Drug Rehab Options Blog

A.A. Thought for the Day

In Alcoholics Anonymous there is no thought of individual profit. No greed or gain. No membership fees, no dues. Only voluntary contributions of our money and ourselves. All that we hope for is sobriety and regeneration, so that we can live normal, respectable lives and can be recognized by others as men and women willing to do unto others as we would be done by. These things we accomplish by the help of each other, by following the Twelve Steps, and by the grace of God. Am I willing to work for A.A. without material gain to myself?

Meditation for the Day

What is sometimes called a conversion by religion is often only the discovery of God as a friend in need, What is sometimes called religion is often only the experiencing of the help and strength of God's power in our lives. What is sometimes called holiness is often only the invitation of God to be our Friend. As God becomes your friend, you become a friend to others. We experience true human friendship and from this experience we can imagine what kind of a Great Friend God can be. We believe Him to be a tireless, selfless, all conquering, miracle-working Friend. We can reach out to the Great Friend and figuratively take His hand in ours.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may think of God as a Great Friend in need. I pray that I may go along with Him.

Hazelden Foundation PO Box 176 Center City, MN 55012

1. When you are angry say nothing. If we speak in anger we will definitely aggravate the situation and quite likely hurt the feelings of others. If we speak in anger we will find that is what is returned


'When angry count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred.
" ~Thomas Jefferson

2. Be indifferent to those who seek to make us angry. if we do not respond in any way to their provocation they will lose interest and not bother us in the future.


3. Use reason to stop anger. When we feel anger coming to the fore try to take a step back and say to yourself ?This anger will not help me in any way.


4. Look kindly upon Others.


5. Value Peace. If we value peace of mind as our most important treasure we will not allow anger to remain in our system. As Sri Chinmoy says: ?You may have every right to be angry with someone, but you know that by getting angry with him you will only lose your precious peace of mind.
?



6. Always try to understand those who are cross. Inspired by your example of calmness they will seek subconsciously to do the same.


7. Breathe Deeply. The simple act of breathing deeply will help considerably with removing anger.


8. Meditation. Practise meditation regularly to bring your inner peace to the fore. If we can have an inner access to our inner peace we will be able to draw upon this during testing times.


9. Don?t hold on to past grudges. Let the past remain in the past


10. Smile. When we smile we diffuse many negative situations. To smile is offer goodwill to others. Smiling costs nothing

*~*~*~*^Twenty Four Hours A Day^*~*~*~*
A.A. Thought for the Day

Many alcoholics will be saying today: "This is a good Christmas for me." They will be looking back over past Christmases which were not like this one. They will be thanking God for their sobriety and their new-found life. They will be thinking about how their lives were changed when they came into A.A. They will be thinking that perhaps God let them live through all the hazards of their drinking careers, when they were perhaps often close to death, in order that they might be used by Him in the great work of A.A. Is this a happy Christmas for me?

Meditation for the Day

The kingdom of heaven is also for the lowly, the sinners, the repentant. "And they presented unto Him gifts-gold, frankincense, and myrrh." Bring your gifts of gold-your money and material possessions. Bring your frankincense-the consecration of your life to a worthy cause. Bring your myrrh-your sympathy and understanding and help. Lay them all at the feet of God and let Him have full use of them.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may be truly thankful on this Christmas Day. I pray that I may bring my gifts and lay them on the altar.

Hazelden Foundation

I am a newcomer to this website, I have spent the last two weeks in the Substance Abuse Forums. I have detoxed from my DOC and am moving on but I have an awful case of Insomnia. I have asked for suggestions from everyone and have tried them all but nothing has worked. I just wanted to see if anyone here may have something that I haven't done. Here's what I've tried: exercise, meditation, drinking milk before bed, valerian root, melatonin, advil pm, tylenol pm, trazadone, buspar and lunesta. I've also done some deep breathing exercises my psych. told me to do, put on classical music, reading, bathes, showers. I think I am helpless until it passes but I just wanted to try. I have not slept for more than 2 hours a night for the last 13 nights and I am starting to go crazy!! Any suggestions would be appreciated! Thanks

I am about going to enter a 12-step inpatient program to deal with a drinking problem. I had a lot of difficulty with the 12-step program because the 12-steps stated the word "God". I just rewrote the steps to exclude the "God" and replace it with the word "spiritual philosophy" and I used removed the word "prayer" because my programs does not rely on personal divinity.

So here it is:

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol--that our lives had become unmanageable.

2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3, Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care to a spiritual philosophy that is beyond ourself.

4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

5. Admitted to ourselves and another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

6. Were entirely ready for our spiritual philosohy to remove all these defects of character.

7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings (Step 7 is skipped because it relies on divinity model).

8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

11. Sought through meditation to improve our selves through our spiritual philosophy and that it will allow us the power to carry that out.

12 Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Sometimes the simplest of thoughts are exactly what I need to hear. This was the perfect meditation for me today, wanted to share it with you and everyone else on SR..........

Thursday, October 30, 2008
You are reading from the book The Language of Letting Go

Self Value

We have a real life of our own. Yes, we do.

That empty feeling, that senses that everyone except us has a life - an important life, a valuable life, a better life - is a remnant from the past. It is also a self-defeating belief that is inaccurate.

We are real. So is our life. Jump into it, and we'll see.

Today, I will live my life and treasure it as mine.

From The Language of Letting Go by Melody Beattie ©1990, Hazelden Foundation.

I get pretty frequent "attacks" that generally last a minute to half an hour. Today I had a spell last for almost seven hours: tachycardia, shortened breath and feeling like everything was collapsing around me.

There was nothing special about today that would've triggered anything. I had the day off and spent most my day at home. I tried laying down, deep breathing, taking a walk and meditation and nothing was working.

I am going on medication for anxiety, but it could be another month before it starts to take effect. It might not happen soon enough. I've been under a lot of stress lately and I'm becoming paranoid and falling short on responsibilities. I even considered temporary solutions I would not (and glad I didn't) resort to: drinking (obviously), going to the hospital (no insurance) and getting stoned (I honestly hate pot.)

I'm mostly just venting. Not looking for any specific medical advice. But if anyone has a good suggestion I'd be grateful for that too.

Hello all, I was here a long time ago when my son was going through recovery from drug and alcohol addiction. He is still doing well, substance wise, over 18 months sober at age 21 and working, going to school, living on his own and I am very proud of him. He is very active in his AA/HA/CA community and does step work, meditation and prayer to his HP, has a sponsor and sponsors a few people. He is very open and honest with me, for the most part.

He recently told me he thinks he is a sex addict and is seeking out an SA sponsor and starting those steps.

Here is my dilemna.

Codie me. He has had to cut back his work hours due to the difficult college major he has chosen, and I know he spends a lot of time studying and is trying hard. He wants this career path he has chosen and need financial help from me. I required us to sit down and make out a budget and advised where he could cut corners. Based on that, we agreed upon an amount I would give him each month to allow him to keep up his studies and still pay his bills. He feels (and I agree) that it is better for him to live on his own because his life really changed once he had to do that.

But I am a signer on his checking acct and I see that subscriptions to "adult" sites are being charged to him. His laptop screen recently went out - it has been a problem with this laptop we have repaired more than once. I told him flat out I cannot afford a new laptop for him and gave him the information to call the manufacturer to see if it was still under warranty.

I am seriously struggling here with continuing to give him money since he is still paying for the adult sites..........and IMO the laptop screen going out....I wanted to ask him what site he was looking at when it happenned!?!

I do not want to jeopardize his sobriety by requiring him to work too much and either miss meetings/sponsor/step time or college. But knowing what I know, I don't want to enable him with his SA problem. I also don't want to leave him hanging out to dry. I can afford to help him, but I don't want to keep ignoring these concerns I have and I feel bad calling him out about his SA since he was honest and upfront with me about that.

Anyone been in this situation? Any advice?

And if SA is not an appropriate topic on this board, I apologize and admins/mods please remove.

TIA

CIM

I have a question.. new here.. I was wondering if someone with almost 3 years of sobriety.. good sobriety.. gets curious and takes a hit off of a joint.. freakin hates the feeling.. has no desire to do it again.. Seriously begins looking at the reality of where her relationship with God is to cause this to happen.. and steps up the meditation.. does this constitute a relapse?? new date.. etc..??

Hello Ladies,

I am doing well and moving forward in my sobriety, but I am having a hard time getting over some of the issues that I used to drink to deal with. Specifically, ANXIETY! The past few days I have been overcome with anxiety. I have been trying to practice the breathing techniques, the meditation and other things my therapist has taught me. I have increased the number of AA meetings. On occassion I have used some anti-anxiety medication that I have, but I am running low on that and really don't want to have to ask the doctor for more.

Does anyone have any suggestions? So many things trigger this. I was doing so well and now 5 months sober I feel like it is worse than ever.


:praying


:Flower: