 
certainly an advocate of that.  Better diet, exercise, and positive 
attitude is all part of the mix.

However, it is NOT the cause.  While a better diet will certainly 
enhance treatment, I doubt very much that it is really a contributing 
neurochemical factor.

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