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The Impact of Parental Alcoholism on Children: How to Recognize the Signs and Seek Help
Alcoholism is a serious problem that can have a devastating impact on the lives of those affected, including children. Children of alcoholic parents are at risk of developing a range of physical, psychological, and behavioral problems. It is important to recognize the signs of parental alcoholism and to seek help for the affected family.
The physical effects of parental alcoholism on children can include poor physical health, malnutrition, and an increased risk of developing certain medical conditions. Children of alcoholics may also experience emotional and behavioral problems, such as depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, and difficulty forming relationships. They may also display signs of aggression, impulsivity, and difficulty concentrating.
It is important to recognize the signs of parental alcoholism in order to seek help for the affected family. Parents should be aware of any changes in their child’s behavior or physical health that may be related to their drinking. They should also be aware of any changes in their own drinking habits, such as increased frequency or quantity of alcohol consumption.
If you suspect that your child is being affected by parental alcoholism, it is important to seek help. Talk to your child’s doctor or a mental health professional to discuss your concerns. They can provide advice and support to help your family cope with the situation.
It is also important to seek help for the alcoholic parent. There are a range of treatments available, including counseling, support groups, and medication. Treatment can help the parent to reduce their drinking and to manage their condition.
Parental alcoholism can have a devastating impact on children. It is important to recognize the signs and to seek help for the affected family. With the right support, it is possible to reduce the impact of parental alcoholism and to help the family to cope with the situation.
Understanding the Long-Term Effects of Growing Up with an Alcoholic Parent
Growing up with an alcoholic parent can have long-term effects on a person’s life. These effects can be both psychological and physical, and can manifest in a variety of ways. It is important to understand the potential consequences of growing up with an alcoholic parent in order to better support those who have experienced this situation.
Psychologically, children of alcoholics may experience a range of issues. These can include low self-esteem, difficulty forming relationships, and difficulty trusting others. They may also struggle with feelings of guilt, shame, and anger. These issues can lead to depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues.
Physically, children of alcoholics may be more likely to develop health problems. These can include an increased risk of heart disease, stroke, and other cardiovascular issues. They may also be more likely to develop substance abuse issues themselves, as well as problems with alcohol or drug addiction.
Children of alcoholics may also struggle with academic and career success. They may have difficulty focusing in school, leading to lower grades and a lack of motivation. This can lead to difficulty finding and maintaining employment, as well as a lack of financial stability.
It is important to recognize the long-term effects of growing up with an alcoholic parent. Those who have experienced this situation may need extra support and understanding in order to cope with the psychological and physical effects. With the right help and support, those who have grown up with an alcoholic parent can lead healthy and successful lives.
How to Support a Child of an Alcoholic Parent: Tips for Parents and Caregivers
As a parent or caregiver of a child of an alcoholic parent, it is important to provide support and understanding. It can be difficult to know how to best help a child in this situation, but there are some tips that can help.
1. Listen and validate. It is important to listen to the child and validate their feelings. Let them know that it is okay to talk about their feelings and that you are there to support them.
2. Educate yourself. Learn as much as you can about the effects of alcoholism on children and how to best support them.
3. Create a safe environment. Make sure the child feels safe and secure in their home. This may include setting boundaries and providing structure.
4. Encourage healthy activities. Encourage the child to participate in activities that are healthy and positive, such as sports, music, or art.
5. Seek professional help. If needed, seek professional help for the child. This may include counseling or therapy.
6. Take care of yourself. It is important to take care of yourself as well. Make sure to take time for yourself and practice self-care.
By following these tips, you can provide the best support possible for a child of an alcoholic parent. It is important to remember that each child is different and may need different types of support. It is also important to be patient and understanding. With the right support, a child of an alcoholic parent can thrive.
Emerging Understandings & Solutions for Addictions
Solving Alcohol and Drug Addiction
In the U.S., ten percent of the population consumes half the alcohol. Many people who are either heavy users or dependent upon alcohol and sedative substances have tried unsuccessfully to “cut down” or to stop. Treatment programs and education have helped many people, but the overall outcome percentages are not impressive (sometimes under ten percent). It is little wonder that most Americans believe that alcohol and drug problems are virtually hopeless conditions. With all the scientific breakthroughs, why isn’t there a product that helps eliminate cravings for alcohol and drugs, is safe to take, has few if any side effects, evens out mood swings, decreases sleep problems, helps prevent the damage to the liver and other organs caused by these substances, and greatly improves the chances of sobriety for those who should stop their use completely? We at Nutrenergy would like to introduce you to a totally natural supplements in the Power Recovery Nutrient Paks, which can offer an answer to these questions and which has already changed the lives of thousands of people who have a tendency to abuse alcohol and drugs.
Why do alcohol and drugs injure us? Most people are surprised to find out that the long term injury caused by these substances has more to do with their breakdown products, call “metabolites,” than with the original substance itself. Some of these metabolites are called “free radicals,” and they injure tissues, cellular components, and even our DNA. This injury leads to higher rates of cancer, vascular disease, immune disorders and cirrhosis. So any supplement designed to help people who have a tendency to abuse alcohol or drugs must first of all have a wide array of antioxidants to prevent or lessen free radical injury.
If heavy alcohol and drug use have the potential to cause medical, interpersonal, social, and vocational problems, why do some people have such a hard time stopping? Alcohol and drugs, like all mood-altering agents, achieve their effects on our moods by stimulating and replacing certain natural “feel-good” brain chemicals, called “neurotransmitters.” When the alcohol or drugs are cleared from our bodies and brains, we must re-synthesize these depleted natural neurotransmitters from nutrients in our diets. For a variety of reasons, some of us don’t restore our “feel-good” brain chemistry as well as others. This persisting imbalance of brain chemistry is what causes cravings, mood swings, irritability, and sleep problems. We are then compelled to replace the deficiency temporarily by using more alcohol or drugs, which only perpetuates and worsens the problem.
What predisposes some of us to this imbalance of brain chemistry? One factor is genetics. Some of us simply don’t resynthesize the neurotransmitters as well as others, because our genes inefficiently encode for the enzymes which generate these chemicals. Some of us may have the genes to do it, but we lack the dietary amino and fatty acid precursors, vitamins, and minerals that are made into these particular brain chemicals. Some of us even have the right genes and nutrition, but we use up our neurotransmitters so fast by living high stress lifestyles that we don’t replace them in time to maintain enduring feelings of well being. Finally, some of us have adequate genes, good nutrition, and reasonably healthy lifestyles, but we lack loving support systems to give our lives purpose and meaning. This is a special kind of stress that further erodes those neurotransmitters that are in our brains to buffer us against the occasional stress, dietary indiscretion, or isolation. Whatever the cause of depletion, the biochemical deficiency creates an urge or compulsion for an artificial and temporary solution.
In its most extreme and chronic form, this is called alcoholism or drug addiction. The compulsion can be virtually unstoppable unless the biochemistry is rapidly restored with depleted nutrients.
Since we now know that the problem is caused by an imbalance in brain chemistry, and we know which drugs deplete which neurotransmitters, and we also know which nutrient raw materials the brain uses to synthesize which neurotransmitters, the solution is obvious! Use the proper nutrients, and it becomes much easier to deal with the problem. Treatment programs that use this technology have dramatically better outcome rates than those who do not. Even if you are not in treatment, we recommend that you use the Power Recovery Nutrient Paks anyway, if alcohol or drugs are causing problems in your life. The important thing is, don’t blame yourself if you struggle to get a handle on this problem. You are not responsible for your genetic predisposition, and you probably were never told the problem was biochemical. This is not a moral issue, nor even primarily a psychological one, in spite of the fact that many people, even professionals who treat it, see it in these ways. Nor can it be corrected by replacing one destructive chemical with another. Mother Nature dictates that you can only rebalance yourself the way she says. Lucky for us, the technology now exists to correct the problem.
The third way in which the Power Recovery Nutrient Paks are helpful for overuse of alcohol and drugs is to assist in the restoration of the gastrointestinal tract. You probably know that alcohol causes major havoc in the stomach, intestines, pancreas, and liver, even in people who have no major symptoms. The Power Recovery Nutrient Paks also have a cutting-edge combination of glycolipids to repair damaged tissues, acidophillus to restore the friendly gut bacteria, and pantethine and other growth factors to get the bacteria growing. Sometimes there may be some gas, bloating, or loose stools with this product, because it is “cleaning out” the unfriendly inhabitants in your gut that had overgrown due to alcohol, stress, or poor diet. Just cut the dose down for awhile, until these harmless and self-limiting symptoms are manageable, and, as your GI flora grow healthier, you will be able to tolerate a higher dose.
Remember that the health of your digestive tract has a lot to do with your overall health and sense of well being. If these symptoms occur, notice how good you feel in spite of them. The elimination of toxic microorganisms generally makes people feel healthier in the long run.
Article written by Dr. Chas Gant, M.D., Ph.D.
The suggested product is not intended to diagnose, prevent, cure, or treat any disease. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Consult your healthcare provider before taking nutritional supplements of any kind.
Quit Smoking Naturally
Quit Smoking Naturally, Painlessly, and Successfully
Dr. Chas Gant, M.D., Ph.D.
Nicotine, the addictive substance in cigarettes, is one of the most powerful poisons on earth. If by some accident a child should ingest even a small amount of the substance through a nicotine patch, he or she would almost immediately go into convulsions that would in all likelihood be fatal. It’s so toxic that as few as two or three drops of pure nicotine applied directly to the skin of an average person will kill him or her within minutes. In lower doses, nicotine can cause high blood pressure, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, heart palpitations and irregular heartbeat, tremors, convulsions, and central nervous system overstimulation. There is no known antidote for nicotine poisoning.
How is it that so many people habitually use such a powerful and potentially deadly toxic substance on a daily basis? Moreover, how is it that smokers who are addicted to nicotine are given prescriptions to the very substance they’re hooked on in order to stop smoking?
The answer to both questions lies in the way our brains work. And by the way, so does the answer to the question, “How can I quit smoking without resorting to using nicotine (and other stop-smoking drugs) and without risking further negative health consequences?”
Brain Neurotransmitters
Our brain cells, or neurons, communicate with each other by means of small molecules, called neurotransmitters, that they manufacture directly from nutrients, including vitamins, minerals, and amino acids. When neurons exchange these molecules with each other, they enable us to stay focused and alert, to be able to deal with stressful situations, and to block out pain, among many other things.
When sufficient amounts of nutrients are available to our brains so they can produce and exchange these chemical neurotransmitters in adequate amounts, we tend to stay on top of things, to remain relaxed and happy, and to get pleasure out of everyday life experiences. However, when our brains don’t have enough of the nutrients they need to produce neurotransmitters in sufficient quantities, we can become irritable, unable to focus, angry, even depressed. If neurotransmitter shortages continue for longer periods of time, we begin looking for ways to deal with them.
Among the most common solutions many of us find to this problem is to take up smoking. That’s because, simply put, nicotine, the addictive substance in cigarettes, changes the way our brains work. It artificially interrupts the normal process of manufacturing and exchanging several different types of neurotransmitter, temporarily making us feel “normal” again.
The problem is that once the nicotine is used up, our brains are once again unable to produce the neurotransmitters we require to feel good, and we need another cigarette. If you’re a smoker, as you continued to smoke, your brain got used to using nicotine as a substitute for its normal production of neurotransmitters, and you began to rely more and more on the nicotine and less and less on your brain’s natural ability to keep you focused, alert, and happy. Presto! A habit was born.
The real problem in trying to quit, though, is not the cigarettes themselves but the fact that most physicians don’t have a good understanding of how our brains work. They’re unaware that there is a very straightforward way to rebalance our brain chemistry so that we no longer need nicotine.
Power Recovery Program
It’s so simple, in fact, that even folks who have been smoking cigarettes for years find that within 24 to 72 hours of using a revolutionary new strategy called the Power Recovery Program, their cravings are diminished, and even disappear. Best of all, you don’t have to stay hooked on nicotine, or take any other addictive substance, to stop smoking. What you do need to do is to take measured doses of several key nutritional supplements, which are likely in short supply in your body. Doing this makes key nutrients available to your brain and enables you very quickly to resume producing the neurotransmitters you need to overcome the craving for cigarettes and to begin to feel normal again without them.
Quick Start For Smokers To Quit
There’s a special Quick-Start for Smokers stage in the Power Recovery Program that enables you to understand exactly which nutrients are in short supply and have led to your needing to use cigarettes to make you feel better. Quick-Start for Smokers explains exactly which nutritional supplements you need to immediately provide your brain with the nutrients it requires to jump-start the production of the neurotransmitters that can reduce or eliminate your cigarette cravings and get you off on the right foot toward recovery. Best of all, with the Quick-Start nutrients you have the choice of quitting smoking right away or tapering off the use of cigarettes gradually.
The Quick-Start for Smokers nutritional supplement formula consists of the amino acids L-Glutamine and L-Tyrosine, 5HTP, lecithin, vitamin C, and a combination of other vitamins and minerals that are available by purchasing any one of a number of national brand name multi-vitamin, multi-mineral capsules.
Bottom line: If you are a smoker who has struggled with quitting and feel that you’re hopeless, take heart. The Power Recovery Program approach has had unprecedented success with helping people overcome addictions of all types, including cigarettes. You can do it too!
Helping Those Who are Constitutionally Incapable of Recovery
Dr. Chas Gant, M.D., Ph.D.
Alcoholics Anonymous
“Constitutionally Incapable” is the term used in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous to describe a person who can not recover from addiction. In other words, some individuals are thought to be so morally and physically “bankrupt,” that providing treatment and AA for them is a waste of time. Because of serious flaws in their psychological makeup (mind), their physical/medical condition (body) and/or their disconnection to anything greater than their own selfish interests (spirit), they will find it impossible to stop abusing alcohol and chemicals or establish authentic sobriety.
The founders of AA, building on the work of physicians like Benjamin Rush (1) for over 200 years, offered a window of hope for those who are Constitutionally Incapable of recovery, predicting that someday, when science has advanced far enough, the physical cause(s) which explain(s) why some individuals who appear to be hopeless, will be discovered, and rational, science-based, medical interventions will become widely available. They envisioned that those who seem to be Constitutionally Incapable of recovery will be treated properly and “reformed” into people who are indeed Constitutionally Capable of making a complete recovery.
Age of Neuroscience
That hope basically entails putting the recovery of “body” into the promised recovery of “mind, body and spirit.” Until very recently, the “body” part of that triad was not available. However, the Age of Neuroscience has to come into vogue, and the brain mechanisms explaining the symptoms of mental disorders, such as addiction, depression and anxiety, can now be explained. This phenomenon has been popularized on top-of-the-charts TV crime shows like bones and CSI, where laboratory science investigators collect DNA and other data at the crime scenes to determine the perpetrator.
This technology has recently become available, and now we can realize the vision of the founders of AA and provide laboratory-based, scientific data about brain chemistry imbalances which undoubtedly cause the symptoms of craving, depression, insomnia and anxiety. Armed with this data, intelligent, rational interventions can be devised to abolish such post-abstinence symptoms. Those who were once Constitutionally Incapable of recovery are now perfectly able to recovery like other “less damaged” addicts and alcoholics. An analysis of outcome data regarding long term abstinence when these technologies are provided suggests that no longer is anyone Constitutionally Incapable of recovery.
Biochemical Risk Factors
Thousands of peer-reviewed, university-performed studies have virtually proven that these biochemical “risk factors”(2) for addiction can be found and reversed, which leads to astonishing outcomes (3). Insurance-covered, diagnostic tests are readily available to test for these risk factors which when corrected, can transform Constitutionally Incapable addicts. Some are food allergies (4), heavy and toxic metal poisoning (5), amino acid deficiencies (6), neurotransmitter turnover (7), essential fatty acid deficiencies (8) and many other imbalances, toxicities and nutritional deficiencies. Consumer friendly books (9) are available which introduces readers to this science.
Unfortunately the science has moved so quickly that most physicians are not trained in the biochemistry related to brain disorders, nor do they know how to order appropriate testing panels to determine the causes of addictions, or how to interpret the tests or how to devise science based interventions.
Generally, the best that conventional medicine and psychiatry have to offer are replacement drugs, which merely cover up symptoms with other, equally addictive psychotropic chemicals, and which do not address the root cause of the problem. Amassed studies strongly suggest that a failure to reverse these root causes of addiction, will trap those who are Constitutionally Incapable of recovery to remain in an endless spiral of addiction.
Functional Lab Testing
Diagnostic testing not only uncovers the root causes of addiction, allowing clinicians to intelligently reverse them. Diagnostic testing also helps to bring a profound change in the psychosocial and spiritual perspective of a recovering individual. Addiction has been recognized as a shame-based disease . Addicts have been prosecuted as criminals, treated as psychiatric patients with psychotherapy and psychiatric medications, and generally given the message that there is fundamentally and shamefully something wrong with them.
Once I lay out the functional lab testing results for an addict or their family, a different message comes through loud and clear – that certain biochemical risk factors unique to each individual are the actual cause of the addiction, and not any of these other moralistic or psychosocial excuses. Patients tend to forgive themselves immediately, and their families forgive them too. The shame is lifted. The self- and other-loathing, which contributed to the condition of “Constitutional Incapableness” melts away. The vision of AA’s founders, scientists and physicians throughout the ages is now attainable. Very few if any addicted or alcoholic people are constitutional incapable of recovery when they avail themselves of these marvelous diagnostic technologies.
References
(1) A signer of the Declaration of Independence and George Washington’s personal physician, strived to make freedom of religion and freedom of healthcare inalienable rights. He was an advocate of treating mental disorders as diseases instead of as moral or religious problems.
(2) Any medical condition can have risk factors which predispose a person to have that condition. This term is best known when applied to heart disease, which has certain risk factors such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure, smoking, diabetes etc. Reverse the risk factors and the chances of succumbing to the disorder are lessened.
(3) Gant CE (2000) Functional Medicine:The Missing Link in Addictionology, JOURNAL OF ADDICTIONS NURSING, Volume 12, Numbers 3/4, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.
(4) http://www.metametrix.com/content/DirectoryOfServices/0075IgG4FoodAntibodies90-Serum
(5) http://www.metametrix.com/content/DirectoryOfServices/0022NutrientToxicElements-Erythrocytes
(6) http://www.metametrix.com/content/DirectoryOfServices/0010AminoAcids40-Plasma
(7) http://www.metametrix.com/content/DirectoryOfServices/0091OrganixComprehensive-Urine
(8) http://www.metametrix.com/content/DirectoryOfServices/0040FattyAcids-Plasma
(9) Gant CE (2009) End Your Addiction Now. Square One Publishers.
(10) Bradshaw J (1988) Healing the Shame that Binds You, Health Communications Inc, Deerfield Beach, Florida (available on Amazon.com – http://www.amazon.com/Healing-Shame-That-Binds-You/dp/0932194869#noop
Recovery Quotes
- “I avoid looking forward or backward, and try to keep looking upward.” – Charlotte Brontë
- “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” – Chinese proverb
- “Sometimes you can only find Heaven by slowly backing away from Hell.” – Carrie Fisher
- “Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” – Theodore Roosevelt
- “Nothing is impossible; the word itself says, ‘I’m possible!’” – Audrey Hepburn
- “People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Neither does bathing. That’s why we recommend it daily.” – Zig Ziglar
- “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.” – Robert Collier
- “It’s difficult to believe in yourself because the idea of self is an artificial construction. You are, in fact, part of the glorious oneness of the universe. Everything beautiful in the world is within you.” – Russell Brand
- “When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.” – Henry Ford
- “If we are facing in the right direction, all we have to do is keep on walking.” – Zen proverb
- “Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.” – Carl Bard
- “I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.’” – Muhammad Ali
- “It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves, and it is not possible to find it elsewhere.” – Agnes Repplier
- “If things go wrong, don’t go with them.” – Roger Babson
- “Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “When the past calls, let it go to voicemail. Believe me, it has nothing new to say.” – Unknown
- “Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news. The good news is that you don’t know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is!” – Anne Frank
- “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” – Nelson Mandela
- “The greatest mistake you can make in life is to continually be afraid you will make one.” – Elbert Hubbard
- “Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It’s perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we’ve learned something from yesterday.” – John Wayne
- “What progress, you ask, have I made? I have begun to be a friend to myself.” – Hecato
- “Every worthy act is difficult. Ascent is always difficult. Descent is easy and often slippery.” – Mahatma Gandhi
- “People can be more forgiving than you can imagine. But you have to forgive yourself. Let go of what’s bitter and move on.” – Bill Cosby
- “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.” – Albert Einstein
- “If you can quit for a day, you can quit for a lifetime.” – Benjamin Alire Sáenz
- “I understood, through rehab, things about creating characters. I understood that creating whole people means knowing where we come from, how we can make a mistake and how we overcome things to make ourselves stronger.” – Samuel L. Jackson
- “In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger — something better, pushing right back.” – Albert Camus
- “Patience and the mulberry leaf becomes a silk gown.” – Chinese proverb
- “It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life. Where you stumble, there lies your treasure.” – Joseph Campbell
- “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” – Henry Ford
- “There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” – Anaïs Nin
- “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” – Alice Walker
- “The past is a ghost, the future a dream and all we ever have is now.” – Bill Cosby
- “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” – Robert Louis Stevenson
- “Not feeling is no replacement for reality. Your problems today are still your problems tomorrow.” – Larry Michael Dredla
- “I think that the power is the principle. The principle of moving forward, as though you have the confidence to move forward, eventually gives you confidence when you look back and see what you’ve done.” – Robert Downey Jr.
- “Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you.” – Charlotte Whitton
- “Every experience in your life is being orchestrated to teach you something you need to know to move forward.” – Brian Tracy
- “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” – Oscar Wilde
- “Fall seven times, stand up eight.” – Japanese proverb
- “Either you run the day, or the day runs you.” – Jim Rohn
- “I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear.” – Rosa Parks
- “When was the last time you woke up and wished you’d had just one more drink the night before? I have never regretted not drinking. Say this to yourself, and you’ll get through anything.” – Meredith Bell
- “The best way out is always through.” – Robert Frost
- “If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.” – Yogi Berra
- “Amazing how we can light tomorrow with today.” – Elizabeth Barrett Browning
- “Sometimes we motivate ourselves by thinking of what we want to become. Sometimes we motivate ourselves by thinking about who we don’t ever want to be again.” – Shane Niemeyer
- “Every noble work is at first impossible.” – Thomas Carlyle
- “The great thing in this world is not so much where you stand, as in what direction you are moving.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes
- “Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.” – Babe Ruth
- “I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my life – and I’ve never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do.” – Georgia O’Keeffe
- “Keep steadily before you the fact that all true success depends at last upon yourself.” – Theodore T. Hunger
- “Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” – Helen Keller
- “Never say anything about yourself you do not want to come true.” – Brian Tracy
- “If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.” – Vincent Van Gogh
- “To improve the golden moment of opportunity, and catch the good that is within our reach, is the great art of life.” – Samuel Johnson
- “As one goes through life, one learns that if you don’t paddle your own canoe, you don’t move.” – Katharine Hepburn
- “Happiness is where we find it, but rarely where we seek it.” – J. Petit Senn
- “We may think there is willpower involved, but more likely … change is due to want power. Wanting the new addiction more than the old one. Wanting the new me in preference to the person I am now.” – George Sheehan
- “What makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery
- “Man never made any material as resilient as the human spirit.” – Bernard Williams
- “I dwell in possibility.” – Emily Dickinson
- “The only journey is the one within.” – Rainer Maria Rilke
- “What is addiction, really? It is a sign, a signal, a symptom of distress. It is a language that tells us about a plight that must be understood.” – Alice Miller
- “If you accept the expectations of others, especially negative ones, then you never will change the outcome.” – Michael Jordan
- “I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” – Jimmy Dean
- “When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.” – Harriet Beecher Stowe
- “You must do the things you think you cannot do.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
- “The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson