We hope you had a Great Thanksgiving!
Being thankful comes more from our attitudes than from anything else. Consider the passengers and crew of the recent Carnival Cruise fiasco.
As is usually the case, most of the passengers and crew decided to make the best of a very uncomfortable situation – and one that was far from what they’d signed up for.
It’s hard to imagine a more revealing experiment in Cognitive Behavior Therapy than this one.
How so?
As Epictetus noted over 2,000 years ago: “What upsets people is not things themselves but their judgment about the things.”
Many of us have gotten lost in our alcohol abuse because our “judgment about the things” has become totally skewed, or our judgment has been skewed by the alcohol abuse itself.
The cure?
Learn to manage our feelings by regaining control of our thoughts and behaviors rather than being kicked around by feelings we create ourselves.
In working with us, many of you have expressed surprise at how skillful you’ve become in very short order at managing emotions and creating positive feelings to replace negative ones instead of self-medicating.
Guess what?
Overcoming alcohol abuse is accomplished by exercising your power to manage your thoughts, behaviors, and emotions, NOT by falling into the trap of powerlessness from which few escape.
At “Your Empowering Solutions,” that’s what we help you create and perfect.
“We don’t see the world the way it is, we see the world the way we are.” — Anais Nin
“Everything can be taken away from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” — Viktor Frankl
We help you find your own way and you can start today with just a phone call. Remember, YOUR way, not THEIR way!
“Why won’t my family doctor help me with my alcohol abuse?”
Here’s another question we hear all of the time – and the answer isn’t all that complicated.
First, your doctor probably knows that AA and traditional treatments don’t work and he or she doesn’t have anything else to suggest.
Second, your doctor, if anything, will refer you to AA as a way of covering his/her liability – but that still leaves you out in the cold.
Third, your doctor may prescribe the ineffective medications (mainly Campral) currently being pushed by drug reps, but that again leaves you with nothing except a now public label of “alcoholic” (if you used insurance to get your prescription you created a public record – insurance transactions are NOT confidential).
Fourth, you doctor’s education in what actually works in drug and alcohol abuse treatment is non-existent, though she or he will be loathe to admit it.
Fifth, even bringing up the topic will cost your doctor patients – most patients flee when even the most obvious symptoms are noted.
So, in summary, your doctor isn’t going to willingly discuss a problem they know nothing about, for which they know of no effective treatment, and which will cost them patients.
Do you want an alternative?
That’s why we work with you and our physician to get you the medical support you need and deserve.
We get letters…
“Hi Mary Ellen,
Everything is going along just fine. Some emotional bumps here and there, new coping skills sure come in handy…. Respond don’t react
When you get a chance will you please pass on the name of the glass collection your elephant book ends came from.
Elephants are sometimes employed to carry burdens, not for great distances, but when great force is required, or great sagacity under trying circumstances. Perhaps no other animal, not even a dog, is so quick in comprehending a difficult situation, and so ready in removing the difficulties. This quickness of perception seems to arise from an underlying love and sense of justice, which is sensitive to injustice and false pretenses, and therefore quick to perceive the real state of a case.
I have collected elephants because of their natural love of family. When I came across this, I had one of those OMG moments. This quote says it all. Ed and you were my elephants when I was carrying my burdens. I can’t thank you enough for helping me understand my life and showing me the direction I needed to continue living healthy.
Thank you so much and I do see you as my bookends.
Talk to you after Thanksgiving.
Happy Thanksgiving to both of you,”
S.
Popular Links
“How Can You Possibly Cure My Years of Alcohol Abuse in Just 5 Days?”
The Real “Steps” to Overcoming Alcohol Abuse
Ten Things I Wish I’d Known Before I Sent My Brother Off To Rehab;
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