H. I. T. C. H.™
Help Inform Touch Connect Heal
Circle of Sisters Feel To Heal
Friday, September 24th, 2010
Submitted by RT on September 24, 2010
The women of Bangalore, India, NA are hosting the first ever women’s convention. In Jan 2011 in Bangalore, India… the Land of spirituality.. There are only about 40 women in NA, India.. we need you more than you think… Please come support us.. we need you..Besides a sister is FOREVER :)
… Come carry the message ..We need you..
Conv language- English
When:- 28,29,30 Jan 2011
Where - Bangalore, India…
Reg - $45/$75/$100 for Stay and all meals
Please forward this message to all your female friends in recovery. This is your time to give back what has been freely given to you. Its a historical event - no matter what the outcome. Where would you be, as a female addict, if you had not found the fellowship? Think of how many women never come to a meeting, how many women come but do not stay, cannot stay because there are no women in the rooms. Come and support your sisters in India - its the only way to keep what you have just for today.
Foundations Helps People with Co-occurring Disorders
Friday, September 24th, 2010
Submitted by Foundations Recovery Network on September 24, 2010
Drug use rates are on the rise and a staggering percentage of those in need of treatment aren’t reaching out of for help, according to a new study. What can be done?
The new numbers on drug abuse aren’t pretty. Illegal drug use rose by nine percent from 2008 to 2009, ode mainly to prescription drugs, methamphetamine and ecstasy. Meanwhile, nearly 90 percent of individuals needing treatment for drug addiction aren’t getting it, according to a new nationwide study released Sept. 16, 2010, by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
SAMHSA Administrator Pamela S. Hyde, J.D. called the disheartening results “a wake-up call to the nation.”
So why aren’t those who desperately need treatment getting it? The excuses range from not being ready to stop using (39.8 percent) and not being able to afford it (33.7 percent) to possible negative effect on job (12.4 percent) and concern that receiving treatment might cause neighbors/the community to have a negative opinion (12.0 percent). An additional 10.9 percent felt confident they could handle the problem without treatment, while 10.7 percent said they didn’t know where to go for help.
The biggest barrier may be the perception by those with the problem that they don’t need any help. In 2009, more than 20 million Americans were classified as “needing substance use treatment,” but nearly 95 percent of that group said they didn’t perceive a need for treatment.
“There is an acute need for more education about the effectiveness of addiction treatment and the hope for recovery,” according to Robert S. Waggener, CEO of Foundations Recovery Network (FRN), a leading provider of evidence-based addiction treatment services based in Nashville, Tenn.
Programs that treat co-occurring disorders like Malibu, California’s The Canyon, Michael’s House in Palm Springs, Calif. and La Paloma in Memphis, Tenn. see great success on a regular basis. These FRN facilities treat substance abuse in conjunction with ongoing mental health issues like depression, bi-polar, PTSD, trauma or anxiety, resulting in high success rates and the best chance for long-term recovery.
Treatment works, but more needs to be done to help individuals see the need and seek help.
The Worst Kind of Alcoholic?
Friday, September 24th, 2010
Submitted by aventi8888 on September 24, 2010
I have been in and around AA for a few years now, in-out, in-out. Sober-drunk-drunk-sober.. I am sure you know the story. I have come to learn-and more importantly-accept,that there are varying degrees of alcoholism.. from the hospitalized, at death’s door sufferer, to the 3 or 4 times a week alcoholic, and I have often wondered where, if at all, I fitted in somewhere between the extremes.
I was raised from the age of 5 by my grandparents in a council flat in SW London after my mother couldn’t cope bringing up my elder sister and autistic half-brother. My father couldn’t cope either and left when I was 4. I don’t remember a lot of love and times were hard, but I was always well fed and knew where my boundaries were. My grandparents drank every evening although never to excess, but it was constant nevertheless. My mother sent my autistic half-brother, tony to live with us (in a 2 bedroom council flat) after my mum couldn’t cope, again, but my grandparents adored him and he got lots of attention and I started to feel a bit left out.
Around about this time, I was 13, I started getting into trouble with the police, me and some friends thought it would be fun to take away other peoples cars for a joy ride, but the joy ended abruptly and we were caught by the police.. I will never forget the beatings I received from my grandfather who used his fists against me. This all came to a head when I was 14.. in trouble with the police again and my grandmother refused to have me back again fearful of what my grandfather may do to me.. I would like to point out that I have now forgiven him for those beatings and remember him as the kind, fair man he was most of the time.
So, off I went to stay with my mother and sister.. I quickly learnt that my mother and step dad were what they called ‘hoisters’ in a nutshell, professional thieves who would work as a pair in the big department stores (this was in the 70’s well before electronic tagging, etc) stealing brand clothes and selling them on.. they were relatively successful which gave them a comfortable lifestyle, but they did get caught often and I remember on my 21st birthday visiting my mother in Holloway prison, London.
I left home at 16 and very quickly discovered alcohol.. From a shy, reserved, nervous teenager, I was transformed! I could talk to girls without going red or stuttering, I made up stories about my past, I had arrived, as they say, then one day I fell for an Irish girl, I was 19 (but told her I was 22) and she was 23.. her father was an abusive alcoholic who made her life a misery and she used to take it out on me, but I loved her and took everything she could throw at me.. our days were spent drinking at the pubs or her flat.. Around about this time I started to pop the sped pills and smoke dope and along with the emotional abuse I received from her I had a nervous breakdown. I was now 20 years of age. Here began the 2 worst years of my life, I was an out patient at the local mental hospital, suicidal, still drinking and my girlfriend left me. I truly wanted to die.
But with the help of the health care team, lots of treatment, I survived.. But I still continued to drink all my money away. I got married to a lovely girl when I was 23 and we settled down nicely. I had a good job on the trains and she worked as a secretary, we rented a flat and later bought one and life was looking great apart from my drinking which still continued daily.. It was constant, never got any worse but not better, either. My wife was more concerned than me, however and convinced me to attend an AA meeting.
After hearing the top table share, and then the open share, I walked out and said to my wife.. that’s not me, they have horrendous stories, I don’t belong there.. and so, the denial had began. But I did secretly start to question why I HAD to drink every day, why I put eating off until I had had my fill of booze, why I used to get (beg) my wife to drive everywhere so I could drink.. Matters again came to a head a while later when I drove home from the pub with my wife after 5 pints of lager, we went via the kfc as we were both hungry, as I ate the kfc whilst driving, I turned a corner too wide and hit a car.. a police car.. Banned for a year for drink driving I was pressurized yet again to attend AA, which I did, for 2 meetings this time and came away with he same conclusion as last time.. “I’m not as bad as them, I cant be an alcoholic..” We divorced soon afterwards.
So began a lot of soul searching, I read endless books of the self-help variety, received counseling and even went to church for a while and the priest told me to go to AA, which I did, and managed 6 weeks this time, all sober, but I wasn’t convinced, I just had to do something other than drinking, so I just nodded and spoke at the right times wondering how long was I going to stay this time round.
So after 6 Weeks was back out there again, drinking every day, but it never got any worse, I seemed to have this inherent quota.. 4-5 pints of beer and that was my lot, and this only seemed to re-enforce my conviction that I wasn’t an alcoholic.
Then I met maria, an extremely unselfish woman who was to be the mother of my 2 boys. She never criticized my drinking and seemed to accept it from the very start. Where had this woman been all my life! Not long after the boys were born I was promoted to train driver and underwent some intense training and also a move to the coast from London, it was all a major upheaval but after a few months we were settled in a lovely house by the sea, my income after training had doubled and we had a great lifestyle.
However, being a fully productive train driver I was now subject to our company’s alcohol and drug policy, and if I booked on for work and was randomly breath-tested and found to be over the limit,i would be fired.. no question.. And so began a long struggle, I bought a Breathalyzer off the Internet, tested myself every morning before I booked on every day, started drinking earlier each day so I could have my quota, something to eat and bed, it was a hell of a juggling game.
Socially, we began to broaden our horizons, and through some friends got involved with ’swinging’ or wife-swapping if you may. in the beginning it was fantastic, I was like a kid in a sweet shop, we went to clubs, hosted our own parties had lots of one-one meetings, etc.. however, I saw (or thought I did) swinging for what it was or should be.. some extra marital fun, but was starting to realize that Maria saw things a bit differently, she tended to get involved emotionally with some swing partners which resulted in some serious debate, but still we continued to swing.. to cut a very long story short, she left me for one of her swing partners telling me that why was it that the first time she was made love to was by a swinger! I had never been so shocked, hurt by anything in my life, but this made me crumble, but it also made me think, especially with respect to our love life, I had never known anything else sexually other than a few minutes of foreplay then ‘lets do it’ - my ego was shot to bits.. not only was I pushed out of the house away from my boys but my partner of 14 years, I was a sexual failure, and maybe an alcoholic to boot.
I had reached my rock bottom, and I now realize with the help off AA that every ones rock bottom is different, I do not have to be at deaths door, in prison, an asylum, on drugs.. all that was required was a desire to stop drinking, if only I had assimilated that message years ago, if only I had stopped and identified, not compared, got a sponsor (and the Kama sutra) then maybe I would have a lot more of clean time under my belt then I do now. I have just 6 weeks clean time but I now know without doubt that I belong in the rooms at AA with like-minded people.
I hope this short story will reach out and find somebody who has the same thoughts I had when I first came to AA.. its not how much you drink, but why you drink, and has your life become unmanageable through drink. There is an answer, but don’t deny it as I did for so long. The answer is in the rooms of AA.
I now attend several meetings a week, have a sponsor and am enjoying my sobriety very much and also am developing a stronger relationship with my higher power but do realize that I only have a 24 hour reprieve, but that’s fine with me because its manageable.
– David