Recovery: Freedom From Our Addictions

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Fortunately, our growing understanding of human nature and the multiplicity of self makes it easier to accept others’ faults. And to an extent, it also makes it easier to forgive ourselves. Some will still struggle with this, but amends help by allowing us to see our evolution in progress. The better self that we conceptualized in Step 2 and discovered in Step 7 begins to take over. Russell Brand—not to mention the Big Book, in its Ninth Step Promises—suggests that this process ultimately leads to our full-fledged transformation into the higher self within. The instinct that drives compulsion is universal. It is an attempt to solve the problem of disconnection, alienation, tepid despair... the problem is ultimately 'being human' in an environment that is curiously ill-equipped to deal with the challenges that entails.” This started strong, with easy to understand, instantly engaging outlines of the 12-step as favoured by many AA type programmes. I cannot pinpoint what brought it down in rating for me, however I feel towards the end it was Brand's humour and wit that kept me engaged not the subject matter itself. A good starting point for anyone seeking help with addictions, whether for themselves or for someone they love. Brand doesn't give us anything new here other than his own experience and testimony of the 12-Step program, but he does it with more insight, expanding the concept of *Higher Power* with wisdom and his own comedic touch. He applies the 12-steps to a wide variety of the obstacles that might be keeping us from being the person we are meant to be (drugs, alcohol, food, anger, selfishness, depression, etc.). Rather than just educating myself, I came away with a desire to improve myself and be a little more at peace in my environment, and a little enlightenment. Some clinicians argue against the 12 Step program concerned that a participant would only be replacing one addiction with another...I think Brand gives an eloquent argument against that opinion. If you live constantly confined by your unwillingness to go through pain, you do not develop into who you are supposed to be.” -Russell Brand The Cheat Sheet:

I don’t wake up in the morning and think, ‘Wow, I’m on a planet in the Milky Way, in infinite space, bestowed with the gift of consciousness, which I did not give myself, with the gift of language, with lungs that breathe and a heart that beats, none of which I gave myself, with no concrete understanding of the Great Mysteries, knowing only that I was born and will die and nothing of what’s on either side of this brief material and individualized glitch in the limitless expanse of eternity and, I feel, I feel love and pain and I have senses, what a glorious gift! I can relate, and create and serve others or I can lose myself in sensuality and pleasure. What a phenomenal mystery!’ Most days I just wake up feeling a bit anxious and plod a solemn, narrow path of survival, coping. ‘I’ll have a coffee’, ‘I’ll try not to reach for my phone as soon as I stir, simpering and begging like a bad dog at a table for some digital tidbit, some morsel of approval, a text, that’ll do” The concept of twelve-step programs began in the early 20th century United States as a way to help alcoholics recover and rehabilitate, but it’s been widely applied to treatment of a number of addictions since then. s? Sure. When an author expresses himself with such sincerity, intimacy, and intelligence -- I am inclined to feel gratitude for the shared experience. (And never has the phrase "F*ed up* sounded so proper.) I also thought Brand's definition of addiction and how that broadened interpretation fit into our current world was significant. I bought this book (and the audio version which is narrated by Brand) to expand my understanding of addictions and recovery, and also as a reader that has experience with the subject professionally and within my family that is always looking to better understand. I've read extensively on the subject, lived with it, and worked with addicts. And I think that sadly, that has become the norm. We refer to the 12 Steps as a program of action. Perhaps no action taken in this process stokes as much fear in people as that of making amends. Many struggle with simply revisiting the past in Step 4, and find themselves doubly fearful when stating the past aloud in Step 5. But when we must again revisit the past in Step 8 and confront it head-on in Step 9, some recovering addicts and alcoholics find themselves feeling resistant. Not only must we stand up and accept responsibility for our wrongs, but this often requires us to forgive others for the wrongs they committed against us.

Yes - grain of salt - yes - but that’s with anything…Could probably skip the whole anecdote in step 6… Addiction is when natural biological imperatives, like the need for food, sex, relaxation or status, become prioritised to the point of destructiveness. It is exacerbated by a culture that understandably exploits this mechanic as it's a damn good way to sell Mars bars and Toyotas.” Unless you stay — moment to moment — vigilant about your patterns, they will reassert,” says Russell. Russell Brand talks about this core fear quite often. The fear of being abandoned, left alone and possibly unable to take care of himself. He notes that Step 5, sharing his inventory with another addict, helped him to get over this. Not simply because he got things off his chest, but because someone found his authentic self worthy of both acceptance and understanding.

This is definitely a more accessible guide to the 12 steps than the "Big Blue Book". It is also a lot less patronising and gives better examples. This kind of self help book is needed and I am glad it exists. I am also glad of my own sobriety and although I don't follow all the steps some of them are just part of being a decent human being. Addiction is really the result of reaching for something external that already exists internally — but exists in a place that’s either unknown or inaccessible.

Both our forgiveness and our amends serve to benefit us immensely. On the subject of forgiveness, Russell Brand writes: In Step 9 we make restitution that in our old life, our old plan, we would never have countenanced. It is a fine example of the broader 12 Step philosophical trope that ‘You can’t think your way into acting better but you can act your way into thinking better’. Under the guidance of a mentor, with the support and community of other people on the same path, you have, by following the actions suggested by this program, broken loose from your prior confinement and become a different person. Whilst Step 9 seems to be about making amends to others it is we who are amended.” You may sometimes hear people in anonymous meetings declare their pity for non-addicts who do not benefit from the teachings of a recovery program. This rubs some AA and NA members the wrong way, coming across as arrogant and judgmental. Yet in his writing, Russell Brand makes a very similar point while explaining it in terms that make quite a bit of sense.

We often define addiction as a symptom of something greater. So why not take the same approach to recovery? If our addiction preceded our addictive behaviors, we may just as easily suggest that our recovery preceded our positive lifestyle. In fact, the two manifest as part of the same journey. Without addiction, we may never have discovered our inner light in the first place. Recovery does not require us to construct a personality, covering up our faults with a veneer of forced moral responsibility. We must only tap into the person that already exists, and work to nurture that person. Russell Brand puts this in mythological terms. The program in Recovery has given Russell Brand freedom from all addictions and it will do the same for you.Attached | The New Science of Adult Attachment | Amir Levine and Rachel S. F. Heller | Book Summary I really liked this. It’s obvious that Russell is a very interesting and intelligent person, I was amazed by how beautiful he can write. The book is part personal memoir and part self help, following a 12 step program for getting rid of basically any type of addiction that a human being can have.

But what is an addiction? Russell says it’s “something that you do a lot, it’s not good for you, you don’t want to do it, and you can’t stop.” At its core, addiction is really the result of reaching for something external that already exists internally — but exists in a place that’s either unknown or inaccessible. What is Best Book Bits you ask? Simply put we take a book, read it, study it, find the best book bits, the golden nuggets and present them in this presentation. I believe this is the Fastest & Easiest way on the Planet to get the information you need in the shortest amount of time He's been addicted to drugs, sex, fame, money and power. Even now as a father, fourteen and a half years into recovery he still writes about himself in the third person and that can't be healthy.This manual for self-realization comes not from a mountain but from the mud...My qualification is not that I am better than you but I am worse.”— Russell Brand What is a belief really? A thought, in your mind, that you like having. If you like having it, it must be of benefit, it either improves your life or helps you to rationalize how bad your life is. I can’t think of another reason to have a belief.” If this were a pop science book, I’d now regale you with tales of the oxytocin ballet and dopamine dance that takes place when we are altruistic or in proximity to our beloved, but this biochemical analysis amounts to a fashionable and semantically novel reworking of what yogis, sages, Sufis and saints have been telling us for millennia as the result of their limitless work in laboratories that are subtler than those forged in concrete and glass: love is the answer.”