ASK Addiction Survival Kit

Finding help and facing up to the challenges presented by any confrontation with addictive processes is of itself a huge challenge. There is so much information 'out there' that it is sometimes difficult to begin and the very nature of the challenges, despite all the information, can feel lonely and alienating.This little book is designed to help you simply START the process, by presenting perspectives and ways of exploring that don't make you feel as if you need an academic background to participate. It is a book to provide you with ways of reflecting on the challenges that encourage further exploration; further research and ultimately engagement with living- in a better, healthier way. Although written in simple words, I have done so in a way that hopefully encourages deep reflection;as the language may be simple, but each phrase could be a chapter, or indeed a book in itself.I thought deeply how best to convey my insights of over 25 years, in both terms of highs and lows and was tempted by many approaches.To offer something a little different required a trust in the value of the heart in explaining the gut-wrenching reality and descriptions of experience in this area of life. It was hard to not honour all my clients and fellow travellers by including descriptions of each and every one of their personal epiphanies and struggles. I hope that my distillation of what they taught me and now offer to you, honours them in the wider sphere and that their journeys signified help simplify and inform yours. The reflections are my subjective distillation of millions of words, rivers of tears and gales of laughter lived and worked during this period of my life. May it give someone the hope and motivation necessary to allow miracles to occur; such as I have witnessed and now share with you. I also write about a fundemental change that I believe (and many others do too), that has to occur if Western society is to mature and not continually degrade and decay. That change necessary, is for society to "own" its collusion in the continuing development and maintenance of addictive processes.we need to step away from the 'blame game' and consider our societal relationships with all forms of addictive processes, before we end up, like un- conscious addicts, in a bondage from which escape becomes increasingly problematic. Then who will we blame and scapegoat?! When all is said and done, ASK is about the power and scope of hope. I hope it helps you.