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Is There Such a Thing as ‘Food Addiction’?
LifeRing only concerns itself with substance abuse, not other kinds of ‘behavioral’ addictions, like gambling or sex. But many of our members, like much of the population, have problems with food, and overeating, that feel similar in some ways to our experiences with alcohol or drugs. An article in The Huffington Post, an on-line magazine,…
Toolbox
When this newly redesigned Website was unveiled in June, there were some sections that didn’t make the initial transition. Since then, a LifeRing volunteer, Alceon, has done the necessary work to bring back the Keepers section and now has unveiled the new Toolbox section. Both are listed in the Categories menu along the right side…
On the Nature of Support Groups
Here’s a quotation from a book entitled “Echoes of the Early Tides” by Tony Moore (Harper Collins, 1994) that I found very impressive and want to share: “The strengths offered by mutual support groups do not promise certain recovery; they simply provide for the prospect of gradual change. There are no simple solutions to the…
Resiliency: The Drive to Thrive
Book Review: Bonnie Benard: Resiliency, What We Have Learned. I came across this book while staffing a LifeRing table at a conference of teachers and other educators devoted to prevention and treatment of tobacco, alcohol and other drug use among students.
Washington Post Article Challenges AA Approach
A recent article in the Washington Post will be of interest to many here. It takes AA to task for being ineffective and sees no real purpose for the entire Rehab industry. The author does accept the ‘illness’ concept and is a University of Virginia psychiatrist with ties to the pharmaceutical industry. But he is…
Website Visitors from All Over
Visitors to this website are coming from countries across the globe, according to a new web app that tracks visitor locations. In the three days that this feature has been active, lifering.org has received more than 1100 visitors. Visitors have logged on to lifering.org from hundreds of different locations in the continental US, from Hawaii…
Reclaiming Her Power
While in Honolulu recently, I met “Jayne Dough,” a slender young woman dressed in a conservative business suit. She works as an occupational counselor, and I learned that she is among the many successful graduates of Ka Hale Ho‘ala Hou No Na Wahine, a community transition program for women who have served prison time. She…
The Battle Inside
M. K., one of the residents of the Ka Hale Ho‘ala Hou No Na Wahine program in Honolulu (see earlier post here and blog item here) was turned down for a job because of her drug-related felony conviction. On the trip home, her mind was a battlefield between her “old self” (the addictive self or…
Hometown Paper Features New LifeRing CEO
The Peninsula Daily News in Washington State is running a feature story on Craig Whalley, the newly elected Executive Director of LifeRing. Craig recently sold the bookshop he bought 39 years ago in Port Angeles, and will be moving to Berkeley in a matter of days to concentrate on serving LifeRing. Read the story on…