Product Description

The concept of recovery is now being applied to a variety of life issues that affect millions of people. Whether readers are just beginning their journey or have already experienced deep healing, hope and love, Chicken Soup for the Recovering Soul is a "portable support group" offering hope and inspiration. Filled with stories of people who have been there and now live each day to the best of their ability, these stories convey the life-defining challenges and joys of the recovering journey.

Topics include: alcohol and drug addiction; behavioral disorders; chronic pain; depression; eating disorders; trauma; and destructive relationships.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #181323 in Books
• Published on: 2004-12-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 432 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780757302039
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

About the Author
Jack Canfield is a best-selling author and one of America’s leading experts in the development of human potential. He is both a dynamic and entertaining speaker and a highly sought-after trainer with a wonderful ability to inform and inspire audiences to pen their hearts, love more openly and pursue their dreams.He is the author and narrator of several best-selling audio- and video cassette programs, including Self Esteem and Peak Performance, How to Build High Self-Esteem, Self-Esteem in the Classroom and Chicken Soup for the Soul – Live. He is regularly seen on television shows such as Good Morning America, 20/20 and NBC Nightly News.

Mark Victor Hansen is the #1 New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series. He is a professional speaker who has dedicated his live to enhancing the personal and professional development of others. In the last twenty years, had made over four-thousand presentations to more than 2 million people in 32 countries.

Robert J. Ackerman, Ph.D., is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Mid-Atlantic Addiction Training Institute at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He is a co-founder of the National Association for Children of Alcoholics, author of ten books and numerous research articles. He is a national lecturer, has appeared on shows such as The Today Show, Oprah, CNN Headline news and his research as been featured in Newsweek. He and his wife, Kimberly, have three children and live in Indiana, Pennsylvania.

Peter Vegso continues to grow the businesses he and Gary founded over 25 years ago. Health Communications’ first New York Times bestseller appeared on the list in 1985. Recognized by Publishers Weekly as the #1 Self-Help Publisher, HCI is guided by their mission statement "Making a difference in the lives of our readers and the people they come in contact with." Diversification within Peter’s businesses includes; a professional publishing and conference division, U.S. Journal Training, which serves the mental health community, and Reading, Etc., a custom design and architectural elements company which includes two retail stores. Peter enjoys his 140-acre Thoroughbred breeding and training facility in Ocala, Florida, where the hardest working manager in the world, Chuck Patton, handles daily operations. It is their intention to not only win the Kentucky Derby but also the Triple Crown before their spirits leave this planet.

Theresa Peluso met Peter Vegso and Gary Seidler in 1981 and got acquainted with horses through the partners' interest in Thoroughbreds soon after. Prior to that, her only connection to horses was her Irish grandmother, who loved the ponies and jumped at the chance to move to Florida in the early 1960s to be near Hialeah Park. While working on Chicken Soup for the Horse Lover's Soul, Theresa was introduced to these intuitive animals through the eyes of the writers. Through their stories she came to understand what a powerful bond we all share with horses, and developed a spiritual connection to the community of warm, generous people who graciously shared their world—and the incomparable world of horses—with her.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Friends Of Bill W., Please Come…..

Once you learn to walk, crawling is out of the question.
-James D. Davis

Sometime in the early 1990's I was treating a woman in an intensive outpatient chemical dependency group. Let's call her "Grace." Grace was a flight attendant and had been suspended from her job with a major airline due to her untreated alcoholism. She had been stealing the little miniature liquor bottles and drinking in airport bars in uniform, etc. Her employer, realizing she needed treatment sent her to us.

After the eight week program, I suggested to her it might be a good idea to solidify her foundation in recovery before returning to work as she would be working in a high-risk environment (serving alcohol, being out of town alone, etc.). Grace did, however, return to work shortly after completing outpatient treatment. One day while she was departing from a plane at the end of long day a major craving for alcohol overpowered her. There she was, in the Los Angeles International Airport pulling her roller-bag behind her when this massive craving to drink came over her. She tried to just "think through it," or "just forget about it," but it was way too powerful. It was so powerful, in fact, that she had resigned to herself that she would just go drink. Grace thought, Oh, heck with it, I'll get another job….or maybe no one will find out anyway. But deep down inside Grace did not want to drink. She truly had wanted to stay sober, but she was in trouble.

On her way to the bar in the airport, Grace had a moment of sanity. She stopped, picked up the airport paging phone and said, "Will you please page friends of Bill W., “ she paused, quickly looking around for an empty gate, “to come to Gate 12?"

Within minutes, over the paging system in the LA International Airport came, "Will friends of Bill W. please come to Gate 12. Will friends of Bill W. please come to Gate 12." Most people in recovery know that asking if you are a friend of Bill W. is an anonymous way to identify yourself as a member of AA.

In less than five minutes there were about fifteen people at that gate from all over the world. That brought tears of amazement, relief and joy to Grace. They had a little meeting there in that empty gate, total strangers prior to that moment. Grace discovered that two of those people had gotten out of their boarding lines and missed their flights to answer that call for help. They had remembered what they had seen on many walls of meeting rooms: "When anyone, anywhere reaches out their hand for help, I want the hand of AA to be there and for that I am responsible."

Grace did not drink that day. I would venture to guess that none of the people who came to Gate 12 drank that day either. Instead Grace had a moment of sanity, realized she could not do it on her own, took the action of asking for help and received it immediately. This help is available to all of us if we want it and sincerely ask for it. It never fails.

Jim C., Jr.
Contributing author, Chicken Soup for the Recovering Soul

©2004. All rights reserved. Reprinted from Chicken Soup for the Recovering Soul® by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Robert Ackerman, Ph.D., Peter Vegso, Theresa Peluso and Gary Seidler. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the written permission of the publisher. Publisher: Health Communications, Inc., 3201 SW 15th Street, Deerfield Beach, FL 33442.

Customer Reviews

You can't go wrong.
What a wonderful collection of inspiring pieces from a broad section of the recovering community. Each story offers a glimpse at the challenges faced and how individuals reclaimed what was rightfully theirs - health, happiness and hope. I'd recommend it for anyone entering recovery as well as those who are already living a recovering lifestyle.

Thoroughly enjoyed it!
Dear K, I love the book and I'm so glad you were published in it because otherwise I might not have read it. After 18 years of sobriety, I'm still inspired by an individual's story of addiction, the necessary desperation that leads to the first step, and their journey to recovery. Although it's the kind of book I might reread, when I'm finished I'll probably pass it on to someone that I think needs to read it and hope it keeps getting passed along until it's worn out. This book won't go out of style. PAP

Very encouraging book
I think you can't go wrong with this book. The stories are encouraging and uplifting which is what someone in recovery needs, in my opinion. I've even highlighted pages so that I can go back and re-read what really spoke to me. I'd recommend buying this book in heartbeat.