Customer Reviews

Gifts of Sobriety: When the Promises of Recovery Come True

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I've read this book twice already. It helps to make family discussions about a serious subject easier. No book on recovery contains a comparision between the 12 steps and the 12 promises of sobriety like this one does.

I have read many books on recovery and this is a great book. Whether you are newly sober or have years of sobriety this book encourages you to evaluate where you are and where you have been. Provides great insight into the Twelve steps and how they apply in the modern day world and topics for group discussion. Ms Cole, thank you for understanding how quickly we forget the gifts of a sober life and recognizing how hard recovering addicts have worked to achieve sobriety.

It is good to see Barbara S. Cole writing again. Her experience in dealing with those who have had a chemical dependency, and its effects on relationships is on the mark, and will prove beneficial to those that are fortunate enough to experience this book. Brava, Micio!

Great job and will use again. Book came faster than I counted on, packaging was amazing and book arrived as described. Highly recommend seller.

Absolutely awesome...I use this book like a reference for my challenges in life! Thank YOU!

Some of the twelve-step groups are absurd. There are groups for an amazing number of "spiritual diseases". Just the short list of the common ones includes:
AA Alcoholics Anonymous
Abusive Parents Anonymous
ACOA Adult Children Of Alcoholics
ADD Anonymous
Al-Anon
Alateen
Alcoholics Victorious of the Institute for Christian Living
ARTS Anonymous (Artists Recovering through the Twelve Steps)
Augustine Fellowship: Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous
CA Cocaine/Crack Anonymous
Calix (a Catholic 12-Step-based recovery organization)
CDA Chemically Dependent Anonymous
CEA Compulsive Eaters Anonymous
CMA Crystal Meth Anonymous
Chronic Illness
CLA Clutterers Anonymous
CODA Codependents Anonymous
COSA Codependents of Sex Addicts
Compulsive Eaters Anonymous
Compulsive Shopping
Debtors Anonymous
Diabetics Anonymous
Divorce Recovery
Dual Diagnosis Anonymous
Drug-Anon Focus
Dual Disorders Anonymous
DRA Dual Recovery Anonymous
EAA Eating addictions anonymous
EA Emotions Anonymous
EDA Eating Disorders Anonymous
EAA Eating Addictions Anonymous
Emotional Health Anonymous
Ethics Anonymous
FA Families Anonymous
FA Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous
GA Gamblers Anonymous
GamAnon -- families of gamblers
Gangs Anonymous
HCVA Hepatitis C Virus Anonymous
High blood pressure
ISA Incest Survivors Anonymous
Marijuana Anonymous
Methadone Anonymous
MTC Make Today Count (for someone with a terminal disease)
NA Narcotics Anonymous
Nar-Anon - families of addicts
Nick-a-teen Anonymous
Nicotine Anonymous
Obsessive-Compulsive Anonymous
Offenders Anonymous -- for convicts
ODAT One Day At a Time -- pagan recovery
Overcomers Outreach
OE Overeaters Anonymous
PIR Pagans In Recovery
Pagan Sanctum Recovery
Parents Anonymous
Pill Addicts Anonymous
Pills Anonymous
Prostitutes Anonymous
Recovering Couples Anonymous
RSA Rape Survivors Anonymous
S/A Schizophrenics Anonymous
S/A Schizophrenics Anonymous
SA Sexaholics Anonymous
SAA Sex Addicts Anonymous
SAA Sex Addicts Anonymous (alternate URL)
S-Anon - family groups of sex-addicts
SCA Sexual Compulsives Anonymous
S-Anon International Family Groups
SLAA Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous
Sexual Recovery Anonymous
SIA Survivors of Incest Anonymous
Partners and Friends of Incest Survivors Anonymous
Tough Love
WA Workaholics Anonymous
Some of these groups offer their own minor variations on the twelve steps, but all have the same spiritual-religious orientation.

Notice the funny mix of so-called "spiritual diseases" there: you can "cure" some of them just by changing your behavior, like alcoholism, narcotics, smoking, over-eating, sex addiction, gambling, cocaine, or being a compulsive shopper or a clutterer. But the others are not what we might call "voluntary" diseases. You cannot just voluntarily quit having high blood pressure, diabetes, hepatitis C, chronic illness, dual disorder (i.e.: having both mental and drug or alcohol problems) or schizophrenia, so I really want to hear how listing and confessing all of your sins, "moral shortcomings", and "defects of character" will cure those diseases.

Someone would have to be pretty crazy to think that doing the Twelve Steps -- performing a searching and fearless moral inventory and confessing all of his sins -- is going to cure mental illnesses like schizophrenia and compulsive-obessive disorders.

But, come to think of it, that's just how the game works, isn't it? Go find sick, vulnerable people who are suffering, whose minds aren't too clear, and exploit their weaknesses and talk them into joining a cult religion while telling them that this magical 12-Step program will heal what ails them.

Dumb Question: Why are there three "Dual" recovery groups that appear to treat the same mental problems -- Dual Diagnosis, Dual Disorder, and Dual Recovery?
Dumb Answer: So that the people who have Multiple Personality Disorder4 can send each of their personalities to a different group, so that they don't run into each other at the meetings...

Another dumb question: Why do schizophrenics need 12-Step groups telling them to do Step Eleven, and pray and meditate until they hear God talking to them, when those schizophrenics already hear God and sundry other voices in their heads talking to them all day long anyway?


If Workaholics Anonymous people do 90 meetings in 90 days, are they still being compulsive workaholics?
Shouldn't 180 meetings in 90 days fix the problem?

Last night I joined Gamblers Anonymous. They gave me two to one I don't make it.
== Rodney Dangerfield

And the oddest ones have to be "divorce recovery