Tolerating Intelopers
This recovery deal is a life and death thing. Hearing watered down baloney from people who have no idea what they are talking about – no experience to back up their garbage can certainly be a Step Ten exercise.
Not because I care about my experience being contradicted – I don’t give a tittly- toot about that – but because alcoholics freaking’ die when they hear and follow crap solutions from crap spewing Pop-AA club-housers and meeting goers. Seriously.
I know a lot of people read this blog – from all over the world – India, all through the UK, Israel, Korea, Scandinavia, European countries and that means that some folks are going to think I’m an asshole. (One or two – MAX!) It’s in the numbers. Sometimes they’d be right – broken clocks are right twice a day aren’t they – and I am a frail human being.
But Goddamn it – how much bullshale do we have to endure while watching our fellow alcoholics die at the hands of people calling themselves AA “SPONSORS” who haven’t got a clue of the responsibility that goes with that. And who insist upon hating this blog and sending me silly ad hominem attacks. It is silly and it is a waste of time.
I’llsay it again – only those who recover can sponsor others. RecoverING alcoholics have no recovery to offer.
Being a good Samaritan isn’t what this program is about. Many of us want to believe it’s about that but that is only when we have nothing else to offer. This Program is about finding God, experiencing the miracle of recovery then getting similarly lost people to God so He can work His miracle on them, fix them up and then pass the process onto others. It goes on and on. It’s got nothing to do with just not drinking or using and becoming a tax payer.
Unless you redefine “sponsorship” to mean being a phone, meeting, coffee & life-coach buddy. But that isn’t what Step Twelve s is about and it isn’t what “working with others” is about either.
Recovered alcoholics who do NOT sponsor others do not stay recovered. Nor are they practicing these principles in all of their affairs.
Step twelve means to take others through the steps – THAT is the only help we are qualified and prescribed to pass on as the result of having a spiritual awakening as the result of the steps.
It is an epidemic inside of our own Fellowship – that so many people have NO IDEA what Step Twelve means.
They think they do but they have not embraced or understood the importance of the prescribed method of “helping others” is. They just make it up as they go along – whatever they think is good in the moment – make the coffee, drive a newcomer to a meeting, become the “greeter” – hell I know people who think that just “being nice” to people is STEP TWELVE, carrying the this message.
I have bad news for them. Your SUPPOSED to do that stuff anyway. Dufus! As a social human being! That is not not the this message.
Then enough similar people who haven’t experienced what’s in that Big Book either go along nodding their heads – “Uh huh – Uh huh” – and I swear we can hear the marbles rattling around in those skulls because they’re just
hypnotized Pop-AA zombies with their OWN Program that is not even CLOSE to the Twelve Steps – but some sort of cafeteria style hybrid.
THIS IS THE FELLOWSHIP HE CRAVES.
Culpability lies with THAT middle-of-the-road solutions person who proposed non-spiritual means in the first place – like what is given in books such as Living Sober. That has got to be the most disgustingly insipid bit of AA “Conference Approved” drek that AA Publishing, Inc. has ever produced. Living Sober does NOT contain the solution to alcoholism. The Twelve sand Twelve does NOT contain the solution to alcoholism. The Big Book DOES contain the solution to alcoholism – in its entirety. No further authentication is needed.
You push books like those on a newcomer BEFORE bringing him to the solution in the Big Book and very often he is as good as murdered. Anyone who has not experienced this themselves – who doesn’t take people through the steps and watch to see who dies and who lives and what they did to get what they got have NO IDEA and may differ in their opinion – but opinion are no match against experience – I’ve be
en through it more than once. Too many times and not enough times – depending on the result.
Please look at this: (From the 53rd General Service Conference of AA)
“The basic responsibilities in a sponsorship relationship are to work the Twelve Steps as outlined in Alcoholics Anonymous, read the Big Book, the Twelve Traditions, the Twelve Concepts, and other Conference-approved literature.”
There isn’t much unclear about that is there?
So, to answer my first question: How much bullshale do we have to endure? Apparently a whole lot. All we can do is ask God to show us how to show patience, tolerance, kindliness and love toward all – even POP-AA interlopers who kill real alcoholics.
Peace,
Danny S
Tolerating Intelopers
This recovery deal is a life and death thing. Hearing watered down baloney from people who have no idea what they are talking about – no experience to back up their garbage can certainly be a Step Ten exercise.
Not because I care about my experience being contradicted – I don’t give a tittly- toot about that – but because alcoholics freaking’ die when they hear and follow crap solutions from crap spewing Pop-AA club-housers and meeting goers. Seriously.
I know a lot of people read this blog – from all over the world – India, all through the UK, Israel, Korea, Scandinavia, European countries and that means that some folks are going to think I’m an asshole. (One or two – MAX!) It’s in the numbers. Sometimes they’d be right – broken clocks are right twice a day aren’t they – and I am a frail human being.
But Goddamn it – how much bullshale do we have to endure while watching our fellow alcoholics die at the hands of people calling themselves AA “SPONSORS” who haven’t got a clue of the responsibility that goes with that. And who insist upon hating this blog and sending me silly ad hominem attacks. It is silly and it is a waste of time.
I’ll
Being a good Samaritan isn’t what this program is about. Many of us want to believe it’s about that but that is only when we have nothing else to offer. This Program is about finding God, experiencing the miracle of recovery then getting similarly lost people to God so He can work His miracle on them, fix them up and then pass the process onto others. It goes on and on. It’s got nothing to do with just not drinking or using and becoming a tax payer.
Unless you redefine “sponsorship” to mean being a phone, meeting, coffee & life-coach buddy. But that isn’t what Step Twelve s is about and it isn’t what “working with others” is about either.
Recovered alcoholics who do NOT sponsor others do not stay recovered. Nor are they practicing these principles in all of their affairs.
Step twelve means to take others through the steps – THAT is the only help we are qualified and prescribed to pass on as the result of having a spiritual awakening as the result of the steps.
It is an epidemic inside of our own Fellowship – that so many people have NO IDEA what Step Twelve means.
They think they do but they have not embraced or understood the importance of the prescribed method of “helping others” is. They just make it up as they go along – whatever they think is good in the moment – make the coffee, drive a newcomer to a meeting, become the “greeter” – hell I know people who think that just “being nice” to people is STEP TWELVE, carrying the this message.
I have bad news for them. Your SUPPOSED to do that stuff anyway. Dufus! As a social human being! That is not not the this message.
Then enough similar people who haven’t experienced what’s in that Big Book either go along nodding their heads – “Uh huh – Uh huh” – and I swear we can hear the marbles rattling around in those skulls because they’re just hypnotized Pop-AA zombies with their OWN Program that is not even CLOSE to the Twelve Steps – but some sort of cafeteria style hybrid.
THIS IS THE FELLOWSHIP HE CRAVES.
Culpability lies with THAT middle-of-the-road solutions person who proposed non-spiritual means in the first place – like what is given in books such as Living Sober. That has got to be the most disgustingly insipid bit of AA “Conference Approved” drek that AA Publishing, Inc. has ever produced. Living Sober does NOT contain the solution to alcoholism. The Twelve sand Twelve does NOT contain the solution to alcoholism. The Big Book DOES contain the solution to alcoholism – in its entirety. No further authentication is needed.
You push books like those on a newcomer BEFORE bringing him to the solution in the Big Book and very often he is as good as murdered. Anyone who has not experienced this themselves – who doesn’t take people through the steps and watch to see who dies and who lives and what they did to get what they got have NO IDEA and may differ in their opinion – but opinion are no match against experience – I’ve been through it more than once. Too many times and not enough times – depending on the result.
Please look at this: (From the 53rd General Service Conference of AA)
“The basic responsibilities in a sponsorship relationship are to work the Twelve Steps as outlined in Alcoholics Anonymous, read the Big Book, the Twelve Traditions, the Twelve Concepts, and other Conference-approved literature.”
There isn’t much unclear about that is there?
So, to answer my first question: How much bullshale do we have to endure? Apparently a whole lot. All we can do is ask God to show us how to show patience, tolerance, kindliness and love toward all – even POP-AA interlopers who kill real alcoholics.
Peace,
Danny S
Who The Hell Do You Think You Are?
Danny is a born and bred New Yorker, (1957) who grew up in “da Bronx”, New York City and has lived most of his life in the borough of Queens. He now lives on Cape Cod in Massachusetts with his wife Nancy and their two children, Danny Jr. and Kristen.
The Schwarzhoffs are a complete family unit enjoying emotional, mental and physical health and a harmonious lifestyle free from harmful stress. Both children are Honor Roll students in their schools, are socially active and well balanced in all areas of their lives. In July, 2011 the Schwarzhoffs celebrated their thirty second wedding anniversary.
He writes. He plays guitar. Danny was born May 7, 1957. His parents divorced when he was five and he is the product of an alcoholic family life visa vi his mother’s live-in boyfriend who was an alcoholic.Danny himself is an alcoholic. He refers to himself as a “Recovered alcoholic” – no longer suffering from the malady. He got sober for the first time in 1997 and then again in 1999. He has been sober since.He owns several popular and enduring blogs about alcoholism, meditation, recovery and the Twelve Step based solutions to life’s problems. For eight years standing, both Google and Yahoo have rated Danny as the number one, top rated “Recovered Alcoholic”.
He calls himself a “Real Live Recovered Alcoholic”; no longer suffering from the malady. Danny stopped drinking for the first time in 1997 and then again in 1999. He has been sober ever since. He has over thirty years experience with a special form of non-religious, spiritual meditation that he teaches and writes about in tandem with his unique style of carrying the Twelve Step message of recovery that emphasizes this unique meditation technique. He claim it is the missing link in Twelve Step Recovery and has devoted his life to delivering it to the world, beginning with the alcoholic.
Danny was first exposed to the meditation technique he prescribes when he was about five years old. It happened following a traumatic experience with his mother’s violent, alcoholic live-in boyfriend. In order to deal with the humiliation and resentment he experienced at the hands of this man Danny stumbled upon the technique – which he later recognized as meditation – in order to protect himself from the harms caused by that painful traumatic experience. He was able to dislocate his emotions much in the same way that the circus contortionist might dislocate a shoulder. Miraculously, when the experience was over he realized that he no longer hated the man for beating him.
Armed with his secret ‘gimmick’, life could never be quite the same. Then in his teen years he discontinued the mystic ‘dislocation’ practice and descended into the perverse world of active alcoholism, suffering mental and physical dysfunction for nearly two decades. Then in 1999 during a “white light” spiritual experience everything changed and he was able once again to ‘meditate’. He has never needed to look back. He continues to apply this method in all areas of life and has continued to enjoy mental, emotional and physical well-being as well as spiritual healthfulness. Now he teaches the technique to others principally through working with alcoholics who are attempting to go through the Twelve Step Recovery process.
Not only has Danny fully recovered from alcoholism and substance abuse but through this technique integrated into the Twelve Step process he has been able to overcome major depression, anxiety, smoking, onset type II diabetes, obesity, high cholesterol, sugar addiction, colitis, hemorrhoids, and even erectile dysfunction. His doctors have un-prescribed virtually all of the prescriptions he has been given in the past decade including Lipitor, TriCore, and ADD medications like Adderall as well as the antidepressant drugs Effexor, Welbutrin and Lexapro.
He first began writing in the mid 70s when he landed a job as publicist and advertising director for a Bronx produce company. He wrote advertising copy and press releases for the company and directed all of their marketing and promotion until 1982. After several years as a Lobbyist in Washing DC serving the United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association he left to start his own weekly tabloid newspaper where he was Editor-in Chief of “The Fruit & Vegetable Reporter.” He wrote most of the tabloids feature stories and much of the news copy. Danny has published articles in Grapevine, AA’s magazine for Alcoholics, and also in the Barnstable Patriot on Cape Cod.
The late 80s and 90s brought Danny to Wall Street in New York City when he became a stockbroker. One of his firms became the subject of the movie “Boiler Room” – a factoid which fuels much of his storytelling on the subject of alcoholism, spiritual dysfunction and substance abuse in the workplace. In the late 90s he moved to Cape Cod where he began writing, working with alcoholics, and breeding thoroughbred racing pigeons. He also began working for several rehab centers aiding addiction counselors with rehabilitating alcoholics and drug addicts.
Today Danny give regular public talks on alcoholism and recovery. He has conducted Twelve Step workshops at recovery conferences in Boston, New York and in Denmark as well as at Dartmouth College (UMASS).
Although frequently consulted by treatment facility administrators and those in the recovery business Danny does not affiliate with any treatment center or rehabs. He hasn’t got any recovery models to sell. He gives his meditation exercise away for free and only writes of his experience on the subject with one goal in mind. He wants to persuade others to try it and to experience an entire change of being and lifestyle through it. He is not an authority on any recovery methods or organizations, God, alcoholism or spirituality nor does he speak or write in representation of anyone but himself. He is not a member of any organized religion or cult and has no axe to grind. He does however express his experience and observations as a spiritually awakened and Recovered Alcoholic. He does not write as a form of “Twelve Step” work for Alcoholics Anonymous or as a form of therapy.
Biographic disclaimer: Sometimes the question of anonymity arises – along with the issue of whether or not Danny is a member of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). If Danny were a member of AA, he would violate AAs traditions by saying so publicly. He would also be lying if he were a member and denied it. So in order to respect that organizations traditions he does not answer that question publicly. However, Danny does want his readers to know that AA has earned his respect and he approves of AAs Twelve Step Program. He also does not think that AA has a monopoly on recovery from alcoholism and that AA is not for everyone. He has attended AA meetings and has done extensive research into its history and Twelve Step Program and is an ardent practitioner of the Twelve Steps. He writes about some of these observations regarding AAs Program, Fellowship and history.
Danny Schwarzhoff is a recovered alcoholic and a writer by trade. He is not an authority on ANY recovery methods or organizations, God, alcoholism or spirituality nor does he speak or write in representation of anyone but himself. He is not a member of any organized religion or cult and has no axe to grind. He does however express his experience and observations based upon that experience as a RECOVERED alcoholic. He does not write as a form of “twelve step” work for Alcoholics Anonymous. Please see the FAQ for more information.
By Nancy Lee Schwarzhoff
Personal Note: I am so grateful to have gotten my husband back. We have been married now for almost twenty-seven years. He became someone I no longer recognized; certainly not the wonderful guy I fell in love with; who made me laugh, who held doors for me, who was truthful and honest; who was going to go out into the world and make a difference – who loved me and didn’t mind showing it. I lost that guy, during the years that he drank. To anyone who has an alcoholic spouse I truly hope you find what my husband has stumbled into. The joy and serenity that has come back is truly a second chance for both of us.
I hope we all enjoy his new book. (He swears he will start looking for a publisher soon!) On the too few occasions that he gives me a few pages to read I end up laughing and crying all on the same page. (I am sure he does that on purpose, knowing him like I do) Then again I went through much of it. So much he never let me know about. He kept so much inside of him. He became secretive and I wondered “How could I have been so mistaken about him?” I questioned whether he loved me at all and what I did to cause him to turn the way he seemed to be. We had no idea what was happening to him. To us.
Even though Dan has been writing his whole life, this is his first attempt at a real book. When he started it a little over a year ago, I knew in my heart that it was something he should do and have been as supportive (through my fears) as I could. I was shocked when suddenly he said he had over 200,000 words written! How he did that, I don’t know. I guess there is still much I don’t know about him as a RECOVERED alcoholic. I am sure he would have started it and given up in our old life. Things are still changing for us everyday.
Although it may or may not be a best seller; it may not conform what to some people think they already know about alcoholics, I will tell you that it is all true and amazing to me. Even his new found recovered friends are just the most amazing, larger than life wonderful people I have ever met in my life. Believe it or not, even the still sick ones he brings here to the house, still drunk!
Danny gets some pretty heavily criticism for being so outspoken. I must say, he does have a knack for cutting to the chase. This bothers some people, especially other un-recovered drunks – who do not even know him past his writings. But if they can deal with their own sensitivities, as I have learned, they will find my husband to be a loving and generous man with a passion for sobriety like none we can imagine. And it is only because of sobriety that it shows. Again.
I know Danny’s talk. He certainly does not walk his own talk a hundred percent. He is far from being a saint. Not on your life! But he does seem to have a skill for catching it before too much harm can come of it. And he helps an awful lot of people. I do admire that in him. But do not ever let him tell you that he walks the talk twenty-four hours a day.
There are second chances in life, happiness, and family. It is waiting for you, inside of you. I hope you find it.
- Love Always, Nancy
-
Archives
- August 2011 (1)
- September 2010 (1)
- August 2010 (1)
- April 2010 (1)
- March 2010 (2)
- February 2010 (1)
- January 2010 (5)
- December 2009 (1)
- October 2009 (1)
- September 2009 (1)
- August 2009 (2)
- July 2009 (1)
-
Categories
- 21043212
- 21043215
- 21043835
- 21044396
- 21045901
- 21046142
- 90 in 90
- AA Counselors
- AA Publishing
- Acceptance
- Addictions Counselors
- Addicts
- Agnostic
- Agnosticism
- Al-Anon
- Alcoholic Enema
- Alcoholic Mind
- Allergy
- Amends
- Anger
- Anonymity
- Applied Recoverology
- atheists
- Attraction not promotion
- Australia
- AWOL
- Balance
- Bedevilments
- Big Book Nazi
- Big Book Study
- Bill D
- Bill W Video
- BillW-Did he take the steps?
- Bottoms
- Bullshit Bingo
- Cape Cod
- Carl Jung
- Catholic Confession
- Character Defects
- Charles Manson
- Clancy I
- Cliff B
- code of AA
- Cogitive Dissonance
- Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy
- Common Peril
- Courts
- Craig Ferguson
- Craving
- Cross Talking
- Delusion
- Denial
- Denmark
- Depression
- Disco Drunks
- Disease Concept
- Doctors Opinion
- Donald Trump
- Dr. Bob
- Dr. Drew
- Dr. Phil
- Drug is a Drug
- Drugs
- EasyDoes It
- Ebby T
- Emmet Fox
- Emotional Sobriety
- Experience Strength and Hope
- Experience Vs Opinion
- Fear
- Fear Prayer
- Fellowship
- Fellowship of the Spirit
- First Drink
- Fourth Dimension
- Germans
- Glum Lot
- God
- Good Samaritan
- Gosnold
- Gratitude
- GSO
- H.A.L.T.
- Happy Horseshit
- Hard Drinkers
- Higher Power
- Hitting Bottom
- Hooker
- How It Works
- http://beta.blogger.com/home
- Iceland
- Identification
- Immorality
- Imperious Urge
- Inc.
- Inner Child
- Insanity
- Internet AA
- Intervention
- Inventory
- James Frey
- Jimi Hendrix
- Joe McQ
- Joe Walsh
- Judgement
- Just Don't Drink
- Keep It Green
- Keep It Simple
- Light Bulb
- Lindsey Lohan
- Living Amneds
- Living Sober
- love
- Man in the Bed
- Medallions
- Meeting Dependency
- Meeting Makers Make It
- Meetings
- Mickey B
- Middle Of The Road Solutions
- Million Little Pieces
- Morality
- Motives
- Newcomer
- Obsession
- Old Timers
- Open Discussion Meetings
- Oprah
- Our description of the alcoholic
- Own Concept
- Oxford Group
- Ozzy
- Packing Into The Stream
- Page 449
- Pete Luger's
- Pink Cloud
- Playing God
- Plug In The Jug
- Pop-AA
- Potential Alcoholic
- Powerless
- primary purpose
- Promises
- Prospects
- Psychic Change
- Qualifying
- Rational Recovery
- Real Alcoholic
- Recovering vs Recovered
- Relapse
- Religion
- Resentment
- Resentment Prayer
- S
- Sanity Restored
- Sefl Pity
- Self Diagnosis
- Self help
- Self Will
- Self-centered
- Selfish Pprogram
- Selfishness
- Sex
- Sex Ideal
- Sharing
- Silkworth
- Singleness of Purpose
- Slips
- Slogans
- Sole Purpose
- Speaker Meetings
- Speaking
- Spiritual Awakening
- Spiritual Experience
- Spiritual Growth
- Spiritual Illness
- Spiritual Malady
- Spiritual Tools
- Sponsor
- Sponsorship
- Statstics
- Step Eight
- Step Eleven
- Step Five
- Step Four
- Step Nine
- Step One
- Step Seven
- Step Six
- Step Ten
- Step Three
- Step Two
- Step Unfinished Amends
- Stick With The Winners
- Still Recovering
- Struck Drunk
- Success Rates
- Suggestions
- Suicide
- Sunlight of the Spirit
- Surrender
- Temporary Sponsor
- The Sopranos
- Three Fold Disease
- To Wives
- tolerance
- Townes Hospital
- Tradition Eleven
- Tradition Three
- Traditions
- Treatment Centers
- Treatment Industry
- Triggers
- Twelve and Twelve
- Twelve Stepping
- Two Fold Disease
- UK
- Uncategorized
- Unfinished Amends
- Unmanageability
- Working With Others
- www.dannyschwarzhoff.net
- Yahoo Groups
-
RSS
Entries RSS
Comments RSS
