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LifeRing UK |
UK resources |
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Welcome to the British area of the LifeRing website. In this section you will find examples of how the LifeRing approach has helped some of our UK participants to ‘empower their sober selves’ and to fight and defeat alcohol addiction through self help and mutual support within a secular context.. You will also find a series of links to non-Step based addiction support services and resources in the United Kingdom. We hope you will find these links helpful. We subscribe to the same secular principles as LifeRing elsewhere in the world and we are committed to spreading the word in this country that there are alternatives to some of the ‘traditional’ methods of combating alcohol addiction. At this point in time the British chapter of LifeRing has two main goals. These are to:
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| Alcohol Forum | ||
| AddAction | ||
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How to Join our mailing list | |
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The UK mailing list discusses issues related
to secular recovery from a United Kingdom perspective. Our on going
efforts to raise the profile and encourage membership as well as support
each other take place here. We can be found (and joined up to) at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LSRUK/
The main international list, a busy and sometimes high volume one can be found (and joined up) at http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/LSRmail/ It is a great source of information, support and experience. You will also find links to a number of additional LifeRing mailing lists of a rather more 'specialist' nature at the main site at http://www.unhooked.com/index.htm |
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A personal Journey | |
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I
had a “normal” teenage drinking life, as far as I know! I
remember my first night out for a drink, and how I felt the next day! Most
of the time out on our motor bikes, our age group preferred coffee anyhow. I
got married, for the first time at 20, in 1964. And
for a long time just did not drink, because I could not afford it, nor
really had a desire to want to. I
first went to the local pub because I was expecting to work late, but
finished earlier and knowing there was a babysitter at home, stopped at
the pub to loose time so I would arrive around when expected, I did enjoy
the drink, but was glad to go on home, Only
to find that the babysitter had not turned up and my wife had not been
able to go to the meeting, she had wanted to! And her smelling that I had
been for a drink did not help matters. In
the mid 1970,s (I think) my twin brother, and another friend, were making
home brewed beer. After
tasting this, I decided to give it a go! Very
soon I was brewing beer and wine, joined a wine making club! Became
a committee member, started training to become a wine judge, With
this my social life took off, there were another four local clubs around,
all with much social events going on, and of course drinking I
became chairman, and very much enjoyed it all. I
made wine out of everything I could get my hands on, carrots, berries etc Very
soon I had around 200 gallons of wine, and was serving beer from a
10-gallon pub, type barrel. I
“think” the rot set in, when after 26 years my wife and I split up, it
was not that I was always going off to the clubs without her, she came
too, but it turned out she was having, affair after affair! So
I was on my own with all this wine and beer! I
met someone else and we married, and if I am honest, I think she saw that
I was drinking to excess straight away! And I thought I had cut right
down! But
her approach was that I should simply not drink any more! This
I did not want to hear, so started hiding it around, my shed, where my
computer was etc, I even had bottles buried in the vegetable plot so I
could have a drink while “gardening”, I went into hospital to be
“dried out” at her instance, and after many more problems this
marriage finished in 2000, and after a final binge that should have killed
me, I realised that I had to get sober “for me”. I
have been with, Secular
Organizations for Sobriety (SOS) and then, LSR for around four
years, and with the drive from myself, and help received from others had
been sober for three years. My
ex thought that as I was a drunk she would dictate the terms of the
divorce! She
would not agree to my having any of the money, I had put into the house,
so it went to the British court system, which awarded me double what I had
asked for from the start. Then
somehow and I cannot explain why except for wanting to be “normal” in
a new relationship, I relapsed in June 2003, my partner (from the new
relationship) took me from my flat, and had me and my dog stay with her
while I went through a home detox, I thought that experience had bought us
even closer together, but she decided she could not handle the future with
an alcoholic, even if I was intending to remain dry! So
when I left her house and returned home after the detox period that was
also the end of the relationship! I
will always be grateful to her for helping me regain sobriety I
have remained sober since. |
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Want to quit? Just quit? Beginning the journey | |
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Right now is the time to focus on you and getting through the next LSRUK. |
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LifeRing in the UK | |
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LifeRing in the USA has grown and developed. There are many face to face meetings held there at which people share their experiences of recovery from alcohol addiction and support each other. There is no fixed model or 'right' way propagated, though there is a principal that the process will be a secular one. There is no Step programme or 'higher power' involved. Currently there are no face to face meetings in the UK, however members of the UK mailing list aim to reach a position where the first, of hopefully many, meetings can take place. If you are interested in helping to get self run secular addiction support meetings going in the UK, why not start by joining in the discussions at the mailing list at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LSRUK/ |
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An Untitled Poem | |
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The old reptilian Lizard brain hates to defer Gratification This cunning temptress How can one drink hurt? The little bastard But its grip tightens Now you want to stop Anonymous |
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