Author Archives: becomingnormal

I am working on my next book, which will be titled, Fear: Feel It, Face It, and Grow. My publisher, Central Recovery Press, has started the editing process. The book will publish in March of 2012 and we should have … Continue reading →

I realized recently that this is, for me, a thirteenth year. And I have given it credit for the miseries–minor for the most part–that I have suffered since turning fifty-two. I’m not superstitious or afraid of the number thirteen. Continue reading … Continue reading →

When I was a kid — somewhere around nine or ten years old—my dad took me into an auto plant to see how cars were built. The way we build cars has changed drastically in the past forty-plus years. While I don’t Continue reading … Continue reading →

I vacationed in Florida recently to get some much needed sun and warm weather. I also went to shake things up a little. I remember when I was a kid and had a bottle of pop that went flat. I … Continue reading →

I have been depressed lately; but not clinically depressed. As far as I know I don’t have clinical depression, but I am as prone to sadness and depression as the next person. After nearly two months of feeling out of… Continue reading →

When I was in First Grade, I wrote with both hands. When the teacher said, Alright, children, pick up your pencils and begin writing, I would gather a pencil in each hand, write with one hand until it got tired, … Continue reading →

Hitting bottom is talked about a lot in recovery. It seems people have to hit bottom before they can begin the climb back up (or out). I have been asked what my bottom was and the fact is that I … Continue reading →

When I was growing up there was a pond across the street from my subdivision. In the winter my friends and I would shovel the pond, then skate and play hockey. We were outdoors all the time and often played … Continue reading →

I can understand how someone may see that spending twenty-five years drinking and drugging is a failure.  I saw my life that way when I first got into recovery. I wondered how I made such a mess of things for … Continue reading →

Soon after I got into recovery I began to hear people say something like, I went to a party last weekend with a bunch of normal people. Sometimes they called them “Normies” or said it differently. And nobody ever defined … Continue reading →