Jolted sober: Getting to the moment of clarity in the recovery from addiction - Hardcover

Cary, Sylvia

9780929923062: Jolted sober: Getting to the moment of clarity in the recovery from addiction

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0929923065 ISBN 13: 9780929923062

Publisher: Lowell House, 1989

The concept of spontaneous remission ("unexplained" healing) goes back thousands of years, but in this culture we've resisted the idea, insisting there's no such thing as an instant cure or a quick fix, especially from something as complex as addiction. But now we're beginning to see that sudden sobriety is actually quite common, as thousands of recovering alcoholics and addicts will tell you. And while no one can make a jolt cure happen (or somebody would have bottled it and made a bundle long ago!), the experience can be "romanced." Jolted Sober includes chapters on the nature of the jolt recovery, case histories of jolt recoveries, theories behind the phenomenon, the seven ways (People Ways, Physical Ways, Intellectual Ways, Quiet Ways, Brain Ways, Contrary Ways and Hitting Bottom Ways) to bring about the experience, and how to maintain it afterwards. It's a fresh, outside-the-box approach to addiction recovery. No more trying to pursue "the best treatment in town" (there isn't any). Instead, focus on "romancing" the jolt cure instead.

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From the Inside Flap:

"In medicine, as in life, until the mind has been prepared to see something, it will pass unnoticed, as invisible as though it did not exist." - Ovid
It could happen at any time. You hear something, remember something, notice something, or even say something - and that's it. Suddenly there's a kind of click inside, an Aha! For a split moment you see clearly, as though for the first time. And what you see enables you to stop drinking, drugging, overeating, smoking, spending, gambling. You've been jolted sober...In researching the phenomenon, psychotherapist Sylvia Cary discovered that contrary to everything she had learned in graduate school, there indeed is such a thing as an instant cure. It's unpredictable and possible for everyone, and it can be dramatic or subtle. She also found that you can increase your odds of experiencing a jolt cure by learning about the seven ways to "romance" it. Whether it's surrounding yourself at a meeting with people who have the same problem (People Ways); playing basketball, driving, or gardening (Physical Ways); reading all about it (Intellectual Ways); turning inward to meditate (Quiet Way); altering brain chemistry through non-drug means (Brain Ways); taking samba lessons (Contrary Ways); or Hitting Bottom -- one or more of these may be the trigger for your own jolt cure. There is also life after the jolted-sober experience. A chapter on maintaining your jolt recovery explains how to guard against relapse, and a chapter on helping others is a guide for professionals, family and friends. No matter how far down you have gone, no matter how many times you've tried and failed, you can have your moment of clarity. Just reading Jolted Sober could be your first step to obtaining the enlightening and liberating jolt cure.

From the Back Cover:

"I realized with startling clarity for the first time the simplest of ideas--so simple but so all-important: I didn't drink because I had problems; I had problems because I drank!" -- Barnaby Conrad in "My Four Weeks at the Betty Ford Center." -- Los Angeles Times Magazine

"I had a moment of clarity. I realized I didn't have to stay sober the rest of my life. I only had to stay sober one day at a time." -- Mike, 70's, sober 41 years

"Walking to the corner mailbox one day it hit me like a flash that every letter I mailed was costing me about five dollars--the price of the stamp plus the price of the vodka I needed to drink just to get up the courage to leave the house. That's the moment I knew I was an alcoholic. I turned myself in to Alcoholics Anonymous that night and haven't had a drink since." -- Elizabeth, 44, sober 19 years

From Sylvia Cary, herself:
[At a community self-help meeting]: "It was right after the coffee break. I was listening to the speaker, a TV actor. He was funny, and I was laughing, something I hadn't done in a long time. The next thing I was aware of was a little thought that seemed to arise spontaneously from somewhere in the right side of my brain--'They're sober; I'm not. I think I'll listen and do what they say.' But the time the thought arrived at the left side of my brain my whole world had changed."

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