12 Step Family

12 step family would like to share this emotionally gripping testimonial written by a recovering addict about their struggles to stay clean and the importance of a support system for making a recovery.  Please keep in mind that the author’s identity has been kept anonymous for the sake of maintaining the basic premise within AA and Narcotics Anonymous of anonymity.

Sobriety: Personal Goal – Shared Mission

I tried to quit drinking so many times I can’t even keep count. I used to go to the library near where I was living and get all kinds of books on daily alanon that claimed they could cure me of my addiction. Short simple titles like Getting Sober and Your Last Drink gave me a false feeling of confidence that I could do it all on my own and it would be quick and painless.

Now I am finally getting the real help I have always needed. It’s my personal goal to stay sober, but I can see clearly that the mission of accomplishing that goal is one that requires a whole team to do successfully. Faith in a higher power is an important part of it, but a sponsor, a councilor… people who have been where I am and know how to get where I want to go to – you can’t pull that out of a book on your own. I’ll never forget, one time I was high reading a self-help book on addiction and I actually used my rolling papers and matchbook as a bookmark to save my place in the chapter right before I passed out!

Stop worrying about how hard is might be, or what might happen after you kick your habits. What you need to know is that the scary journey toward sobriety is one YOU can make in the company of people who care about you as deeply as they do themselves. You will never be cured, life just aint like that… but you can be sober, you can be free of the symptoms that come with your disease and with God’s mercy, you can start to heal the wounds that your history has caused for yourself and those you love. Peace~

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Sparked by an interest in the root cause of underage drinking and alcohol abuse amongst teens, Chelsea Lynn Jurman decided to conduct a study as part of the Intel Science Talent Search that would bring her one step closer to a realistic cause.  123 high school students where interviewed for the study, by way of survey, to see if any conclusive link could be drawn between the likeliness that a teenager is to drink and the perceptions that the parent imparted on the teenager.  17-year-old, Chelsea Lynn Jurman found that when parents shared personal accounts of underage drinking with their adolescent, the teenager usually perceived it as a kind of reinforcement and was more likely to also partake in underage drinking practices that could later lead to alcohol abuse.  Adversely, the study also showed that teens who didn’t think that their parents engaged in underage drinking were less likely to engage in it themselves.

Aside from the shocking discovery that Chelsea Lynn Jurman made about parents’ influences on underage drinking, Jurman also found conclusive evidence that certain practices on the parent’s part helped deter their teen from underage drinking.  Most importantly was the practice of supervision.  Teens that were more supervised by parents were less likely to engage in underage drinking.  Based on the conclusions of the study, Jurman would suggest that parents refrain from sharing underage drinking stories with their adolescents while also maintaining fair but firm supervision of their adolescent.

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Cocaine Nation and Heroin Nation premiered on the Discovery channel this week. The two series are rated TV-14 because of the subject matter and some disturbing footage of drug abuse. Both series take a raw look at all sides of drug abuse including the users, the dealers, treatment and even the science behind the addictions.

Cocaine Nation concentrates on the gritty underworld of cocaine use as seen through the eyes of law enforcement officers, addicts, users, therapists and scientists. The show makes connections between all aspects of cocaine, from how it is smuggled across the border of Mexico, to the way it affects teenagers in states up north.

Heroin Nation, which premiered after Cocaine Nation, takes a similar approach in documenting the problem with heroin in the United States. You can catch both shows on the Discovery Channel. To see future air times check out Discovery Channel’s full schedule online at www.Discovery.com.

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A website financed by a federal grant and maintained by the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics called the “Prescription Monitoring Program” (PMP) has now lost all of its funding. The PMP was a website which allowed access to doctors in order to see their patient’s prescription history.

The PMP made it easy for doctors to reduce the potential for prescription drug abuse by giving them the ability to easily identify patients looking to lie in order to receive certain medications.

Individuals in the medical field feel that the PMP has an invaluable resource for pharmacies and doctors throughout Oklahoma. And although the program will lose its federal funding, members of the Bureau of Narcotics have high hopes that the state of Oklahoma will continue to fund the program once the federal grant is gone.

The Prescription Monitoring Program (PMP) originated in Oklahoma. Since then, programs similar to the PMP have been implemented in 37 other states.

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There’s been a lot of talk about a new social networking site called In The Rooms (www.InTheRooms.com). Similar to MySpace or FaceBook, InTheRooms.com lets members post photos, chat online, and meet other members from around the world. But InTheRooms.com caters to a special sort of member, individuals in recovery.

Whether you are thinking about getting clean or sober; whether you are one day, one year or one decade in recovery; InTheRooms.com offers a friendly and supportive online venue for members can meet and discuss life experiences, make new friends, exchange information/resources and much more.

Well over 1,000 new members join InTheRooms.com every month and with new features like a an ever-growing, worldwide fellowship meeting database, member created chat rooms and the soon-to-come iPhone application, InTheRooms.com is growing more and more each day.  

Make sure to visit www.InTheRooms.com to meet thousands of members who are taking it one day at a time; finding support online whenever they choose, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

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