How to Tell Someone You Have an Addiction - Random Resource ThuRsday

It's Random Resource ThuRsday and I thought I'd answer a question someone sent me recently.

They asked "How do I tell my mother that I am an alcoholic?"

What a great question and I'm NO expert here so I started doing some research on this myself and thought I would pass along a resource I thought that was quick to read, easy to understand and that get's right to the point.

This is from ClearWater Treatment.  Check them out when you have a chance.

Telling Your Family You Have an Addiction Problem

JUN, 12 2012

2

Contributed by Nikki Seay.

The day that you find yourself actually having to admit that you have an addiction to drugs or alcohol is likely a day that is overwhelming and frightening. As addicts, we work so very hard to try and hide our addiction.

We work especially hard to hide it from the people we love and admire. These people are usually our family members. So how do you find the right words to look them in the eyes and tell them something that you know is going to break their hearts?

A Good Chance They Already Know

The truth of the matter is that if you have been in contact with your family members on any sort of regular basis during your addiction, they more than likely already know you have a problem with addiction. As addicts, we often think we are doing a real bang-up job at hiding our disease from the people we care about the most. In reality, we aren’t doing a good job at all.

Addiction is a disease that can only be hidden for so long, and then the signs become absolutely impossible to cover up. Anyone who knew you before addiction took control of your life already knows that something is terribly wrong. It may take them a little bit of time to figure it out, but they eventually put the pieces together.

When you begin to come up with what you want to say to your family, it’s probably best to assume that they already know you are struggling with a drug or alcohol addiction. When you stop to think about it, it is likely they have even attempted to talk to you about your addiction in the past. Don’t insult their intelligence by denying how long you have been trying to cover your tracks. Be honest with them, and they will be more receptive to the conversation.

While the conversation that you will need to have with your family will no doubt be an emotional one, you need to take the time beforehand to plan what you really want to say. You need to have a rational blueprint of sorts. The reason for this “blueprint” is so you can be sure to say what needs to be said, not what just ends up coming out of your mouth in reaction to emotions like pain or anger.

Getting Needed Addiction Treatment

The most important part of the conversation with your family will be the part where you tell them what you are going to do to help yourself. No doubt, you will want to tell them how sorry you are for any hurt you caused them (and they do need to hear you say that you are sorry), but you should also have some information to share with them about getting into an addiction treatment program.

You need to explain to them that you are ready and willing to acknowledge your addiction today. More importantly, you need to share with them that you are ready and eager to enter into an addiction treatment program. You may not have all the answers to give them about where or when you will enter into an addiction treatment center, and that’s okay. All you need to convey is that you are ready to do what needs to be done in order to get your life back. That is a great first step.

Your family may be upset with some of the things you have done during your struggle with addiction, but they will always love you. Family is forever, and they ultimately want to see you in recovery. The conversation you have with them to admit you are an addict may be a difficult discussion, but it is one that you have to face.

Once your loved ones see you are being honest and humble, they will be more than willing to help you through rehabilitation and provide you with a great support systemduring your addiction treatment. Once you have this conversation with your family, you will be surprised how much weight is lifted off your shoulders, and how much more ready you’ll feel to begin your recovery.

Honestly, I love the part that says "they already know"!  Isn't that the truth.

Have a great weekend.

~the developer from recoveryBox

Haven't downloaded recoveryBox yet, check it out!

3 R's ~ Staying Motivated or Risk A Relapse

Random Resource ThuRsday!! 

3 R's ~ Staying Motivated or Risk A Relapse

I know from experience how easy it is to start down the road to recovery feeling the high of finally being free from a horrible secret and thinking I've got this licked!!  And then wham!!!  Something in life hits us and we run back to old habits, acting out and then going into relapse. 

And from there it is such a downward spiral.  Does anyone else know what I'm talking about here?!?

But that's why programs like a 12 Step Program or Celebrate Recovery have accountability partners as part of the approach.  Most of us just can't do this alone!  And we need someone to help us, encourage us, support us and motivate us.

This week I blogged about the Motivator piece of the recoveryBox iPhone Addiction Recovery App.  There is a good reason that is part of the app..it's to help us stay motivated.  Part of us as a person wants to please people other people.  It's part of being connected in life.  So when using a tool such as recoveryBox, it's important to stay motivated for compliance...because that IS one of the biggest pieces to addiction recovery.  You can't "cheat" here and there.  True recovery is to not return to those habits.

While doing research for recoveryBox, I ran across this article about motivation and it helped me focus on how can recoveryBox app can be part of that motivation.  Thanks Peggy for authoring such a great piece and for really just putting it out there in honest terms. 

(look for another blog post in a few weeks about another feature to recoveryBox that is all about motivation.  It's my favorite piece too!)


Addiction Recovery

Maintain Your Recovery Motivation Or You Will Relapse By Peggy L. Ferguson, Ph.D.

People often find their way to recovery in the midst of a crisis. Someone standing at the crossroads of recovery, may have been arrested for DUI, may have been fired, or may have received a scary report from the doctor. He may have heard the bottom line demand from his spouse-- "Get help or we are getting a divorce." Or, the alcoholic/addict may in fact, have a moment of clarity and really be able to see that he does have a problem and that help and abstinence are called for. The alcoholic/addict feels afraid. He feels ashamed. He feels angry at others or at himself for being in this position in the first place.

Fear, coercion or crisis helps him find his way into recovery. Fear is a fairly good short term motivator, but not so good in the long run. Once the fear subsides and the crisis is over, it is very easy to lose your motivation and momentum. At the point where the cycle of addiction is interrupted by failing to take the next drink, dose, or joint, there is a lot of tension, anxiety, and mindfulness of where you are in the process. Detox or withdrawal may occur, with physical and/or emotional symptoms being very consciously experienced.

When you get to feeling better physically and emotionally after detoxing, it is easy to lose your momentum. Your focus on recovery can dissolve. Some of the problems that once motivated your recovery might be resolved now. Because you have quit drinking or using, your spouse and kids are once again speaking to you and are in the process of forgiving you. You may have even won back some trust. Everything seems to be going well.

Under these circumstances it is quite easy for you to take your eyes off the target and lose your focus on recovery. Erroneously, you may believe that your abstinence is not so fragile now. Feeling better, you may think you have it "whipped".

Without actively focusing on your continuing abstinence and recovery, your behavior can begin to drift away from the newly instituted behavioral changes that you have made. You run the risk of returning to old thinking, old feelings, and then ultimately old behavior. The reason why this would happen is that you are not consciously taking steps to continue on a path of recovery. This path involves many changes in your behavior and in your life style. Without making conscious choices in regard to how each decision affects your new recovery life or your old addiction life, you are unconsciously choosing your old life. Choosing recovery is not like jump starting your damaged car battery where once you get it started, it recharges itself as run it. You have to continuously work a program of recovery. Without doing so, your efforts will be short- lived.

You will quit going to counseling. You will quit going to meetings. You will have stopped calling your recovery support people. Your defenses will go back up and you may take exception to the feedback of significant others who tell you that you are acting like you used to before recovery.

You won't be able to see that you are on the road to relapse. You won't be able to understand why they are concerned. You won't be able to identify the behavioral changes that scare them because you will be back in denial. Being around old drinking/using environments and friends don't scare you. You can't understand why it would scare your significant others. After all, you told them that you are not going to relapse. You have learned your lesson. What more do they want?

After awhile, you will begin to think that you have your drinking or using under control now. When you think of addiction as a thing of the past, that you now have it under control, you will begin to entertain the notion that you can now drink or use without negative consequences. If any of this sounds like your recent experience, you are in big trouble. You are in the relapse process and unless you do something now, you will relapse--and soon.

Copyright 2009, Peggy L. Ferguson, Ph.D., http://www.peggyferguson.com Hubbard House Publishing, Stillwater, OK. 

Download recoveryBox, Addiction Recovery App - Your Complete Sobriety Toolbox

Do You have to Give Up Your Old Friends - Random Resource ThuRsday

Random Resource ThuRsday brings to your the question "Do you have to stop seeing all your old friends in order to recover?"

This comes from a Great Blog I found called Changing Lives Foundation.

Do you have to stop seeing all your old friends in order to recover?

April 24, 2012 in AA Related, Al-Anon Related. . ., Ask Joe, Relapse, Why Don't they Just Quit,Why Don't They Just Quit? Book Excerpts by jherzanek | 2 comments

ASK JOE:
Old friends and recovery:

Q: Do you have to stop seeing all your old friends
in order to recover?

A. It depends

When I was first getting off alcohol and drugs, many of my old friends
were just like me. I knew that being around drugs and being around
people using them was a bad idea. Exposing myself to the wrong influences
would have been a set-up for relapse. It wasn’t easy to let go of
some of my longstanding relationships. At the same time, though, I was
meeting new people who were also in recovery. I quickly learned that
my new lifestyle and old friends were kind of like oil and water—they
just didn’t mix.


After several weeks of sobriety, I started to see these old relationships
in a different light. I tried to talk to some of my old friends about recovery.
A few of them actually quit using. Others began to avoid me. I stayed
busy concentrating on not using. It was a little depressing, in a way. I
wanted so much to help them change, but many just weren’t interested.

This is a difficult time for the recovering person. There is a sort of
lag-time between leaving old unhealthy relationships and developing
new and better ones. It doesn’t happen overnight—but it will happen.

Trust the process and trust God to provide. For myself, I knew what was
at stake. I had to do this or soon return to the old life. The void in my
social life was going to be filled one way or another. This is one more reason
why support groups are important.

Recovery means making many changes,
and some are more difficult than others.

---

recoveryBox Addiction Recovery App - Your Complete Accountability Sobriety Toolbox

Group Accountability ~ Crucial to Addiction Recovery and Why It's a Green Light

Group Accountability is crucial to addiction recovery. Many posts on this blog have been about one-to-one accountability, but (and I know this is hard) it's so important to attend some sort of Group Accountability meeting.

It can be a traditional 12 Step Meeting, it can be a group therapy session, or a Celebrate Recovery meeting.  Whatever that looks like for you...but it's so important.  

It counts as a G2 - Group Accountability Light.

I mentioned that it's important to find a group that deals with similar addictions.  I will say personally I would not relate to someone who had a drug addiction while I was dealing with CoDependency.  I know from experience that Celebrate Recovery starts with everyone combined to have a worship time and then breaks apart into separate groups and most often by gender.  Others like AA meetings combine everyone together men and women. You are the only one who can decide what feels right but there IS a group that can help you out.

At most meetings you don't have to say a single word until you are ready. But as the time goes along, the reason you attend is to be able to open up, have others understand your experiences, and offer support. Not all meetings are alike - don't give up finding the right one!

Your support system ought to include others who have walked the path that you are going through.



Use recoveryBox with your group to share how your life is turning around and the Green Lights are improving (showing growth in healthy areas).  Share your yellow or red lights when ready.  There is no need to have to rethink everything since you already recorded it. Use that to reflect back at a later date and learn from those mistakes.  Then move on!

Click here to download recoveryBox from the iPhone store.

Surviving the Holidays During Addiction Recovery

 Surviving the Holidays During Addiction Recovery

We all know that this time of year gets to be, well super CRAZY!  Holiday parties, shopping, lights, festive music, people being merry and so much more.  For some the holidays are the hardest time of the year to get through. I'm not here to offer the perfect way to achieve this, but I do have a few tips that I can pass along.

First, remember the "Reason for the Season".  I know it's an over used phrase but it really does remind us why we are celebrating.  God gave us an amazing gift so very long ago and it would do us well to ponder what that means to us.  If we think about how God sent Jesus to "give us a second chance" we realize that we did nothing to deserve this.  God didn't just sent Jesus without giving the necessary tools to achieve this gift of freedom.  And just like our recovery, we have a second chance complete with a set of tools to not just help us cope, but to succeed.

Second, remember what your tools are.  Always go back to what gets you through each and every day. Just because it's a "special" time of year does not mean it's time to let go all that we worked for.  Make a list of what helps you, and refer to it often during these next few weeks.  Is it a picture of your kids to motivate you? It is knowing that you have a lifeline through an accountability partner or sponsor?  Is it your spiritual life? What about your friends and family?  Ponder on how these tools help you remain grounded and use them to stay sober.

Third, don't put yourself in a situation where you might be tempted to relapse.  In recoveryBox, these would be your yellow lights.  Being with a person, or at a place, or possessing an item that is a temptation are warning signs to take caution (hence the yellow light as in a stop light - take caution).  Be on guard.  

Examples: 

• If going to a staff party is going to be filled with alcohol, then have a plan.  Perhaps have a tumbler of water or coffee in your hands at all time.  You already have your drink so no need to get another.  Or if the temptation is just too much then either go with someone you trust to help you or don't go at all!  

• Shopping addicts find this to be an incredibly tempting time of year.  And it's so easy to "justify" the buying because it's what's expected right?  OK, first again, focus on the "Reason for the Season" and you will be reminded that NO this time of year is not all about buying.  Some practical tips include go shopping with someone you can trust to help you say "no". Make a list and keep to it!  Shop with cash only - yes, leave the credit cards at home.  Make a budget and stick to it.  Or even consider giving a different type of gift in honor or a person - perhaps find an organization that you feel the person cares deeply about and give a donation in their name.

• Another easy trap is for those who have addictions to pornography.  Sometimes it's easy to say well I'm going to shop online and not head out to the stores.  Well, perhaps that will lead to just "surfing" for the best deals or that perfect present.  "Surfing" is not healthy with any type of sexual addiction. Know exactly where you want to go on the internet to shop.  Stick to the major players like amazon.com.  Have a trusted person sit beside you while you shop online..yup, do it together.  And of course I'm a huge believer of having your house all set up using opendns.com (it's free for home use and it's awesome!)

• For those with an eating addictions, this is such a tricky time of year.  All the goodies and wonderful smells that linger in the air.  Yup, I myself have a hard time here even though it's not my addiction.  But, again when going to a party make smart choices.  If you eat too much then use a small plate or brush your teeth before you go (or even during - sounds funny but who likes to eat with minty fresh breath), or drink a lot of water before you go to fill your tummy.  If you don't like to eat then make a plan of what you need to eat or even eat ahead of time.  Sometimes nibbling along can help us get what we need.  

• Isolation around this time of year is easy to do for so many reasons.  But it's the worst thing to do.  Being alone is a trigger for many so make sure to mingle in the celebrations to be with others.  Or attend spiritual events to keep you focused.  When we isolate ourselves we tend to revert to bad habits.

These are just a few tips for specific addictions.  I can't pretend to know everything that is helpful nor do I know your specific triggers.  But, your accountability partner or sponsor should, so have a conversation with them.  They should be able to offer more specific ideas to you.  

Fourth, and this can be a doozy for some...let go of past resentments.  Many times these are between family members and since we often get together with our families at some point during the holiday season it can be awkward to say the least.  Part of your recovery is letting those resentments go to make yourself healthy again.  Who knows, maybe this is the year to even make amends during this season. This could be a great time to open up and be honest.  Being vulnerable is very tough to do, but it is where healing happens.

And lastly (OK, I could make this go on forever, but let's face it we are busy people), I would say minimize your stressors.  Stress can be one of our biggest triggers.  So if you stress about not having all your shopping done, tackle a bit each night. Set realistic expectations too of yourself and others. We all know what our stressors are.  Goodness, for me sometimes you can just say a certain name and the hair on the back of my neck starts to rise.  But thinking it through and making a plan to deal with the stress can be helpful. And remember nobody is perfect.

I wish you a blessed holiday season.

~ from the developer of recoveryBox

PS.  Don't forget to record it in recoveryBox the app.  It will be wild to see how this year's holiday will stack up again next years.  If you don't own recoveryBox or want to gift it to someone, visit the iTunes store or follow this link to recoveryBox in the iTunes store..

Random Resource ThuRsday ~ Dr. Brene Brown and Connection

Dr. Brene Brown from the University of Houston talks about connection and vulnerability.  I must say that I do love this video.  If you have 20 minutes it's really worth the watch.  When I was in counseling myself I think I watched it at least 3 times not only because it was a great topic but because she is funny too (an goodness knows we need laughs during such intense times).

I love how she talks about how connection gives purpose and meaning to our lives.  It's why I built recoveryBox addiction recovery app to focus on accountability..it's a way to connect with a support person in a vulnerable yet safe way.

Have a great Thursday and don't forget to enter your lights today!

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.

Break Down of a G2 - Emotional Self-Care Green Lights for Accountability

recoveryBox the mobile iPhone app for addiction recovery uses a system called your "Lights" just like a traffic light.  Green Lights are your good lights meaning go!.  Yellow lights aren't necessarily bad activities but they are the ones that can lead you into some sort of temptation either by being with a person, being at a place or possessing an item that could lead to relapse.  And Red lights do mean an instance of relapse.

If you remember, G1 Green Lights focus on Physical Self-Care during addiction recovery.  These are the healthy daily activities that you do to actually take care of your physical body.  I wrote about how you need to take care of those physical needs first in order to even have a chance of thinking straight and making good choices.

Today I want to focus moving past the physical self care into activities that start to become a little more challenging for us to do.  It's the G2 category of the Green Lights.  G2 lights are the second tier of green lights and  focus on the emotional and treatment activities.  These are the activities that we do to start building connection and make us vulnerable.

Today's green light is G2 - Emotional Self Care.

Emotional self-care is a huge part of recovery.  Most addicts will tell you that they can't even name the emotions they feel even if they are letting themselves have that feeling.  This is where a G2 light comes in.  These are activities for treatment that deal with identifying/acting/dealing with emotions and how that relates to our self-care.

There are tons of resources out there for dealing with emotions so I'm not going to actually go into counseling..as I am not qualified to do that.  But as you work out emotional self-care in your treatment for your addiction recovery, this is where you would add a light for that.

Some example include journaling, reading, spending time with others.  Perhaps for you it's as basic as even identifying your emotions each day or being vulnerable with someone and telling them how you feel.  Those are activities that indicate you are taking care of yourself.

Now these emotions might not always be pretty or even easy to identify but I can speak from experience and say that it is freeing to finally be able to label even the ugly emotions.  For me, I do count identifying an emotion as a G2 because during my journey I needed to identify what those emotions were and to expand my vocabulary.

Perhaps you can easily identify the emotion you are feeling (great job..you are ahead of most addicts in that case) but you need to deal with the emotion in a healthy way.  So perhaps your G2 Emotional Self-Care is more advanced and needs to deal with reacting properly to the emotion.

Or perhaps you just don't allow yourself the time to connect with others or yourself.  Go to coffee with friends and just have a conversation..and it doesn't have to be heavy hearted either.  Read that book you have been wanting to but putting off.  Allow time to take care of yourself from a mental perspective.  These are all G2 Emotional Self-Care activities.

Work with your counselor and accountability partner/sponsor to build a list of activities that you need to work on for G2 - Emotional Self-Care.  I believe that this Green Light is such an important part of addiction recovery.  Identifying emotions and taking care of one-self emotionally is very tiring but it's also healthy.  Once we begin to do this as part of our lifestyle, the heaviness begins to fade and it become part of who we are..and that's a good thing.

Don't have recoveryBox yet?  Download it from the app store now and begin your journey to freedom.

Connect with others on Facebook and "Like" the app page.  Feel free to tell others about how recoveryBox app is part of your journey for your addiction recovery.  And don't forget to count that as a G2 - Emotional Self-Care activity too!

Jenny's Pearls - Random Resource ThuRsday

Trusting God: Jenny’s Pearl Necklace

April 24, 2012 in Spirituality, Why Don't They Just Quit? Book Excerpts, Words of Wisdom byjherzanek | 2 comments

The story of “Jenny’s Pearl Necklace” touches everyone in a different way—as we are all at different stages of our journey . . . and trusting God.

Jenny’s Pearl Necklace
The cheerful girl with bouncy golden curls was almost five. Waiting with her mother at the checkout stand, she saw them: a circle of glistening white pearls in a pink foil box.

“Oh please, Mommy. Can I have them? Please, Mommy, please!” Quickly the mother checked the back of the little foil box and then looked back into the pleading blue eyes of her little girl’s upturned face. “A dollar ninety-five. That’s almost $2. If you really want them, I’ll think of some extra chores for you and in no time you can save enough money to buy them yourself.”

As soon as Jenny got home, she emptied her piggy bank and counted out 17 pennies. After dinner, she did more than her share of chores. She went to the neighbor, Mrs. McJames, and asked if she could pick dandelions for ten cents. On her birthday, Grandma gave her another new dollar bill and at last she had enough money to buy the necklace
.

Jenny loved her pearls. They made her feel grown up. She wore them everywhere—Sunday school, kindergarten, even to bed. Jenny had a very loving daddy and every night he would stop whatever he was doing and come upstairs to read her a story. One night when
he finished the story, he asked Jenny, “Do you love me?” “Oh yes, Daddy. You know that I love you.”

“Then may I have your pearls?”

“Oh, Daddy, not my pearls. But you can have Princess—the white horse from my collection. Remember, Daddy? The one you gave me.
She’s my favorite.”

“That’s okay, honey. Daddy loves you. Good night.” And he brushed her cheek with a kiss.

About a week later, after story time, Jenny’s daddy asked again, “Do you love me?”

“Daddy, you know I love you.”

“Then will you give me your pearls?”

“Oh, Daddy, not my pearls. But you can have my baby doll. The brand new one I got for my birthday.

“That’s okay, Honey. Sleep well. God bless you, little one. Daddy loves you.” And as always, he brushed her cheek with a gentle kiss.

Several days later, when Jenny’s father came in to read her a story, Jenny was sitting on her bed and her lip was trembling. “Here, Daddy,” she said, and held out her hand. She opened it and her beloved pearl necklace was inside. She let it slip into her father’s hand.
With one hand her father held the plastic pearls and with the other he pulled out of his pocket a blue velvet box.

Inside of the box were real, genuine, beautiful pearls. He had had them all along. He was waiting for Jenny to give up the cheap stuff so he could give her the real thing.

So it is with our Heavenly Father. He is waiting for us to be willing to give up things in our lives so he can give us beautiful treasure. God only wants you to have the best.

—Author Unknown, Source Unknown

Caution :: Yellow Light :: Y1 - Person of Risk

Today's post goes along with last Thursday about having to give up all our "friends" from before addiction recovery.  As the author wrote, the new life of recovery and the old friends turn out to be "like oil and water they just don't mix".

There is a way in recoveryBox to track that.  It's the Y1 Caution Light.  It's "Intentionally Put Self With Person of Risk".

There is something to note here..it's the word intentionally.  There are times in life when we bump into people from our life before addiction recovery and it's a coincidence (but ever notice that it's "awkward"?!?).

This is the situation where you purposely hung out with a person who was trouble.  Their ways are just not appropriate things that you would be doing to change your habits.  You know what I'm talking about.

You get the nervous feeling inside, your mind starts to ask questions of yourself about this person or the situation like 'should i be with her?' or 'what do i say is she asks to go party and get high.how do I get out of that?'.

Take this as a warning light!!  Oil and water don't mix!  Even if you did happen to be with such a person on purpose don't be afraid to record it in recoveryBox.  Your sponsor or accountability partner will want to know.  And because they have lived your life, they will not be upset.  This will give you the opportunity to see how your triggers and situations all came together so that you don't intentionally put yourself in that position again.  Recording it will allow the conversation to flow between you and your sponsor because it's all down in the app for both of you to see.

Be proud of yourself that you did not relapse.  Just like as with driving, it's just a warning that you could get yourself into trouble.  Just learn from it!

Download recoveryBox to get started on your road to Addiction Recovery.

recoveryBox and the Ratings

OK, yes I am going to ask that if you downloaded recoveryBox from the Apple App Store to use during your Addiction Recovery, that if you have a favorable review please post it so that others who are searching for help can also find it.

If you have a negative review, please email me at support@recoveryboxapp.com before posting it so that perhaps it's something I can easily fix.  Remember I am not a counselor, etc. I am just a person who has created recoveryBox to help others and others in addiction recovery.

Together, let's help others conquer their addictions.

How do I rate recoveryBox?

1. You can go to the iTunes store directly from this link.

2. Anytime you achieve a badge, under the frame there is a "Cool, rate this in the App Store".

3. You can get there from the More Tools in the App.

Choose More Tools -> Rate In the App Store

Then rate in the app store from this screen.  

Random Resource ThuRsday ~ A Holiday Survival Story

Ran across this holiday survival story and I thought many could probably relate. It's from Sober Living's Website and the link will bring you there (great website..check it out).  Or you can read it here.

No More Ruined Holidays by Chris S. 

by slbts — last modified Dec 16, 2009 09:50 AM

Filed Under: 

• clean and sober holidays

Those of us who have lived through addiction and recovered will enjoy this passage from our staff member who really remembers what it is like to be a slave to addiction during the holidays.

     How many times has it been heard, “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.” Or, “You better be on your best behavior.” Only to let too much go on and you are arguing with someone in front of relatives, the kids and/or friends. Your argument is probably over something that isn't very important anyway. It's probably even an argument over something you don’t remember the next day (until someone reminds you about it). Maybe there's even a push and shove that goes too far and ends up in the tree or on the dining table. Maybe your struggle spills out on the front yard where the neighbors can see you. Maybe someone is so mad or embarrassed that they leave before the festivities had began. Some are crying in the background and others are taking up sides.
     It doesn’t have to be Christmas, Thanksgiving or New Years’ eve. I remember having a Tequila Easter playing monopoly. Don’t know who won or if we finished the game. But, the phone call the next day let me know I was not in the best behavior mode.
         Many people get busted for DUI’s during the holidays. It must make a person feel special when called to come bail someone out of jail on that special occasion.
        What about the false promises made that it won’t happen this year. The playing of the victim -  that it "wasn’t my fault." And the best move of all:  getting too wasted to even show up. Then the excuse of, “I am not hurting anyone but myself.”

Giving the Best Gift of All    

    One of the best presents I’ve seen people give others is getting help before the holidays. Giving the family, friends and loved ones the greatest joy of all. Being clean and sober for holidays present and future. Being able to keep a promise that you will be there. Maybe not this year, but next.

Many people get busted for DUI’s during the holidays. It must make a person feel special when called to come bail someone out of jail on that special occasion.

     Some of us are too selfish to think of others during certain days of the year. Thinking it might not happen if we are not present. It will still happen whether we are there or not.
     The greatest present I’ve been able to give others’ was the giving of myself. Clean and Sober.

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