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A LifeRing Keeper: Gratitude
This is from a message sent to a LifeRing E-mail group: While driving to work today I was thinking about how grateful I am to LifeRing. It has become a useful tool in my own sobriety plan, helping to keep sobriety in the forefront by conversations, observations, and affirmations. That has been important in these…
One in Six Americans Binges on Alcohol at Least Twice a Month, says CDC Head
Everybody knows that binge drinking is a problem among young adults, particularly college students. But in fact, it’s very common among all ages. One in six adults report binging on alcohol one or more times within the past 30 days. That’s 38 million Americans. This is according to Dr. Robert Brewer, head of the CDC’s…
Ten Percent of Americans Say They are “In Recovery”
A new survey finds that 10% of Americans over the age of 18 say they used to have a problem with drugs, including alcohol, but no longer do. A story about the survey appeared on the Market Watch website, a division of the Wall Street Journal. It was carried out last year, asking about 2,500…
A LifeRing Keeper: Why Become a LifeRing Convenor
The subject of convening LifeRing meetings came up in one of our email groups the other day and produced a response that’s worth reading: ____ wrote last night about convening LifeRing groups and I thought I’d expand a bit on my own experience. Being in an active group is, of course, very helpful to long-term…
Millions of American Children Live With Parents Experiencing Alcohol Problems
More than one in ten children in the United States live with a parent who has had an alcohol disorder within the past year, and are at an increased risk of developing a host of mental health problems, according to a new study from SAMHSA, the federal government’s Sustance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.…
Federal Government’s New Definition of “Recovery”
SAMHSA — the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration — is a division of the federal government’s Health and Human Services department and the leading agency for the government’s approach to substance abuse treatment. It recently revamped the definition it uses for “recovery” in a way that makes it closely parallel the LifeRing approach.…
Writers and Drinking: The Myth of Creative Synergy
The author and commentator Christopher Hitchens died a couple of months ago, provoking an outpouring of sympathetic praise from his many admirers, especially among the intelligentsia, where he loomed large, respected for his outspokenness and razor-sharp mind and debating skills. But in addition to his writing and speaking on subjects of intense current interest, Hitchens…
A Haiku
David R., a LifeRing meeting Convenor in Fresno, California, wrote a Haiku verse that seems worth sharing. Like all Haikus, it attempts to convey an image and an idea in a very brief format. Here’s what he wrote: Addiction support group — Listening … I hear myself
New Study Emphasizes Dangers of Drinking During Pregnancy
The dangers of drinking during pregnancy were underlined in the results of a new study reported on by the Wall Street Journal. The article talks about one result of the study: “For each drink consumed each day over the daily average [in the study of 1,000 women] in the second half of the first trimester,…