My Brain Knows My Disease

"My brain knows my disease. My brain loves my disease, and my brain will never forget my disease because my disease has carved permanent grooves into my brain that no amount of sobriety can ever putty shut. The grooves in my brain lay waiting for me to pick up again so that the grooves can progressively deepen. I must depend on the help of others. Acting alone, I will be devoured by my disease. For addicts, alcohol will devour memories of the past and anxiety about the future, drowning them in the unreal, insane world of addiction. A living lobotomy. A blind man descending a spiral staircase leading to nowhere. No past. No present. No future. Addiction will survive by eating you alive."

(From Chapter 51 "One Trick Pony, Dismount," All Drinking Aside)

*****

 #Enjoy my first book, ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal. It is an Autobiographical Fiction.

Find it on Amazon. Book it here: https://lnkd.in/esP83n-c 

My second book, BECOMING UNBROKEN: Reflections on Addiction and Recovery. is a work of Non-Fiction. Find it on Amazon here: https://lnkd.in/dkF767RT

#alcoholism #addiction #recovery #books 

Thanks Given (Repeat)

THIS is Thanksgiving Day and hopefully everyone in recovery who is reading this will make the best of their day, no matter what is on their plate. Somewhere between the extreme suffering most of us have felt in our addictions and the extreme gratitude we have experienced in our sobriety, a middle ground of serenity has been found or may be found in progress as we move forward. At the very least, the belief that what was once considered impossible can now become attainable, doable, a new way of life.  Together let us heal.

SOBER, not smashed and trashed. Healing.

DAY of Thanks, I wish to each and all.

Stigma Shattering

"Street crime is no longer the clearest barometer of our drug problem; corpses are." - Sam Quinones, NY Times article "Serving All Your Heroin Needs," p. 6. Sunday Review Section, April 19, 2015

"If alcohol and drug-related obituaries were printed in red,
there would be an incredible amount of spilled ink." - Jim Anders,
*****

 #enjoy my first book, ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal. It is an Autobiographical Fiction.

Find it on Amazon. Book it here: http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO 

My second book, BECOMING UNBROKEN: Reflections on Addiction and Recovery. is a work of Non-Fiction. Find it on Amazon here: https://lnkd.in/dkF767RT

#alcoholism #addiction #recovery #books 

2015: How My Recovery Year Looked Back Then...

A favorite visual link is the cover of the national internet and newsstand magazine The Sober World. Page 20 of their June issue features my full-page article titled "This Sober Day." This, my 11th year of continuous sobriety, could well be called This Sober Year. "This Sober Day" captures the flavors and textures one would certainly find in my first full-length (286 pages) book, "All Drinking Aside: The Destruction, Deconstruction and Reconstruction of An Alcoholic Animal."
To read "This Sober Day" in The Sober World magazine, click on "Past Issues" on their homepage: http://thesoberworld.com/ Click on june15_issue on the second row, then turn to page 20. You're there. Enjoy this sober day (that's the point!)
If you proceed to January 2015 of my blog
http://alldrinkingaside.blogspot.com, you'll find my review of Rochelle Peoria's book, "Rebalancing the Addictive Mind":
http://www.amazon.com/Rebalancing-A…/…/ref=sr_1_1_bnp_1_pap…
Come February, I posted my review of "Empathy: Why It Matters, and How to Get It" which closes with a link to Roman Krznaric's "Empathic Revolution" site:
www.romankrznaric.com/empathyrevolution.
In February I also made note of Paul Roberts' "The Impulse Society: America in the Age of Instant Gratification." (I picked it up on impulse, LOL)
http://www.amazon.com/Paul-Roberts-Impulse-So…/…/ref=sr_1_2…
By the time May rolled around, I included a "People Quiz" highlighting 48 of the 90 Famous, Infamous and Anonymous luminaries who people "All Drinking Aside" (note: I wrote the damned book and had a hard time guessing who the hell said what, so don''t dismay).
My June blog featured the aforementioned The Sober World magazine article and a book signing at Kimmie's heart emoticon Knick heart emoticon Knack heart emoticon Shack in Atlantic City's Historic Gardener's Basin.
My July blog is crammed with some cream of the crop. My review of "Seeking Serenity: The 10 New Rules for Health and Happiness in the Age of Anxiety" by Amanda Enayati
http://www.amazon.com/Seeking-Serenity-Health…/…/ref=sr_1_1…
is preceded by my post on July 5th in which I am interviewed by Lisa Fredericksen (Author of "If You Loved Me, You'd Stop! What You Really Need To Know When Your Loved One Drinks Too Much)
http://www.breakingthecycles.com/…/jim-anders-shares-story…/
Here's the link to Lisa's book (which, BTW, I will be reviewing this January, 2016):
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_12…
Skipping forward to October, I took a small part in a poetry group which meets monthly in Atlantic City's Dante Hall and is sponsored by Stockton University. My poem, "Flying Rivers," went over well with most in the audience and went over heads with others, LOL.
"10 Reasons Why I Write" was my published response In Marie Lavender's 250th Anniversary Event:
http://marielavender.blogspot.com/…/why-do-we-write-250th-a…
(Reprinted on my blog page on November 22nd).
This year has ended so nicely. Bert Lopez, the host of "Latino Motion," TV show, interviewed me at his Stockton University studio (My interview segment, in English, is just over 6 minutes: 01:39 - 08:12). Here is the link to YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78CnUgFL4fg
In closing, I just want to mention that my blog also contains many quotes from "All Drinking Aside," as well as various and sundry other reviews, links and posts of possible interest to readers.
I'll close with additional links and note that for additional information, please write to me at alldrinkingaside@yahoo.com.
Read all the Five Star ***** Reader Reviews / Order the Kindle
version of "All Drinking Aside" and/or the Printed version here:
http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO.
Read more excerpts here:
http://alldrinkingaside.com
Follow Twitter here:
http://twitter.com/JimAnders4
Sincerely,
Jim Anders
P.S. Wishing Everyone a Happy and Healthy 2016!!!

*********************************************************

Meanwhile, "Back at the Ranch," look forward to my Daily Recovery Posts, when possible.

Thank you.

"Seeking Serenity" (for your Recovery Bookshelf)

Being a Writer in Recovery, I occasionally Review books which end up on my Recovery Bookshelf. Here is my Review of "Seeking Serenity: The 10 New Rules for Health and Happiness in the Age of Anxiety"
By Amanda Enayati

“Seeking Serenity.” “Desperately Seeking Susan.” Desperately Seeking Sobriety. That’s the word association that finally got me out of bed to write this review. Amanda Enayati, the writer of this book, is a late stage cancer survivor. And Jim Anders, the writer of this review of “Seeking Serenity,” is a chronic alcoholic survivor and a recovery advocate. Could Amanda and I be very different pies, but with the same crust? A quarter way through her book I found my answer in a term related to post-traumatic stress disorder which she identifies as “post-traumatic growth.” A favorite Hemingway quote, “The world breaks us all. Afterward, some are stronger at the broken places,” signaled my unity with Amanda. Pages 54 and 55 of her book provide a complete roadmap of the journey her entire book aptly presents. Knowledge is power, but “emotional drive and actionable steps” are required to put that knowledge into gear and to move forward. Losing stress, finding resilience and redefining values were three key takeaways for me. The Age of Anxiety, our own, which she refers to, is an age of media “engineered frenzy” and the “helper’s high” which she elaborates upon spoke directly to me as a person in recovery. “The prevailing norms are all they have ever known” is her description of youth and that pretty much describes how I got so entrenched in the alcohol and drug culture in the first place. Her “10 New Rules,” so well laid out, thought out and expanded upon, become the ways you may find to reduce toxic stress and create environments for yourself that will enable a more serene and sustainable life. Inclusion of some of my favorite  writers in her text, such as Thich Nhat Hanh and Viktor Frankl, made her book feel like a welcome home. “Putting negative experiences into words has positive physical and psychological effects,” Amanda asserts. As a person in recovery, her words ring true. Dr. Jim (that’s me – lol) prescribes that you read two Chapters of “Seeking Serenity” and call me in the morning.

http://www.amazon.com/Seeking-Serenity-Health-Happiness-Anxiety/dp/0451471512/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1438051894&sr=1-1&keywords=seeking+serenity

While you're on the Amazon.com site, you may also wish to check out the book I have written titled: All Drinking Aside: The Destruction, Deconstruction and Reconstruction of An Alcoholic Animal.
That link is kindly presented here: http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO

Read all 19 Five Star Reviews in the link immediately above. 

Check out the Blog immediately below.

http://alldrinkingaside.com
Follow Twitter here: http://twitter.com/JimAnders4

"Breaking The Cycles" Interview

http://www.breakingthecycles.com/blog/2015/07/05/jim-anders-shares-story-addiction-recovery/

P.S. Please scroll through and read Lisa Frederiksen's Breaking the Cycles in its entirety.
P.P.S. Thanks, Lisa! I am honored.

A Wonderful Time to be had once more...

Book Signing, Monday, June 22nd from 11 A.M. to 2 P.M. at Kimmie's <3 Knick <3 Knack <3 Shack in Historic Gardener's Basin at 800 N. New Hampshire Ave., Atlantic City.

Bring a friend for this Second Annual Book Signing of "All Drinking Aside" by Jim Anders.

When you purchase a signed copy, you will wander through the many mazes of his autobiography and walk away knowing more about yourself than its author, more about alcoholic insanity than you might at first be willing to admit or acknowledge.
Rightly, "All Drinking Aside" is less an Autobiographical Fiction, as its cover states, than a Biography of Addiction whose fictional characters, flies-on-the-wall, if you will, reveal the truths of alcoholic insanity you may have once thought impossible to capture.
Walk away with the broken pieces of self reassembled in that strange human glue called recovery.

Don't miss Kimmie's <3 Knick <3 Knack <3 Shack! Kimmie's <3 Knick <3 Knack <3 Shack is the Biggest Little Knick Knack Shack in this or any other Universe! Mark your calendar now. Ready. Set. GO!

http://alldrinkingaside.blogspot.com/

Twitter, Twitter, Apple Fritter

Sandwiched between the Covers of The Sober World magazine's June edition is my Reality Sandwich, "This Sober Day":

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vxwh1yqkf8760q4/SW_Jun2015_issue.pdf?dl=0

I Picked Up on Impulse!

Sifting through the stacks of new books at the library (including mine), I picked up a copy of "The Impulse Society: America in the Age of Instant Gratification." I picked it up on impulse. In the beginning pages it states that we "prize immediate rewards and ignore future costs."
Sounds like my entire addiction to alcohol. Times thirty (years).
But I'm reading this book by Paul Roberts through the eyes of recovery. My reflex now is nearly automatically in the direction of recovery.
The right impulse.
Feel my journey to now.
http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO

NEW! "Empathy" Review:

 *****Consciousness Raised, February 1, 2015
By Jim Anders, Author of "All Drinking Aside"
This review is from: Empathy: Why It Matters, and How to Get It (Kindle Edition)

Reading “Empathy” by Roman Krznaric left me hungry… for more empathy. There are those who are highly empathic and those who suffer an empathy deficit. As an alcoholic in recovery, I understand that becoming more empathic will facilitate my healing. Mr. Krznaric is scholarly in his portrayal of the importance of cultural inheritance and the ability of the brain to learn empathy. On a personal level, I appreciated his counterintuitive remarks regarding the sometimes divisive dangers of “we” as a pronoun.
My yearning for more empathy is sustained throughout the book. From “empathic immersion” to “emotional fatigue,” the full range of his subject is explored.
The closing chapters are a definite call to action and consciousness raising. Krznaric’s exploration of increasing empathy for future generations and distant cultures brought me fully on board. “Empathy: Why It Matters, and How to Get It” closes with a link to his “Empathic Revolution” site.
Explore it here: www.romankrznaric.com/empathyrevolution.

http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO
Read all 15 Five Star Reviews of "All Drinking Aside" in the link above.
Read Selected Excerpts from "All Drinking Aside" in the link below:
WEB: www.alldrinkingaside.com EMAIL: alldrinkingaside@yahoo.com