The blogger, Steve E., Another Sober Alcoholic, wrote a great post yesterday about the act of humility involved in asking for help, specifically when seeking a sponsor.

Now, yours truly doesn’t have a sponsor, doesn’t go to the 12 step meetings. However, I employ many similar principles in my recovery. When using, I certainly wasn’t listening to anyone else, heck, I couldn’t even listen to my own “higher voice,” shrieking insistently, at times, that I was sick. How could I listen to you? Getting sober brought up a lot of embarrassment, because you know, under that tough, arrogant shell, I was…

Was there truly a meth epidemic? Was government intervention responsible for the alleged epidemic? Did their subsequent actions then fail to control it? How much of that was intentional? Should consumers pay the cost for an alleged epidemic? At what level should ingredients for meth be regulated?

The purported Meth Epidemic is another indication that policy and attitudes towards drug use are ineffective and merely promote the agenda of law enforcement, policy makers, legislators, lobbyists, politicians, and pharmaceutical companies. Such attitudes perpetuate the disastrous War on Drugs, waste federal funding, prompt uniformed public hysteria, and whittle away civil liberties. It is…

His name was H. Carlton Bryan, III.
He was an alcoholic.
He is survived by a sister and a daughter.
At many points he was offered help to quit drinking.
Fear always triumphed.
With each decision his addiction made for him, the further he moved away from cultivating anything positive or successful. In a series of steps that seemingly happened slowly, he made it harder to ever turn back around.
Refrain only offered clarity, which was only a pain best numbed by the bottle.
Alcoholism was the result of every monumental problem in his life. He lost his wife, his child, his job, his health, his teeth,…

“We admitted we were powerless over drugs/alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.”

Seem familiar? Seem intriguing?
Seems like we all have something to say about this, after all, it is the First Step we make in our recovery.

Join us tonight, at 8pm EST, for a discussion of the First Step.

Awareness. Acceptance. Action. The triple A’s.
AAA on The Second Road. 24/7.
But on Sundays, we have a driver– a host.

This week Chris Mecham will be our host. He was one of the first bloggers here at TSR. He also chronicles his recovery journey at http://thelastchancetexaco.com/

Chris brings a lot of smiles into my life, and…

Did you know that acetaminophen is used in an effort to control the brown snake population in Guam? All it takes is one mouse stuffed with 80mg of acetaminophen; a pretty desirable remedy in Guam where they spend upwards of 1 million to control the invasive species.

Me either.

Not until I wound up in a hospital in Jackson, MS, caring for my father–who will soon meet his demise from acute liver failure. The source? Tylenol.

Don’t worry, that’s about as personal as this blog gets.
Now, to kill a human it takes a little bit more than 80g. In my father’s case, he was…

My Aunt went on a safari in Africa, one of her annual luxury vacations. Her photos capture the journey of 12 great friends, exploring exotic lands far, far away from Alabama. Apparently, when my Aunt was there, she thought of me.

Selfishly, I recall the date because she went to Africa just as I was graduating college.

In the flashback, that would posit me right smack dab in the middle of hell. Sobriety seemed an evil person that kept stopping by, determined to create a lot of pain. I felt very triumphant when I graduated, especially since I was in the midst…

The chat gets started at 8pm EST.  Join us for some fellowship!

Our host tonight is Kristin H. Let’s see…what do you want to know about her?

Well, she has more than 8 years sober. She loves Triscuits and just recently saw AC/DC live in concert. And while she may have eight successful years overcoming drugs. alcohol, and tobacco–she professes that her addiction for paper towels still rages strong.

Kristin is a great, wise woman with almost a decade of sobriety.  You’re gonna have to tune in at 8pm EST tonight to find out more!

I, for one, can’t wait. With half a foot…

Author Benoit Denizet-Lewis, who just started on his book tour, is doing his best to bring public awareness to addiction and recovery. Our country is in desperate need of expanding the conversation.  In fact, I can see change is slooooowly beginning to happen. It will be nice when we longer feel alienated or sequestered to basements to talk about our recovery, eh?

Columnist Rick Holmes is also doing his part by writing a concise piece about addiction in our country.

His conclusions are absolutely correct. Here’s one:

But we don’t talk much about addiction, and we don’t talk about it with intelligence or…

I  just caught wind of a really cool website called Change.gov.

The Ideas for Change in America competition was created in response to Barack Obama’s call for increased citizen involvement in government.  The top 10 rated ideas from the final round will be presented to the Obama administration on January 16th at an event at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.

I cast my 10 votes; I invited 900+ of my contacts–at the expense of bothering more than 2/3 of them. Oh Well.

What bothers me is that Legalizing Marijuana is in first place. That idea is up against 90 rather impressive ideas…

Sunday night Lou hosted a fantastic chat. (Thanks Lou!)

She asked if we thought there could be multiple rock bottoms.
Off the cuff, I said yes, but my stomach turned. There was something deeper happening below the surface.
After the official chat was over, some of us stuck around to talk.
Bottoms were on my mind.  I was provoked to reveal the sordid details of my bottom story and then the following conversation ensued:

(01/11 08:03 PM) laura: see, that’s what i mean… bottom is where it occurs to you that what you are doing is something that needs to change

(01/11 08:04 PM) laura:…

Happy New Year to everyone!

The Sober Chat Series on Sundays (say that quickly three times, please) will start back up this tonight.
Lou will be our host this week. She is one of several new bloggers to begin contributing to TSR.  You can catch up on her TSR archives: http://www.thesecondroad.org/tsr/author/lou/
Please, join your recovery community this Sunday at 7:00pm EST.

Loy will be holding space for a Q&A, to share with others who also have a family member or loved one facing an addiction.

In early 2008 she began to share her story about living life as the mother of an son with addiction.
She…

When I was young, I had a strong vision of moving to Maine. I would live alone in a cabin, chop wood, stoke the fire, cook on the woodstove and write a novel. There was nothing which provoked this vision–not that I recall at least. Except that I wanted to be a writer. And there was a knowing in my heart that Maine would change me.

Maybe it was because Maine was so far away from my home in Virginia. Maybe because I knew no one from Maine and pictured it as a last frontier, like Alaska; everywhere else was the…

So what exactly does Santa prefer? Milk or beer?
There is one list that needs to be checked twice; the beer industry’s advertising and marketing code, which explicitly forbids the use of Santa Claus in beer marketing materials.

MillerCoors are the sponsors of a fundraiser for childrens leukemia called, “The Running of the Santas.” The fundraiser dates back to at least 2005. The videos on youtube show how this event, despite it’s charitable intent, actually promotes binge drinking. The event takes place in two pubs and involves people dressed in Santa suits running down the street from one, to the other.

This year however, there…

If you answered, “giving Mexico 200 million to fight drug trafficking,” you get 400 points!

For the article, go HERE.

For the daily double:
Spending much needed money on long term treatment. Better prevention education. Helping starving people on the street.

The correct answer:
Ways Congress could have better spent the money!

The “drug reporter” over at AlterNet covers two new studies which show red wine and marijuana will help ward off aging and Alzheimers.

That is, if addiction, heavy metals, lung cancer, or drunk driving don’t get you first.

The comments are also worth a read.

Read more at their website:  http://www.alternet.org/drugreporter/110806/

Mama MPJ began blogging with us in July and we are so excited that she will host this coming Sunday’s Sober Chat, at 6:30pm EST.

She blogs furiously and with wonderful insight. She inspires hundreds of people and rumor has it she might be a superhero. (ok I started that one)

Hers is the story of a woman married to a sex addict before and after his confession to the addiction. With clarity, honesty and wit she scribes about life as the mother of two and the path of recovery both her and her husband have taken. Her blogs are testimony to…

I love that I still have dependencies. I love that they lurk under the surface and that I go about my hours in a day slave to them. I love most that I’m willing to identify and work on them. How beautiful to stop and contemplate; “what is the source of this desire, what can I do to substitute it, or, is this too extreme?”

Well, with the end of Day 2 of the Food Stamp challenge approaching– I only have 5 more days left drinking horrible coffee. Isn’t that selfish? I’m doing this to understand the predicament millions of Americans…

Now that all the yummy leftovers from Thanksgiving have been nibbled away, we’ve chosen to go a different direction. From abundance to scarcity, in hopes we can bring awareness to hunger and poverty in our country.

I’ll be honest here, I had never heard of the Food Stamp Challenge until D was given the option to do it for a school project. But I am thrilled we are doing it and am recording the 7 days on my website.

Right now the challenge doesn’t feel to intimidating. However, I don’t know if my cheap coffee supply will last the full run,…

The word addiction is hard to define. It is often used in casual situations, “I’m so addicted to chocolate,” or “I’m so hooked on that soap opera.”
As stated in the book I’m currently reading;

“the DSM_IV defines substance dependence as a pattern of continued use of any substance despite the fact that it has become harmful to the person using it. This means that even though a “drug” causes problems in a person’s health, daily function, or other important aspects of life, the addict is unable to stop using it.”

As in, there is no more control.

So, when a person loses sight…

Often, the “truths” and “norms” which pervade our world are developed from subjective points of view. There are subjective, objective and absolute truths. Like the map of our world. Have you ever seen the world flipped South-Up?  Click on the image for a better view.

Not only are many “truths” subjective, the subjectivity is often the perspective of a dominant class.

The notion that North should always be up and East at the right was established by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy. This could be his subjective truth because the better-known places in his world were in the Northern hemisphere. Also, on a…

I spent some time going over this website today. Although I read it everyday, there is also a lot going on behind the scenes. I found some neat things to share with you.
Like the members page.
We had a bunch of new folks come around recently; so HI and WELCOME!

I love to look through the quotes that people put on their pages.
One that resonated with me:

“Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if…

We are quickly approaching the holidays, which can be an intense time for those of us in recovery.  From Thanksgiving to New Years, the holidays are loaded with triggers.  Living sober day to day presents ample challenges as is, but the holidays also re-introduce memories, family situations, extra demands and difficult situations.

Instead of the season becoming a reason to relapse, try to relate the significance of each holiday to your recovery while taking the necessary precautions to retain your sobriety.

Think about some of the steps listed below, utilize the ones you need as tools, and please, share your own suggestions…

Day One
Monday night I told my partner, “I want to quit smoking.”
This is very different than agreeing with family members, “sure I need to quit smoking.”  They always start THAT conversation.

I woke up and took the dog for a really long walk, about 2 miles. I made a point to breathe deeply, to take in my surroundings.
Maine is damp right now. Really damp. A few leaves cling reluctantly to the trees, the majority are already decomposing in wet piles. It was neat to walk fast and breathe deep; to avoid my usual cig routine.

Back home I popped open the Smokers…

Paul Krugman posts a picture announcing that “The Civil War is over.” Well, yes, it is, but blatant racism still exists in our country, despite our new Presidential flavor.

Meanwhile, Makani Themba-Nixon offers a better illustration:

“If anyone doubts that racism is alive and well in American politics, the fact that more than 55 million people voted for McCain in spite of his negative, racist and politically vacuous campaign; his lack of charisma and terrible media performance; his scary choice of running mate and inconsistent positions on virtually every issue of importance; and in spite of his obvious ineptitude for the bread and butter…

The Salon Chat Series officially kicked off this past Sunday, with an hour and half discussion hosted by The Junky’s Wife. We thought Sunday’s would be a great night to spend some time with others in recovery. Heck, most nights are, right? But on Sunday’s you have a chance to get to know your favorite bloggers a little better and ask them most any burning question you have deep inside.

So, this coming Sunday, at 8:30 pm EST,  Chris Mecham, from the Last Chance Texaco will be our guest of honor.

He is a recovering methamphetamine addict and alcoholic in Boise, Idaho.…

Yesterday I spent eight hours at the local polls, volunteering for Equality Maine. We all know that November 4, 2008 was a historic day. Hopefully, at the very least, people realized that their vote does count.
Certain red states turned blue. My home state of Virginia turned blue for the first time in 44 years. Ironically, Obama will be the 44th President. It could not have happened without the turnout from those who generally think the system is futile.

Whether or not you are a hockey mom, a junkie, or a sushi devotee–your vote counted. It turned many red states blue. It…

The BBC reports that retired drug dogs have found work in the private sector–sniffing out teenagers bedrooms.

The company, appropriately called Sniff Dogs, operates in New Jersey and Ohio, and was founded by a mother with a guilty son.

For $200 a parent can rent the dog and handler. That amount of time should allow the room to be fully searched.

These animals have been trained to detect illegal drugs and have such a keen sense that they can smell marijuana up to 15 ft. away, as well as two day old smoke residue.

It is nice to see a business that helps parents…

I’m always suprised by the variety of people who comment about one of my tattoos. What first catches me off guard is the sudden hand coming at my sleeve to peek higher. Aren’t we Americans usually so tentative with our space?

People with no tats, people with tats, gray hair, Dolce & Gabana sunglasses, my mother, John Deere shirts, polo shirts, ironed pants–basically, across the board of stereotypes. All across the country they’ve peeked.

It was pretty significant, this one tat, even more so than the rest which decorate my body. I’m not sure what initially attracts people; the part most visible…

Today is yet another departure. I’m getting confused about what I’m leaving and what it is to which I arrive, if that makes sense. I suppose I wish it could all be in the same place, same time.

This two weeks with my family makes me wish they weren’t so distant–not just in geography either. For the first time in my 34 years, I question my mother’s decision to move me away from the family at age four. For the first time, I’m dealing with things beyond the immediate–beyond simply staying sober. I’m delving into a family history that brings up…

Turf. Uttered with the slow, Southern drawl; turf.
I had such a physical reaction when the nurse spoke the word. It came up in regards to chaplains and pastors. I’ve been here in the South since the 9th. Since then my father has been discharged and transported, in an ambulance, from Jackson, MS to Birmingham, AL. He is now in hospice care, where the emphasis is on comfort, not care. It is where you go to die, but you get a lot of painkillers until that happens.

“Turf of the heart,” she concludes. Meaning the hospice chaplain and my Aunt’s pastor can…