Allen Berger is in private practice. For the past 36 years, he has been on his own personal journey in recovery while helping thousands of others discover a new way of life, free from addiction and its insanity. In this helpful and healing work, he presents the twelve most commonly encountered beliefs and attitudes that can dash and destroy recovery. Here are a few of them:
• Believing that sobriety will fix everything.
• Feeling special and unique.
• Not making amends.
• Using the program to try to become perfect.
• Believing that life should be easy.
• Confusing self-concern with selfishness.
Berger also takes a decisive look at the causes of self-destructive behavior that must be confronted in recovery: addiction to our disease, ignorance, unreasonable expectations and emotional dependency, and self-erasure and self-hate.
The author notes that "we have to pursue recovery with the same tenacity and enthusiasm that we had when we were drinking or using other drugs." That means working with the 12 Steps of AA with humility that is built upon surrender to a power greater than ourselves. He sees humility as the spiritual foundation of recovery.
