In one of my support groups, there are some brilliant and wise people having moments of pure genius. In the best meeting I’ve ever been to, a shining star said something that moved us all. To paraphrase, she said that we, as recovering addicts and alcoholics, have qualities that the post-COVID world will desperately need.… Continue reading Why the Post-COVID World Needs Addicts
The Overstory by Richard Powers is one of my favorite books. I’m borrowing a metaphor borrowed by the book. Say the planet is a body. The plants and trees and algae are the lungs, breathing for us all the time. The oceans and rivers and all the bodies of water are the circulatory system, keeping… Continue reading Humanity’s Big Fix
It’s everyone’s favorite – flow. Video gamers know it. People who are super-into their craft know it. Athletes know it. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi did the research and thinking that defined the condition, and described it as a state that “occur[s] if a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to… Continue reading Addiction and Flow
I mentioned that I go to support groups for some of my addictions and problems. Obviously the “Anonymous” franchise – Alcoholics Anonymous, Overeaters Anonymous, Al-Anon, Anonymity Anonymous, the list goes on – is the best-known network of support groups, and it’s a great one. There is much to appreciate about their approach (and some stuff… Continue reading A Group Can Sense Us
In which I indulge in shameless autobiography in an effort to suggest to those whose suffering comes from inside themselves that I used to suffer a lot, and now suffer less. “When the brain is diseased, the functions that become pathological are the person’s emotional life, thought processes, and behavior. And thus creates the addict’s… Continue reading Shameless Autobiography Part IV: Shamefully Addicted
When we look at how people change, and what sustains that change, how does that even happen? Recovery says it starts one day at a time. People in early sobriety from the really gnarly white drugs say it starts one minute at a time. I’d even say it takes one thought at a time, because… Continue reading How’s It Feel To Want?
Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it. -Mary Oliver On the opening page of the story of my life, I am dead. I drank myself to death. I ate myself to death. I died a million deaths before I died, in a hostile world that hated me as much as… Continue reading Theories of Change
