Came to believe that a power could restore me to sanity.
I wanted to know did the program work, after sixteen years am I restored to sanity? Was I insane when I arrived? When was I restored?
I had to do a lot of research to find out some answers to my questions. What I found is that first of all sanity is not a medical term, it is actually a legal term. “Insanity is considered poor health of the mind, not necessarily the brain as an organ (although that can effect mental health), but rather refers to mental defect, disease, or disorder of mental function processes such as reasoning.
What is Reasoning? Reasoning is the mental process of drawing conclusions from observation, facts, or hypotheses. (the evidence) Thus insanity refers to a defect in our ability to draw conclusions from facts.
The 7 characteristics of insanity are:
1-Social Withdrawal
2-Deterioration of Personal Care
3-Inability to perceive oneself as separate entity
4-Rapid shifting of thought and topic
5-Autistic Absorption
6-Hallucinatory symptom, delusions
7-Depersonalization
Yes indeed when I arrived to AA as a raging alcoholic, full of anger and fear, and not knowing how I would be able to go even a day without drinking, I was indeed legally insane. Number 6 was the only one that I would of not qualified for. I was not hallucinating although I was definitely delusional.
Today, I no longer would qualify for any of the above, although I still am working on socialization, I am doing much better than I was when I arrived:-) Today, I am legally sane, and therefore responsible for all my actions. Today with the help of the people around the tables, and by working the twelve steps of the AA program, I am sober and the program works!!
When I wear my recovery coach hat, I hold a safe space that invites you to get out of your head, get out of your thinking mind, and move into your soul. “The mind likes to lie and make up stories whereas the soul is honest”, the soul is all knowing and that innocent place where freedom from judgment and trust exists, where all things are possible! The mind is cluttered with fear and distrust. When we live and make choices with the mind, we move through our lives scared, and nervous and worried about this and that. It takes a lot of energy and there is not a lot of joy in living from the mind alone. When we move through life from our spirit, we move with joy, and peace and calmness, and it takes a whole lot less energy to accomplish things.
My role as an addiction recovery coach is to help you connect to your own spirit, your soul and to engage in your life from a place of joy! My job is to help you become aware of the difference between your mind’s chatter and your soul’s message; so that you can move through your own life with more joy and happiness, towards your passion and true expression.
There is definitely a spiritual flavour to my coaching.
Sarah emailed me the other day asking me when would be an ideal time to hire a recovery life coach. First of all I have to say that there are many times when a life coach can help you out during your years in recovery. Ideally, I most enjoy working with clients who are recently transitioning from treatment to home. This gives you the time you need for you to focus on your treatment. While in treatment you have a whole host of issues and concerns that come up, you are beginning to understand your individual addiction, the way you act out with it, and the way in which it has affected not only you but the people around you. Treatment looks back at whats been going on for you.
While life coaching starts here in the present and looks forward with you, asking you to begin to look at life through bigger eyes! Life coaching steps in to work with you on how to see situations in your life as opportunities and with many many possibilities then you have ever thought about. What are your dreams and goals and what were the obstacles that kept you from obtaining those things, and how do we remove those obstacles and support you in reaching and experiencing your dreams?
While life coaching is ideal for the person who is in their first year of recovery, it also serves those who have been in recovery for many years. Face it, at some point in recovery, life can become overwhelming, things that perhaps were not completely dealt with as they came up, have an odd way of compiling and creating a sense of crisis for even those who have years and years in recovery. We all have heard the stories of those who relapsed at fifteen, seventeen, and twenty one years sober! It happens and it happens more than we would like to admit!
I often work with people who have been in the AA program for years, and find themselves lost and not knowing what to do about it. It is a perfect time to seek outside support, and a recovery life coach who has been in the program is someone who can help you in ways where others can not. A life coach can add some energy and juice into a flat recovery life. Working with a coach will enable you to find new ways of seeing yourself and your life, by challenging you to take bigger steps, to step out of your comfort zone while still supporting your recovery! A recovery coach can breath new air into an old worn out program…and offer it the excitement of being renewed and help you to stretch and grow in your life!
It is believed that a recovery life coach is the ingredient which propels a person in recovery to live a life that still holds excitement and enough drama to keep them engaged and thriving in their recovery! So, if your recovery life seems to lack luster and begins to feel boring and is not satisfying your spirit, perhaps it is time for you to seek outside support and work with a recovery life coach!
Alcohol is one of the most dangerous drugs around, not only because of its availability and acceptance, but also because of its damaging effects and dangerous detox. Many alcoholics who have tried to stop drinking on their own have reported very uncomfortable symptoms, and sometimes these symptoms have proved to be fatal. Alcohol detox symptoms are dependent on the severity of the alcoholism and length of time abuse has be going on. During alcohol detoxification, the patient is medically monitored during the removal of the alcohol from the system. During this removal, alcoholics may experience mild to sever symptoms such as sweating, headaches, delirium tremors (DT’s) leading to seizures, anxiety, increased heart rate, insomnia, agitation and sometimes death. The process of detox can be very complicated, again depending on the severity of the addiction. Many times, medical staff will utilize medications to ease some of these symptoms. Often, drugs in the class of benzodiazepines, such as Clonazepam and Diazepam are anticonvulsants used to assist with anxiety and calm the muscles. These benzodiazepines are low level tranquilizers, and during the detoxification process, they play a beneficial role in relaxing the alcoholic and decreasing many of the physical symptoms of the withdrawal process.
With the use of mainly these two drugs, medical staff finds more success in making alcohol detox more comfortable and safe for the patient undergoing this process. Despite all the medical care one is able to receive during the detoxification process, alcohol detox always runs risks and for very severe cases of alcoholism where the patient has experienced cirrhosis of the liver or other organic diseases caused by drinking, the detox process can last several weeks to months for medical care. Most cases of alcohol detoxification, however, take anywhere from 3 to 10 days.
