How important are the connections we make in recovery? How much are we defined by the company we keep?  This week, we’re looking at how we

How do we maintain healthy boundaries in recovery? How do we establish them in the first place? This week, we’re looking at why we need boundaries, how we make them and how they contribute towards maintaining recovery. We’re also talking about codependency, how we are vulnerable to it (especially to begin with) and what we can actually do about it when it happens. We’re also looking at gaslighting, ‘invisible sponsors’ and dry house politics for good measure!

Too many consequences to mention? Join the club! For every addict and every alcoholic, there are consequences, which tend to join forces and multiply over time. This week, we’re talking about some of those consequences (including homelessness, the perils of HMOs, financial issues and how we find help), how we respond to them and how we can help others by understanding our mistakes. Also, we’ve somehow ended up setting the world to rights… again!

Should I do all these things that are being suggested to me? This week, we’re talking about how we engage with recovery and practise its principles as well as we possibly can. We’re also looking at ‘Recovery Maintenance’, how we stay clean and sober over time and how we use a 12-Step Programme in everyday life. We look at some of the behaviours, attitudes and perceptions that persist in early recovery and how we take appropriate action to address them.

What was it like when you started meditating? And how often do you pray? Erm… Help?!? Of all the things that we’re asked to do in early recovery, ‘Prayer and Meditation’ can seem the most difficult and elusive. This week, we’re talking about the barriers some of us face when trying to engage with these processes for the first time. Also, we’re looking at the misconceptions that exist around spirituality and religion, and that they are very much not the same thing.

This week, we’re talking about how we can come to doubt ourselves, and how we are naturally sceptical when faced with the unfamiliar. This is particularly common in early recovery; so, what can we do about it? We look at productive strategies, considering the positive impact of 12-Step meetings, peer support and the role of the sponsor. Also, we’re looking at the difference between being proactive and responding to any given situation, as opposed to being purely reactive. In time, we may all learn how to be diplomatic, but it won’t happen without putting the work in!

This week we’re talking about resentments, resentments... and more resentments! While our capacity for picking up resentments does diminish over time in recovery, this doesn’t mean that we magically stop getting them as soon as we’re clean and sober. We look at how learning to deal with resentment is one of the crucial things we must do in the day-to-day, and we consider the tools and strategies we need to use to achieve this.

How do I approach both ‘Dry House Living’ and the initial stages of recovery? What to do and what not to do? We’re talking about ‘Dry House Dependency’ – both positive and negative – and how to avoid complacency in this environment. Also, we’re looking at different stages of recovery, how we continue to use the same key ingredients to maintain it and at how we prevent it from going stale. And lastly, we’re talking about ‘Celebrity Sobriety’...

This week we’re talking about how we persuade ourselves to

This week we’re talking about procrastinating, doubtless whilst procrastinating ourselves! Does procrastination involve simply not doing anything, or is it more a case of actively doing anything and everything else to avoid doing what we know really needs to be done? We’re also talking about how we have to come into and maintain recovery for ourselves, before we can be of service to others. And last but not least, we’re looking at remote working; in fact, we’ve even managed to record this episode online!