It all feels like an upside-down fairy tale as I share with you about the year addiction stole Christmas. In a book for children,Beamer’s World, addiction is personified as a “joker” style villain. Not super scary, he is a creepy and sinister looking man that seems to appear everywhere. Addiction feels like this, lurking in…
Recovery
Why Are Children So Obsessed With Gingerbread Cookies?
Our families obsession with gingerbread cookies started many years ago as the result of a book and class project. In those early years, Run, Run As Fast As You Can, You Can’t Catch Me I’m the Gingerbread Man tickled my sons into fits of laughter. The youngest designed a kind of hide and go seek…
5 Helpful Smartphone Addiction Recovery Apps You Need to Upload
Smartphone recovery apps to keep you sober? Wow! someone was thinking! What do we always, always have with us? Lose your keys, problem, lose your wallet, that’s an issue, lose your phone, Defcon 1 emergency!! Losing your sobriety is the crisis that stops all other life crises. It is brilliant to pair the two items together….
5 Reasons Camping on the 10th Step will Save Your Holidays
Holidays are a jolly old time for all of us. Wrong! Holidays for recovering and active addicted families are a struggle of the “picture perfect” colliding with the present day reality of our lives. Dusting off your 10th step will increase your likelihood of a peaceful holiday season. 10th Step Work The AA Big Book…
So You Married An Addict
Realizing you married an addict brings about a host of emotions. My first thought was I can handle this. We just need to get him to a counselor and an AA program. Secondly, I can love away the hurts of his past life and the addiction will go away. Truly, my all time favorite is,…
What to Do When Your Spouse is Hiding Money
I remember sitting in my Al-anon group trying to get my head around my spouse hiding money. I just could not think through this on my own. Thank you to everyone who showed up that night and every Thursday night to help me process my hurts, habits and hang-ups. The Pay Check That Never Made…
How to Deal with A Financially Irresponsible Spouse
How to deal with a financially irresponsible spouse–gently and a little at a time. The dance of marriage takes time to develop the right steps. There will be lots of stumbling over each other and starting again. Finances are the Biggest Reported Cause of Divorce The best time to work out financial details is before…
What Happens to the Family Money When the Addict Gets Sober?
What happens to the family money when the addict gets sober really depends on each family. In Alcoholic Anonymous, the Wives Chapter puts the active addict situation this way: “There was never financial security. Positions were always in jeopardy or gone. An armored car could not have brought the pay envelopes home. The checking account…
Dear Wife of An Addict
Dear Wife of An Addict, Did you just lose another battle? One more push for change to control the use/abuse of a substance/lifestyle. You timed it perfectly, your argument for stopping the behavior was well thought out and rational. Anyone could see that his behavior was/is killing the family and himself. Why won’t he listen…
Procrastination- The Queen of Self Sabotage
Dog Pee! All I can smell is dog pee! I am standing in the middle of my other wise clean house sniffing. Dog pee is not really the issue, After challenging myself to a 2 hour house cleaning fest that turned into 6 hours. I am trying to rationalize my own self-sabotage. I took an…