A Sober Mom's Guide to Recovery
A Sober Mom's Guide to Recovery

Author: Rosemary O'Connor

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2015-09-08

Total Pages: 117

ISBN-13: 161649624X

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Rosemary O’Connor brings her many years of experience working with women in recovery to addressing the key life issues mothers face at all stages of their recovery path. Rosemary O’Connor brings her many years of experience working with women in recovery to addressing the key life issues mothers face at all stages of their recovery path. Recovering from an addiction is tough enough, but when you throw in the tremendous responsibilities of motherhood, resisting cravings and remaining abstinent—much less enjoying the rewards of sobriety—can seem like an impossible challenge. Rosemary O’Connor brings her many years of experience working with women in recovery to addressing the key life issues mothers face at all stages of their recovery path. At once affirming, engaging, and practical, A Sober Mom’s Guide to Recovery combines down-to-earth advice with the inspiring stories of recovering moms, including the author’s, to offer guidance on over fifty vital topics, including stress, relapse, relationships, sex and intimacy, spirituality, shame, gratitude, dating, and, of course, parenting. The result is an inspirational and practical handbook, not just for getting through the day, but for building a sense of well-being that radiates outward, allowing you to be present with your kids and loved ones, and find hope for the future.

Bottled
Bottled

Author: Dana Bowman

Publisher: Central Recovery Press, LLC

Published: 2015-09-15

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 193761297X

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Humorist Dana Bowman chronicles her struggle with alcoholism—and subsequent recovery—through the prism of early motherhood and its challenges.

Moms to Moms
Moms to Moms

Author: Barbara Joy

Publisher: Conari Press

Published: 2011-09-01

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781573244831

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Being a mom is one of the hardest and most important jobs a woman can have. Being a mom in recovery is even more challenging. In Moms to Moms, counselor Barbara Joy shares the stories, advice, and inspiration from more than 60 mothers in recovery from across the United States who have struggled with addiction. These are women of all ages, races, and religious affiliations who candidly share their experiences: the challenges of being a mom in recovery, the values they want to teach their children, and their fears, struggles, and accomplishments. This is a book that offers help and hope to busy, stressed out moms in recovery; a book they can turn to again and again to find inspiration, comfort, and advice. Joy offers evaluation tools and strategies for positive parenting, journaling activities for reflections, and affirmations designed to relieve stress and reinforce positive behavior.

Seven Weeks to Sobriety
Seven Weeks to Sobriety

Author: Joan Mathews Larson, PhD

Publisher: Ballantine Books

Published: 2011-08-31

Total Pages: 366

ISBN-13: 0307788369

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"Comprehensive, rational and personal. It suppplies much of what is missing in traditional approaches to alcoholic rehabilitation. I believe that this book can save lives." Leo Galland, M.D. Open this book and you will embark on a groundbreaking seven-week journey that will change your life. You will learn how to break your addiction to alcohol and end your cravings--and do it under your own power. Here, step-by-step, is a proven, seven-week program developed by Dr. Joan Matthews Larson at the innovative Health Recovery Center in Minneapolis, that subdues your body's addictive chemistry and puts you on the path to full recovery.

I Can Be Me
I Can Be Me

Author: Dianne S. O'Connor

Publisher: Author House

Published: 2009-11-09

Total Pages: 188

ISBN-13: 1468527819

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• Has drug or alcohol abuse in your family caused your child to become withdrawn or to act out? • Is addiction in a family member contributing to upset and stress in your child? • Do you want to help your child understand the problem and communicate about his/her feelings? • Do you want to help your child develop healthier coping strategies? I Can Be Me is a helping book for professionals and parents who want to help children of alcoholic parents. Written for children ages 4 to 12, it can be read by a child alone or worked through with a caring adult. Simple line drawings and text speak to children in a language they understand and are based on the real experiences of children with addicted parents. Written from the perspective of children whose parents are addicted to alcohol and various other drugs, this book helps children take off the masks that hide their true feelings and educates them about alcohol or drug abuse in the family. Entertaining drawings and simple text make this book easy to understand and invite children to add their own thoughts and feelings. Children often feel alone in homes where alcoholism or drug abuse is present. I Can Be Me helps children understand more about addiction and realize that they are not to blame for their parents’ problems. Through a series of creative exercises and activities children learn about healthy coping strategies and that they are not alone. Eight separate units make this book an ideal companion to counseling or support group sessions. Parents or counselors can also use a single section to address the unique concerns of an individual child.

S. O. B. E. R. *
S. O. B. E. R. *

Author: Anita Baglaneas Devlin

Publisher:

Published: 2015-01-14

Total Pages: 246

ISBN-13: 9780692331477

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While laying in an empty bathtub in a Motel 6 in Vermont, Mike takes a handful of OxyContin and waits for the heart palpitations to kill him. As he starts to fade he reads a text on his phone, "Son, I love you and I need to know that you're OK." Struggling to understand why anyone would care about him because of his years of drug abuse, he responds, "Mom, no one can help me." Then, in a moment of clarity, he decides he wants there to be a tomorrow and to be a part of his family again. He makes the call for help to his mother; the call that saves his life. S.O.B.E.R.*, an acronym for "Son Of a Bitch Everything's Real" describes the moment Anita Devlin and her son Mike realize that denying his addiction to pain pills is destroying him. It is the defining moment when they commit to the courageous fight to get their lives back. This is when their family's road to recovery begins. S.O.B.E.R.* offers a rare glimpse at the daily, all consuming relationship between family and addiction, told simultaneously from a mother's view and an addict's perspective. Everyone thinks Mike has it all because he is a star varsity lacrosse player, does well in school and is popular with the girls. However, Mike feels completely alone on the inside. When sports related surgeries introduce him to the world of pain pills, he uses them to mask his insecurities and spirals downward. Once in treatment, he learns that drugs are the least of his problems. The real problem is his mind. The drugs aren't making his demons disappear, they are only masking them and burying them down deeper. Mike is confident that he can be sober but he is not convinced that he can be sober and happy. Anita thinks that being a mother gives her the right to negotiate with God for her child. She sits in church and pleads, "God, I don't care what happens to me, please just take care of my son." She lets go of everything that makes her strong until she has nothing to hold on to but fear. She is afraid of what will happen if she focuses on anything but her son. This is an addiction itself. Anita becomes sick physically and spiritually. She is ashamed that she is afraid of what people will think instead of helping her only son, and she is faced with yet another hurdle... a confrontation with the truth that she herself needs to get healthy and learn to let go. We are allowed a glimpse into the family's recovery through powerful "cost" letters including one from Mike's sister and from the innocent voice of the family dog. Despite an avalanche of life's misfortunes, nothing else matters as long as they don't lose Mike. Anita, her husband Michael and their daughter Alex join forces with the Caron Treatment Center where "the patient is the family, and the family is the patient." "Addiction is an octopus" says Anita, "Whose tentacles wrap tightly around us all choking the life out of everyone in its way. The whole family needs to recover together."

Quit Like a Woman
Quit Like a Woman

Author: Holly Whitaker

Publisher: Dial Press

Published: 2019-12-31

Total Pages: 384

ISBN-13: 1984825062

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “An unflinching examination of how our drinking culture hurts women and a gorgeous memoir of how one woman healed herself.”—Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Untamed “You don’t know how much you need this book, or maybe you do. Either way, it will save your life.”—Melissa Hartwig Urban, Whole30 co-founder and CEO The founder of the first female-focused recovery program offers a groundbreaking look at alcohol and a radical new path to sobriety. We live in a world obsessed with drinking. We drink at baby showers and work events, brunch and book club, graduations and funerals. Yet no one ever questions alcohol’s ubiquity—in fact, the only thing ever questioned is why someone doesn’t drink. It is a qualifier for belonging and if you don’t imbibe, you are considered an anomaly. As a society, we are obsessed with health and wellness, yet we uphold alcohol as some kind of magic elixir, though it is anything but. When Holly Whitaker decided to seek help after one too many benders, she embarked on a journey that led not only to her own sobriety, but revealed the insidious role alcohol plays in our society and in the lives of women in particular. What’s more, she could not ignore the ways that alcohol companies were targeting women, just as the tobacco industry had successfully done generations before. Fueled by her own emerging feminism, she also realized that the predominant systems of recovery are archaic, patriarchal, and ineffective for the unique needs of women and other historically oppressed people—who don’t need to lose their egos and surrender to a male concept of God, as the tenets of Alcoholics Anonymous state, but who need to cultivate a deeper understanding of their own identities and take control of their lives. When Holly found an alternate way out of her own addiction, she felt a calling to create a sober community with resources for anyone questioning their relationship with drinking, so that they might find their way as well. Her resultant feminine-centric recovery program focuses on getting at the root causes that lead people to overindulge and provides the tools necessary to break the cycle of addiction, showing us what is possible when we remove alcohol and destroy our belief system around it. Written in a relatable voice that is honest and witty, Quit Like a Woman is at once a groundbreaking look at drinking culture and a road map to cutting out alcohol in order to live our best lives without the crutch of intoxication. You will never look at drinking the same way again.

The Complete Family Guide to Addiction
The Complete Family Guide to Addiction

Author: Thomas F. Harrison

Publisher: Guilford Publications

Published: 2019-06-14

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 1462539645

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"The purpose of this book is to explain addiction and to help families and friends to deal with it successfully. People who are struggling with addiction can also use this book to understand their situation and the resources that are available to help them. And people who are wondering if they might have an addiction can use it to get a better sense of the nature and depth of their potential problem. Part I explains the science behind addiction. Part II looks at the emotional side of the problem and how families are affected. Part III discusses many of the real-world legal and practical issues that addicts often face, and ways to keep them out of trouble. Part IV provides a detailed overview of treatment options. And Part V describes the recovery process and the most effective strategies to keep it going for the long term"--

Mommy Burnout
Mommy Burnout

Author: Dr. Sheryl G. Ziegler

Publisher: HarperCollins

Published: 2018-02-20

Total Pages: 293

ISBN-13: 0062683705

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The ultimate must-read handbook for the modern mother: a practical, and positive tool to help free women from the debilitating notion of being the "perfect mom," filled with funny and all too relatable true-life stories and realistic suggestions to stop the burnout cycle, and protect our kids from the damage burnout can cause. Moms, do you feel tired? Overwhelmed? Have you continually put off the things you need to do for you? Do you feel like it’s all worth it because your kids are happy? Are you "over" being a mother? If you answered yes to these questions, you’re not alone. Parents today want to create the ideal childhood for their children. Women strive to be the picture-perfect Pinterest mother that looks amazing, hosts the best birthday parties in town, posts the most "liked" photos, and serves delicious, nutritious home-cooked meals in her neat, organized home after ferrying the kids to school and a host of extracurricular activities on time. This drive, while noble, can also be destructive, causing stress and anxiety that leads to "mommy burnout." Psychologist and family counselor Dr. Sheryl Ziegler is well-versed in the stress that moms face, and the burden of guilt they carry because they often feel like they aren’t doing enough for their kids’ happiness. A mother of three herself, Dr. Z—as she’s affectionately known by her many patients—recognizes and understands that modern moms are all too often plagued by exhaustion, failure, isolation, self-doubt, and a general lack of self-love, and their families are also feeling the effects, too. Over the last nineteen years working with families and children, Dr. Z has devised a prescriptive program for addressing "mommy burnout"—teaching moms that they can learn to re-energize themselves and still feel good about their families and their lives. In this warm and empathetic guide, she examines this modern epidemic among mothers who put their children’s happiness above their own, and offers empowering, proven solutions for alleviating this condition, saving marriages and keeping kids happy in the process.