Duaine M
here
This shows where we were going. We all
had high hopes.
SOS International and most all of these web
links no longer work.
Only one or two SOS Groups exist but are
barely hanging on.
SOS
Conference Highlights
|
By Jim Christopher
"Wellness in
Recovery" is a life theme for
many in SOS. Theoretically one could
achieve sobriety and simply sit in a
chair or one could continue to delve
into dysfunctional behavior after
achieving sobriety; however many opt
to participate in life’s adventure;
reaching out in sobriety, exploring,
learning, growing.
Hence our
conference theme "Wellness in
Recovery." We discover that
there’s plenty going on in life
besides drinking or drugging. Some
of these "wellness" opportunities
will be presented at the conference
by Larry Beck, "Your Sobriety
Toolkit"; Ed Batis, "Anger
Management"; Liz Purcell,
"Seeds of Sobriety: Daily Secular
Reflections"; Ken Campbell,
"Secular Relapse Prevention";
Bernie DeKoven, "Deep Fun: Sober
not Somber"; and yours truly, Jim
Christopher, on "Escape from
Nicotine Country" and "Managing
Weight and Staying Fit Painlessly." |
Key
Presentations:
Barry Solof, M.D.,
is Physician-in-charge of Addiction
Medicine for Southern California
Permanente Medical Group in West
Covina. Dr. Solof will be speaking
on "Medical Aspects of Chemical
Dependency."
Randolph
Atkins, Jr., Ph.D., is a
research scientist with the Walsh
Group, P.A. (TWG), a private
substance abuse research and
consulting firm in Bethesda,
Maryland. Dr. Atkins will be
speaking on his proposed research
project, a comparative survey of
addiction recovery group
participants: AA (12-step) and SOS
(non-12-step).
The conference
will also feature SOS International
Advisory Board members: Morris
Kight, world renowned human
rights activist, founder of the
Women’s Center for Alcoholism and
the Van Ness Recovery House;
Edward Tabash, Esq., prominent
Beverly Hills attorney; Dr. Vern
Bullough, Distinguished
Professor Emeritus, SUNY, Visiting
Professor of Nursing, USC; Ruth
Hollman, founder of SHARE!
(Self-Help and Recovery Exchange)
and Lew Hollman, Attorney at
Law, longtime SOS activist and
convenor; Bob Dey, will
present Recovery Inc., a secular
cognitive behavioral approach to
addressing depression, anxiety,
panic, and other emotional problems.
Key talks will
also be presented by Texas
Department of Criminal Justice
leaders: Bob Lewis, Substance
Abuse Director for the Volunteer and
Education Section, TDCJ and Guy
Ogan, Substance Abuse Program
Administrator II, Program Planning
and Development Specialist, TDCJ.
Duaine Metevia, longtime SOS
convenor (SOS Dallas), SOS prison
outreach program activist (creator
of "SOS Behind Bars" Web site) and
SOS webmaster for SOS International
sites (sossobriety.org and secular
sobriety.org) will also speak.
Joseph Hunter,
CAS, substance abuse counselor at
Los Angeles County’s Warm Springs
Rehabilitation Center, a 300 bed
therapeutic community in Castaic,
CA, where SOS meetings are held as
an alternative to 12-step meetings
will address the conference.
SOS convenors from
around the world will share the
podium: speakers from California,
Texas, New York Missouri, Florida,
Minnesota, Illinois, Kansas, Oregon,
and other U.S. states; European SOS
members from England, Ireland,
Belgium and other countries will
share their adventures in SOS
Sobriety.
We will recognize
all SOS pledge drive and building
fund donors on conference day,
Saturday, August 3. |
El
Magnifico
|
Celebrities supportive of SOS will
be in attendance for the Friday
night conference reception (August
2) and Saturday’s conference (August
3); we will acknowledge them on both
occasions. Reception night
entertainment includes "El Magnifico,"
eleven year old magician, Adrian
Ramos, who has appeared on the
"Tonight Show" with Jay Leno,
"Access Hollywood," "The View," with
Barbara Walters, and performed at
the Magic Castle and Universal
Studios. A well known comedian will
also entertain at the reception. |
Acme
Jazz Band
|
Conference Day, Saturday, August 3,
will feature the Acme Jazz Band at
our luncheon. The band’s talented
members have appeared at the famed
House of Blues, Hollywood, CA and
other major venues. Register now!
We’ll see you in Hollywood. |
Naming
of the SOS Office
|
Though I have always
tried to contribute as much time and
money as I can to CFI West, as its
honorary chair, I wanted to
contribute to some aspect of the
building project that most
profoundly reflects my greatest
commitment within the CFI fold, and
that is the attainment of a
thoroughly secular society. To this
end, there was no CFI project that
was more on target than SOS (Save
Our Selves). The true test of a
society's ability to overcome the
pervasive influence of religion can
be measured by the extent to which
we can wean ourselves away from
viewing religious beliefs as the
only possible avenue of recovery
from chemical dependency.
Once we recognize
that human beings can be empowered
to change their lives, without the
crutch of supernatural beliefs, then
we can finally begin to emerge from
the dark ages of a
religion-dominated approach to
health and healing. There is no
better organization by which to
accomplish this goal than SOS. As
the world leader in rational
recovery, in shining the light of
reason on some of the most
intractable addictions that can
afflict human beings, SOS truly
represents the best that Secular
Humanism can offer to modern
civilization. |
As an Atheist, I
don't usually nominate anyone for
sainthood. However, I must make an
exception in the case of Jim
Christopher. Who, among all secular
activists, does as much as Jim in
the effort to help people mend their
broken lives? His kind and gentle
manner, his overflowing love and
compassion for people in distress,
all demonstrate that the purest love
for humanity can flow from a godless
person. I am so honored that Jim
heads SOS.
I am proud to
pledge $25,000 for the naming of the
SOS office. I implore all of you to
contribute as much as you can to SOS
and to all CFI projects that will
help the rule of reason displace
superstition. Remember, as the
bumper sticker says: "When religion
ruled the world, it was called the
dark ages."
Eddie Tabash,
Honorary Chair,
Center for Inquiry–West |
SOS
Conference Speaker
|
Dr. Barry Solof
graduated from Yale University
School of Medicine and is
credentialed in the fields of
addiction medicine, geriatric
medicine and pain management. He has
been the medical director of a large
number of adult and adolescent
chemical dependency and psychiatric
treatment programs, including
Edgemont Hospital in Los Angeles,
Tustin Medical Center in Orange
County and "Alternatives" in
Glendale. Currently Dr. Solof is
Physician-in-Charge of Addiction
Medicine for Southern California
Permanente Medical Group in West
Covina. He is the national
Chairperson for ASAM’s committee on
Geriatric Alcoholism and Substance
Abuse.
Dr. Solof’s
presentation is entitled "Medical
Aspects of Chemical Dependency." A
fascinating video will be shown in
conjunction with his talk.
Dr. Solof is
nationally known and his compelling
talk is not to be missed.
|
SOS
Conference Speaker
|
Dr. Randolph Atkins is a
research scientist with The Walsh
Group, P.A. (TWG), a private
substance abuse research and
consulting firm in Bethesda,
Maryland. He is the project leader
of TWG’s Web-Based Drug-Free
Workplace Resource Center and is
also involved with other TWG
training and research projects.
Before coming to TWG, Dr. Atkins
held a joint appointment as Research
Assistant Professor at the
Department of Psychiatric Medicine
in the School of Medicine and
Instructor of Sociology in the
Department of Sociology at the
University of Virginia in
Charlottesville, Virginia. Dr.
Atkins’ work at U. Va. including a
study on the effectiveness of
Employee Assistance Programs in the
workplace and a number of surveys
examining substance abuse. He has
done extensive research on recovery
support groups and is currently
working on a book about self-help
recovery groups and the American
addiction treatment system. He will
be speaking on his proposed research
project, a comparative survey of
addiction recovery group
participants, which will compare the
beliefs, behaviors, motivations, and
experiences of members of two
alcohol recovery support groups.
Alcoholics Anonymous (12-step group)
and Secular Organizations for
Sobriety (non-12-step group).
Don’t miss this groundbreaking
presentation! |
SOS
Conference Speaker
Grown-up Fun
 |
Bernie DeKoven, Author of The
Well-Played Game and founder of Los
Angeles based "DeepFUN" shared his
highly acclaimed approach (as part
of the SOS ongoing "Wellness in
Recovery" presentation ) on Sunday,
April 21 at the Center for
Inquiry–West. Bernie will present
Deep Fun at the forthcoming SOS
International Conference (August
2–4, 2002). |
As long as I’m going
to be making a presentation about "DeepFUN"
at the SOS International Conference,
Jim thought it’d be appropriate if I
introduced myself. I’m Bernie
DeKoven, author of the DeepFUN.com
Web site and a book called "The
Well-Played Game." My work is fun.
Literally.
For the past
thirty years I’ve been exploring new
ways to have fun. Since I’ve spent
those years as a grown-up, I’ve been
especially interested in grown-up
fun. Everybody talks about how
important it is to have fun. Well,
not everybody. And generally not the
people who sign your paycheck. But
friends and spouses and grandparents
and therapists can frequently be
overheard talking about how good fun
is for you, how healthy and healing
it is.And yet, when it comes to
knowing how to have this healthy,
healing kind of fun, none of us is
really that well informed. The last
time we learned anything new about
the fun we can have we were, what,
seven? eight? And even then, the
kind of fun we had all too
frequently ended in tears or
betrayal,or loneliness, rejection,
abuse.
It turns out that
there’s a lot we can learn about
fun—about our capacity for fun,
about our capacity to help each
other have fun, about the kinds of
fun we can create for each other. As
adults we’re much better at it than
we were as kids. And if we want, we
can help each other become amazingly
playful, creative, supportive, and
very, very funny.
I’m especially
interested in the innocent,
intimate, safe, funny, profound kind
of fun that we can achieve. Unlike
the innocence of childhood, this
innocent, adult fun is based not on
ignorance, but on informed openness.
It’s an intimacy that goes beyond
sexuality to create moments of
physical,emotional and spiritual
union that make us larger than life.
The kind of intimacy built on trust,
respect, on our abilities to keep
each other safe, to hold each other
close, to make each other laugh, to
touch each other deeply.
When I teach
people about this kind of innocent
intimacy, I like to bring them to
some beautiful, comfortable, safe,
peaceful place. I like to take five,
maybe six days to have fun with them
on every level that I can find:
physically, emotionally, mentally,
spiritually, socially. I like to
play "pointless games"—where we
don’t keep score, where the only
point is to share fun. I like to
play games without equipment of any
kind so that there’s nothing that
stands between them and the fun
they’re creating for each other. I
like to play games that don’t take
any special skills so that really
nothing distracts them from creating
the kinds of fun that set them free,
that make them whole.
By the way, I
recently published an article you
might want to take a look at. It’s
called "Sober Doesn’t Mean Somber."
It was in the June issue of The
Phoenix. I’ll be bringing a bunch
with me just for you. |
The Wind
Beneath My Wings
 |
by Valerie White,Esq.
I consider myself a feminist. I
object to treating people
differently based on gender. I have
a tee shirt which says, "Feminism is
the radical notion that women are
people," and I think that is a very
good definition. I am also a sober
alcoholic–fifteen years in October.
So you can imagine I was interested
in a recent Time magazine article
(April 1, 2002) entitled "Women on a
Binge." The facts cited in the
article were really scary. The
author cited a National Center on
Addiction and Substance Abuse study
which found that girls as young as
the first year in high school were
just as likely as boys to say they
had drunk alcohol. It also mentioned
a statistic from the University of
Colorado that frequent binge
drinking among women students there
increased 67% in the seven years
before 2000. According to the
article, women "associate drinking
with power, and they think that if
they drink like a guy, they will be
like a guy." The author quotes one
hard-drinking co-ed as saying, "To
be able to drink like a guy is kind
of a badge of honor. For me, it’s a
feminism thing." |
WHAT! Whoa! Hold on
here! In my mind, hard drinking has
NOTHING to do with feminism. First
off, women CAN’T "drink like guys" .
. . their physiologies are different
and they simply cannot tolerate the
same amount of alcohol as men. Their
proportionally greater amounts of
fat means alcohol is less diluted in
the bloodstream. They also have
reduced amounts of an alcohol
enzyme. They get liver disease a
decade earlier than men, even at a
lower daily alcohol consumption.
They are more likely to develop
depression.
Second, they are
living in a society which holds
women to different standards from
men. A man who drinks hard is a
"real man" who can "hold his likker."
A woman who drinks hard is a lush, a
disgrace, and an object of pity, so
women have tended to do their
alcoholic drinking in secret at
home. Perhaps it is not surprising
that of the 100 founding members of
Alcoholics Anonymous, only one was a
woman.
Third, women have
a lot more to lose than men. For
many people, alcohol and sex go
together. Drinks have names like
"orgasm", "slow comfortable screw"
or "sex on the beach." There is at
least one mixed drink named after a
slang term for the female genitalia
and another called "buttery
nipples." (I can’t think of any
comparable drink names which
similarly play on parts of the male
anatomy. Somehow "screwdriver"
doesn’t seem to fit.) Accordingly,
getting drunk leads women to
high-risk sexual behaviors. Drinking
women may have sex when they
wouldn’t have had it sober, engage
in riskier acts like anal sex, or
have sex without insisting on a
condom. These behaviors in turn
expose women to sexually transmitted
diseases (some of which women are
more likely to get from men than men
from women) and pregnancy. And women
who drink increase their likelihood
of being victimized by mugging,
rape, or domestic violence. One
source was quoted as saying that
co-eds "walking back to campus
intoxicated wear a neon sign on
their back: Mug me. Victimize me."
Girls shouldn’t drink hard to be
like the boys. Feminism doesn’t
imply hard drinking. Some of us
feminists are sober and plan to stay
so. |
SOS
Launches Special Interest Meetings
During the summer of 2001 a series
of six seminars that focused on
special topics in addiction and
recovery were held at the Center for
Inquiry–West and the SHARE! Facility
in Marina del Rey, CA. 5. This SOS
special series will be repeated at
the new Center for Inquiry–West
facility, Hollywood, CA, in 2002.
SOS convenors are free to utilize
this published material in SOS
meetings as they see fit. In the
current issue of the newsletter we
offer the fifth installment of this
continuing series of six seminars
entitled "Recovery and the Dynamics
of Aggression and Addiction." The
topics for the series of six
seminars are: |
Louis F.
Market, Ph.D |
Manijeh
Nikakhtar, M.D., M.P.H. |
1. Nature and Nurture
in the Cycle of Addiction
2. Understanding
the Underlying Dynamics of Addiction
3. Brief
Biological Review of Addiction and
Recovery
4. The Mind, Its
Function, and Addiction:
The Psychoanalytic
View
5. Recovery and
the Dynamics of Aggression and
Addiction
6. Resolving
Conflicts and Lifelong Recovery
Each seminar is
two hours in length. A brief reading
of concepts, principles and
discussion points are presented at
each seminar. The following
discussion presents the background
information for meeting #5.
"Discussion Breaks" are suggested at
certain points in the reading so
that participants can share their
thoughts, questions, and comments on
the
material covered. |
Recovery
and the Dynamics of Aggression
and Addiction
by Manijeh
Nikakhtar, M.D., M.P.H. and
Louis F. Markert, Ph.D.
In our last
article, we discussed the
psychoanalytic view of the structure
and function of the mind. We said
that the mind, both conscious and
unconscious, consists of three
"systems" (id, ego, and superego)
that vie for control or dominance.
Healthy individuals live meaningful
and productive lives by maintaining
these systems in a state of balance
or equilibrium. Unhealthy
individuals fail to maintain such a
balance. We will now expand this
discussion by exploring the dynamics
of aggression and assertiveness and
their role in addiction and
recovery.
Classical
psychoanalytic theory holds that
there are two classes of biological
instincts or drives that govern
motivation and behavior: Eros, or
the life instincts, that push us
toward self-preservation and
pleasurable activities; and
Thanatos, or the death instincts,
that push us toward rest, inactivity
and energy conservation. Eros
includes sex, defined broadly as all
pleasurable activity, and Thanatos
included aggression. Both of these
instincts provide biopsychic energy
that must be guided or directed
through the balancing function of
the ego into socially adaptive and
appropriate behavior. When the ego
(the rational, realistic self) is
effective in its function and leads
the individual to appropriate
goal-directed behavior, needs are
met, anxiety and tension reduced,
and a state of
biological-psychological homeostasis
achieved.
|
Aggression as
Goal-directed Behavior
Contemporary
psychoanalytic theorists, however,
view basic "instincts" (e.g.
aggression) more as psychological
wishes and desires than strictly
physiological drives. Thus,
aggressive behaviors are seen as
outlets for personal, social,
cognitive wishes more than just
biological drives. They explain the
manifestations of aggression, such
as rape, suicide, self-destruction,
some cases of drug use, some acts of
religious fanaticism, and high-risk
gambling as ways of coping with and
adjusting to life. Individuals are
aware, consciously or unconsciously,
of their "present state," but, on
encountering life situations,
perceive a more favorable or "ideal
state." For example, a man might
wake up in the morning and go to
work routinely, feeling happy and no
animosity toward anyone. At work,
however, he is insulted or
ridiculed, or worse, finds out his
company is going bankrupt and he’ll
shortly be out of work. The mismatch
between his new "present state"
(anxious, angry, insecure, upset)
and his "ideal state" (happy,
relaxed, secure, confident) moves
him to wish for the present state to
be closer to the ideal state and to
act on this wish. He has a number of
aggressive options, including
removing his inhibitions by use of
alcohol or drugs, assaulting his
boss or co-workers, or committing
suicide. And he has some prosocial
options, such as standing up
appropriately to those who insult
him or beginning to update his
resume and mount a job search to
keep his career going.
|
Discussion Break
(5-10 minutes)
Have you ever
found yourself in an "undesirable
present state" and sought through
aggressive behaviors to change your
situation to a more "ideal or
desired state"?
Aggression is a
hostile reaction triggered by anger
or frustration resulting from
obstacles we encounter in our effort
to achieve our goal.
Psychologically, our goal is usually
to feel good, to not feel bad.
Aggression is evoked by cues, such
as social injustice or someone
cutting in front of us on the
freeway. Some aggression is
instrumental in the sense that we
act aggressively to achieve a goal.
For example, we assault someone so
we can rob him, or we inject heroin
so we don’t have to feel stress.
If the conflicts
of life are severe enough, major
changes in behavior may occur as
indirect expressions of instinctual
aggressive needs. The perception of
others and situations as dangerous
or threatening can increase our
tendency to develop defensive
behaviors to diminish unpleasant
feelings. Failure to achieve an
appropriate sense of "success" and
recognition in childhood, for
example, can be a major source of
anxiety, which may then be
compensated for through competitive
and mastery behavior. This
competitiveness may progress from
childhood experience to adulthood as
aggression when one anticipates
situations with feelings of
inadequacy, failure or rejection.
|
Defense Mechanisms
In the course of
development, individuals develop
several defense mechanisms and
coping strategies to manage or
express aggression. For example,
through the defense mechanisms of
projection and displacement,
individuals attribute (displace or
project) to others thoughts,
feelings, drives, impulses,
behaviors and motives that are
unacceptable to themselves. These
defenses are common, too, in
paranoia and other psychoses
secondary to intoxication where
reason (ego) is overwhelmed by
irrational, intoxicated,
uncontrolled feelings and thoughts.
Displacement often
results in expressions of anger and
violence. When people are upset and
frustrated at someone or a
situation—a boss, parent, poverty,
being unemployed, failing a test,
society in general—and cannot
express their feelings directly to
the cause of the frustration, they
typically redirect their energy to
safer, closer, more vulnerable
targets such as children, spouses,
pets, total strangers, and the
elderly. Domestic violence, drive-by
shootings and gang violence,
especially when committed under the
influence of drugs that eliminate
conscious logic and the functions of
the superego, represent the
displacing of unresolved conflicts
with authorities or society as a
whole. Solutions to this level of
displacement must explore the entire
range of social and psychobiological
issues that underlie the drug use
and violence. Otherwise those who
engage in this form of behavior
simply move in and out of the
revolving doors of society’s
pseudo-treatment centers and prisons
and find new targets for their
frustration.
Sometimes when
people feel anger and aggression
toward others or toward external
situations and cannot express or
assert this feeling directly, they
shift their frustration or anger
inward towards themselves through
passive or aggressive behavior.
Their conscious intention is not to
do harm, but to change their
feeling. Heavy drinking and drug use
among adolescents who feel alienated
from school and family, for
instance, can be a form of passive
aggression. A housewife who turns to
alcohol because she is bored with
her husband or life in general may
turn to drinking instead of
discussing her feelings openly. A
man who feels guilty over divorcing
his wife and hurting his children
may turn to the drug culture to ease
his pain. One client reported how he
turned to crack cocaine after his
divorce and one day loaded large
rocks in his pipe, fired them up,
and then waited to see if his heart
or brain would burst. He was totally
unaware at the time that he was
angry and frustrated with his
situation and was taking his
frustration out on himself.
Recovery must
identify the sources of aggressive
wishes and behaviors and help
individuals find more acceptable
outlets for these. Insight about
emotional conflicts and the dynamics
of aggression helps people in
recovery gain a more objective
perspective of their own defense
mechanisms as ways of coping with
frustration and stress. Through
role-playing, problem solving,
assertiveness training, anger
management activities, individuals
suffering from out-of-control
aggressive behaviors can learn to
understand the dynamics of their
defense mechanisms and develop more
productive ways to set boundaries
and express themselves. As a
destructive character trait and
coping behavior, aggressiveness can
be changed into assertiveness.
People suffering from addiction can
become positive and enthusiastic
about their lives again, improve
their self-esteem, and learn new
ways to give and receive love and
achieve relatedness and unity with
others. In this way they divert
their inner psychic energy from
destructive to constructive
behaviors.
|
Discussion Points
(10-15 minutes)
Did your childhood
experiences in any way contribute to
a sense of inadequacy that led you
to compensate with an excessive
sense of competition or aggression?
What defense mechanisms or outlet
behaviors (destructive or prosocial)
did you choose to express your
aggression or lower your anxiety? |
SOS
Presence Impactful at
Star-Studded "Festival of Books"
By Jim Christopher
The seventh annual
Los Angeles Times "Festival of
Books," the world’s largest and most
diverse bookfair, held on the campus
of UCLA on Saturday and Sunday,
April 27 and 28, proved to be
overwhelmingly successful. The free
event required over one thousand
volunteers, featured four hundred
and fifty exhibits, over four
hundred authors and celebrities.
There were book
signings, poetry readings, lectures,
workshops, panel and speaker
discussions, demonstrations, dance
performances, and award ceremonies.
Some of the luminaries present were
Gore Vidal, Maya Angelou,
Ray Bradbury, John W. Dean, Oliver
Stone, Ralph Nader, Tom
Hayden, Quincy Jones, Dom DeLuise,
Steve Martin, Julie Andrews, Jayne
Meadows, and Arianna
Huffington.
Prometheus
Books, publisher of my four
addiction recovery books, ("How
to Stay Sober," "Unhooked," "SOS
Sobriety," and "Escape from Nicotine
Country") had a booth at the
popular event. Prometheus displayed
numerous titles including several
books by the late entertainment
legend Steve Allen; his
widow, celebrated actress/lecturer
Jayne Meadows, was present at
designated times for signings of Mr.
Allen’s books.
SOS gained a great deal of positive
exposure at the fair attended by
over 120,000 persons. |
Icon Interview —
Gore Vidal chats with C-Span
host on a grassy knoll prior to
packing UCLA’s Royce Hall where he
held forth on numerous subjects, in
conversation with Victor Navasky.
|
The Los
Angeles Times
"Festival of Books" at a Glance

Authors Exchange —
Jim Christopher presents
Kathleen
Daelmans, author of
Cooking Thin with Chef Kathleen
and host of "Cooking Thin" on
the Food Network, with his book
Escape from Nicotine Country and
tells her about his own weight
loss/fitness book-in-progress
entitled Bye Bye American
Gut; she agreed to consider
participation in the project. |
Celebrity Support — Jayne Meadows
expresses full support to Jim
Christopher for his smoking
cessation and smoking prevention
work.
|

Preparation for Onslaught — Jim
Christopher readies himself for
thousands of folks who will soon visit the
Prometheus Books booth.

Anti-Smoking Advocate — Ms.
Meadows explains that she and
her late husband, Steve Allen,
passionately eschew smoking. "The
Smoker’s Body" poster courtesy of
COLORS Magazine.
|

Celebrity Break — Actress Jayne
Meadows visits with 92-year-old
comedian Mousie Garner during
her break from signing Steve
Allen’s books at the
Prometheus Books booth. Mr.
Garner, celebrating his having
recently received this year’s
Lifetime Achievement Award from the
National Comedy Hall of Fame,
stopped by to reminisce with Ms.
Meadows about the late
Steve Allen. |

Speakers Reception--
Conference presenters mingle with conference
creators in the Century Ballroom, Gateway
Sheraton Hotel, Wednesday evening, May 8,
2002.

Lone Star State Visitor — SOS Dallas
member, John (pictured far right)
visits SOS CFI–West Wednesday night group,
May 22, 2002.
A ‘Net Note’ from Duaine
 |
Web Notes
The Internet
The Internet has
become an important part of the SOS
recovery movement. While some are
resisting the Internet and all it
encompasses, others are embracing it
wholeheartedly.
The Internet is
here to stay. So we (SOS) had better
use it or be left behind. Members,
who have no contact with the
Internet and no interest in learning
how to use it, still are able to
have a friend or family member
locate SOS Web sites, print out
articles written by Jim Christopher
or SOS members, find meetings in
their area, and keep up to date,
etc. |
SOS
groups that want to promote their
recovery groups, post times, dates
and where a meeting is being held,
can do it with a Web site. You can
do this on your own if you know how
or you can send the info to
SaveOurSelves@msn.com and
request a Web site be put up for
you—there are still good free Web
sites out there. Before it's
promoted you will have a chance to
check it out -make changes. It’s
your Web site if you put it up
yourself or have SOS do it. It’s
also easy for you to take over the
Web site at any time if SOS puts it
up for you. |
A New
Heading on the SOS Links Page
SOS Groups E-Lists.
For the use of promoting the Group
and giving Info to the local
members.
This idea came
about because of Christopher in ST
Louis. Christopher setup a Yahoo
Chat Group for his local group.
The idea being:
The group could
post meeting times and place.
The group could
post changes.
The group members
could post discussions of whatever
the group needs are at the time.
The group members
who couldn’t make it to a meeting
could still stay in contact with the
group by posting.
The group could
send out reminders of meetings
automatically.
This idea quickly
caught on with Don Berg of Chicago
setting up the next E-List.
The E-Lists are
easy to set up and will be promoted
on the SOS Links page of most of the
SOS family of Web sites.
SOS St. Louis
E-support Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sosstl
SOS Chicago
E-Support Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SOSChicago
SOAR-SOS Western
New York E-Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/soswnysoar
SOS Central Texas
E-Support Group
In Temple Texas
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cen_tex_SOS
SOS Dallas
E-Support Group
http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/sosdallas
Your group or
group in the making can be added to
this list easily, just go into Yahoo
and set up an
E-Support Group,
let me know at
SaveOurSelves@msn.com and it
will be promoted worldwide.
|
The
Place to be on the Web?
Where do I go to get
the most from SOS on the web?
A place where I
can benefit the most as far as
getting info and support from SOS?
A place where SOS
members from around the world meet?
A place where new
ideas are being tried?
A place where I
can be heard?
A place where
people will listen to what I have to
say?
The answer? |
SOS Save
Our Selves
E-Support Group.
SOS Save Our
Selves International E-Support
Group.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sossaveourselves
This is an
important part of SOS on the web.
This is the place where a lot of new
ideas are tried and members give
feed back. Become a part of the
movement that never stands still,
SOS. You may have something that
works for you and want a place to
share it. Here is that place.
This is a place to
come for support in your recovery.
It’s also a place to give back or
make the journey a little easier for
the next person.
New to SOS — Long
Time Sober — Promoting an SOS
Meeting — Thinking of Starting a
Meeting — Looking for On-Line
Support — Promoting a Web Site. |
CFI-West
http://www.cfiwest.org/sos
CFI-West, the home
site of Jim Christopher; it’s always
up to date. It’s a great place to
start your search in finding what’s
going on with SOS.
|
Recovery
Connections
http://www.cfiwest.org/sos/find.htm
Find a meeting in
your area.
Looking at the Web
site isn’t enough. The Web site only
tells part of the story. It lists
meetings and gives contacts.
The rest of the
story is behind the scenes. It’s the
people who want to be a part of SOS
but don’t want to start a meeting at
this time, don’t want to have there
contact info on the web page or just
want to be there for local people,
people in there area-to give a
supportive ear. Maybe they will meet
you for coffee. They could be
waiting for one more person in their
area to start a meeting. Help or a
friend in recovery could be a phone
call away. If you don’t leave your
contact info you could miss out.
The way "Recovery
Connections" works:
SOS@CFIWest.org
You leave your
contact info with Jim Christopher.
If there is
someone in your area, Jim will link
you up with him or her.
If there is no one
in your area today, someone could do
what you have just done and tomorrow
they will be linked up with you.
It works if you
become a part of it and make it
work.
To make it work
you need to give Jim Christopher
your contact info.
Watch our Face to
Face meetings grow!
SOS@CFIWest.org |
SOS International
http://www.sossobriety.org
This Web site is
filled with diversity.
It has some
writings by James Christopher and
some by SOS Members from around the
world.
You will find lots
of information on SOS and you will
also find, printed thoughts of SOS
Members.
Many SOS Web sites
have contributed to its making. By
going through it you will find links
to many of the SOS Web Family and
get a flavor of other SOS Web sites.
I encourage you
visit all of the SOS Web Family |
Secular Sobriety
http://www.secularsobriety.org
Filled with info
on SOS and a Discussion Board with
postings from around the world. Post
your thoughts on a variety of
topics. |
SOS Behind Bars
http://www.sosbehindbars.com
SOS Behind Bars
was set up to meet the needs of SOS
Members behind bars holding SOS
Meetings.
There are posts by
SOS members.
Printouts of
suggestions on How to Hold an SOS
Meeting Behind Bars.
Lots of SOS info! |
Recovery
Happens On Line
Recovery
is valid wherever it comes from; on line, as
well as face to face or alone. Recovery is
valid no matter where it happens.
SOS Women
E-Support Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/soswomen
This group is set
up to meet the needs of women in
SOS.
It was set up to
have a safe place to share. To give
and get support.
Talk about the
special needs of women in recovery.
This is a very
successful group because of the hard
work of its founder (Cyn). |
One
Person
One person can build
a meeting.
Give your contact
info to Jim Christopher at
SOS@CFIWest.org .
Become a contact
person for your area. Become a group
in the making.
Build a Web site.
Build it yourself or have Duaine M
help at
SaveOurSelves@msn.com Promote
your group or group-in-the-making
with a Web page.
Promote your group
or group-in-the-making at
SOS Save Our
Selves E-Support Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sossaveourselves
Share what you’re
doing in SOS or want to do. You can
make a change. You can make a
difference. I’m looking forward to
getting to know you. |
New
Groups
SOS Nuchterheid
Belgium
http://www.SOSNuchterheid.org
SOS Nuchterheid
Belgium has now a new Web site
provider, to replace all former
links to access the Flemish SOS Web
site.
They have also
been using this as an opportunity to
"overhaul" their SOS Web site.
For common e-mail
to SOS Belgium the Webmaster address
(mail
to:info@sosnuchterheid.org ) can
be used. This mail is received
simultaneously by the two web
masters (Frank and me) and it can be
distributed to all concerned SOS
members in Belgium.
|
SOS Web
Sites
|