Getting It

Why is it that some people struggling with addiction work the Twelve Steps, long after achieving stable abstinence, and others do not? What is the difference between those who seem to find the necessary willingness to "go to any length" and those who do not? These are questions that have haunted George DuWors since 1972. Observing addictions in every treatment setting, in private practice, in the rooms of recovery, and in everyday life, including his own experience, George has explored these questions for over four decades now. He has had the privilege of knowing the full range - from detox and belligerent denial to decades of recovery. And it always comes back to one thing. People keep working at Twelve Step recovery because they believe they need it. People who do not do that work do not feel that need. But where does that feeling of "need" come from? What is real to those working at recovery that is not real to those who see no such need? That is what this book is about, eight facts that become real to the person with addiction, so real that working "those steps" looks necessary and unavoidable. Together, they add up to the realization summarized by Step One, "We admitted the we were powerless over alcohol and our lives had become unmanageable." As George hammers away, again and again, Step one is experience, not something learned in any self-help book or treatment lecture. The person may have one defining moment when it all seems to come together. He or she "gets it." But if it does not include all of the eight facts spelled out here, relapse is biding its time. There is more to "get."In the beginning and for over two. decades, George focused on the problem. He used clinical tools and personal empathy to understand the alcoholic/addict "deciding" to pick up "that first drink/drug/whatever" of relapse. He published two editions of the book "White Knuckles and Wishful Thinking" (Hogref 1992,2000) and over twenty articles. He traveled the country giving talks and workshops on the subject. Things changed in the early nineties. George realized he needed to work the Twelve Steps for himself. This led to the humbling realization that the AA Big Book had focused on that moment of relapse from the very beginning, considered it "the crux of the matter." Then came "motivational enhancement therapy," MET. Gradually shifting from a problem focus on relapse and denial, George got interested in the solution. Especially, what motivates those who decide something different, who choose the recovery alternative to ever taking "just one." And how does working Twelve Steps help such people prevent themselves from deciding to go back to use?The answers came gradually, sometimes working in therapy, sometimes at the whiteboard in a workshop, especially when faced with a question he could not answer. Sometimes while thinking hard and reading, and even sitting in a meeting. At other times, seemingly "out of the blue." And in the end, they were pretty much all there in the AA Big Book, not even hidden in "the white part of the page." Direct quotes about eight facts that turn out to be crucial to the experience of Step One and necessary for the willingness to do all the work that follows. George has simply organized and connected them for you. They won't give anyone experience they have not already had. But they may make sense out of what did not make sense before, especially the realities you already see and how AA helps you or the alcoholic/addict you work with to prevent that next relapse.A word about style. George wrote these chapters like so many letters. The way he wrote home from college decades ago, the way many blogs are written today. He is not hiding behind a professional role or academic jargon. He is writing for family, and inflicts his cornball sense of humor as readily as he shares his personal experience or his clinical insight. You have never read a book quite like this one.