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Sweat: A Practical Plan For Keeping Your Heart Intact While Loving An Addict
"Sweat". It took a lot of this sweat and time for the author to develop this plan to get her life back, to recover from being addicted to the addicts in her life. Millions of us know the chaos that occurs in the daily lives of those who love addicts and alcoholics. Do we know fear, frustration, anxiety, distraction, depression? These become our lives. Focus? What does that even mean?
The author, who has had addicts in her life, most of her life, moved into crisis mode when she discovered that her teenage son was addicted to prescription drugs along with alcohol and street drugs. Hers is a story of discovery and recovery. The plan that worked for her, as she says "to get about 85% of my life back" is a simple plan. This plan is her contribution to hope, peace, and serenity for those who live in the midst of this chaos called addiction.
Denise Krochta grew up duing the 50's and 60's on the East coast of the US. She has a BA degree from Indiana University, Bloomington, in foreign languages.
After college, her career in International Business took her to places around the globe. Travelling, meeting and learning about people and their values and traditions, have since been an integral part of her life.
Denise is married and has two grown sons. She and her husband live in Florida with their energetic boxer pup.
www.denisekrochta.com
The author, who has had addicts in her life, most of her life, moved into crisis mode when she discovered that her teenage son was addicted to prescription drugs along with alcohol and street drugs. Hers is a story of discovery and recovery. The plan that worked for her, as she says "to get about 85% of my life back" is a simple plan. This plan is her contribution to hope, peace, and serenity for those who live in the midst of this chaos called addiction.
Denise Krochta grew up duing the 50's and 60's on the East coast of the US. She has a BA degree from Indiana University, Bloomington, in foreign languages.
After college, her career in International Business took her to places around the globe. Travelling, meeting and learning about people and their values and traditions, have since been an integral part of her life.
Denise is married and has two grown sons. She and her husband live in Florida with their energetic boxer pup.
www.denisekrochta.com
120 pages, Paperback
First published January 8, 2010
8 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 29, 2016
"There will always be some crisis or chaos, but things are okay now."
I was immediately drawn into the book "Sweat" after reading the beginning quote: "When it gets dark enough, you can see the stars." by Charles A. Beard.
Denise Krochta takes us on the journey of her transformation and learning to create a life of balance and serenity--despite of how others around her have chosen to live.
In the midst of her teenage son's drug addiction, Denise begins to create a plan for her own personal recovery. She writes, " I was able to take some attention away from living my drug addict son's life and begin to live my own. Just learning and planning to do something to get my life back was actually a therapeutic beginning to my plan."
I love her description of attending her first 12-step group as she states "It is absolutely not necessary to be a believer in the 12-step philosophy to get benefit from these groups. The steps are there if you want them. This kind of group was really the only "help" available I found that was not cost prohibitive and required no effort . . . The group will let you know right at the beginning that its purpose is to help others get their lives back and learn to take care of themselves. It is not a place to learn how to cure and control addicts."
The author offers words of wisdom on blame--"Even if there is a clear-cut, obvious place to put blame, it is not useful. If we spend time blaming, we are using precious time in a negative way."
This book offers the reader the keys to taking care of themselves and learning to choose peace, serenity and joy while in the midst of chaos. Denise states that she decided to save herself, because she had come to understand that no one else would.
I recommend this book for anyone--regardless of what is happening in their life at the moment, because as Denise states toward the end:
"There will always be some crisis or chaos, but things are okay now."
Judy Herzanek, Co-Author:
Why Don't They Just Quit? What families and friends need to know about addiction and recovery
90-Minute DVD: Why Don't They Just QUIT? DVD Roundtable Discussion: What families and friends need to know about addiction and recovery.
I was immediately drawn into the book "Sweat" after reading the beginning quote: "When it gets dark enough, you can see the stars." by Charles A. Beard.
Denise Krochta takes us on the journey of her transformation and learning to create a life of balance and serenity--despite of how others around her have chosen to live.
In the midst of her teenage son's drug addiction, Denise begins to create a plan for her own personal recovery. She writes, " I was able to take some attention away from living my drug addict son's life and begin to live my own. Just learning and planning to do something to get my life back was actually a therapeutic beginning to my plan."
I love her description of attending her first 12-step group as she states "It is absolutely not necessary to be a believer in the 12-step philosophy to get benefit from these groups. The steps are there if you want them. This kind of group was really the only "help" available I found that was not cost prohibitive and required no effort . . . The group will let you know right at the beginning that its purpose is to help others get their lives back and learn to take care of themselves. It is not a place to learn how to cure and control addicts."
The author offers words of wisdom on blame--"Even if there is a clear-cut, obvious place to put blame, it is not useful. If we spend time blaming, we are using precious time in a negative way."
This book offers the reader the keys to taking care of themselves and learning to choose peace, serenity and joy while in the midst of chaos. Denise states that she decided to save herself, because she had come to understand that no one else would.
I recommend this book for anyone--regardless of what is happening in their life at the moment, because as Denise states toward the end:
"There will always be some crisis or chaos, but things are okay now."
Judy Herzanek, Co-Author:
Why Don't They Just Quit? What families and friends need to know about addiction and recovery
90-Minute DVD: Why Don't They Just QUIT? DVD Roundtable Discussion: What families and friends need to know about addiction and recovery.
March 23, 2015
The title says what it is, truly. A set of instructions for those of us who love an addict and are trying to be happy and have some kind of life. The author spares the reader the gory details of her addiction story instead focuses on the survival part. Her son's is a survival story, thankfully, as we hope and dreams ours to be.
April 11, 2016
‘SWEAT : A Practical Plan For Keeping Your Heart Intact While Loving An Addict’ is a true story written by Denise Krochta. It is about her son’s addiction to drugs and her journey of self development and personal growth from chaos, hopelessness and despair, to peace and serenity. It is a great self help book for anyone wanting to get back on track with what is indeed wonderful about life.
Family life is all about illnesses, disability, death, confrontations, crises, etc. The author explains how your love for someone with an addiction can lead to fear, frustration, anxiety, distraction and depression which can totally take over your life. There will always be some chaos in life. This book is about the trauma of family life and how it makes one re-prioritise one’s life (values and activities).
When one first learns about a loved one’s addiction you have so many questions and much valuable time is spent (and wasted) trying to find answers, not to mention all the stress along the way. The author discusses how, when faced with adversity, you read countless books, attend numerous seminars, investigate different philosophies, try new ways of coping, join various support groups and accumulate vast numbers of magazines, CDs, DVDs, newspapers and other materials. The aim of her book is to get you through that maze.
She also explains how addiction takes over a family’s life and the importance of not losing sight of reality and the beautiful things around you. It is a story of hope: how to live with addiction and come out on top. Another of the author’s messages is learning to live life not through your family (or others around you) but for yourself first and foremost. If you can achieve the best emotional health and emotional wealth, your peace and serenity is the best gift you can give your loved ones.
The descriptions of motherhood emotions are powerful and take the reader from past to present to future in a flash. You feel you are there with her and her son, experiencing exactly what they are. You are also reminded of how quickly the brain processes and retrieves information, and how a simple memory sparks a flood of emotions.
She also touches on brain plasticity and how to re-programme it to get rid of negativity. She covers how she looked at negative incidents in a new light in order to keep some perspective in her life. The 'experiences' in Chapter 12 comprise useful tips for one-to-one interactions and confrontations which are particularly valuable for keeping sane, a peaceful mind and regaining happiness when faced with chaos and the unknown.
In essence it is a journey of self development and personal growth. It is a great self help book for anyone who has chaos in their lives and wants to make the transition to a life with more peace of mind.
October 15, 2019
This book gives hope to the reader that it is possible to have a peaceful, joyful life despite the chaos surrounding life with an addict. I related to the author's story in some ways and not in others, but even though the journey is different for each person, the heartache and insanity is the same. I appreciate the tools she shares on how to find serenity for yourself and still love the addict in your life.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews