Five Gates - The Science of Healing the Spirit

“Recover With Me” Table of Contents

Preface

Forward

How the Twelve-Step Recovery is different from the others

My First Experiences in Recovery

My view of recovery today

Introduction and Summary

The End … and the Beginning

The Sources for this Program

How to use this Book

We Need the Recovery Fellowships to Get Well

The Guys at New Hope Village and Their Part in the Writing of this Presentation

PART I:  MY STORY

• Introduction
• My Addiction and Recovery
• I was Stubborn, “Stiff Necked”
• The Answer
• Before My Alcoholism
• I Remember Better Times, Or Were They?
• How I Got the Wrong Ideas
• My Drinking History
• My Denial
• “Just Straighten Yourself Out.” They Said. They Meant Well
• Getting High and Having Fun
• “I’m Fine, Leave Me Alone”
• “It’s Too Late For Me,” I Thought
• How Could I Be So Blind?
• Help!  I Finally Said
• How I First Managed to Stop Using – Before the Miracle Happened
• The First Advice I Needed
• Just Quitting Didn’t Do “It”!
• Getting Real Help and Fellowship
• What Was My Real Problem?
• My Insecurity and Maladjustment
• Getting in Touch With Your Own Progress
• Adjusting My Point of View
• Searching for my Humility
• Depression
• My Recovery Today
• My Search For God’s Will For My Life Toda

PART II: HOW WE BECOME WHO WE ARE

• Introduction
• Our Emotional Development
• Feeling Bad Brings Bad Results
• Feeling Good Brings Good Results
• How We Set Our Goals and Measure Our Progress In Life
• Pleasure, Pain, and Self-Adequacy
• How We Become Emotionally Ill
• Our Master Addiction
• Wanting to Be “High” and the Trap of Self-Deception
• Addictive Behavior; Our Escape and Our Prison
• Hitting “Bottom”
• Different People = Different Bottoms?  No! They’re All the Same
• Dependency as a Drug
• Do We Really Want to Grow Up?

PART III:  RECOVERY

• Recovery From What?
• Suffering and Addictions
• Denial (Self-Deception) is the Logical Response to Hopelessness. It is Our Second “Master Addiction”
• Let’s Look at Our Progress Again
• Will I Ever Stop Being an Alcoholic or Drug Addict?
• Heredity, Mood Chemistry, and Medications
• The Physical Side of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse
• The How and Why we Change Physically in Addiction
• Not Everyone Uses Drugs In Their Systems the Same Way
• How Well Can We Recover?
• The “Good” News
• The “Bad” News About Our Addictions
• We All Had Some Things in Common
• What Is Recovery?
• Do I Need a Psychiatrist?
• Who’s My Real Doctor?
• The Recovery Fellowships and the Medical Community – Who Has the Answers?  They Both Do Now!
• What About Vitamins, Minerals, Fasts, Yoga, Exercise, and Steam Baths?
• Overview of the Recovery Path
• Can You Really Recover?
• What We Do In Recovery
• Just How Big a Commitment is Recovery?
• Why Don’t We Just Deal Directly With Our Alcohol?
• Drugs, Depressions and our Other Addictions
• What It’s Like to be Recovery-Recovering
• How Do I Start Recovering?
• The Dynamic Aspects of Recovery; Spiritual Awakenings
• Becoming Ready to Recover
• Do We Have an Open Mind?
• We Don’t Have to Agree On Everything to Get Well
• Twelve Steps to Healing: How they Work
• They all Work Together to Heal Us
• Do you Really Need to Understand the Program to Start Recovering?

PART IV: OUR TWELVE STEP PROGRAM

• Introduction

STEP ONE

• Our First Step of Our Denial
• Who is an Alcoholic or Other Drug Addict?
• Denial and the Relief We Get From Getting Past It
• Staying Clean and Sober Today Is Very Important to Us Now
• What’s an Obsession or a Compulsion?
• Powerless!?
• Powerless Over My Addiction
• I Kept Thinking That It Was Only Alcohol
• My Denial is More Powerful Than I Am…But Not More Powerful Than This Program!
• How Did I Get Addicted?
• We All Have Lots of Problems But Our First Step Comes First
• But I Can’t Put It Off Until Later
• Why Do We Repeat the First Step So Often?
• The Steps Work for a Reason
• Why is Getting Well So Hard to Do?
• Denial, Our Mortal Enemy
• Why Do I Use Even When Things are Going Great?
• Why are People at Meetings Always Talking About Their Other Faults…I Thought That We’re Just Trying to Stop Using!
• Not Using May Feel Bad at First But It’s Our Only Chance!
• Are Our Lives Really Unmanageable?
• Hope, Courage and Honesty
• Lying to Ourselves
• Relapses:  Using Again
• Drinking Socially for Nonalcoholics, Marijuana and Similar Questions
• Summary: Step One

• Introduction and Summary
• Let’s Get Started
• What Does Step Two Mean?
• How We are Changed
• How Can Anything “Restore Us to Sanity”?
• Hope is the First Answer
• Making and Acting on Good Decision and Trusting that this is the Best We Can Ever Do Is the Key
• We Need “Higher Powered” Principles (Big Strong Ones)
• Can We Just Follow a Leader Who Knows Better Than We Do?
• The Solution
• It’s Tough at First
• Can We Change Our Principles if we Don’t Like Them?
• Our Motives are the Key
• Okay, Okay!  What Principles?
• The Only Answer I Know that Works
• What Are Our Problems?
• Art There Principles that will work for these Problems?
• What’s so Good About These Principles?
• Why We Use Principles From the Holy Bible
• Principles to Get Constructive Results Must Be Constructive – Let’s Look at Some of Ours
• Are These the Right Principles for You?
• Our Morality
• Higher Power?  What’s this Really Mean?
• The Power of Loving Principles
• Higher Power?
• Why are People Always Talking About God? I Just Want to Get Well and Live Well
• Illustration of the Simplicity We Need
• God’s (Higher Power’s) Will For Us
• Summary of Step Two

STEP THREE

• Some People Will be Unloving Towards Us
• Will S/He Bring the Rain If I Pray Hard and Well?
• What Kind of Prayer Will Please Him?
• We Want Wellness But We Resist Change
• We Must Not Delay Our Progress
• We Must Accept God’s Will (Reality)
• Our Recommended Third Step Acceptance Rules
• Our Mental Contact with God’s Will, Reality
• What About God?
• God’s Army
• Our Relapses of Attitude
• What’s More Important, Study or Practice?
• The Results of Working Step Three
• Easy Does It
• The Promises (from AA Big Book pgs. 83-84)
• Humility, Acceptance and Freedom
• We Improve with Practice, Self-Forgiveness and Time
• Examining Our Motives
• Selflessness
• Is There Justice?
• Why Do “Bad” Things Happen to “Good” People
• Some Found Another Way to the Same Peace and Lifestyle But I Had Previously Had to Learn the Hard Way

STEP FOUR

• How to Work Step Four
• What is This Great Truth That Heals Us???
• Our Fourth Step Inventory – General Directions

STEP FIVE

• Our “Other Person”
• Our Higher Power
• Step Five Exercise in Sensitivity to Ourselves and Others
• Guide for Assisting Someone Through This Critical Step
• I’m Well

STEP SIX

• What Do We Do in Step Six?
• What Must I Do to Make Progress?
• Facing all of our “Bull” can be Messy, Even Humiliating
• Disability and Dependency as a Drug
• Do We Really Want to Grow Up?
• The Answer

STEP SEVEN

• “Fox Hole” Pray
• Our Seventh Step Prayers are Different

STEP EIGHT

STEP NINE

• Another Spiritual Goal that Can Help Us
• A Step of Service to Others Who We Know from the Roads We’ve Walked
• “Such Persons”
• Making Our Amends
• Restitution
• Don’t Delay; Become Free Inside

STEP TEN

• Are Thoughts Actions?
• “Promptly Made Amends”
• We Need to Celebrate the Good

STEP ELEVEN

• What is humility? Why is it Important?
• What is Prayer?
• My Method (Almost) Daily
• Did I Tell You Than I Am Really Good at This?
• More On How I Do It Now
• Prayer and Meditation Happen Naturally – This Step Suggest That We Assist the Natural Process
• Before I Understood How it Worked – I Thought That This Was a Put-On!
• I Simply Dismissed the Spiritual As Coming From Over-Active Imaginations But I Learned Better From My Own Experience
• More About Prayer and Meditation

STEP TWELVE

• Carrying the Message
• Helping Others Recover From Suffering
• All of our Affairs
• Spiritual Awakening
• More on Service to Others

PART V:  FELLOWSHIP

• Fellowship Helps Us Be Honest
• Fellowship Meetings
• Some Tips for Attending Fellowship Meetings
• Choosing Fellowship Meetings
• Don’t Let Other People’s Stalled Recovery Slow You Down
• Sponsorship
• Choosing and Working With a Sponsor
• Constructive Sponsorship Attitudes
• Detox Meetings are Special
• How It Was, What Happened, How It Is
• Our Fellowship Sharing
• Step One Share
• Step Two Share
• Step Three Share
• Step Four Share
• Step Five Share
• Step Six Share
• Step Seven Share
• Step Eight Share
• Step Nine Share
• Step Ten Share
• Step Eleven Share
• Step Twelve Share

PART VI: QUESTIONS THAT COME UP IN RECOVERY

• Religions and Recovery
• Is This Presentation of the Twelve Steps Different?
• Is This the Best Twelve Step Presentation?
• Hope is the Opposite of Fear and Our Illness
• To Get Well We Must Know We are Well
• To Stay Well We Must Know We’re Not
• Our Other Addictions and Obsessions
• Depression
• Let’s Get Physical
• More Good News
• More on Hitting Bottom
• Remorse, Anger and Resentments:  Letting them Go
• Relationships
• Employment
• Change
• Letting Go
• Am I Really Powerless?
• Personal Satisfaction and Egotism
• Indirect Relapses
• Pattern “Relapses”
• May the Force be With Us!
• Our Emotional Diseases and Spiritual Awakening
• A Note on Insanity and Recovery
• A View on Life in Recovery
• A Baby’s Bliss
• Author’s Postscript
• Epilogue

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