We recently broke down the AA Preamble into separate parts, noting that it was important to understand the text which begins every AA meeting. But the Preamble doesn’t technically begin every meeting. Both AA and NA meetings generally start with the Serenity Prayer. Much like the Preamble, some just say the Serenity Prayer without really…
The second chapter of Alcoholics Anonymous (commonly known as the Big Book) is titled “There Is a Solution” yet talks a lot about the nature of alcoholism itself. Even so, AA founder Bill Wilson could not have covered everything there is to say about the alcoholic’s condition within a single chapter. This is perhaps why…
Up to this point, the Twelve Steps focused on teaching us the right principles to embody in recovery. Now, it’s time to put those principles into action on a daily basis. There is no point in working so hard to establish a decent moral compass if we intend to toss it by the wayside later…
Our series on the Twelve Promises offers something interesting that you won’t get from our series on the Twelve Steps or the Twelve Traditions. While each of those other series focuses on things you must do in order to maintain a principled way of life, this series focuses on the benefits of living in such…
When a person experiences sexual abuse in any form and at any time in their life, it causes many problems. A traumatic experience such as this is undoubtedly extremely damaging mentally as well as physically. Victims suffer many consequences of sexual abuse, including depression, low self-esteem, PTSD, and many other problems. One prominent problem…
When a person relapses after a significant period of sobriety, they often find their substance abuse to be as bad as it was when they quit. In some cases, it may even be much worse. There are a few reasons that their use may spiral out of control in a very short amount of time.…
Addiction sometimes feels like a dirty secret. We fear that, if we tell anyone about our disease, our peers will judge and ostracize us for something we cannot control. As such, our negative emotions build upon each other. Instead of others judging us, we decide to judge ourselves. Our fear, anger, depression and isolation leave…
Amethyst Recovery focuses on the treatment of drugs and alcohol. Nonetheless, we like to occasionally cover certain forms of behavioral addiction in our articles. Examples that we have covered in the past include eating disorders, gambling addiction and hypersexual disorder. But many other forms of behavioral addiction exist as well. We hear about these from…
They say the good thing about sobriety is that you get your feelings back. Of course, the bad thing about sobriety is that you get your feelings back. Emotions are not bad in and of themselves, but they can be difficult to manage. This becomes even harder after years of self-medicating. We numb ourselves using…
Many say that the first month of sobriety is the hardest. Others say that things get easier after the first ninety days. Then, there are those who say that you must make it through at least six months, or even up to a year. In truth, however, people relapse at various stages in life. You…