Unhooked: Staying Sober and Drug-Free

By James Christopher

Book Overview

Unhooked is James Christopher's eagerly awaited sequel to his best-selling How to Stay Sober: Recovery Without Religion, which challenges the Twelve Step program of Alcoholics Anonymous and offers a wholly secular, scientific approach to addiction recovery. In Unhooked Christopher draws on our most recent research to demonstrate that there is no such thing as an "alcoholic personality." An alcoholic or substance abuser doesn't become addicted because he or she has a "weak will," writes Christopher, but because he or she has a physiological predisposition to become addicted. You can get and stay sober without "giving over your allegedly weak will to a Higher Power, as AA's Big Book insists, but by prioritizing your sobriety on a day-to-day basis," notes Christopher. In 1986 Christopher founded Secular Organizations for Sobriety (SOS) as a cognitive program of recovery from addiction to alcohol and other chemicals. It is based on self-reliance, reason, and compassion-a refreshing and friendly alternative to the Twelve Step program. There are now hundreds of SOS chapters throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. In this new book, the evolution of SOS is vividly, poignantly chronicled. Unhooked is filled with eloquent personal testimonies that reflect the combination of frustration and hope that so clearly demonstrates the need for an alternative to AA. In addition, Unhooked presents a generous number of excerpts from the SOS Newsletter, which show the movement to be as diverse and open-minded as it is passionate. Perhaps Unhooked's most moving chapter is "The SOS Meeting," in which Christopher invites you to sit in on a fictionalized SOS meeting, so you can witness the SOS experience first-hand. Unhooked doesn't offer any pie in the sky, but it does present proved and effective strategies for achieving and maintaining sobriety. It's a cognitive, rational program. Book jacket.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0879755423
• ISBN13: 9780879755423
• Release Date: January 1989
• Publisher: Prometheus Books
• Length: 184 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.3" x 9.3"