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LifeRing Recovery and Procrustes
A LifeRing supporter recently posted to another website a good description of what sets LifeRing apart. Writing to the forum of www.psychcentral.com, a poster identified as Willcat wrote: In ancient Greek mythology there was a roadside bandit named Procrustes who had a bed in which he forced all travelers to lie. Those who were shorter…
Book Review: After the Crises …Second-Nature Sobriety by K.M. Cusack
A LifeRing convenor, K.M. Cusack, has written a book that brings together many themes that will be familiar to those who have been involved with LifeRing meetings. Even the chapter headings will be recognizable from discussions: Barriers to Change, Relentless Self-Honesty, and Commitment, for example. These and other topics are discussed along with revealing insights…
Letter From Pelican Bay Prison
LifeRing offers an”e-mail pal” program for people who can’t or prefer not to be involved with our face-t0-face groups. Read about it on this page: E-Mail Pals. One of our members exchanges emails with a person looking for some help and offers support, information and, we hope, friendship. Many, many addicts are very isolated and…
“To Drink, or not to Drink, That is the Question … “
Below is a version of Shakespeare’s most famous soliloquy from Hamlet, revised by Richard, a longtime member of LifeRing and a stalwart of its email groups. If Hamlet were wrestling with addiction, along with his other pressing woes, the Bard might have given him these words to speak: To drink, or not to drink–that is…
Former Obama Official Offers His View of Recovery
In an appearance in New Zealand, President Obama’s former deputy drug “czar” Tom McLellan made some interesting points about “recovering” addicts. He was quoted at voxy.co.nz as commenting on the myth that nobody fully recovers from addiction: “The fact is about half the people who get treatment for serious addiction relapse in the first year. That’s…
A LifeRing Keeper: Coming Out of Hiding
Some of the LifeRing online venues allow members to post relatively long comments and some of these are very well written and informative. What we call “Keepers.” They deserve a wider audience. Here’s a fine recent example from the LSRsafe email group, slightly edited and with names altered: “When I continue to isolate and hide,…
Book Review of “The Addiction Solution” by David Kipper, MD
The Addiction Solution, by David Kipper, MD (with Steven Whitney) Rodale Press 2010, 284 pages, $25.99 Reviewed by Patricia Gauss, August 2011 Written by David Kipper, MD, a Beverly Hills doctor who specializes in addiction, The Addiction Solution provides a simple, straightforward account of the brain science underlying addictions. He also proposes that certain individuals…
Addictive Personality? You Might be a Leader!
There was a fascinating piece in the New York Times that I found very interesting, both for the positive spin it put on the so-called “addictive personality” and for it’s discussion of some current thinking regarding the role of brain chemistry in addiction. See it HERE. In summary, the article asserts that the brain physiology…
Interesting Article on Addiction Research
The New York Times published an interesting article on July 10th that is worth a look. It talks about a growing trend to treat addiction as a medical problem rather than a spiritual, or psychological, disorder. The article speaks of addiction as a “disease” which will bother some. I’d prefer the word “condition.” It compares…