The Twelve-Step Warrior I spent most of my young life searching; searching for a meaning to my existence. The problem was, I was searching in the wrong place. My search was conducted on the very edge of society among fellow outcasts, all of them looking for answers, all making the same mistakes, all looking in the wrong places. I wasn't going to find a life worth living among the thieves, fighters, gamblers and one-time somebodies that propped up the bars of the worst drinking holes I attended back then on a nightly basis. The people I was mixing with then had already given up on their search and I too had fallen into their fold. My existence had become a beggar's search for the next hit of alcohol. I didn't really care who bought it for me, but I needed it, I craved it and it consumed me. All my thoughts, even when I had achieved my goal and was standing looking longingly into a full glass, were on where the next drink would come from. I was at the jumping off point and had to find a way out of this dark existence. This is the story of how I found my way out of that darkness and into the light.

Mental health and substance use disorders are ubiquitous conditions that have an enormous impact on individuals and families, and often lead to social and financial burdens, and sometimes catastrophes. Current Controversies in Mental Health and Addictions: An Expert's Anthology is a compilation of book and movie reviews, opinion blogs, and online articles on mental health and addiction. This compelling anthology helps readers understand and apply specific and every day mental health problems and their solutions. The material is organized into sections that address topics such as substance use, abuse, and addiction; borderline personality disorder; depression and bipolar disorders; suicide; and recovery. The high-interest content includes selections on how people with mental illnesses can have lives of contribution and how to keep them from becoming violent; treatment choices for alcoholism and substance use disorders; mental health law; adverse childhood experiences; wartime and other post-traumatic stress disorders; biomarkers for depression; and more. Current Controversies in Mental Health and Addictions provides a wealth of valuable information and insight for mental health professionals and lay readers alike. Applicable to numerous disciplines and students at various points in their pre-professional education, the book is particularly well-suited to courses in psychology, social work, counseling, nursing, addiction, and pre-medicine.

This revised and updated third edition is a highly practical guide to the steps that counselors can take on a day-to-day basis to help those who have problems with their use of alcohol. It is the key book recommended by most alcohol counseling courses in the UK, including the Scottish national alcohol counselors training scheme. This highly acclaimed text provides clear guidance for counselors and demonstrates the need to treat every client as an individual, attempting to understand and therefore enable the client to understand, what they are doing and why. The book has been thoroughly revised to take into account the current political, social and counseling context surrounding alcohol use. It now includes a wider range of case-studies and many new ideas which will help students and trainees develop the skills and strategies they need for working with their clients. Backed up with detailed case studies and useful resource material, the Third Edition of this bestselling text will continue to be invaluable for all practitioners, both those specializing in work with alcohol misusers and those who encounter problem drinkers in the context of a more general counseling practice.

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From a leading addiction specialist, this highly practical book explores what works in treating adolescents. Oscar G. Bukstein answers the clinician's vital question: "What do I do now?" He describes best practices for enhancing youths' motivation for change, teaching a variety of recovery skills, and implementing parent management training and parent-adolescent problem solving. The book covers ways to foster a prosocial peer network and to address mental health problems that co-occur with substance use disorders (SUDs). Clinicians can combine the strategies into an integrated approach or pick and choose depending on the needs of individual clients. Reproducible handouts and worksheets can be downloaded and printed in a convenient 8 1/2" x 11" size.