Shame: The Core of Addiction and Codependency

Shame is a crippling emotion for codependents and addict | alcoholics.  It is at the core of their role in the family disease of addiction, and it is what can keep them from getting the help they need to change their lives. The following is a guest post by Darlene Lancer, a Licensed Marriage and…

Read More

Alcohol Abuse Going On in the Family? – If Only My Doctor Had Asked

Alcohol Abuse is a drinking pattern that causes Secondhand Drinking (SHD). Secondhand Drinking is term to describe the impacts on the person who is on the receiving end of another person’s drinking behaviors. Drinking behaviors include: drunken arguments crazy, convoluted accusations physical fights verbal, physical or emotional abuse neglect driving while impaired, riding in a…

Read More

Addiction a Brain Disease? But How?

Addiction a brain disease? “No way,” or some variation thereof, is the typical reaction, I hear. Followed by something along the lines of, “Cancer is a disease. All they have to do is put down the bottle [or stop using the drug]!” Recent Research Identifies Why/How Addiction is a Brain Disease Thanks in large part…

Read More

So What is Codependency?

Codependency – so what is it? This was a very difficult concept for me to grasp. And for the longest time (like almost 4 decades as of 2003), I didn’t even try because I didn’t think it had anything to do with me. But for those of you who’ve read my latest book, 10th Anniversary…

Read More

Is it alcoholism? – How can you tell?

Fear of the labels, alcoholism and alcoholic, often keeps people from looking at their drinking patterns. Yet more often than not, the real problem is alcohol abuse. Alcohol abuse can lead to alcoholism, but in and of itself, it is not alcoholism. Here’s information that can help. There’s a common belief that drinking is either…

Read More

What Does Alcohol Cause Besides Alcoholism?

Alcohol causes far more than alcoholism. The following is a guest post by Rita Malie, award-winning author of Goodbye America, an historic memoir of her mother. Rita’s most recent novel is titled:  Supreme Sacrifice: A Woman’s Journey From The Bondage of Guilt to the Freedom of Forgiveness. It is inspired by true events and the legacy of growing up in an alcoholic…

Read More