Recovery Literature

Truth be told, for a while I wasn’t willing to ask for help. But, I was willing to read. These are some of the books that have helped me to find recovery. They now help me stay strong in recovery.

Read these with an open mind. Try to look past the differences and examine the similarities. If you’re like me and you feel alone it is a scary place. Hopefully, through some reading you won’t feel so estranged.

These are also great reads if you have a loved one struggling with addiction. It can be so hard to watch people you love fall into this pit. I see it quite often now that I work with others who suffer. When this happens it is important to keep our hope and faith high. These readings can help build and grow this hope and faith!

changing thoughts

This book continues to help me see hope. When I first read it I realized I too could change my compulsion to drink and use drugs. Now it brings hope that I too can become a better husband, father, friend and son. This is a must read that dives deep into the human psyche!

Because everyone has experience with guilt and shame

Like it or not, guilt and shame have been built into our lives and are feelings as prevalent and disastrous as plastic in the ocean. Okay maybe not everyone drinks or becomes suicidal over these things, but everyone experiences them. Knowing the difference between shame and guilt helped me to understand how each had been affecting my life. With the help of this book I was able to separate my whites from colors and finally come out with clean laundry. This is a very important read for more of the population that the addict.

Mindfulness: the most essential ingredient

Whether you are into the 12-steps or not, this book weighs heavy on recovery. Without the teaching of this book I hurried through life with anxiety ruling every action and thought. My life of shame and anxiety is all I knew. Faced with these mental foes I never thought I could be free from substances in one shape or another, until mindfulness took form and became an operable function, a paramount practice and a daily enjoyment. I am now free of all drugs, illicit and prescription. Does life still get me stressed and worried? Why of course it does, until I apply mindfulness and the 12-steps that is.

Despite the vehement outcry…

I had a big book for a long time. I hated it with every morsel of my soul. I hated meetings, I hated the triangle, I even hated seeing the letter A beside the letter A.

Until I got over my hate of this book and dived into it my mind remained closed to recovery. This book helped me to see that it wasn’t only the Alcoholics Anonymous program I was angry with, I was angry with the whole world around me. I despised people because they got in the way of what I wanted to do! Childish huh? I think the same thing when I see a grown man in the car next to me shouting obscenities only fit for movies and the elementary playground when we were just learning cuss words.

The truth is this book helped me conquer some demons that I would not have seen otherwise, but I had to get over the things I hated. Only then was recovery possible.

Because everything and everyone effected my emotions and recovery

Why co-depency no more? Good question, but first I need to add- this is an essential book for those with a loved on in recovery even if you don’t consider yourself codependent.

For an addict alcoholic like myself I found every reason to drink and drug. A good day, a bad day, a celebration, a death. It didn’t matter. These reasons, however, were easy to overcome compared to being tied the thoughts, feelings, and impressions of others as if I were a string wavering in the wind on the end of a kite at the beach. This piece of work helped me to let go and find my own current in the chaos of existence. Essential for me!

Keep it simple

One thing I had to abolish in order to get sober was my hate towards the church. I abstained from anything with the name “Christ” on it like a cat in a bathtub. However, riding myself of this hate, this disdain, this elementary rebellion has given me freedom to learn and live in a way I never imagined.

Whether you believe in God/Christ as a religion, a wise set of teachings, just another profit or if you don’t believe in them at all- this book this book has something for you. This book brought the things together in my recovery that keep me sober. It teaches about the very simple teaching of christ. It throws out all the complexities churches and pastors have given it and presents things that will show you how to how to treat others, how to love and how to view yourself in relationship to the world. This book is beyond powerful and I highly recommend it!