Alcoholics Anonymous, My Journey From Darkness Into Light

How does one describe the journey from darkness into light? Many members of Alcoholics Anonymous or other 12 step fellowships will explain this process as a spiritual awakening. My spiritual awakening was of the slow, educational variety. There was no elderly man with a billowy white beard and long white robes who parted the seas, and certainly no burning bush to guide my path. There was however, a long and tedious road of self-exploration, a trip of discovery, discarding, and polishing. Within the confines of Alcoholics Anonymous, I continue to amaze myself on a daily basis.

Five years ago, I simply existed. I no longer participated in life, except to get loaded on drugs and alcohol. I lived to use and used to live. All other areas of life fell by the wayside and my primary purpose was to maintain my high. My family had since given up on me, I was essentially homeless, my health was questionable, and most importantly, I was spiritually broken. Part of me was dying for human contact and help, and part of me was just plain dying. I suppose I had somewhat of a moment of clarity when I realized that the mass amounts of drugs I put in my body weren’t working any longer. The more I put in, the worse I felt. It finally appeared as though nothing on God’s green Earth could save me from me, except perhaps another way. Thus began my journey………

I crawled into Alcoholics Anonymous wanting to once again live. I had no recollection of formative life skills and had to build from the ground up. I took suggestions, got a sponsor, went to meetings, fellowshipped with others, and dove head first into the process. Most importantly, I had to find a God of my understanding. Growing up in a Roman Catholic household, this was no easy task. The punitive God that I had grown up with, had given up on me a long time ago. Letting go of this notion was difficult to say the least. Slowly but surely, I grew into my own skin, came to define and redefine God, and learned how to stand on my own two feet. I also learned what service work was all about. Helping another alcoholic receive the blessings I have received is part of the miraculous cyclical process of the program. Alcoholics Anonymous has provided me with both a new outlook on life and an impenetrable optimism where truly anything is possible. I will forever be grateful.

The Gateway Drug

“The Gateway Drug”


When I was in middle school taking that D.A.R.E class that they make you take, there was a lot of talk about marijuana being the “gateway drug”. I always thought that it was just a scare tactic that adults used to instill fear in us kids about using drugs. Yet when you actually look at the statistics it is quite amazing how true the saying is that marijuana is a gateway drug. The statistics show that teenagers who use marijuana are 17 times more likely to move on to using harder drugs. Statistics also say that boys are 29 times more likely to use harder drugs after using marijuana and girls are 11 times more likely.

The reasoning behind this is thought to be that marijuana helps one develop curiosity for harder drugs as well as introduces them to the menacing subculture that may be attractive to them.

How to Diagnos Addiction

Criteria for diagnosing addiction

The DSM-IV is the diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. This is a handbook, published by the American Psychiatric Association, which is used by mental health care professionals that lists different categories of mental disorders and the criteria for diagnosing them. The DSM-IV is used all around the world by clinicians, psychiatric drug regulation agencies, researchers, health insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies and policy makers.
Some criteria from the DSM-IV that may qualify someone for the disease of addiction are as follows:
- You reduce or completely blow off your social, school of recreational activities.
- You increase your time and energy spent on using or getting substances to use.
- You have tolerance; it takes more than it used to in order to feel an effect.
- You have symptoms of withdrawal (i.e. hangovers, irritability, sleeping after binges, “crashing”)
- You have unsuccessful or persistent efforts to cut down or control your using, or you have consequences of using.
- You use longer than you intended to of you use for a longer period of time than you intended to.
- You continue to use even though you know it causes physical of psychological problems or despite knowing that it aggravates a physical of psychological problem.
- You continue to use despite legal consequences.
- You continue to use despite poor performance/consequences at school or work.
You can have the disease of addiction with or without physiological (physical/body) dependence. This means that even if your body isn’t addicted to drugs or alcohol, you may still have the psychological dependence.

Drug Addicts Invest In Gold

Drug addicts are famous for there poor financial decisions. Clouded by the insatiable need to use drugs, addicts tend do things, that to the normal person, would seem insane. Addicts do things like spend their rent money on drugs, thinking they will worry about rent later. They go to casinos and gamble with their entire life savings, in an attempt to make money to by drugs with. Addicts are even known for selling there cars among all their other prized possessions. Drug addicts are good at liquidating all their assets. For alot of addicts, they do not get sober until they have financially demoralized themselves.
Once they have gone to drug rehab or just gotten sober, these addicts learn a new views surrounding money. They learn how to hold get and hold a job. Addicts then learn how to properly budget there money to live. They begin to have money left over and put it into savings and begin to plan for the future. Now with the US economy and the dollar plummeting down the tubes. Foreign governments and the worlds elites are liquidating their billions in US assests and investing in a more stable market, gold. This trend is expecting to drive gold from the record breaking 900 dollars a troy ounce to an unbelievable amount of $2000 dollars a troy ounce, within the next few years. Some of the same addicts whom before, poorly invested everything they own into crack, are now making better investments, such as investing large sums of money in gold.

Teen Expulsion Over Myspace Photos

Expulsion Over Myspace Photos
Anthony Allen, 17 years old, is one of five kids banned from Belleville High School in Ann Arbor, Michigan on November 3rd 2007. The five students posted pictures on Myspace, a popular internet networking site, of guns, drugs, piles of cash and possible gang signs. Anthony is challenging his expulsion and four of the five teenagers sued the school district asking for reinstatement. The students claim that there were no written records of the hearings.
The second hearing was open to the public and over one hundred people showed up. The crowd also included high school teachers. The room was filled and overflowed into the lobby and surrounding offices. Anthony Allen was expelled for possessing illegal drugs, or look-alikes, in connection with a school activity and engaging in gang activity. The weapon charges were dropped due the fact that the picture of Anthony holding the gun was taken in a private residence.
School authorities are concerned that these teenagers could be connected with a gang called M.M.B. On October 13th a limousine driver who picked them up from their high school Homecoming claimed that three cars followed them to a restaurant. Older boys who appeared to be members of this gang surrounded the limo in a threatening manner. The driver told the boys to get back into the car and proceeded to take them to a different restaurant. But the same cars continued to follow them.
The school voted to uphold Anthony’s expulsion after an approximately six hour hearing. One teacher said that there is a zero tolerance policy for gang related behavior. Although Anthony’s mother does not agree with this decision to expel him, she stated that he will be attending college in the fall.