Recovery Blues

About the Book

Recovery Blues speaks to the overwhelming majority of former substance abusers who experience depression as an offensive intruder trespassing on their recuperation, and also to their professional counselors, employers, and families. The dark valleys and frantic episodes that plague these folks would be treated as mere annoyances by the "normal" populace. Routine disappointment and "the blues" are the common colds of emotional distress.

But these feelings that the general population has learned to drag itself through by necessity and the blessed knowledge that these moods are truly ephemeral, are new to the recovering alcoholic or addict, having been formerly controlled or postponed through chemical abuse.

Sobriety itself represents a form of grief generating loss similar to the experiences of leaving the security of childhood, divorce, or the death of a loved one. It is "the day that the circus left town", and the awful reality of reality. In men, these downside periods frequently orbit around the realization of addiction-related lost time and tenure in school, family responsibilities, or their careers.

Newly sober women seem to suffer from this problem at twice the rate and severity as men. This may only reflect a general ability and inclination to be more open with their sponsors or counselors. However, this ratio is about the same for diagnoses of serious Major Depression.

Although references to mental illness are made wherever appropriate, only one chapter is devoted exclusively to symptoms of Clinical Depressive Disorders. It discusses in depth the importance of length of depressions from onset, severity, incapacity, irrational behavior during manic swings, thoughts of death or suicide, etc.

While the book does not dwell on Depression requiring medical attention, alcoholism and drug addiction are not exclusive diseases. Just as a person can be an alcoholic and also have a broken leg or diabetes, an alcoholic can also suffer from unrelated mental illnesses that may have been masked or misdiagnosed while they were deep into their addiction.

This chapter accurately represents the current psychiatric wisdom and consensus, and the reader is given clear guidelines to alert those who should be looking beyond self-help literature.

Recovery Blues metes out specific, unambiguous rules and advice. Moods are described as Bright Side, Twilight and Somber Side, and specific remedial tasks are assigned to each period. The development of firm, positive habits which eliminate or lessen stress are spelled out, as are behavioral prohibitions and precautions during low periods.

Rather than padding the book with dreary case histories, each chapter contains a short anecdotal composite which is attributed to a fictional recoveree, struggling through the obstacle course of early recovery. While written to fill a serious need, the style and selection of anecdotes is humorous and readable, and the illustrations will bring to the reader smiles of knowing recognition and identification.

About the Author

Carter Elliott is a former federal law enforcement and CIA officer. He has a graduate degree in clinical psychology and has worked in the field of substance abuse most of his adult life.