The material presented
here is not Al-Anon Conference Approved Literature. It is a method
to exchange
information, ideas, feelings, problems and solutions on a personal
level.
Hello. A while ago some wonderful people posted about literature that may be helpful to me. I wrote down the names of those books, but I wanted some advice on maybe one good one in particular to start with. One, How Alanon Works for Families and Friends of Alcoholics, stood out to me. Would this one be a good one for me, since I am just starting this journey?
Yes, how Al Anon works is what I started with. Also, Courage to Change is a really good one for me. It's short little anecdotes that are quick to read and have great impact. At the very beginning my head was such a mess I couldn't get through a full page of any book without pausing and running off on some other trail of thought. Courage to Change can teach you bits of wisdom - quickly. I'm now a bit better and reading How Al Anon Works.
How Al-Anon Works is the defintely the first book to pick up; it is meant to serve as a foundation starting from the beginning to lead you through the concepts of the program. (At one meeting I attend, we give away a copy of How Al-Anon Works to anyone who is brand new to the program.) As you read it, you may well find some topics that seem to have been written just for you, so that can help you pick out the literature that will be most on-target in offering additional insight into your own situation. You're definitely starting in the right place!
As a companion to How Al-Anon Works, many people find a daily reader very helpful. Meant to offer short, managable bites of a targeted thought to consider each day, the two daily readers you'll probably hear about most often are Courage to Change and One Day at a Time (ODAT). If you're going to face-to-face meetings, you may well run across meetings based on a reading from one of the daily readers, which could help you determine if you click with either or both.
With all of the books I've mentioned, I've found enough material to keep me thinking for days/weeks/longer. AND...if you read them again, you'll find that the messages hold different meanings to you each time. In my case, no matter how often I read any of them it seems like someone has sneaked in and added something new and different for me to chew over!
I'm very glad to have you on this journey with me, and I hope you'll come here often.
-- Edited by Suburban Denizen on Monday 31st of October 2016 12:18:59 PM
-- Edited by Suburban Denizen on Monday 31st of October 2016 12:21:51 PM
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"Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says 'I'll try again tomorrow.'"
Me too - completely. The Courage 2 Change is touched and read each day here. It's a go-to for daily program efforts.
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Practice the PAUSE...Pause before judging. Pause before assuming. Pause before accusing. Pause whenever you are about to react harshly and you will avoid doing and saying things you will later regret. ~~~~ Lori Deschene
What does everyone think about Hope for Today? Is it pretty similar to Courage to Change? I will most likely get How Alanon Works and get one of the others as well. Thank you all for your input. I feel like I really need something lately. It's so up and down living with an alcoholic.
I love Hope for Today. It is my daily reader. My understanding is that it is aimed particularly to help us membes who grew up in alcoholic homes. Adult Children of Alcoholics.
I see Courage to Change in the hands of the members of my home group who have active A spouses.
Many of us take our daily reader of choice to meetings as we use them to go around the room to read the steps out.
