I HATE THE HOLIDAYS - BUT I’M STAYING SOBER ANYWAY
by Amy Dresner
Even before I was in recovery, I’ve always hated the holidays. But I’ve stayed sober many a holiday season. Here's how.
Read the full article on WORKIT HEALTH >>
SELF-CARE WHEN YOU’RE STRUGGLING
by Amy Dresner
The term “self-care” has been so overused and abused that it has lost its true meaning. Let’s talk about basic self-care—the self-care that matters when you’re in a depression.
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COVID AND MY MENTAL HEALTH
by Amy Dresner
Amy Dresner shines a light on how Long COVID is impacting her mental health, including depression, fatigue, and brain fog.
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ADDICTED TO DRAMA
by Amy Dresner
Author Amy Dresner takes a closer look at addiction to drama, why we have it, and how we can overcome it.
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WHAT IS EMOTIONAL SOBRIETY (and why don’t I have it yet)?
by Amy Dresner
Amy Dresner explores the concept of emotional sobriety and why she feels like she still lacks it, even more than 11 years into recovery.
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DOES ADDICTION EVER GO AWAY?
by Amy Dresner
Amy Dresner looks at her own experience and leading research to answer the question of whether addiction really goes away.
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I ALMOST RELAPSED ON PAIN PILLS AT 11 YEARS SOBER
by Amy Dresner
Amy Desner shares a near miss that happened at 11 years sober. The medication was legitimately prescribed and the pain was real, but it still nearly derailed her recovery.
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WHEN DESPRESSION AND SUICIDALITY OCCUR IN RECOVERY
by Amy Dresner
Despite being active in her recovery, Amy Dresner had to deal with depression and suicidal ideation at more than 10 years sober.
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THE HARD ART OF BOUNDARIES
by Amy Dresner
I don’t think I’m alone when I say I struggle with boundaries. I didn’t grow up having strong boundaries modeled for me, and in my active addiction, I managed to be both codependent and manipulative in my attempts to get my needs met.
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STREETWISE AND SOBER, BUT STILL SCAMMED
by Amy Dresner
You might fallaciously think, as I did, that you’re too smart to get scammed. After all, I’m well educated, have a high IQ, and have lived a life fit for a Hunter S. Thompson novel. But despite being an intelligent, streetwise woman with more than ten years of sobriety, at my most vulnerable time, it happened to me.
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PETS ARE IMPORTANT IN ADDICTION RECOVERY
by Amy Dresner
You might think my love for my cat Colonel Puff Puff is ridiculous. And yes, I’ve been called a “cat lady” many a time and had full conversations with him and wept on his long grey and white fur. But I’m not alone.
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HOW TO STAY SOBER THROUGH A PARENT’S DEATH
by Amy Dresner
Difficult emotional situations can trip us up in recovery, and it rarely gets more difficult than losing a parent. Amy Dresner shares the lessons she’s learned about how to stay sober through a parent’s death.
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HAS ZOOM CHANGED HOW YOU SEE YOURSELF? 6 WOMEN SHARE THEIR STORIES.
by Amy Dresner and others
Videoconferencing services have shaped the lives and routines of many people working from home
Read the full article on THE LILY >>
WARNING: THIS ARTICLE MIGHT MAKE YOU QUIT VAPING
by Amy Dresner
I quit vaping cold turkey 30 days ago but who’s counting? I was ripping through 4 Juul pods every day and a half. I had some chest pain but I brushed that off. I had some headaches, dry mouth, sore throat but whatever, right? In terms of nicotine, 4 Juul pods is equivalent to 80 cigarettes. 80!!! That’s like 4 packs of cigarettes every 36 hours. Ummmm….no. This had to stop. I treated myself like a child. “You put the bead up your nose? Okay, no more beads. You blew it.”
Read the full article on WORKIT HEALTH >>
WHY CIVIC ACTIVITIES ARE IMPORTANT TO RECOVERY, HAPPINESS AND THE WORLD
by Amy Dresner and Joe Schrank
Alcoholics and addicts are notoriously self-obsessed. In some ways, we’ve had to be in order to survive. But that selfishness is also a symptom of our illness.
During most of my active addiction, I was concerned with staying alive, trying to get clean, and managing my raging mental illness. But then I got sober. A big tenet of being in recovery is service. However, in AA, that’s usually limited to setting up chairs, making coffee, leading meetings, helping other alcoholics, and the like.
Read the full article on WORKIT HEALTH >>
WHITE PEOPLE GO TO REHAB, BLACK PEOPLE GO TO JAIL
by Amy Dresner and Joe Schrank
The death of George Floyd ignited another fever spike of the endlessly unhealed race issues in America. These issues long preceded the drug war, but made the racial disparities in rates of incarceration and who pays the price for drug use abundantly clear.
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WHY WE’RE TURNING TO FOOD, SHOPPING, AND NICOTINE DURING COVID-19
by Amy Dresner
As you probably heard Covid-19 is a bitch: illness, death, worldwide fear, financial insecurity (or downright poverty) and for the recovery community, relapse.
So while the entire “normie” population is guzzling booze, smoking pot, watching porn and playing video games like never before, what are those who are remaining in recovery turning to? Food, shopping and nicotine.
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DESPITE SOCIAL DISTANCING, COVID-19 IS BRINGING US TOGETHER
by Amy Dresner
Despite the social distancing, the masks, the contagion paranoia, COVID-19 has brought people together.
I’ve gotten random texts from people I barely know or old comedy comrades I haven’t spoken to in years asking if I was okay. The big theme of multiple online memes has been contacting exes. Social distancing, what a perfect excuse! I’ve been pretty good about not doing that, knowing that my motives wouldn’t be clean, the underlying themes would be either “I hope you have it, you asshole” or “Are you still alive and do you ever miss me?”
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THE STRANGE PHENOMENON OF ZOOMBOMBING AND HOW IT’S AFFECTING THE RECOVERY COMMUNITY
by Amy Dresner
Zoombombing is a new phenomenon that began during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown as zoom traffic increased.
My sponsor was slated to speak at the first Zoom meeting of a Saturday night 12 step group. The secretary had never done a Zoom meeting before and was understandably nervous. As people logged on 10 minutes early, she familiarized herself with the controls, muting and unmuting members.
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WHEN A FRIEND RELAPSES
by Amy Dresner
Over 25 years in and out treatment centers and programs, I’ve had a lot of friends relapse. Sometimes I think I handled it well. Other times I probably handled it badly.
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READY TO DATE AFTER SEX ADDICTION? AMY DRESNER TELLS YOU HOW
by Amy Dresner
Author, Amy Dresner, has been very open with the world about her past with sex addiction. She is now in recovery and is here to share her experience.
Read the full article on WORKIT HEALTH >>
CAN SOBRIETY BE BOTH A HEALTH TREND AND A MATTER OF LIFE OR DEATH?
by Amy Dresner
Months ago I innocently tweeted: “I’m all down with the new sobriety/sober movement but please let’s not forget among the mocktails, the trendiness and the tees with cutesy slogans that for many of us, sobriety wasn’t a health trend, lifestyle choice or a socio-political statement but a matter of life and death.”
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DATING AS A WOMAN IN RECOVERY MEANS ALWAYS BEING JUDGED
by Amy Dresner
“I wasn’t seen as a survivor, but as a ticking time bomb, a woman with an unsavory past that haunted me like a lengthy criminal record.”
Read the full article on VICE >>
ONCE I STOPPED USING DRUGS AND ALCOHOL, I SOUGHT THE HIGH FROM SEX
by Amy Dresner
I have been in and out of 12-step programs for the last 20 years. My road to any lasting sobriety has been rough and unpaved, to say the least: six rehabs, four psych wards, four suicide attempts, multiple ER visits, endless therapy, a slew of sponsors.
