Tuesday, October 30, 2007

MARIJUANA ANONYMOUS

THE 12 QUESTIONS OF MARIJUANA ANONYMOUS

The following questions may help you determine whether marijuana is a problem in your life.

  1. Has smoking pot stopped being fun?
  2. Do you ever get high alone?
  3. Is it hard for you to imagine a life without marijuana?
  4. Do you find that your friends are determined by your marijuana use?
  5. Do you smoke marijuana to avoid dealing with your problems?
  6. Do you smoke pot to cope with your feelings?
  7. Does your marijuana use let you live in a privately defined world?
  8. Have you ever failed to keep promises you made about cutting down or controlling your dope smoking?
  9. Has your use of marijuana caused problems with memory, concentration, or motivation?
  10. When your stash is nearly empty, do you feel anxious or worried about how to get more?
  11. Do you plan your life around your marijuana use?
  12. Have friends or relatives ever complained that your pot smoking is damaging your relationship with them?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, you may have a problem with marijuana.

From; Marijuana Anonymous

          Life With Hope: A Return to Living Through the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of Marijuana Anonymous
by Marijuana Anonymous

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Two Free Days

 

There are two days in every week about which we should not worry, two days which should be kept free from fear and apprehension.

One of these days is Yesterday with all its mistakes and cares, its faults and blunders, its aches and pains.

Yesterday has passed forever beyond our control.

All the money in the world cannot bring back Yesterday.

We cannot undo a single act we performed. We cannot erase a single word we said. Yesterday is gone forever.

The other day we should not worry about is Tomorrow with all its possible adversities, its burdens, its large promise and its poor performance.

Tomorrow is also beyond our immediate control. Tomorrow’s sun will rise either in splendor or behind a mask of clouds, but it will rise. Until it does, we have no stake in Tomorrow, for it is yet to be born.

This leaves only one day, Today.

Any person can fight the battle of just one day. It is when you and I add the burdens of those two awful eternity’s, Yesterday and Tomorrow, that we break down.

It is not the experience of Today that drives a person mad, it is the remorse or bitterness of something which happened Yesterday and the dread of what Tomorrow may bring.

Let us, therefore, live but one day at a time.

          Just for Today: Daily Meditations for Recovering Addicts
by

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Monday, October 29, 2007

Normally High

Natural Highs

Consider and feel each before going on to the next one.........

  • Falling in love.
  • Laughing so hard your face hurts.
  • A hot shower on a cold day.
  • No lines at the supermarket
  • A special glance.
  • Taking a drive on a scenic road.
  • Hearing your favorite song on the radio.
  • Lying in bed listening to the rain outside.
  • Hot towels fresh out of the dryer.
  • Chocolate milkshake. (or vanilla!) (or strawberry)
  • A bubble bath.
  • Laughing, Giggling.
  • A good conversation.
  • The beach
  • Finding a 20 note in your coat from last winter.
  • Laughing at yourself.
  • Midnight phone calls that last for hours.
  • Running through sprinklers.
  • Laughing for absolutely no reason at all.
  • Having someone tell you that you're OK.
  • Laughing at an inside joke.
  • Friends.
  • Accidentally overhearing someone say something nice about you.
  • Waking up and realizing you still have a few hours left to sleep.
  • Your first kiss (either the very first or with a new partner).
  • Making new friends or spending time with old ones.
  • Playing with a new puppy.
  • Having someone play with your hair.
  • Sweet dreams.
  • Hot chocolate.
  • Road trips with friends.
  • Swinging on swings.
  • Wrapping presents under the Christmas tree while eating cookies.
  • Song lyrics on your iPod so you can sing along without feeling stupid.
  • Going to a really good concert.
  • Making eye contact with a cute stranger
  • Winning a really competitive game.
  • Making chocolate chip cookies.
  • Having your friends send you homemade cookies.
  • Spending time with close friends.
  • Seeing smiles and hearing laughter from your friends.
  • Holding hands with someone you care about.
  • Running into an old friend and realizing that some things (good or bad) never change
  • Riding the best roller coasters over and over.
  • Watching the expression on someone's face as they open a much desired present from you.
  • Watching the sunrise/sunset.
  • Getting out of bed every morning and being grateful for another beautiful day.

Friends are quiet angels who lift us to our feet when our wings have trouble remembering how to fly.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

’Roid rage, depression and suicide

 

Some of the damage from steroids is irreversible, doctor says

Suspicions of steroid use are clouding Major League Baseball at the start of its season, but a bigger problem than the image of the national pastime is the health impact of anabolic steroids on adolescents, a University of Michigan addiction expert says.

Brower cautions that young people may think steroids are safe when they hear of their sports idols taking them. In reality, the risks of steroid use can include serious and irreversible physical effects, as well as mental perils such as severe depression, suicidal thoughts and behaviors, and violent aggression, known as “’roid rage.”

He notes that suicide is the third-leading cause of death among people ages 15-24. “This is an age group that is already at high risk,” says Brower, associate professor of psychiatry at UMHS. “When you add steroids, you are increasing the risk of suicide.”

Although the actual rate of adverse psychiatric effects is difficult to measure, he notes that studies have found higher rates of psychiatric effects among weight-training users of steroids than comparable non-users. Brower, who recently testified at a highly publicized congressional hearing about anabolic steroid use, says the drugs can worsen the usual degree of psychological upset during adolescence.

“It can be difficult to detect when adolescents or young athletes are using steroids, so parents and coaches need to know what to look for,” he says. “One of the reasons it can be difficult is because some of the things that you see, such as mood swings and weight gain, are things that you would expect to see in adolescents.”

How can you tell if the mood swings, weight gain and acne are just part of growing up, or if they are related to steroid use?

Brower says to watch for intense dietary regimens that go along with frequent and prolonged periods of weight training.

“People become very focused on how often they need to work out, how much they need to work out, how much they eat, what kinds of foods they need to eat,” he says, “and they may even get irritable when they’re not able to do those things.”

Some warning signs should prompt parents to seek professional help for their kids, such as

  • when they become aggressive or violent with friends, family or strangers;
  • when they aren’t eating or sleeping;
  • when parents discover their children are hanging around with other kids who are doing drugs; or
  • when they are talking about suicide.

Some of the physical signs of steroid use include male-pattern baldness in men, the growth of facial hair and deepened voice in women, marked acne, oily skin, and injection marks over large muscle groups such as shoulders, thighs and buttocks. Steroids also cause a shrinking of testicles in men, and the appearance of sex organs in women to become more male-like.

The fact that a national spotlight has been shining on steroid use among well-known baseball players complicates the message, Brower says. Even if young people hear about the harmful effects of using the drugs, they see images of the famous athletes accused of steroid use - athletes who are wealthy and who appear healthy.

“We like our sports heroes because they’re celebrities, they’re famous, they look well, they perform well,” Brower says. “And when that becomes associated with anabolic steroids, it adds to the positive image of steroids.”

Steering young people away from using steroids is especially difficult not just because their sports idols may use them, but also because anabolic steroids are very easy for adolescents to get, Brower says.

Facts about anabolic steroids:

Steroids can lead to depression and can be addictive.

Side effects of steroids can include:

  • tears of muscles and tendons;
  • acne;
  • liver damage;
  • mood swings and
  • aggressive behavior;
  • shrinkage in the size of testicles;
  • loss of the ability to get erections;
  • a decreased sperm count;
  • an increase in men’s breast size;
  • high blood pressure;
  • abnormal cholesterol levels;
  • jaundice;
  • male-pattern baldness in men and women; and
  • the growth of facial hair in women.

Anabolic steroids are synthetic drugs similar to the male hormone testosterone. They sometimes are prescribed by doctors to treat men who can’t make enough testosterone naturally or to increase weight in people with some problems or disorders, such as AIDS.

Anabolic steroids were developed in the late 1930s primarily to treat hypogonadism, in which the testes do not produce enough testosterone, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

      Roid Rage
by Lesley Choyce

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Monday, October 22, 2007

What’s Your Greatest Asset?

 

Five Strengths of an ACoA

Amy Eden writes about the assets of ACOA’s.

“I don’t know about you, but I sometimes feel exasperated with the emphasis on problems tied to being the offspring of alcoholics.

Today I need to hear the B side of the record, to think about our other characteristics.”

Here are her first five assets of ACOA’s.

YOU CAN EMPATHIZE

YOU’RE INDEPENDENT

YOU’RE CREATIVE

YOU’RE RESILIENT

YOU’RE CALM

Full post at Guess What Normal Is.

      Codependent No More: How to Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring for Yourself
by Melody Beattie

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Detachment from the Alcoholic

 

The following recommendation comes from Al-Anon Family Groups.

"Alcoholism is a family disease. Living with the effects of someone else’s drinking is too devastating for most people to bear without help.

"In Al-Anon we learn individuals are not responsible for another person’s disease or recovery from it.

"We let go of our obsession with another’s behavior and begin to lead happier and more manageable lives, lives with dignity and rights; lives guided by a Power greater than ourselves.

"In Al-Anon we learn

  • Not to suffer because of the actions or reactions of other people.
  • Not to allow ourselves to be used or abused by others in the interest of another’s recovery.
  • Not to do for others what they can do for themselves.
  • Not to manipulate situations so others will eat, go to bed, get up, pay bills, not drink.
  • Not to cover for anyone’s mistakes or misdeeds.
  • Not to prevent a crisis if it is in the natural course of events.

"Detachment is neither kind or unkind. It does not imply judgment or condemnation of the person or situation from which we are detaching. It simply a means that allows us to separate ourselves from the adverse effects that another person’s alcoholism can have on our lives.

"Detachment helps families look at their situations realistically and objectively, thereby making intelligent decisions possible.


LET GO

"To let go does not mean to stop caring,
it means ’I can’t do it for someone else.

To let go is not to cut myself off,
its the realization I can’t control another human.

To let go is not to enable,
but to allow learning from natural consequences.

To let go is to admit powerlessness,
Which means the outcome is not in my hands.

To let go is not to try to change or blame another,
it’s to make the most of myself

To let go is not to care for,
but to care about.

To let go is not to fix,
but to be supportive.

To let go is not to judge,
but to allow another to be a human being.

To let go is not to be in the middle arranging all the outcomes,
but to allow others to affect their own destinies.

To let go is not to be protective,
it’s to permit another to face reality.

To let go is not to criticize or regulate anyone,
but to try to become what I dream I can be.

To let go is to fear less, and to love more."

Anonymous

          How Al-Anon Works for Families & Friends of Alcoholics
by Al-Anon Family Group Head Inc

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The Promises of the Adult Children Of Alcoholics program

 

If we are painstaking about doing the program -

1. We will discover our real identities by loving and accepting ourselves.

2. Our self-esteem will increase as we give ourselves approval on a daily basis.

3. Fear of authority figures and the need to "people-please" will leave us.

4. Our ability to share intimacy will grow inside us.

5. As we face our abandonment issues, we will be attracted by strengths and become more tolerant of weaknesses.

6. We will enjoy feeling stable, peaceful, and financially secure.

7. We will learn how to play and have fun in our lives.

8. We will chose to love people who can love and be responsible for themselves.

9. Healthy boundaries and limits will become easier for us to set.

10. Fears of failures and success will leave us, as we intuitively make healthier choices.

11. With help from our ACA support group, we will slowly release our dysfunctional behaviors.

12. Gradually, with our Higher Power’s help, we learn to expect a better life and get it.

      The Complete ACOA Sourcebook: Adult Children of Alcoholics at Home, at Work and in Love
by Janet Woititz

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A A Is a Spirit

 

  • It cannot be touched, nor can it be completely understood,
  • It is as wide as the world,
  • Yet it is small enough to fit inside the mind of man,
  • It has brought light to where only darkness dwelt
  • It has given Hope" to those who yearned in despair
  • It has nourished forgiveness in those who knew no pity
  • It has given strength to the weak and humility to the strong
  • It has given greatness to the common
  • It has spurred to higher goals those who once strove for nothing
  • It has been a home to the destitute
  • It has transformed sorrow into a weapon of happiness
  • It has given purpose to the trackless and shelter to the lost
  • It has taught patience to the hurried and action to the slothful
  • To the youth it has given Vision
  • To the aged it has given Promise
  • To the hopeless it has given Hope
  • To the restless it has given Rest
  • To the sick it has been a Doctor
  • To the dying, it has given a desire to Live
  • To those who have fallen, it has been a Helping hand
  • To the outcast it has been a Home
  • To the childless it has given Children
  • To the unwise it has given Wisdom
  • To the intolerant it has given Tolerance
  • It has no judgement against the Un-teachable
  • Yet, it has praise for those who Learn
  • For all those who embrace it. It has given to them the most precious gift of all "Sobriety"
  • It also given them another gift "The love for, truth" with more than enough left over to share with each other.

Author Unknown

      Living Sober
by AA Services

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