I recently visited my father for the first time in eight years—the first time in my recovery. To say it was tough is an understatement. I knew that would be...
Five years, 7 months ago, I was drinking four bottles of wine and a handful of pills a day. I’d become my own pharmacist: feel an ounce of pain, take...
The concepts of guilt and shame are closely intertwined. However, if you take the time to tease them apart, you can see a fundamental difference between the two. Guilt refers...
If you are currently in recovery, then you know exactly what I mean when I say that there is a big difference between needing recovery and wanting recovery. Anyone who...
Oh dear friend Alcohol, what a long, weary road we have traveled together. When I first met you at the ripe age of 15, I had no idea what an impact...
A creative life is an amplified life. It’s a bigger life, a happier life, an expanded life, and a hell of a lot more interesting life. Living in this manner—continually...
Addiction recovery almost always involves dealing with anger. Anger may be directed at oneself, at specific people, at less-specific entities (like law enforcement), or at society as a whole. Without...
Utterly destroyed, I walked into the rooms of AA on the 26th of March 2012. I Identified as an alcoholic, and I haven’t had a drink since. But I didn’t stop...
I recoiled in horror at my first step five—where we share an inventory of harms, resentments, sexual misconduct, and fears—and was devastated by the endless list of defective thinking that...
Dear Moms (who always understand), You know dedication. You know what it is to persevere through long nights with a sick toddler, simultaneously overwhelmed and impressed by the amount of...