Carolyn Elliott is my latest mentor and probably the most bullshit free teacher I’ve ever had. She has taught me the essence of being fearless and thorough, which is spoken about often in the recovery world, but rarely have I seen it……until now. This exquisite woman doesn’t just sparkle, she sizzles. When I came across

As discussed in my previous posting to this site, the vast majority of sex addicts also have a secondary addiction, whether it’s a cross addiction, where they switch back and forth between sex addiction and another addiction, or a co-occurring addiction, where they engage in more than one addiction at the same time. For multiply-addicted

I was the PTO mom, the carpool mom, the Brownie leader.  We ate family dinners at the table, taught our children manners and took family vacations.  My husband and I were blessed to have very good jobs.  My daughter, Brittany, the beautiful girl in the photo, was the honor roll student, the volunteer at the

In the story of every addict there is a point when they stop using drugs or alcohol and the drugs or alcohol start to use them.  At some point the substance takes ownership of the new addict. One moment you are having fun using drugs, meeting new friends and exploring the possibilities ­­– the next

Jeff Vande Zande teaches fiction writing and screenwriting at Delta College. His books of fiction include Emergency Stopping and Other Stories, Into the Desperate Country, Landscape with Fragmented Figures and Threatened Species and Other Stories (Whistling Shade Press). His novel American Poet won the Stuart and Vernice Gross Award for Excellence in Writing by a

The room’s one window is covered by a dark Venetian blind. The sunlight behind it is only a rumor. There’s a lamp on the desk and a lamp turned on next to Robby where he sits in a leather chair. He’s slumped in his seat with his elbows on the arm rests. His hands hang

There is no doubt that there is an epidemic of opioid abuse in our world. The definition of epidemic in the Cambridge Dictionary:  a particular problem that seriously affects many people at the same time. This particular epidemic is persistent, brutal and killing indiscriminately. But why is this epidemic not being dealt with like other

The rise in popularity of Cocaine or (benzoylmethylecgonine) is most often associated with the disco era of the late 1970’s and 80’s when the glamour of disco clubs such as New York’s Studio 54 influenced popular culture far and wide. It’s almost instant euphoric effect made it the must have drug, not just with addicts,

Using dreams don’t necessarily indicate a hole in our program; for a drug addict, there’s nothing more natural than to dream of using drugs. It has been helpful to me to think of using dreams as gifts from my Higher Power, vividly reminding me of the insanity of active addiction and encouraging us to strengthen

Four years ago I swallowed my last pain pill. Christmas night. After days of trying to look past the glowing orange pharmaceutical bottle on the kitchen counter. At Chris’s parent’s home in Pennsylvania. My mind a mess. Months of heavy anti-psychotics, antidepressants, anti-anxiety medication. A pill to focus. One to calm. Another to balance. To block