We are quickly approaching the holidays, which can be an intense time for a person 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 with…

I regularly receive  gratitude lists from my friends in the program.  I, however, rarely write one myself.  Today I am going to make an exception.

I am grateful for being clean and sober (we hear that all the time, but it is the truth)

I am grateful for a kind, loving, tender-hearted son who is the joy of my life.

I am grateful for my family members (the ones who are talking to me), and all my friends for their continued support of letting me be who I am.

I am grateful for this wonderful job that lets me live, work and practice my…

You know those holiday movies about Thanksgiving, the ones with all the drama and in the end everything ties up so nicely?

Sheer fantasy.

A couple of Thanksgiving tales from the archives of my brain.  I’ve changed all the demographics, and the plots, but you’ll get the basic idea.  And you’ll probably say, “I know these guys!”

You do, but you don’t.

Scene One:

The parents have come to the children for Thanksgiving dinner.  Dad has a degenerative disease, one that is slowly killing him.  Mom is the insufferable martyr who handles him alone, wants to put him in a residential setting, but he’s on a waiting…

Sitting here stuffed with stuffing…and turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, gravy and pie, I thought I’d wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving. I hope your day was as uneventful and peaceful as mine. I worked at the hospital for 5.5 hours prior to attending a sober get-together with many friends. The food and the company were exquisite. I had some very interesting and fun patients today, too, so it’s been a good day. (Although I could have used a longer nap!)

Today’s events remind me; I am so grateful for my sobriety and for my sober “family.” I know many people with…

We live in such a diverse society in the USA (and most other Western countries) that we sometimes have difficulties coming to terms with the holiday season.  In my family alone are Evangelical Christians, Catholics, Atheists, Methodists, people who don’t know what they are (and don’t care) — and at least one Buddhist Agnostic.  I can extend that, by listing friends and acquaintances, to Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Secular Humanists, a Quaker, Presbyterians, Unitarians, Episcopalians, and a bunch of recovering alcoholics who are too scared of what God might be thinking and won’t admit to any beliefs at all.

Thank goodness for…