The Wellness-Recovery Connection: Charting Your Pathway to Optimal Health While Recovering from Alcoholism and Drug Addiction [Paperback]

John Newport (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2004

A leading wellness advocate offers a step-by-step holistic plan for the 50 million people in recovery – a personalized blueprint for adding years to their life and life to their years. Includes a foreword by leading relapse prevention expert Terence T. Gorski.

Based on over thirty years in the trenches as a wellness professional and counselor, John Newport, Ph.D. shares the missing dimension in recovery and the reason why the majority of people battling alcoholism and drug addiction fail to reap the full benefits of recovery and optimal health: They don’t adopt a wellness-oriented lifestyle.

Newport breaks down the nebulous concept of wellness into 7 steps, and gives people in recovery – and their families – specific tools to design their own blueprint for optimal health, including:

Nutrition: nutritional hazards associated with alcoholism and drug addiction, and how to lay a sound nutritional foundation for recovery.

Exercise: role of exercise in preventing relapse and enjoying optimal health, with tips on how to get started.

Stress Management: practical tips on stress management and meditation, specifically geared to people in recovery.

Spiritual Needs: tips on how to manifest your unique sense of central purpose, and how this will help you stay clean and sober and move toward optimal health.

Social Supports: how to develop a strong social support system, sexuality in recovery, and more.

Conquering Substitute Addictions: including nicotine addiction, caffeine addiction and junk food binging.

Health Care: why our health care system is "wired backwards", and how recovering people can effectively work with doctors and other health care resources.

A must read for people in recovery, and treatment professionals.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

For those with drug or alcohol addictions, arresting that dependency is, obviously, crucial for survival. But overcoming addiction's insidious effects on the body by taking charge of one's health is critical as well. Newport, a wellness professional and counselor with 25 years of experience, focuses on the "neglected stepchild" of recovery: basic wellness concepts that, he says, are often disregarded. Newport emphasizes that "taking it one step at a time" works for integrating a wellness-oriented lifestyle into recovery. Years of drinking and doing drugs produce an undernourished body that needs a decent nutritional foundation, which Newport covers in detail. Additionally, many former alcohol and drug addicts develop new addictions (to caffeine, nicotine or junk foods), and Newport discusses ways to prevent this from happening, including engaging in "moderate intensity physical activity," stress management and meditation. He outlines meaningful applications to accompany the spiritual dimension of wellness and recovery, and challenges readers to set long-term goals. Numerous resources, from literature to Web sites, will be of further assistance. This excellent book would be a fine supplement to any recovery program. (Jan.)
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From the Inside Flap

"The Wellness-Recovery Connection is a breath of fresh air . . . In a simple to understand fashion Dr. Newport extends the spiritual principles introduced in 12-step programs to their natural conclusion—the wellness lifestyle through which one’s spiritual potential can be realized in everyday living." —Emmett E. Miller, M.D., author of Deep Healing

"Trying to recover from alcohol and drug addiction without utilizing the tools of wellness is like fighting with one hand tied behind one’s back. Yet it is astonishing how the many dimensions of wellness are often underutilized in the continuing care components of recovery programs across the country. Dr. John Newport corrects this oversight, and in doing so brings recovery within the reach of many more people." —Larry Dossey, M.D., author of Healing Beyond the Body, Reinventing Medicine and Healing Words

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Product Details

• Paperback: 300 pages
• Publisher: HCI (December 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0757302130
• ISBN-13: 978-0757302138
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,245,006 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must Have!, January 11, 2007

By 

Sheila Ball "Sherae61" (California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: The Wellness-Recovery Connection: Charting Your Pathway to Optimal Health While Recovering from Alcoholism and Drug Addiction (Paperback)

A wonderful tool for anyone in recovery or working in the field. Great information for a lifetime of wellness of the mind, body and spirit.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Helpful, March 21, 2009

By 

Markala - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Wellness-Recovery Connection: Charting Your Pathway to Optimal Health While Recovering from Alcoholism and Drug Addiction (Paperback)

This book has helped me tremendously! It has taught me things I was not aware of and also reminded me of things I had forgotten. I am very surprised it has helped me so much because I have been sober for 31 years. I found myself relaxing, as I read this book, simply by practicing the relaxing techniques I was reading about. I'll make these techniques a part of my daily life. I would recommend this book for anyone who is serious about their recovery.

1 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I'll stick with my meat, April 15, 2007

By 

RT (MN) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Wellness-Recovery Connection: Charting Your Pathway to Optimal Health While Recovering from Alcoholism and Drug Addiction (Paperback)

I was't planning on becoming an alcoholic nor am I planning on becoming a vegetarian. I stick to going to meetings and a belief in a higher power.