What Winners Do – An Addiction Recovery Blog Stories, Struggles And Success of A Recovering Addict Trying to Do What Winners Do

I’ve Been Tagged For A Recovery Meme

I was tagged by Discovering Recovering to participate in a recovery meme and I couldn't be more pleased about it. I think it fits in really great with the fast approaching Thanksgiving.

The rules are simple:

• Link to the person's blog who tagged you
• Post these rules on your blog
• List seven things you're grateful to have learned in recovery
• Tag seven people at the end of your post and include links to their blog
• Let each person know that they have been tagged by posting a comment on their blog

So here we go...Seven things I'm grateful to have learned in recovery:

My New Addiction: Yahoo Answers

Well it's official, I now have a new addiction...Yahoo Answers. Have you guys checked this out yet? I spend about an hour each day answering mental health questions for strangers. What am I doing?

Addiction Recovery: The Relationship Aftermath

I had written a post about dealing with the consequences of addiction and it occurred to me that I never wrote about what consequences addiction recovery has on relationships. We know first hand what consequences substance abuse has on our relationships but what about addiction recovery?

Goodbye George Carlin… You Will Be Missed

My absolute favorite comedian, George Carlin, passed away yesterday at the age of 71. I just wanted to acknowledge his passing and say that he will be missed.

George was a brilliant comedian with a passion for language that shined through in his act. For those that didn't pay close attention to him, they may have thought of him as just a filthy minded comedian who used vulgar language for shock value. They would be wrong.

George Carlin had such an honest view of human beings (including himself) that everything he said resonated with his viewers. He knew exactly how to use human language to convey his ideas to us perfectly.

To quote the great George Carlin from his 1984 Carlin on Campus HBO special:

"Rat shit

Bat shit

Dirty old twat

69 assholes tied in a knot

Hoooooray

Lizard shit

Fuck!"

It seems that George Carlin was battling with recovery for most of his adult life. You would hear the announcement here and there that he had entered into rehab for this or for that. The most recent being a prescription pill addiction.

I guess that's just another reason why I felt so connected to this guy. He knew real life and wasn't afraid to talk about it openly, honestly, and in a funny way.

I really am saddened by his passing.

Happy Memorial Day… And Thank You

I think that sometimes we lose sight of what this holiday is really about. I just wanted to take a moment to thank all those that have served in our military.

Thank you

Addiction Recovery: Return Of The Living Dead

Last year at this time I was in a full on Oxycontin addiction. I had quit my job. My husband, son and I had to move into an apartment in my parents house because our house was foreclosed on and...I was beginning to hate myself.

That is why it is so amazing to me where I am at right now in terms of my addiction recovery. I appropriately titled this post return of the living dead because last year at this time I was a zombie. I was just going through the motions of life. The only "happiness" I thought I was experiences were related to my drug intake. I was only a shell of the real me, I was the living dead.

Overwhelmed? Naaa… Ok Maybe A Little

Overwhelmed? How does one get overwhelmed when they are living life Twenty-four hours at a time? Oh right... I haven't been too good at that lately.

What I have been good at is dreading what I'm going to have to go through in the very near future. This is pretty asinine when you think about it because all of this dread is over what I think my near future is going to be like. I have no idea for sure what these next few weeks or month will bring and yet here I am letting myself dwell on "what ifs".

I guess I gotta get back to basics right? I have spent a lot of time learning to hang in there and I need to start applying what I have learned to my current situation. As in right now, right this moment.

So, no more dreading tomorrow. I need to stay in the day, or the moment really. I need to remember the quote that used to get me by:

“Today, well lived, makes every yesterday a dream of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope”.

Yeah, that sounds about right.

Recovery Solutions Magazine’s Top 22 “Cool” Ways for Teens to Say No

I just read a snipit of Recovery Solutions Magazine's article on the top 22 "cool" ways for teens to say no. While I applaud what they are trying to do...it just doesn't seem to fit.

I know for myself that when I started drinking and taking drugs at an early age, it wasn't because I just didn't know how to say no. It was mainly because even at that young age, I was searching for a way to change how I was feeling. You could have given me a list of 1000 "cool" ways to say no...my answer would always have been yes.

Things You Didn’t Do Because You Got High

If you sit and think of all the things that you were going to do but didn't do because you got high/drunk...you would probably make yourself sick. It's safe to say that when we were actively addicted there were plenty of responsibilities that we talked ourselves right out of for one reason...because we got high.

Luckily we don't have to list all of our shirked responsibilities, I found a video from back in the day that will do it for us.