Everything Changes: Help for Families of Newly Recovering Addicts

by Beverly Conyers

Overview

A relative or friend has finally taken those tentative first steps toward sobriety. With the relief of this life-changing course of action comes a new and difficult set of challenges for recovering addicts and those who love them. Family members and friends often find themselves unsure of how to weather such a dramatic turn, as the rules and routines of their relationships no longer pertain.

Everything Changes assuages fears and uncertainty by teaching loved ones of newly recovering addicts how to navigate the often-tumultuous early months of recovery. Beverly Conyers, author of the acclaimed Addict in the Family, again shares the hope and knowledge that she gained as a parent of a recovering addict by focusing on the aftermath of addiction. She outlines the physical and psychological changes that recovering addicts go through, and offers practical tools to help family members and friends:

• build a fresh, rewarding relationship with the addict
• be supportive without setting themselves up for disappointment
• avoid enabling destructive behavior
• set and maintain boundaries
• cope with relapse
• deal with the practicalities of sober living, such as helping the addict find a job and deal with the stigma of addiction.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781592856978
Publisher:	Hazelden Publishing
Publication date:	04/14/2009
Pages:	168
Sales rank:	121,832
Product dimensions:	5.42(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Beverly Conyers MA is an editor and freelance writer who lives in New England.

In July 2000, she learned that her twenty-three-year-old daughter was addicted to heroin. Conyers was vigilant and persistant at assisting her daughter in on her journey through recovery by helping to ensure that she attended counseling sessions and Twelve Step meetings. In time, she decided to share the hope and knowledge that she had gained as the parent of an addict to families who struggle with addiction. She published Addict in the Family: Stories of Hope, Loss, and Recovery (Hazelden) in 2003.

Over the years, Conyers began to see the need for a second book--one the focues not on addiction itself, but on its aftermath: Everything Changes: Help for Families of Newly Recovering Addicts.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xiii

Introduction xv

Chapter 1 The Journey Begins 1

Chapter 2 The Hard Realities of Early Recovery 23

Chapter 3 Finding Place and Purpose 45

Chapter 4 Special Challenges in Early Recovery 67

Chapter 5 Slips, Relapses, and Other Bumps in the Road 91

Chapter 6 A Time for Healing 111

Words of Inspiration and Support 131

Resources 139

Recommended Readings 143

The Twelve Steps of Al-Anon 145

Notes 147

About the Author 149