By Ronald L.Rogers and Chandler Scott McMillin
ISBN 0-0399-51849-5
Reviewed by Don G.
This is the second Rogers/McMillin book that I’ve reviewed for BookTalk.
In their introductory, entitled "Recovery for The Non-Believer", they discuss their experiences as addictions treatment facilitators, where for every believer they encountered either an atheist or agnostic or non-believer that was recovering "under their own power".
Chapter Two discusses the challenge of faith for the non-believer. The authors contention is that even though you don’t need God to recover, you do need faith. They discuss different approaches to faith: The Traditional Model - "God Is Everything" , The Twelve Step Model - "God of our Understanding", and faith in what they call The Chronic Disease Model - "Whatever Works" . However, in the concept of "Whatever Works" they issue a caution to look out for people\institutions that are simply out to deceive you and not help you in your recovery.
Chapter Three looks at Ten Milestones on the Road to Recovery. Chapters Four and Five discuss working the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions for the non-believer. Self Help groups discussed in this section include AA, SOS, Rational Recovery and Women For Sobriety.
The last two chapters are lengthy, but contain much information on understanding addiction and the paradox of relapse. Some of the subjects covered in these two chapters include an excellent discussion on the stages of addiction, as well as the stages of recovery.
As mentioned in their earlier book, Relapse Traps, (also reviewed in BookTalk), much use is made of visualization exercises and of analysis of cognitive distortions that the alcoholic/addict suffer from. Overall, I liked the book. The views given are balanced and not biased towards any approach that I could see.
Comment by Diane J.:
Don: Thank you for the thoughtful reviews of the Rogers/McMillin books, but I wish you would consider altering the last sentence or two of the new one. "Under Your Own Power" really isn't "balanced and not biased toward any approach." It's a pretty heavy-fisted sales job for AA and the 12 steps (I think the subtitle should have been "How to train yourself to believe in God while pretending that's not what you're doing"--laugh).
And the deck-stacking examples and mind-games they play with "faith" vs. "religion" are straight out of the "It's a SPIRITUAL program, dummy" school of AA argument. (They also offer one of the versions of the Milam model of addiction as a possible appropriate target of your faith, without any acknowledgement of the truth that it is one theory among several, all non-proven.)
There are good things in it, of course, particularly in the "relapse traps" discussions, as you point out so well, but I think the review would be stronger for acknowledging that this is a book with a very pro-AA bias, IMHO.
Thanks again for the reviews. It's clear that you want to be very fair to the books you comment on; I think this time you might have been a little TOO fair (laugh).
Showing posts with label Rogers. Ronald L.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rogers. Ronald L.. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Saturday, April 7, 2007
Relapse Traps: How to avoid the 12 most common pitfalls in recovery
By Ronald L. Rogers and Chandler Scott McMillin.
ISBN 0-553-35479-5
Reviewed by Don G.
The authors have worked in the addiction recovery field for over twenty years.
In the book’s introduction, the author’s experience shows five common factors among people who relapse:
1) People relapsed for different reasons
2) Although relapse could occur at any time in recovery, it was particularly common in the first year of recovery
3) They, (the authors), came to believe that relapse was rooted less in emotional instability than in attitude and behavior
4) The most common causes of relapse could be grouped into twelve broad categories
5) Relapse isn’t confined to addiction. By thinking of relapse as a human and medical problem rather than a sign of psychological abnormality; the addict and alcoholic aren’t any different than anyone else with a chronic illness such as cancer, diabetes, etc.
While the book’s authors are definitely pro-AA and 12 step oriented, the book can be useful for someone who approached sobriety from a secular viewpoint.
In Part One, entitled The Anatomy of Recovery, the authors discuss what is relapse and how people fail.
They introduce what they consider three keys to the door of recovery:
1. Develop a feedback system
2. Use the 12 steps of AA
(Note: The authors have written a guide to the steps called "On Your Own Power - A secular guide to the 12 steps, which I’ll be reviewing at a later date)
3. Understanding the meaning of unconditional abstinence from drugs and alcohol.
The final part of the first section discusses the problems of emotions and craving, and assessing the attitudes that we bring into recovery.
The second section of the book deals with the Twelve Traps of Relapse. Rogers and McMillin talk about four tasks that must be completed for the addict\alcoholic to establish and maintain stable abstinence from drugs and alcohol:
1. You learn about the disease
2. You self-diagnose that you have the disease
3, You become involved in recovery groups
4. You assume personal responsibility for your own recovery
The relapse traps can be broken down into four major categories:
1.) Treatment Failures - Not following directions
Failure to self-diagnose
Experimenting with control
2.) Problems Of Being Human - Maintaining a high-risk lifestyle
Stress
Complacency
3) Living With A Chronic Disease - Medical problems during recovery
Psychiatric Illness
Complications of normal recovery
4) Problems of Addiction - Switching to Other Drugs
Relapse by Intent
Family Feud
Chandler and Rogers discuss each trap in detail - showing how people relapse and the steps preceding the relapse. They then discuss how to avoid the trap, and how "co-dependence" frequently enters into the person relapsing. There are many exercise throughout the book, and lists of "red flags" that can reveal that we are about to slide into relapse.
There is a glossary and suggested reading list at the end of the book.
Overall, I enjoyed the book. While there is a heavy bias towards AA in the book, there are many useful pieces of information. For myself, I found the third section very helpful as I have chronic health problems besides alcoholism, and knowing how to avoid relapse while being treated for the other problems was a great help.
In the book’s introduction, the author’s experience shows five common factors among people who relapse:
1) People relapsed for different reasons
2) Although relapse could occur at any time in recovery, it was particularly common in the first year of recovery
3) They, (the authors), came to believe that relapse was rooted less in emotional instability than in attitude and behavior
4) The most common causes of relapse could be grouped into twelve broad categories
5) Relapse isn’t confined to addiction. By thinking of relapse as a human and medical problem rather than a sign of psychological abnormality; the addict and alcoholic aren’t any different than anyone else with a chronic illness such as cancer, diabetes, etc.
While the book’s authors are definitely pro-AA and 12 step oriented, the book can be useful for someone who approached sobriety from a secular viewpoint.
In Part One, entitled The Anatomy of Recovery, the authors discuss what is relapse and how people fail.
They introduce what they consider three keys to the door of recovery:
1. Develop a feedback system
2. Use the 12 steps of AA
(Note: The authors have written a guide to the steps called "On Your Own Power - A secular guide to the 12 steps, which I’ll be reviewing at a later date)
3. Understanding the meaning of unconditional abstinence from drugs and alcohol.
The final part of the first section discusses the problems of emotions and craving, and assessing the attitudes that we bring into recovery.
The second section of the book deals with the Twelve Traps of Relapse. Rogers and McMillin talk about four tasks that must be completed for the addict\alcoholic to establish and maintain stable abstinence from drugs and alcohol:
1. You learn about the disease
2. You self-diagnose that you have the disease
3, You become involved in recovery groups
4. You assume personal responsibility for your own recovery
The relapse traps can be broken down into four major categories:
1.) Treatment Failures - Not following directions
Failure to self-diagnose
Experimenting with control
2.) Problems Of Being Human - Maintaining a high-risk lifestyle
Stress
Complacency
3) Living With A Chronic Disease - Medical problems during recovery
Psychiatric Illness
Complications of normal recovery
4) Problems of Addiction - Switching to Other Drugs
Relapse by Intent
Family Feud
Chandler and Rogers discuss each trap in detail - showing how people relapse and the steps preceding the relapse. They then discuss how to avoid the trap, and how "co-dependence" frequently enters into the person relapsing. There are many exercise throughout the book, and lists of "red flags" that can reveal that we are about to slide into relapse.
There is a glossary and suggested reading list at the end of the book.
Overall, I enjoyed the book. While there is a heavy bias towards AA in the book, there are many useful pieces of information. For myself, I found the third section very helpful as I have chronic health problems besides alcoholism, and knowing how to avoid relapse while being treated for the other problems was a great help.
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