03 October 2016

Download to Uplift


Keys to Recovery Newspaper has reviewed All Drinking Aside on page 14 of their October 2016 edition. 
http://www.keystorecoverynewspaper.com/digital/100116/#page=15

Here's the text, but PLEASE, check out this entire Recovery Resource!


ALL DRINKING ASIDE: THE DESTRUCTION, DECONSTRUCTION, AND RECONSTRUCTION OF AN ALCOHOLIC ANIMAL. An Autobiographical Fiction. Written by Jim Anders. Printed by Create Space.
Loved it! Thank you Jim Anders for being so candid with your own personal battle with alcoholism and drug addiction. This book is so cleverly written that it kept me completely captivated, and I finished it within days. I love how he starts each chapter with a morning meditation. Ex. Pg.82 “The door to the prison of addiction opened and I was afraid to leave. Fear of leaving was fear of living, because I had not lived beyond that door for decades.” Wow... I can totally relate. Then he ends each chapter with an evening meditation and question of the day. “How is [it] that tomorrow never comes, but the next drink always did.” In between he writes about his descent into alcoholism, and his rise into recovery. Intense! Brilliantly written Jim Anders. A must read! Available [on.Amazon] 

*********************
Here's the Amazon link to it:

ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal 
(Find it on Amazon. Book it here): https://lnkd.in/esP83n-c

#alcoholism #addiction #recovery #books 





30 September 2016

Double Tweet


"If you wish to make an apple pie truly from scratch, you must first invent the universe."
- Carl Sagan

Morning Meditation: I did not drink today. It was a good day.


from All Drinking Aside
find more Recovery Tweets here:
http://twitter.com/JimAnders4

24 September 2016

Walk with the Devil


"You are permitted in time of great danger to walk with the devil until you have crossed the bridge."
- Bulgarian proverb

Morning Meditation: When I'm drinking, "Get help!" means "Have another drink."

Find more Recovery Tweets here:
http://twitter.com/JimAnders4 
All Drinking Aside: http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO.
Read more excerpts here:  http://alldrinkingaside.com 


15 August 2016

A Roof Over My Head...



... And Someone to Blame...
*****
Immerse yourself in my Descent into Addiction and eventual Recovery in my Autobiographical Fiction, ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal 
(Find it on Amazon. Book it here): https://lnkd.in/esP83n-c

#alcoholism #addiction #recovery #books 

24 June 2016

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 

23 March 2016

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.

03 February 2016

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 



28 December 2015

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.

27 July 2015

"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

05 July 2015