There are lots of articles being published this month about recovery. It is, after all, National Recovery Month. I am pleased to note that this is called National Recovery Month and not something like National Addiction Awareness Month- which focuses on the illness, not on the healing. And so to my topic. Do we

  “That’s good. That’s Bad.” I recalled this tag line from one of my favorite children’s’ books by that title, as I watched nature unfold while on safari in Africa. A lion was in hot pursuit of an antelope. “Oh, that’s Bad.” The antelope, away from the protection of its herd, leaped into the water

    I remember the absurdity I felt as I considered quitting drinking at eighteen. I can’t stop drinking! I’m not even legal drinking age yet. I’m in my Glory Days. I’ll wait ‘till I’m nineteen, or a little later. Maybe I won’t have to if I do enough counselling, I thought. 6 months after

    For sex, porn, and love addicts, digital devices can be dangerous, providing instant and seemingly endless access to porn, hookup apps, social media flirtations, webcam encounters, prostitutes, virtual reality sex games, and more. For this reason, any person hoping to recover from sex, porn, and/or love addiction absolutely must install a “parental control”

Step Seven: Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings. In steps four, five, and six we identified our characters defects and became willing to live without them. Step seven is the logical continuation of that effort, where we begin the process of actually ridding ourselves of these shortcomings. If you believe in a Higher Power,

    I spoke with my longtime colleague and writing mentor Anna David on The Cafes latest podcast. We met back in the day, when she first created AfterParty Magazine and I was but a fledgling. She gave me my first shot at a writing career. She is a New York Times bestselling author of

  For several years I had been addressing my fear with reasons why I shouldn’t feel that way. I had been looking for the underlying “reason” (read excuses, or judgement, or rationalizations), and then addressing each of these by talking myself out of them. Find a fear and smash it had been my approach. I

Many recovering addicts become so focused on the work of recovery that they forget to have fun. Usually this is because their only real goal early in the process is staying sober. While this is an admirable objective, it doesn’t exactly provide them with direction and meaning. Because of this, when the shiny new adventure

  It’s interesting to stand aside and just observe my emotions. I lost my mother in 2006. For many years I’d hear a song, see a play, or think of something I knew my mother would like and I couldn’t control the emotions that took over. I’d easily tear up and feel my body transported

  Does anyone remember the Scorsese film “After Hours”? At the start of the film Griffin Dunne watches his last $20 bill float out a cab window and it is a catalyst for a night of chaos in downtown 1980s New York City. Every scene builds with chaos and insanity and a colorful cast of