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Blessed Are the Addicts: The Spiritual Side of Alcoholism, Addiction, and Recovery
Excellent Book
121 pages, Paperback
First published December 8, 1990
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30 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 13, 2024
A really good read. Reminds me of another great book, Perfect Love Imperfect Relationships. Here are some excerpts that resonated.
"There is no question that to experience life in this world as it is, such as it always was and always will be, is, I suspect, difficult and at times heartrending. There seems to be no limit to the human capacity to suffer and to endure... and to go on. And yet, in the midst of this awful reality, every human person was given a gift. Surely, it is the very gift that we all would want if we didn't have it. This gift can be rarely and even then only minimally experienced in the mind and in the feelings. Its full impact envelops us only when we experience it in the doing, in the living... such as an experience of love, of connection with other beings and with life itself. Then it is a kind of ecstasy that words cannot approximate. Our friends know of it through simple contact with us, and not through wordy communication”.
"When a person endowed with this gift, goes into a bar or a shooting gallery and seeks to find happiness--a solution to life--in a chemical, we should know that the use of the chemical itself is not the problem. The chemical is the symptom of the problem in the sense that it alerts us to the existence of the real problem at hand […] once the drug is removed, the real problem, addiction itself, has to be treated. We know, further, that the problem exists long before the person's first venture to the bar or to the cop man... in other words, long before the person's encounter with the drug of his choice.”
"An addicted person is so immediately taken in by the discovery of a drug because for a long time prior to discovering the drug, he has been making superhuman efforts to live a full and successful life. After all, our nature is to live as fully as possible, since life is essentially what defines us. How frustrating it is, for the addicted person, who, since childhood, has been making varied and repeated attempts to make sure he finds his rightful place in life, to discover that he is still down deep disconnected from it. […] Of course, all human beings experience disconnection, alienation. The resolution of alienation is precisely found in experiencing the trauma of being born, of growing up, of being a teenager, and of finally coming into one's own--of connecting, in a word, with oneself. […] In time, as the child grows and comes into his own, he grows out of the initial alienation that as humans we all undergo. The young and future addict, on the other hand, doesn't grow out of it... he grows into it. […] experiences it profoundly in his spirit--in the spiritual part of him--in that part of him that gives him life, that makes him alive."
"There is no question that to experience life in this world as it is, such as it always was and always will be, is, I suspect, difficult and at times heartrending. There seems to be no limit to the human capacity to suffer and to endure... and to go on. And yet, in the midst of this awful reality, every human person was given a gift. Surely, it is the very gift that we all would want if we didn't have it. This gift can be rarely and even then only minimally experienced in the mind and in the feelings. Its full impact envelops us only when we experience it in the doing, in the living... such as an experience of love, of connection with other beings and with life itself. Then it is a kind of ecstasy that words cannot approximate. Our friends know of it through simple contact with us, and not through wordy communication”.
"When a person endowed with this gift, goes into a bar or a shooting gallery and seeks to find happiness--a solution to life--in a chemical, we should know that the use of the chemical itself is not the problem. The chemical is the symptom of the problem in the sense that it alerts us to the existence of the real problem at hand […] once the drug is removed, the real problem, addiction itself, has to be treated. We know, further, that the problem exists long before the person's first venture to the bar or to the cop man... in other words, long before the person's encounter with the drug of his choice.”
"An addicted person is so immediately taken in by the discovery of a drug because for a long time prior to discovering the drug, he has been making superhuman efforts to live a full and successful life. After all, our nature is to live as fully as possible, since life is essentially what defines us. How frustrating it is, for the addicted person, who, since childhood, has been making varied and repeated attempts to make sure he finds his rightful place in life, to discover that he is still down deep disconnected from it. […] Of course, all human beings experience disconnection, alienation. The resolution of alienation is precisely found in experiencing the trauma of being born, of growing up, of being a teenager, and of finally coming into one's own--of connecting, in a word, with oneself. […] In time, as the child grows and comes into his own, he grows out of the initial alienation that as humans we all undergo. The young and future addict, on the other hand, doesn't grow out of it... he grows into it. […] experiences it profoundly in his spirit--in the spiritual part of him--in that part of him that gives him life, that makes him alive."
March 7, 2023
A surprisingly good read, discovered by chance in the Alison stacks. Such a good title too.
July 22, 2013
Provides insight to the mind of an addict or alcoholic. Must read for anyone in recovery. A recommended read for anyone affected by an addict or alcoholic, provides answers to the question of How could they be like that
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews