From WFS: Conference Update & Call for Presentations

Conference Update Hello Happiness! 2019 Annual Weekend Conference June 7 - 9, 2019 DeSales University Center Valley, PA Plans for the WFS Annual Weekend Conference 2019 are coming along very well and we're excited to share these updates with you. This year's theme, Hello Happiness!, relates to: Level of Recovery 4: Using new attitudes to enforce new behavior patterns. Statement 3: Happiness is a habit I am developing. Statement 6: Life can be ordinary or it can be great. Statement 11: Enthusiasm is my daily exercise. Logo Submissions Needed! We still need a conference logo - an image that conveys the happiness and enthusiasm of New Life recovery that can be used on the outreach and program materials for the 2019 conference. If you are artistically inclined, please consider submitting an image within the following guidelines: Not required to contain the phrase "Hello Happiness!" but may include it if you wish; may use the WFS "W" logo but please do not include words such as recovery or sobriety (for anonymity) Royalty-free, non-copyright images only if necessary 5" x 4", 300 dpi minimum One full-color version and one black & white (not grayscale) please Submit via email to volunteer@womenforsobriety.org by January 31st, 2019. Special Guest - Veronica Valli Veronica Valli has been joyously sober since May 2nd, 2000. Originally from the UK, she is a psychotherapist, Emotional Freedom Technique Practitioner, Recovery Coach, and Author of the books ‘Why you Drink and How to Stop’ and ‘Get Sober Get Free.’ She is also co-host of the Soberful Podcast. Veronica passionately believes that anyone can recover from an alcohol problem if they are given the right tools and support. She has personally helped thousands of women transform their lives. Veronica believes that alcohol is only a symptom of the problem and that to recover, thrive, and become the women we are truly meant to be, we need to embrace a process of change. Now based in the USA, she works with women all over the world through her online programs and Facebook groups. She is married and lives on Long Island with her husband and two sons. Veronica will be sharing her Sober Secret with us in a Keynote address and facilitating a workshop called Sustainable Sobriety. Please join us in welcoming Ms. Valli to the 2019 conference! Call for Presentations We continue to seek engaging, interactive facilitators to lead a variety of breakout sessions and workshops throughout the conference weekend. Base Registration Fee waived for workshop presenters! ($300 value) Need ideas? Visit the updated conference page on our website for a summary of what our participants request, and what they do - and don't! - report liking from past evaluations. Applications due by January 31, 2019! We are also seeking women who want to help with Informal Activities such as craft projects, guided meditations, morning exercise groups, yoga, meet and greets, WFS Online forum labs, evening wind-down activities, and just plain organized fun! We want to fill up Thursday and Friday with fun ice-breaker activities to help new attendees feel welcome and "part of," and also provide wake-up and unwind-from-the-day activities in the mornings and evenings for our early birds and night owls. No need to fill out the full Call for Presentations for these informal activities - just email volunteer@womenforsobriety.org with your idea! Women for Sobriety, Inc.| 215-536-8026 | womenforsobriety.org  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌

Women for Sobriety, Inc. | P.O. Box 618, Quakertown, PA 18951-0618 | About our service provider Sent by contact@womenforsobriety.org

January 16,2019 Through The Twelve Steps With Spiritual truth From Scripture Today Step 1

January 16,2019 Through The Twelve Steps With Spiritual truth From Scripture Today Step 1

STEP 1. We admitted we were powerless over chemical substances—that our lives had become unmanageable .


CHAPTER 31 v 10 v 11
I am dying from grief ; my years are shortened by sadness . Sin (addiction) has drained my strength ; I am wasting away from within. I am scorned by all my enemies and despised by my neighbors even my friends are afraid to come near me.


Scorn is open disrespect for someone or something. It can also be disrespect coupled with feelings of intense dislike.


The Psalm is describing the rock bottom in which I found myself fourteen years ago .The twelve Steps I discovered were going to be the only way I could climb out of this place. Addiction left me with absolutely no strength left to take the first step .Too this day and I cant explain it some super natural unseen power lifted my leg for me and placed it on that step . At the bottom of the steps was nothing but the blackest of darkness. Fear , despair , and grief were hands coming through the steps ,holding me in place or tripping me up causing me to fall to the bottom again ,but every time I fell that super natural unseen power put my leg back on that step again and again and again. At the top of the steps was a door that would get me out of this GOD forsaken place. I could see a light coming through the bottom and I wanted desperately to step in to the light and out of this darkness . Anywhere but here is the voice I heard whispering in my heavy heart . Up the steps I went but , fear , despair , and grief became hands reaching through the steps ,holding me in place or tripping me up causing me to fall to the bottom again ,but every time I fell that super natural unseen power put my leg back on that step again and again and again .Climbing those stairs was the most difficult thing I have ever done in life ! I got to the top and opened the door there was light fresh air and freedom to go anywhere I choose .Freedom for the first time in my life ! Occasionally I pass that basement door and sometimes I hear a whisper that says come inside , but deep down in my heart I know if I open and enter again I might never get out so I say a little prayer and thank God that I am out of the basement.


Isaiah 9:2 The people who walk in darkness Will see a great light; Those who live in a dark land, The light will shine on them. 
By Joseph Dickerson/Recovery Connections Network

Up to $75K in Loan Repayment for SUD Workforce - Apply by Feb. 21!

January 15, 2019 Apply for NHSC's SUD Workforce Loan Repayment Program by February 21st and get up to $75,000! After 11 years of advocating for the Health Resources and Services Administration’s National Health Service Corps (NHSC) to include addiction professionals in its loan repayment program, NAADAC is proud to announce the 2019 Substance Use Disorder Workforce Loan Repayment Program (SUD Workforce LRP). The NHSC seeks addiction professionals who want to serve the nation's underserved rural, urban, and tribal communities.  The SUD Workforce LPR offers eligible clinicians up to $75,000 in student loan repayment in exchange for a three-year commitment to provide SUD treatment services at NHSC-approved sites. Approved sites are located across the U.S., in both urban and rural areas. Visit the Health Workforce Connector to see if your current employer is already approved which then makes you eligible to apply for loan repayment. Application Deadline: February 21, 2019 at 7:30 pm ET Download 2019 Fact Sheet Download 2019 Application & Program Guidance Questions? For the latest information and to sign up for email updates, visit www.nhsc.hrsa.gov NAADAC, The Association for Addiction Professionals 44 Canal Center Plaza, Suite 301, Alexandria, VA 22314 Phone: 703.741.7686 / 800.548.0497 Send to Friend | Update Profile | Subscribe | Unsubscribe

Starbucks installs needle-disposal boxes

January 15, 2019 • Vol. 6., No. 26 For Treatment Industry & Recovery Community Advertise • Fan Mail • Subscribe • Original • Archive  ‌  ‌  ‌ Defense, Defense, Defense VIDEO Judge dismisses lawsuits - Big Pharma NOT GUILTY Jan. 9, 2019 - A Connecticut judge has dismissed lawsuits against Purdue Pharma and other drug makers brought by 37 cities and towns in the state that blame the companies for the opioid crisis and sought to recoup millions of dollars spent responding to the crisis. More@WTNH.com No More Blackouts Josh Brolin's 5 Years of Sobriety  January 9, 2019 - In a free-verse remembrance on Instagram on Tuesday accompanied by a photo of him looking absolutely tanked, the “Sicario” star wrote about the dark side of the “rip roaring time” he thought he had the night before. More@HuffingtonPost.com Dying to Ease the Pain The Disturbing Link Between Opioids and Suicide Jan. 10, 2019 - When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last fall that U.S. life expectancy had suffered the longest running decline since World War I, experts pointed to rising suicide and overdose rates as two of the forces behind that drop deaths. What didn’t make headlines: Some fatal overdoses are also suicides.  More@HuffPost.com Heroin Isn't Chic Drew Barrymore: I’d be ‘dead really soon’ if I tried heroin January 10, 2019 - “I have an extremely addictive personality,” Drew told Glamour UK. “I’ve never done heroin, and I don’t want to get plastic surgery because I feel like they’re both very slippery slopes.” More@PageSixcom This is Your Brain on Drugs AUDIO What makes addiction a disease?AUDIO Jan. 11, 2019 - Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood has been hit hard by the national opioid crisis ... “I’m a freakin’ addict, I got a disease man,” said Salvatore Gonzalez, Jr., who’d been living in a Philadelphia homeless encampment. Calling addiction a brain disease, and not a bad life choice, is still a fairly new concept.  More@WHYY.org A Book Should Be Well Digested A Doctor’s Guide to What to Read on the Opioid Crisis Dec. 17, 2018 - BAD PHARMA: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients, by Dr. Ben Goldacre. Read it and you may never put another pill in your mouth...More@NYTimes.com Thin White Line VIDEO Model reveals she used to subsist on cigarettes, black coffee, cocaine to maintain thin figureVIDEO January 10, 2019 - The social media model from the beach town of Byron Bay in Australia made the surprise admission in a fan question-and-answer session on her social media yesterday when one of her 193,000 Instagram followers asked how she maintained her 120-pound frame, explaining it was down to her lifestyle of “tapas and cocaine.” More@FoxNews.com TRIGGER WARNING: Drug Use VIDEO Inside America’s other opioid epidemic VIDEO December 18, 2018 - Spoon, whose product could be trusted, wasn’t answering his phone. So just after 9 a.m. on a fetid August morning, Sam Rogers had trekked to a corner two miles east of the U.S. Capitol on Pennsylvania Avenue, hoping to find heroin that wouldn’t kill him. More@WashingtonPost.com DEAD SEA SCROLLING Social Media Addiction Needs To Be Taken More Seriously Jan. 11, 2019 - Spending too much time on social media is almost a given in this day and age. But hours of scrolling through Twitter, Instagram, and the like could result in a health issue... More@Bustle.com Who gets that contract? Labor Department Wants to Drug-Test Applicants for Unemployment Benefits January 10, 2019 - What if you lost your job? What if you needed unemployment benefits to sustain you between jobs? But what if you had to take and pass a drug test in order to collect those benefits, even if you lost your job for reasons unrelated to drug use? More@ACLU.org Sexting and Netflix and Beer, Oh My! Constant Cravings: is addiction on the rise? January 10, 2019 - From sex to sugar to social media, people are in the grip of a wider range of compulsive behaviors. But what is driving them – and what can be done? Addiction was once viewed as an unsavory fringe disease ... But now the scope of what humans can be addicted to seems to have snowballed, from sugar to shopping to social media. More@TheGuardian.com Snakes on a Cocaine Samuel L. Jackson Talks About His Drug Addiction Jan. 9, 2019 - Through the ‘80s and ‘90s, Jackson was addicted to crack cocaine, though he somehow managed to keep working and stay useful. While speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, the 70-year-old actor recalls smoking crack while working as an understudy on Broadway in August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson. He was observing Charles Dutton, who played the lead and enraged Jackson with his performances. More@360Aproko.com Money Gets People to Die Ex-Pharma CEO guilty of kickbacks to Fentanyl loving Doctors January 10, 2019 - A former pharmaceutical chief executive pleaded guilty to playing a part in a sophisticated scheme to give kickbacks to doctors who prescribed his company’s fentanyl-based opioid drugs...More@BostonHerald.com Sad But True Drugs have become such a problem in Starbucks bathrooms they are installing needle-disposal boxes Jan. 9, 2019, - Starbucks is installing needle-disposal boxes in some bathrooms, as well as exploring other solutions to workers’ concerns regarding improperly discarded syringes and the related health risks. More@BusinessInsider.com MayB MayBEE Knot ?! Is Marijuana Safe as We Think? January 14, 2019 - A few years ago, the National Academy of Medicine convened a panel of sixteen leading medical experts to analyze the scientific literature on cannabis. It simply stated, over and over again, that a drug North Americans have become enthusiastic about remains a mystery. More@NewYorker.com You mean like Suboxone? VIDEO Is the Kratom Nature’s Answer to Opioids? VIDEO January 10, 2019 - The hype: Kratom, an ancient medicinal leaf from Southeast Asia, is the most recent cure-all to rise from the wellness fringes, particularly among those who frequent head shops for the latest medical breakthroughs.  More@NYTimes.com Treatment works...when you want it to EDITORIAL: How suburban police departments are wising up about drug abuse 01/06/2019 - Many drug abusers never seek help because they simply don’t know where to turn. Or they fear they will be drug-tested and arrested. Or they don’t know how they would pay for rehab. More@Chicago.SunTimes.com  Nowhere Near Beer VIDEO Amid rising sobriety trend, Heineken brings alcohol-free version to U.S. VIDEO January 9, 2019 - “We see large numbers of younger consumers not drinking alcohol at all and a continuing trend towards wellness and moderation and balance in your lifestyle,” says Jonnie Cahill, CMO at Heineken USA. The sobriety trend is not a good thing for beer marketers, as sales are already slumping. More@AdAgeIndia.in More than the 12 steps A Space for Advanced Thinkers and Influencers - Podcast  Jan. 7, 2019 - World renowned pioneer in trauma and addiction therapy Judy Crane talks about her personal and professional journey and the “Eureka Moment” the industry is currently experiencing in the recognition of trauma therapy as a critical part of primary addiction treatment as well as sustainable long term recovery... More@ICAAD.com Depends on the property Do drug treatment facilities really lower property values?  Jan. 11, 2019 - As the opioid crisis rages on, those affected struggle to find treatment. One potential reason? People don’t want rehab centers in their backyards. More@MarketWatch.com Playing with Fire New study finds social media  junkies make riskier decisions January 10, 2019 - A new study on social media use coming out today found that people who spent excessive time on Facebook also made riskier decisions — performing as poorly in a famous psychological test as people dependent on substances such as cocaine or heroin. More@WashingtonPost.com “Most alcoholics and drug addicts usually end up in prison, crippled or dead.”—Hunter S. Thompson Keep Coming Back VIDEO Celebrity Rehab alumni Tom Sizemore ‘arrested after police find meth/heroin in car VIDEO Jan. 12, 2019 - Troubled Sizemore, 57, was said to have been pulled over by cops in California over a missing front license plate and expired registration tags. Police in Burbank then allegedly found the drugs, thought to be meth and heroin, in the vehicle. Sizemore has faced a very public battle with drug addiction and run-ins with the police. More@DailyMail.co.uk Passing More Than Their Urine tests Recovery School offers students a path to sobriety January 12, 2019 - Eden Karlen didn’t think she had a substance abuse problem. She watched her dad smoke marijuana and methamphetamine and tried both out of curiosity. Substance abuse programs didn’t end her use. She recently emerged from her fourth round of substance abuse treatment far behind where she needed to be to graduate high school on time.  More@PostBulletin.com  One Jigger, One Jail Cell Criminalizing 1st-time DUIs is a tough sell Jan. 13, 2019 - On paper it might look like a can’t-miss bipartisan initiative, but it’s not that easy in a state where beer is so much a part of the culture that the major league baseball team is called the Brewers. More@ABCNews.com  Songs in the Key of AA 7 Hot Musicians Share Their Stories Of Sobriety JANUARY 11, 2019 - These stories are unique to each individual—everyone’s sober journey is their own. It’s not an objective, black-and-white concept; it can mean different things to different people. You’ll find that it varies among the sober folks below. More@Nylon.com  A Haircut Can Change Everything VIDEO More@YouTube.com

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