Family Recovery

There’s a brighter road ahead than you can possibly imagine and you have everything you need to reach it. Ready to unlock the door? It’s estimated that almost 2% of the population has borderline personality disorder, so you’re certainly not alone, but it probably doesn’t feel that way, does it? Still, no challenge is insurmountable, not even the challenge of overcoming BPD. There’s hope on the other side of this, and there are realistic approaches you can take to transform your experience of daily life.

Grief and loss affect almost every aspect of living—or having lived—with alcoholism. Members share how they have learned to acknowledge and accept these losses with the help of Al-Anon Family Groups. The stories shared here reflect the experience, strength, and hope of hundreds of members.

On the surface, Cameron Douglas had everything: descended from Hollywood royalty (son of Michael Douglas, grandson of Kirk Douglas), he was born into a life of wealth, privilege, and comfort. But by the age of thirty, he had become a drug addict, a thief, and—after a DEA drug bust—a convicted drug dealer sentenced to five years in prison, with another five years added while he was incarcerated.

3:47 a.m. That's when they come for Wren Clemmens. She's hustled out of her house and into a waiting car, then a plane, and then taken on a forced march into the desert. This is what happens to kids who've gone so far off the rails, their parents don't know what to do with them anymore. This is wilderness therapy camp. Eight weeks of survivalist camping in the desert. Eight weeks to turn your life around. Yeah, right.

Are you still carrying the weight of an emotionally abusive relationship long after it’s ended? Struggling to break free from the heavy chains of a trauma bond that keeps pulling you back? Jennifer Alushan, an experienced educator with several degrees in education and specialized training in trauma processing, guides you on this journey of recovery and self-empowerment.

The true story of a wife and mother's descent into alcohol addiction. A harrowing and sometimes heartbreaking chronicle of habitual blackouts and unremembered nights, and her triumphant emergence into the light of recovery.

Following deaths, divorces, or the confusion of major relocation, many adults tell their children “don’t feel bad”. In fact, say the authors of the highly praised The Grief Recovery Handbook, feeling bad or sad is precisely the appropriate emotion attached to sad events. Encouraging a child to bypass grief without completion can cause unseen long-term damage.

Don't Let Your Kids Kill You is a landmark work that dares to focus on the plight of the confused, distressed parent and not the erring child. It sets aside any preconceived ideas that parents are to blame for what is essentially a full-blown global crisis. Drawing on interviews with parents who have survived the heartbreak of kids on drugs, combined with his own experience, Charles Rubin provides practical advice on how parents can help themselves and their families by first attending to their own needs.

A House on Stilts tells the story of one woman’s struggle to reclaim wholeness while mothering a son addicted to opioids. Paula Becker’s son, Hunter, was raised in a safe, nurturing home by his writer/historian mom and his physician father. He was a bright, curious child. And yet, addiction found him. More than 2.5 million Americans are addicted to opioids, some half million of these to heroin. For many of them, their drug addiction leads to lives of demoralization, homelessness, and constant peril. For parents, a child’s addiction upends family life.

We've been told that staying with a partner who struggles with addiction—whether it be with drugs, alcohol, or addictive behaviors—means that we're enabling their destructive behavior. That wanting to help them means we're codependent, and that the best thing for both of us is to walk away from the relationship entirely. But is that true?

When Jason Coombs' mother discovered her son was addicted to drugs and alcohol, she searched everywhere for resources and guidance that would grant her a spark of hope. She researched websites on the topic only to find a mixed bag of mediocre suggestions and an array of conflicting opinions. She was desperate for tools that could drive measurable results. Unhooked is the book, written by her recovered son, now leading his own treatment center, she wishes would have been available back then.

Plagued by the suicides of both his siblings, heir to alcohol and drug abuse, divorce and economic ruin, James Brown lived a life clouded by addiction, broken promises and despair. In The Los Angeles Diaries, he reveals his struggle for survival, mining his past to present the inspiring story of his redemption. Beautifully written and limned with dark humor, these 12 deeply confessional, interconnected chapters address personal failure, heartbreak, the trials of writing for Hollywood, and the life-shattering events that finally convinced Brown that he must "change or die".

In an all too familiar scenario, played out in millions of homes every day, children who grow up in addictive families abide by certain rules: don't talk, don't trust, don't feel. The rigid survival roles and youthful coping behaviors they take on, such as the responsible child, the adjuster, the placater, and the acting-out child can eventually contribute to problems of depression, loneliness, and addiction in adulthood.

Josh Hamilton was the first player chosen in the first round of the 1999 baseball draft. He was destined to be one of those rare "high-character" superstars. But in 2001, working his way from the minors to the majors, all of the plans for Josh went off the rails in a moment of weakness. What followed was a four-year nightmare of drugs and alcohol, estrangement from friends and family, and his eventual suspension from baseball.

Most of us are only starting to become aware of how our foundational years contribute to who we are today. Our childhood environment shapes the foundation for our sense of self, how we feel about the world, and how we relate to others. If we experienced trauma or dysfunction along the way, it likely disrupted the pathways to these fundamental structures. Understanding our trauma is not about blame, but about understanding, learning, and growing. In most cases, our caregivers did the best they could with the tools they had, often while dealing with external or internal stressors as well.

Drug overdoses are now the leading cause of death for Americans un­der the age of 50, claiming more lives than the AIDS epidemic did at its peak. Opioid abuse accounts for two-thirds of these overdoses, with over 100 Americans dying from opioid overdoses every day. Now Overcoming Opioid Addiction provides a comprehensive medical guide for opioid use disorder (OUD) sufferers, their loved ones, clinicians, and other professionals. Here is expertly presented, urgently needed in­formation and guidance

This is the original study guide to the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous. Filled with practical information for those first days of sober living, this little book offers newcomers advice about the program, how long it takes, and what to look for in a sponsor; provides in-depth discussions of each of the Twelve Steps and related character defects; poses common questions about AA and helping others, identifying where to find answers in the Big Book; and, features non-sexist language.

If you choose to stay in your marriage, you have options other than punishing, tolerating, or ignoring your spouse; extraordinary growth awaits a woman willing to deal with the pain of her husband's struggles with sexual purity. Even if your spouse will not participate in a program for healing, you can change your own life in powerful and permanent ways. Shattered Vows is inspired by Debra Laaser's own journey through betrayal, her extensive work with hundreds of hurting women as a licensed marriage and family therapist, and her healed marriage after her husband's infidelity.

Are we all a little crazy? Roughly fifteen percent of the population will have a psychotic experience, in which they lose contact with reality. Yet we often struggle to understand and talk about psychosis. Interactions between people build on the stories they tell each other-stories about the past, about who they are or what they want. In psychosis we can no longer rely on these stories, this shared language. So how should we communicate with someone experiencing reality in a radically different way than we are?

In Talking to Children About Divorce, Jean McBride provides you with the tools and encouragement to effectively communicate with your child about divorce. McBride brings her more than 25 years of specializing in divorce to guide you through crucial but difficult conversations and cultivate an environment of love and support throughout the divorce process. You’ll learn how to have honest conversations about different situations and emotions that may arise during divorce - from breaking the news to understanding resistance.