G2 ~ Treatment Self-Care recoveryBox iPhone Mobile Addiction Recovery App

Being in treatment for addiction recovery, one would think that a G2 - Treatment Self-Care should have been on the top of the list for Daily Lights activities.  The reason it's not is because as I wrote about before, you really need to take care of yourself physically which is why Treatment Self-Care falls into the next category of Green Lights.

G2 Treatment Self-Care lights are activities that we do as an individual as part of our treatment.  Each person will have some basic activities that will look the same but then it will be different due to the reasons that we have an addiction.  

Of course self-care such as counseling is of the upmost importance.  You can't get better from an addiction without knowing the why behind why you act out!  And for myself (and just about everyone else that I've talked too in recovery) will have a counselor and most often he/she will assign homework.  Homework can be from reading something, thinking and journaling, workbooks, creating inventories, asking for forgiveness from someone, offering forgiveness, etc.  In fact, following a traditional 12 Step Program or Celebrate Recovery step is part of treatment self-care.

For others it can be taking medications as part of treatment for a variety of things such as anxiety or depression.  For myself, I can count taking meds as one G2- Treatment Self-Care but there are others who must take them 3 or 4 times a day and in order to be compliant they can count that as 3 or 4 G2 Treatment Self-Care lights.

recoveryBox was built so that you can customize these lights.  You don't have to add comments for any green lights but here is where for some it's vital to keep track of what a day looks like.  When you select the button to add your comments you will see a few already suggested for you BUT please make this list work for you.  Add what you need as part of your treatment self-care.

Later, you will see how you can add a Goal for Treatment Self-Care..make sure anytime you interact with a goal that you add a Green Light for that.  Boost up your confidence by realizing all the wonderful progress you are making in your addiction recovery.

Beginning to see how recoveryBox and the visual of Lights makes it easy to see the Go Go Go aspect of doing positive things for addiction recovery.

Wondering if recoveryBox is right for you?  Download it today from the Apple store and give it a whirl.

Wondering what addictions this will work for?  When you download recoveryBox you will first be prompted to choose one (or more) addictions from the list. There are over 50 to choose from..

~ Adrenaline-Producing Activities ~ Alcohol ~ Anger~ Being Right ~ Caffeine ~ Cocaine ~ CoDependency ~ Collecting "stuff" ~ Cumpulsive Behavior ~ Drug Abuse ~ Eating Disorder ~ Emotional Addiction ~ Escapism/Amusement ~ Exercise ~ Fantasizing ~ Gambling ~ Getting One's Own Way ~ Heroin ~ Hoarding ~ Idolization ~ Isolation ~ Laziness ~ Lust ~ Marijuana ~ Media (TV, Internet, etc) ~ Methadone ~ Opiates ~ OverWorking ~ People Pleasing ~ Perfectionism ~ Pornography ~ Prescription Drugs ~ Risky Behaviors ~ Sadism ~ Self Injurous ~ Self-Judgement ~ Sex Addiction ~ Shopping ~ Smoking ~ Sniffing ~ Social Media ~ Steroids ~ Substance Abuse ~ Theft ~ Tobacco ~ Travel ~ Trivia ~ Vandalism ~ Vicodin (pain killers) ~ Video Games ~ Voyeurism

What addictions are supported in recoveryBox the iOS app built for addiction recovery?

Want to know what addictions are part of recoveryBox the iOS app?  here goes (but if you don't find one you like you can create your own by customizing the yellow and red lights)

List of Addictions currently supported in recoveryBox:

~ Adrenaline-Producing Activities
~ Alcohol
~ Anger
~ Being Right
~ Caffeine
~ Cocaine
~ CoDependency
~ Collecting "stuff"
~ Cumpulsive Behavior
~ Drug Abuse
~ Eating Disorder
~ Emotional Addiction
~ Escapism/Amusement
~ Exercise
~ Fantasizing
~ Gambling
~ Getting One's Own Way
~ Heroin
~ Hoarding
~ Idolization
~ Isolation
~ Laziness
~ Lust
~ Marijuana
~ Media (TV, Internet, etc)
~ Methadone
~ Opiates
~ OverWorking
~ People Pleasing
~ Perfectionism
~ Pornography
~ Prescription Drugs
~ Risky Behaviors
~ Sadism
~ Self Injurous
~ Self-Judgement
~ Sex Addiction
~ Shopping
~ Smoking
~ Sniffing
~ Social Media
~ Steroids
~ Substance Abuse
~ Theft
~ Tobacco
~ Travel
~ Trivia
~ Vandalism
~ Vicodin (pain killers)
~ Video Games
~ Voyeurism

YES!  You can even choose more than one from the list for concurrent addictions.

QUESTION: why do some of the Addictions have related addictions?  Well, we thought it best to make the "red" lights specific to the addiction.  For example, you may select just pornography from the list or you may combine it with voyeurism if those combined paint a better picture of what your addiction looks like.

Regardless of which addiction you select, the recoveryBox works the same for all of them..it's built around accountability and replacing those bad habits with new ones (as well as understanding the when/why of what you do!)

Download recoveryBox today!

Part 3 : One to One Accountability and Your Sponsor

This is where the the entire concept for recoveryBox comes together. You have been diligent about entering your Lights and Triggers and now...

It's time to be honest with someone other than yourself.  And that's why you have a sponsor or accountability partner from a traditional 12 Step Program or from Celebrate Recovery.

When you send a text/email to your accountability partner, it will tally all of the Green, Yellow and Red lights.  You select the time frame (when I write more about the accountability module I'll explain how the dates default).

This is what's so awesome..there is no remembering what the day or week looked like because you already did the work when you entered the lights!!  And believe me it is work being honest to yourself.  

As you can see I use recoveryBox to text (as that's the default I set up) each day by 10:00PM.   It really is that simple and my sponsor can see  as a snapshot what my day looked like.  Let's see an example of what the system builds as a started text/email ( I can edit the piece of communication if I want before I send it too).

As you can see it puts the date (and in my case it's just the one date otherwise it's the range of dates I selected). Then it puts a total of my lights broken down by color...My sponsor and I have made a Green target number I'm supposed to hit and it changes as I meet my goals.

The Yellows and Red's are the hardest for me but it's where I'm being completely honest with myself and another.  Under the settings panel I've enabled comments to be added to my communication piece.  I have nothing to hide from my sponsor but it's nice to have the option (again, when I write more about that module, I'll show you how to enable those).

If I entered any triggers for the day, anything over a green level is included as well as my journaling.  I love being able to communicate to my sponsor without having to retype anything..yet I have it all recorded for me.  Sometimes my sponsor sees something that he is concerned about and will either call or text me back right away..but most times I just get a response saying "OK".  And that's all I need.

This part of recoveryBox is what really allows communication and knowledge to happen between my sponsor and myself.  BUT I do use this with my counselor too.  Sometimes I'm asked how the week was and it's so easy to pull up the information any way I want.  And I'm much more accurate because I can't say "I forgot".

Being successful in Addiction Recovery is about making changes.  With recoveryBox you can actually quantify the changes ~ and that's a good thing!

Use recoveryBox now for your Addiction Recovery.

The Serenity Prayer ~ the history behind it

I was curious about the history behind this beautiful prayer and did a little research. Read below or click this link for the article.

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The Serenity Prayer is the common name for an untitled prayer originally written by theologian Reinhold Niebuhr in the late1930s to early 1940s. It is believed that Niebuhr wrote the prayer for a sermon.

Elisabeth Sifton's book entitled The Serenity Prayer, which was published in 2003,,quotes this version as the authentic original:

"God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other."

The earliest verifiable texts so far discovered are an approximate version, apparently quoted from memory, in a query in the in The New York Times Book Review dated July 12, 1942 which asks for the author of the quotation; a reply in the same column issued on August 2, 1942 states the quotation is attributed to Niebuhr and an unidentified printed text is quoted as follows:

"O God and Heavenly Father,

Grant to us the serenity of mind to accept that which cannot be changed; the courage to change that which can be changed, and the wisdom to know the one from the other, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen."

The serenity prayer became widely known when it was adopted by Alcoholics Anonymous; In 1950, the AA Grapevine, an AA magazine, identified Niebuhr as the author and the current AA web site continues to identify Niebuhr as the author.

The serenity prayer is reported to have been in use in Alcoholics Anonymous since the early 1940s. It has also been used in Narcotics Anonymous and other Twelve-step programs.. The Alcoholics Anonymous version of the serenity prayer omits some of Niebuhr's text:

"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

courage to change the things I can,

and (the) wisdom to know the difference."

Niebuhr discusses the Serenity Prayer and how it came about it in his book, The Essential Reinhold Niebuhr: Selected Essays and Addresses. He states,

"... The embarrassment, particularly, was occasioned by the incessant correspondence about a prayer I had composed years before, which the old Federal Council of Churches had used and which later was printed on small cards to give to soldiers. Subsequently Alcoholics Anonymous adopted it as its official prayer. The prayer reads: 'God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to dintinguish the one from the other.' ..."

In addition, Niebuhr's daughter, Elisabeth Sifton, wrote an entire book about her father's serenity prayer, The Serenity Prayer: Faith and Politics in Times of Peace and War, that explores the circumstances around which her father wrote this prayer, the wide range of versions of this prayer, and the real essence of the prayer's meaning.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/552531

Complete Customization for Yellow Lights

There have been many requests to be able to personalize an addiction to make it so that Red Lights are meaningful to the events in your life. And that was a huge success.

COMING SOON
And so we heard your requests and have now added customized Yellow lights.

Yellow lights can be added while customizing red lights for the addiction you create OR you can choose to not create custom yellow lights and use the People, Place, Things pre-defined lights that are available for every pre-defined addiction OR you can use both.

We at recoveryBox want to create the most flexible app so that you will want to use it to be accountable. Recovery is all about accountability and adhering to your plan.

We are planning for this release to be available before the holidays and are in testing stages now. As soon as it's available we will post asap.

Yes, we do listen to your requests and try to implement them. So if you have more ideas, please let us know.  And may your recovery journey be one filled with success.

~ Be supported!

To download recoveryBox, visit the Apple Store.

Acting Out - Yes the Red Lights

UPDATE: please know that you can create your own red lights to really tailor recoveryBox to your needs.  Be supported!!

First, I must say I hope that you never have to record a Red Light because it does mean that you have broken your sobriety.  BUT, please don't be overly hard on yourself.  If you do indeed need to record one then do so and move on.  We all make mistakes but the difference is if we learn from them.

How Red Lights work in recoveryBox.

1. Each addiction will have a different Set of Red Lights.  They are specific to your addiction.  Until this point, all Green Lights and Yellow Lights have been the same for all addictions.  recoveryBox wants to make this specific for your addiction.
2. Record a reason why you acted out.
3. Consider entering any triggers that you can think of that might help understand why you acted out.  Even if you just can't make sense of it, enter the triggers anyway.
4. Send the text/email to your accountability partner.  Please don't skip this just because you have entered a red light.  This is the most critical time that you need to honest.  It might leave you feeling vulnerable but you are not alone.  This is where you are going to get the support you need through a sponsor or accountability partner.
5. recoveryBox WILL automatically adjust your sobriety date (if you are using that module) based on the red light that you enter.  You don't need to worry about entering it in 2 different places.  

Please don't feel ashamed and wallow in a relapse.  Know it happens, pick yourself up and learn from the mistake.  It's what you do with it that counts.

Below you will see different Red Light scenarios based on 3 different addiction types.  

Alcohol Addiction

Pornography Addiction

Eating Disorder Addiction

There are over 50 addictions to choose from in recoveryBox AND you can even choose multiple addictions at the same time if you need to.

Want to try out recoveryBox,

the iPhone app for addiction recovery, 

download it today.

I Just Can't Remember..HELP ME!

With all the crazy things we have going on in our lives, taking the time to enter our "Lights" (i.e., our daily activities) or remembering to text our accountability partner our numbers can sometimes fall to the back burner.

However, just like those who are training for a race and keep track of data, or wanting to lose weight and watch their calories, those in recovery for an addiction must keep track of what they are doing.  The idea is to replace bad habits with good ones.  If you don't keep track of anything, how will you know you are making progress?  How will you be able to talk with your sponsor about what "really" went on during the week?

I TOTALLY get how it's just not easy to remember.  So, recoveryBox does come with some reminders that you can set up to help take the pressure off a little.   Our solution..we call them Motivators.

To find them, More Tools -> Settings -> Motivators  so easy to find and set up.

You can have daily or weekly reminders.  You decide the time. You decide the day!

recoveryBox will not automatically send your numbers to your sponsor...and that is by design!!  You must take ownership of your recovery. We just try and give you some tools.

To find out ore about recoveryBox, visit our website and download it today!

Being Sober ~ It's Good to Be Acknowledged

Staying Sober IS an Accomplishment.  And as humans we desire to have our accomplishments be acknowledged. We want to know that we are on the right track and that our efforts are not in vain. As children we look up to our parents and teachers for praise. As adults we look to our bosses, peers, spouses, friends for that same praise.  Look, even Facebook has a "Like" button so I know I'm not off my rocker writing this.  

And it's not a bad thing.  It's why the AA program as well as Celebrate Recovery has a system for saying great job with their chips.  And so at recoveryBox, it was felt that we need to praise and support those who are using our app and perhaps not attending a traditional meeting of some sort.

We hope you understand how PROUD we are of each and every time you see that screen come up!!  Some will want to keep it private - say between you and your sponsor.  Others will want to share on a social media site like Facebook and Twitter.

Be proud of your hard work.  I know I am!

Yesterday's daily devotion was a video from IamSecond.com. It featured Brian's life and his decision to give up his Meth addiction.  It is so powerful as are so many of the videos on the site that I thought I would share it as well here on my the app's main blog.

Here is a small video but to see/read more PLEASE visit the IamSecond.com site.

For daily devotions from recoveryBox, visit http://recoveryboxdevos.blogspot.com

A Gambler's Tale ~ Random Resource ThuRsday

I recently came across (via Twitter) this book.  It's about a normal person like you or me who can easily fall into the trap of a Gambling Addiction.  The thing about what I call "soft"addictions is that you are not ingesting, drinking, sniffing etc any type of substance to get those "high" feelings.    Addictions like gambling, pornography, hoarding, fantasizing is that you can create that same feeling without using a substance.  And it's very dangerous!!

The story is a very quick read but also reflects how quickly an addiction can form and often from such a young age.  Check out the Gambler's website for more information and how you can get the digital book.

That's it for Random Resource ThuRsday!!