Tuesday, June 30, 2015



June 30 CHP 121 V 1 v 2 TWELVE STEPPING WITH STRENGTH FROM THE PSALMS








I look up to the mountains does my help come from there? My help comes from the Lord , who made heaven and earth ! (GODS BIG BOOK)










Step 3: Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.













What more can be said ! Pray ,believe and trust ! God is for you and He wants whats best for your life . His ways are love , peace , and joy ! Our ways anger , pride , failures , addictions , depression , and pain.










Job 36;11 If they obey and serve him, they will spend the rest of their days in prosperity and their years in contentment. 
(GODS BIG BOOK) By Joseph Dickerson



Walk Masthead

Like us on Facebook                  www.recoverywalks.org                   Follow us on Twitter
Saturday, September 19
PRO-ACT Recovery Walks! 2015
Penn's Landing, Philadelphia
  
Registration begins at 7:00 am
Honor Guard Photo 8:30 am
Walk begins at 9:00 am
Post-Walk Stage Program 10:15 am
Billboard Deadline Extended! 

SPONSORS: There's still time to put YOUR LOGO on the I-95 Recovery Walk billboard promoting the Walk. It will be on I-95 for at least 8 weeks, beginning July 27. To show your support of the largest walk ever assembled in support of recovery, 23,000 strong, please support PRO-ACT Recovery Walks! 2015 with a Presenting ($15,000) or Gold ($10,000) Sponsorship by contacting Marita here right away, or calling her at 215-345-6644The new deadline for us to receive your form and get your logo on the billboard is July 9.
 
YOUR LOGO will be viewed 553,689 times every week
 or 4.5 million times prior to the Walk!

But there are many other levels of sponsorship and promotional opportunities that could benefit your company or organization, while helping to reduce the stigma and grow our recovery communities. Click here to learn about those other levels, that have a deadline of August 6.
 
Team Captains and Walkers
In case you missed our June Team Captain Kick-Off Meetings
we have scheduled two more for July:

Thursday, July 16, 12 noon to 1 pm  OR
Thursday, July 236 - 7 pm
Philadelphia Recovery Training Center
444 North 3rd Street, Suite 307
Philadelphia, PA 19123

To register for either, please contact John Carlson here or call 215-923-1661.
You'll learn how to organize a team, sign your team up online, instill a sense of fun into the process, and collect more donations effectively. You may even want to design and order special t-shirts for your team (we have a contact for that). We will have plenty of tips, handouts and answers to your questions. 

REGISTER free at
www.recoverywalks.org

Register free : Sign up for the Honor Guard : Join or form a team : Donate to support a walker or the Walk : Download a Team Captains Kit
 

Please welcome and support our 
2015 PRESENTING SPONSOR
DBH logo
For a complete list of sponsors who have made Recovery
Walks! 2015 possible, click here.
Join Our Mailing List
 Women for Sobriety, Inc.
Exercise  *  Sunlight  *  Laughter

҉ 

“Today it is clear that major depression and often some lesser kinds are caused by a decrease in neurotransmitters, the brain chemicals that contribute to hope and optimism.  Antidepressants raise levels of serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine, which get depleted by emotional and physical stress.  Whatever treatment for depression you choose, hope amplifies it by fortifying your neurotransmitters.  Hope reprograms your biology and keeps you positive.  By being positive you increase serotonin and reduce stress hormones.  Hope acts as a natural stress reducer, relaxing your gut, blood vessels, and bronchioles.  Plus, science suggests that hope lessens pain by increasing levels of endorphins.

Try these techniques to improve your emotional state and transform depression.

1.  Exercise, don’t ruminate.  Rather than staying home with your head full of negative thoughts, get your body moving.  There’s something magical about just putting one foot in front of the other.  It increases serotonin and energy, enhances self-image, and improves sleep.  Start with gentle walking.  Don’t think you’re going too slowly or doing too little.  Even ten minutes daily gets your body used to the idea that it’s coming alive again.

2.  Get sufficient sunlight.  Don’t hole up in your office or home.  Exposure to sunlight elevates your mood by stimulating your brain to produce serotonin.  If you’re prone to depression, remember to maximize the natural antidepressant effect of sunlight.

3.  Laughter is good medicine.  Laughter is emotional freedom.  It raises your spirits, increases levels of endorphins, relieves pressure, and reverses learned seriousness.  Humor seems to compete with negative thoughts by inserting positive ones.  Try to surround yourself with humorous, upbeat people.  Also, watch hilarious movies, listen to comedy routines, or read books that make you smile.  Laughter will take the bite out of depression.” –Emotional Repair Kit: 50 Tools to Liberate Yourself from Negative Emotions by Judith Orloff, M.D.

***************************************************************
Statement #2, “Negative thoughts destroy only myself.”
My first conscious sober act must be to remove negativity from my life.
***************************************************************

+++++++++++++++++++
Karen’s Perspective +
+++++++++++++++++++
     “Learned seriousness.”  Newly sober, I felt so serious.  I was suddenly becoming aware of my life and my disease and I was reacting to life with such seriousness.  Laughter was nowhere to be found.  I knew I could not “fake” laughter so I decided to relearn how to giggle.
     Depression is one of the hallmarks of women in addiction.  I suffered greatly from it.  Before sobriety and my New Life, I ruminated on the negative.  I sought out dramas and disasters.  I needed to feel alive since I was slowly dying.
     By first acknowledging that I was quite serious, I set out to change that.  I began to watch those television shows where they showed funny videos and gave a large money prize at the end.  I did this daily.  I recorded as many as I could and began to watch.  Some days I could not even muster a smirk, but I kept watching.  I needed to liven up and tickle my funny bone.
     Soon I found myself smiling, then laughing, then rolling on the floor laughing.  OK, I really didn’t roll on the floor but I laughed, a real belly laugh.  Genuine, raw, snorting laughter.  I was kicking my depression to the curb.
     I also got on my treadmill.  I began to walk and listen to music.  I began to feel better, head to toe.  My thoughts were becoming less serious and some days I even felt like dancing!
     Statement #2 helps me to move through my depression, understand it and learn from that pain.  I learned that I have to be ever vigilant with my thoughts, for I almost destroyed myself under the influence.  Whenever I feel a sad darkness beginning to rise, I slow down and examine where I am.  What needs changing?  What do I need to let go of?  What do I need to hold onto? Hugzzz, Karen

  • Where is your level of laughter?
  • Are you stuck in seriousness or do you feel alive again?

+++++++++++++++
+  Dee’s Insights  +
+++++++++++++++
     Hi 4C Women, I, too, felt very serious about my sobriety in the beginning as I was so focused on uncovering why I was drinking to cope.  Fortunately I had been in therapy for a while, so I had an idea of the “why” but not the “how” to cope differently until I found the WFS program.  In therapy, I learned to explore my history and was surprised at what I learned about my coping mechanisms from a very early age.  As I child, I was submissive/obedient to the point that I struggled with finding my own voice for a very long time, even as an adult.  I gave parts of my soul and body in order to be loved and, of course, that didn’t fill the empty space I was trying to fill.  In other words, I became a #1 people pleaser and left myself, my needs, out of the equation entirely.
     Once I learned to love myself, I found my voice.  As I am aging, I find myself expressing even more of what is in my heart.  Add to that, the authentic laughter.  Oh my goodness, it is like a huge weight being lifted off my chest to actually “feel” and express laughter and joy.
     I was watching Brain Games last night and one of the episodes was on positive thinking.  They said that there is a scientific chemical reaction in the brain when listening to certain music and posing/dancing.  I was reminded of the joy I felt at the Yogic (yes, that’s the right spelling) workshop at the WFS Conference when the music started playing and we were dancing with abandonment; and, one of the workshops Nina and I presented a few years ago.  I played a song “Lighten Up” by Karen Drucker because the words were perfect for our topic and, rather than the women listening to the words, there was this spontaneous dancing that took place.  I can still feel the pure joy in that moment.
     My New Life now is filled with both laughter and seriousness in a more balanced way.  Life is filled with challenges and I have had a few this past year; yet, it is empowering to know that I can still feel the joy, the laughter of moments, of being with friends, sharing and being supported through it all.  So when negative thoughts begin to destroy only yourself, what coping tools do you have in place to handle those feelings in order to heal and replace with positive thinking? -Dee
_________________________
Thank you, Karen and Dee, for your words of encouragement and inspiration to start off our week!  ~Becky Fenner, WFS Director
Email:  contact@womenforsobriety.org   *   Tel215-536-8026   *   Fax:  215-538-9026
http://www.womenforsobriety.org   *   http://www.wfscatalog.org
Kimberly Griner Heinz'; words left behind from her beautiful boy.....Please read...please vote!! "From a journal I discovered under my son's bed after he died, it reads in part: "Jan 2, 2014 Well, I guess I caved. I did heroin for the first time in over a year. I don’t know why I chose to. Like always, it’s a warm blanket on a cold night. I actually feel ok right now. Heroin masks all my physical, emotional and psychological pain completely. When it comes to drugs, alcohol, coke, Xanax, they were just affairs, but when I met heroin, it was true love". . . and, "Feb 7, 2014: I was bad again today...I bought a gram of heroin and shot it all. I can barely write, hardly keep my eyes open. I wonder if this is even legible or makes sense. But it makes me feel much better. Looking back, I can’t believe I had the power to quit. There is no better feeling in the world. Ironic that something that feels so amazing ends up destroying lives. It’s the best and worst thing in the world. I told myself I would never do it again, but I guess I had to make an exception today. The only thing that can save me is heroin..." My only child was found dead 5 days later on Feb 12, 2014. He was 26.
If love was enough, all our children would be saved. Addiction is a powerful monster, so difficult to overcome. And so, I keep running...to Stop the Stigma and Start the Support to end the epidemic of addiction. Every vote helps spread addiction awareness and promotes running as a powerful tool for healing, hope and honoring loved ones. Thank you for your votes, shares and support in the Runners' World Cover Search. Please vote once a day, every day, on both FB and Twitter, untilJuly 22 by clicking here: http://coversearch.runnersworld.com/entry/678/
‪#‎RWcoversearch‬ ‪#‎OvercomingByRunning‬
Visit The Addict's Mom at: http://addictsmom.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network

Saturday, June 27, 2015

Naloxone Kits Resulted in Almost 27,000 Drug Overdose Reversals Over 18 Years - Partnership for Drug-Free Kids

Naloxone Kits Resulted in Almost 27,000 Drug Overdose Reversals Over 18 Years - Partnership for Drug-Free Kids

Rural Areas Find Themselves Ill-Prepared to Cope With Injection Drug Abuse - Partnership for Drug-Free Kids

Rural Areas Find Themselves Ill-Prepared to Cope With Injection Drug Abuse - Partnership for Drug-Free Kids

Commentary: Naloxone Access and Good Samaritan Overdose Protection Laws Abound in State Legislatures - Partnership for Drug-Free Kids

Commentary: Naloxone Access and Good Samaritan Overdose Protection Laws Abound in State Legislatures - Partnership for Drug-Free Kids

Experts: Universities Should Use Social Media to Reduce Student Drinking - Partnership for Drug-Free Kids

Experts: Universities Should Use Social Media to Reduce Student Drinking - Partnership for Drug-Free Kids

Best of the week from Choose Help

Too Smart for AA? Don't Overthink It - Make Changes and Have Faith in the Process

Too Smart for AA? Don't Overthink It - Make Changes and Have Faith in the Process
Early recovery is a difficult time. We must keep it simple and have an open mind, if we are to find our way to a better life.
Too smart for AA? Here's why it's important to have an open mind in early recovery. 
There is an expression in AA that we've never met anyone too dumb to get this program but we have met people too smart to get it.
In his book, The Thinking Person's Guide to Sobriety, Bert Pluymen shares the pitfalls of being a very smart alcoholic seeking recovery. As is most often the case with addiction, the truth is counterintuitive:
Being highly intelligent and possessing keen critical thinking skills were a hindrance when it came to getting sober, staying sober, and changing his life.
Despite being a celebrated attorney, the best asset in Pluymen’s early recovery was his sponsor – a janitor with a 4th grade education.
This is one of the most amazing things about AA – it brings together people from every walk of life. 
AA creates a space where we find mentors, supports and friends. Often in the seemingly most unlikely pairings and groupings, folks find their way to a better life.
All it takes to be a member of AA is an earnest desire to stop drinking. All it takes to start making progress is an open mind and willingness to change.

Honesty & Simplicity

If we’re completely honest with ourselves, we find tons of motivation to be open to new ideas. It’s as simple as this: 
My way doesn’t work. My thinking brought me to where I am today. My best ideas didn’t help me avoid the destruction of addiction. My lifestyle, my friends, my family, my choices were not enough to keep me from losing control.
I want my life back. I want to feel like I’m in control. For a long time I tried to get back to where I was before I lost it. Now I see that going back isn’t an option. I get the same result every time. I have to change. I’ve been resistant to change because it scares me.
Woody Allen said, “eighty percent of success is showing up.” If we’re willing to take up a seat and listen, we will hear from people like us who had problems like ours and found solutions. We’ll meet folks who are willing to encourage and support us in one of the hardest things a human being can do – recover from addiction.

Get Your Mind Blown

Hearing what people have to say in a meeting may well leave you skeptical at first, so use the buffet approach – take what you like and leave the rest. You’ll hear some things that are hard to believe. Folks may speak of “having a life second to none.” Or they’ll say, “I wouldn’t trade my worst day sober for my best day drinking.” You’ll wonder how anyone could claim such things, but they’re true.
The most incredible of all is to hear someone describe themselves as a “grateful alcoholic.” You’ll wonder why anyone could possibly be happy about being an alcoholic? The simple truth is that if not for the need for recovery from addiction, our lives would not have changed all that much. Most people do not make huge positive changes in how they live their lives. People in recovery do.

Cunning, Baffling, and Powerful

You will hear people conceptualize their addiction as a part of themselves that is trying to kill them. They will personify it and describe what it tells them. On the surface this may look like a cop-out. It’s not. 
To personify it is to begin creating distance between something that is a part of us and our true selves. This is a big part of how we become free.

Slow Down

You will likely find it discouraging to hear people share how long it took them to get sober, change their lives, and develop the habits and routines that sustain them. Keep in mind that the only finish-line is death. Recovery is not about getting all better. It’s about getting better, twenty four hours at a time.
Everything is a process and it may seem mystifying to hear people talk more about how their Higher Power directed them than what the actual steps were. The good news is that people working on their recovery love to share what they’ve learned and will gladly teach you. All you have to do is muster the courage to ask.

The Promises

One of the most beautiful pieces in all of AA’s literature are the promises of recovery from alcoholism. They may indeed sound extravagant and yet they are attainable to all of us, no matter how far down our disease has taken us. If we are cynical or jaded we will find it difficult to have hope for such things. Yet without hope we are adrift.
It’s normal to doubt. All of us did and many of us still do. Having an open mind means being receptive to learning, growing, and healing. It creates opportunities. If we’rerigorously honest with ourselves we find that we had little or nothing to lose and everything to gain.
You can have what we have and if you’d like to help us, let us help you. The only way we can keep it is to give it away.

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Recent featured articles:

10 Barriers to Addiction Treatment for Older Adults
Avoiding Methadone Overdose During the Dangerous First 2 Weeks
Emotions in Early Recovery: "You Can't Heal What You Can't Feel"
16-Point Safety Checklist before Sending Your Teen to Residential Treatment
Why Interventions Fail: Avoiding Pitfalls
And, as always, thank you for reading!
All the best to you and yours,


Martin Schoel,
founder of Choose Help
P.S. If you’d like to dive into the conversation, make sure to follow us on Twitter or like us on Facebook (40K+ people do).
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How to deal with non-supportive family and Addiction - Experts Discuss

Friday, June 26, 2015

Many Primary Care Doctors Lack Understanding of Opioid Abuse: Survey - Partnership for Drug-Free Kids

Many Primary Care Doctors Lack Understanding of Opioid Abuse: Survey - Partnership for Drug-Free Kids

Substance Abuse Treatment Counselors Say Workplace Violence is Common - Partnership for Drug-Free Kids

Substance Abuse Treatment Counselors Say Workplace Violence is Common - Partnership for Drug-Free Kids

Form of Virtual Reality May be Useful in Treating Alcohol Dependence - Partnership for Drug-Free Kids

Form of Virtual Reality May be Useful in Treating Alcohol Dependence - Partnership for Drug-Free Kids

Form of Virtual Reality May be Useful in Treating Alcohol Dependence - Partnership for Drug-Free Kids

Form of Virtual Reality May be Useful in Treating Alcohol Dependence - Partnership for Drug-Free Kids
Greetings,

Please see the attached ProAct Philadelphia Recovery Community Center (PRCC) Calendar of Events for July. Please do not hesitate to call us if you have any questions or concerns.

Thank you,

Sean E. Brinda, MSW, CCDP Diplomate
Senior Peer Services Coordinator
PRO-ACT/Philadelphia Recovery Community Center
1701 W. Lehigh Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19132

Register for Recovery Walks! 2014 at www.recoverywalks.org

1 (800) 221-6333 Twenty-four Hour Information Line

PRO-ACT… Ambassadors for Recovery!

The information in this email is confidential and may be legally privileged and protected under State and/or Federal Laws. It is intended solely for the addressee. Access to this email by anyone else is unauthorized. If you are not the intended recipient, any disclosure, copying, distribution, or any action taken or omitted to be taken in reliance on it, is prohibited and may be unlawful. If you believe that you have received this email in error, please contact the sender or call 215-345-6644.000

THE HEAT IS ON - GET INVOLVED:

VOLLYBALL JULY 18TH FROM 6-9PM.
YOGA ON WEDNESDAYS @ 7PM.
PLANNING TO SUSTAIN RECOVERY TUESDAYS @ 7PM AND THURSDAYS @ 10AM.
SMART RECOVERY THURSDAYS @ 6PM.

We are in need your help moving forward. So please get involved.

WALK WITH US in the FALL - September 19th @ Penn’s Landing

Description: http://images.acclaimimages.com/_gallery/_TN/0110-0902-1003-4450_TN.jpgTEAM CAPTAIN
Recovery Walk Meeting July 14th 6pm Combined with our Volunteer Monthly Meeting!

Contact Rick for Details on the walk.

Mentoring Matters - see the flyer attached. Mentoring training on the 29th & 30th of June is a great way to start with helping others in Recovery. Working one on one with others. As a mentor here at the council. A mentor for those who have moved forward thru the Family Program. As a Mentor to someone going thru a Medically Assisted Program. As a Mentor helping those in the jail system with the Mentor+ Program. Helping those in need individuals or family members.

Maybe you would like to attend or you know someone who would like to attend. Please come one and all to one of our fun and exciting groups or activities! Hope to see you there!!
Each and every one of us needs to help support our volunteers with attendance at groups and activities. It is with your help spreading the word out in the community these free groups can continue to grow!!
Rick
Rick Petrolawicz, CRS
Volunteer Coordinator
The Council of Southeast Pennsylvania, Inc.
252 West Swamp Road, Unit 12
Doylestown, Pennsylvania 18901
(800) 221-6333 – Drug and Alcohol Information Line 9am-5pm


Prevention, Intervention & Addiction Recovery Solutions

The information in this email is confidential and may be legally privileged and protected under State and/or Federal Laws.  It is intended solely for the addressee.  Access to this email by anyone else is unauthorized.  If you are not the intended recipient, any disclosure, copying, distribution or any action taken or omitted to be taken in reliance on it, is prohibited and may be unlawful.  If you believe that you have received this email in error, please contact the sender or call 215-345-6644, ext. 3151.