You are worthy of recovery, and a fulfilling life without drugs or alcohol.

You know how some people (and by “some people” I mean you, maybe) go to addiction rehab and do really well for a while. Then they start thinking the way they used to, and – you know where this is going.

That happened to me more times than I care to admit. I first tried to get sober in 1981. Over the years, I’d say I was sober about half the time. I went to a number of rehabs and bounced in and out of AA at varying levels of program participation. Like pretty much everybody who relapses, I “just stopped doing what had been working” and had no idea why.

My last rehab was in 2014, and after I came home – something different began to happen. I found new ways to focus my awareness and to recognize what 12-steppers call “stinkin’ thinkin’ “ before it had a chance to sneak up and overpower my rational mind. It’s called mindfulness, and I’ve been practicing and teaching this since 2016, when I turned my professional life around as well and became a Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor.

Not all therapists and counselors use mindfulness, and many try to teach it out of a book, without having their own personal daily practice. I don’t know how that’s supposed to work. I trained in person with two of the founders of Mindfulness Based Relapse Prevention and have substantial meditation retreat experience [Vipassana].

I’ve also learned how to work through the other internal and external problems that persist and confound our efforts at recovery. It often takes the perspective of another qualified person to point out what needs to be changed, what can be changed, and how. Living in balance, wellness in 8 Dimensions, is a key to satisfied living. If you’re truly happy - if you’re showing up as the person you really want to be – the idea of using again will be just a feeble passing thought, no longer an obsession.