So, you’ve been asked to attend some AA meetings. Or you want to attend some AA meetings. You are probably wondering what to expect. Unless you’ve been to AA before, then perhaps you may think you know what to expect. But, luckily, every AA meeting is a little different. That means you can lay aside your expectations and just enjoy the experience.

How to find an AA Meeting. The oldest way is to look in the phone book, under Alcoholism. No matter where you are in the world, you’ll find a listing for Alcoholics Anonymous. On the Internet search “AA meetings in (your city).” On your smart phone, search for applications under the topics “AA Meetings” or “12 Step Recovery.”

Open or Closed? If you believe you’re alcoholic, try a “closed” meeting, as they are for alcoholics only. If you’re unsure about your status, try an “open” meeting. The most important thing is to GO! It’s really recommended you try about eight meetings before you make a decision about whether or not AA is for you.

Do I have to talk? No. Every AA group is different, however, they all essentially operate the same. You may or might not be asked to share or talk. It’s definitely ok to pass. You don’t have to announce yourself as an alcoholic or share anything unless you want to. It’s helpful to arrive at the meeting a little early, that way you can get a seat and not draw too much attention to yourself as a newcomer. The folks that are early to meetings are usually pretty sturdy AA members; they come early to set up and welcome people just like you. The people you meet will help you adjust to how the meeting works and what to expect. Just tell them you’re new to AA, and that this is your first meeting.

What to bring. The most important thing to bring along is an open mind. It helps to bring a little willingness too. Listening is the best gift you can bring almost anywhere. If you listen in on an AA meeting, often you will be able to identify with or relate to folks who are talking. Of course you can bring a friend in case you’re nervous or scared, but unless your friend is an alcoholic, it’s best to go to an open meeting. Bring a dollar bill (or two) for the donation basket. It’s customary in AA to pay the rent by passing a collection basket. This usually happens about half way through the meeting.

Try to remember that everyone in the room had been new to AA just like you. They all had to find their way to their first AA meeting, they all had to ask questions and feel a little uncomfortable.

Do I have to stay for the whole meeting? No. But if you can, try and stay for the entire meeting. If you can’t, if you’re just too uncomfortable or perhaps too emotional, it’s definitely ok to leave. Be polite, try and wait for a pause in people’s sharing before you exit. Try to remember that everyone in the meeting is really there to carry a message of hope to you and are wanting to offer their support to someone new to AA just like you.

EShepard from Tuscon, AZ, has more than 10 years working as a therapist with families struggling with addiction.

One type of extramarital affair includes sexual addiction. The spouse or partner involved in the affair, plain and simple, has a tough time saying “NO.” He/she may want to, but feels compelled to say “yes.”

People can’t say no? Well, I believe we all have the capacity, at some level, to say no. However, not all have developed that capacity or reached that level to firmly say no and mean it.
Some are “stuck” and seem to lack the ability to consistently act on the “no.” Please remember that all of us are “grabbed” by something and find it difficult to let go. Infidelity when connected to sexual addiction and its many forms, however, becomes a powerful focal point.

How to know if infidelity is attached to sexual addiction:

1. Sex takes on an inflated role or value. Sex, sexual conquest, sexual release becomes a powerful force. Acting on the sexual impulse is a frequent activity. Thinking about sex likewise consumes an inordinate amount of time. Multiple ways of acting out sexually (porn, strip clubs, multiple sex partners, etc.) are common.

2. This activity is bound by fear. The person lives with fear: the fear of getting caught, the fear of consequences, the fear of “being found out,” the fear of being abnormal, the fear of being punished, and the fear of losing family, spouse, job and respect.

3. A promise/failure cycle ebbs and flows with the inability to say no. After an “acting out” episode the person usually experiences guilt/fear and promises to self or others, “I won’t do it again.” This will last…until the “urge” is acted upon again. The spouse may be aware or unaware (but sense that something is not “right”) of the “roller coaster” and succession of broken promises.

4. Others are used or seen as objects for personal gratification. No true intimacy is developed.

5. Sexuality is often confused with other needs or connected to unresolved past pain or trauma. A child who experiences confusion around sexuality or sexual abuse of one form or another, may carry along that confusion and attempt to “work that through” in a marriage or extramarital affairs. (I worked with one woman who “used” a one-night fling with a significant person to “clear up” a particular issue.) She was free of that “urge” from that point on. No one ever knew. Could she have chosen a different way? Maybe.

6. Such a person lives in a distorted world. They come to see the world and relationship through the eyes of their “addiction.” They have a great capacity to rationalize their behavior, deceive others and may lead a “dual” life.

Tip: If you suspect these characteristics fit you or someone you love most or to your family member, get some help before your world falls down. Life can be different. Life, sexuality, a truly intimate relationship IS different.
 
You can get there. You are stuck, and need some love, affection, care and guidance to arrive at the next level.  If you are interested in learning about the 6 other forms of infidelity, just surf the internet and visit some websites related to this topic.

There are lots of treatments and therapies available in the market for the patients with serious or terminal illnesses by giving the chance to recover and live healthier. However, in some cases, these treatments may offer little or no chance of full recovery. They may have side effects that could be considered worse than the illness or leave the person in a condition he or she would find unbearable. You may feel strongly that you do not want to go through this treatment to make you live longer. However, in the future you may not be physically or mentally able to make the decision or talk to your doctors about what you want, for example, if you were in a deep coma or suffered serious dementia. That’s why you should consider an advance directive.

What is an Advance Directive?

An advance directive (often known as a Living Will or ‘Advance Refusal’) allows you to state which treatments you would or would not want if you became seriously ill in the future and could not say what you wanted to happen. Some people confuse the issue of refusing treatment under an advance directive with voluntary euthanasia. The two issues, although related, are separate. If you make an advance directive you are asking doctors not to give you certain medical treatments. Voluntary euthanasia is when you ask the doctor to deliberately end your life and is illegal in the UK.

What does a Living Will cover?

Through advance statements, patients have a legal right to decline specific treatment, including life-prolonging treatment. Patients cannot use advance statements to insist on the provision of certain treatments but they may authorise or refuse treatments.

Who is responsible for preparing an Advance Directive?

Drafting an advance statement is the patient’s responsibility. If necessary seek advice from your general practitioner or health professional. It is the patient’s responsibility to ensure that the existence of an advance statement is known to those who may be asked to comply with its provisions.

What if I can’t express my wishes myself?

No person has a legal right to accept or decline treatment on behalf of another adult. However, the BMA recognises that the nomination of a health care proxy by the patient may be another helpful development in communicating the patient’s views when the individual is no longer capable of expressing these.

Do doctors have to do what I say?

Doctors with a conscientious objection to curtailing treatment are not obliged to comply with an advance statement but must be ready to step aside. The British Medical Association (BMA) strongly supports the principle of an advance statement.

How do I get a Living Will?

Seek your economic planner about drawing up your Living Will at the simultaneously as preparing your Will. It is highly recommended that patients review their advance statements regularly, and demolish rather than make corrections the statement.

Hypnosis is not a new one, but it is still complex as an adjunct treatment to the most of health care professionals. However, health care providers educated in hypnosis and the power of suggestion realize its real worth and nature in the healing arts. Most people go in and out of hypnosis several times a day. Day dreaming is so nearly like hypnosis, some authorities consider them one and the same. The difference is that thoughts are random in daydreaming where in hypnosis, suggestions are directed.

Heomphilia and Hypnosis

The hypnotic state is something a person accomplishes by himself. It is a state of complete relaxation, physical and mental. It is an alternate state of consciousness characterized by profound relaxation. In this state the mind is more susceptible to suggestions. Hypnosis is accomplished by a combination of confidence and suggestion which can have marvelous results. It is not a medicine nor is it a “cure-all,” but rather a “tool” which can benefit one immensely.

Today, some twenty thousand physicians, dentists,psychologists, nurses, hypnotherapists in other medical professions, and hypno- technicians are using hypnosis in their practices. Hypnosis is being taught to members of the healing arts, police officers, lawyers, clergymen, students, salesmen and a host of others who have found it beneficial in their endeavors. Some medical schools are now including a course in hypnosis as part of their curriculum.

Tommy was fourteen and a victim of hemophilia which is a defective or deficient blood coagulation molecule known as factor VIII. Tommy required as many as six transfusions of cryoprecipitate weekly, a very expensive and time consuming treatment. Using hypnosis as an adjunct therapy, Tommy learned how to manage his bleeds drastically decreasing his need for transfusions. This was a significant change for the family financially and in Tommy’s improved mental and physical health.

Hypnosis was used in four ways. First, was ego-strengthening. Tommy was given suggestions that he no longer had to compete with his peer group to be accepted. Second, He was taught to recognize when he was bleeding into a joint very early. Early recognition of internal bleeding combined with increased self- esteem allowed him to stop what he was doing without embarrassment, decreasing the amount of injury. Third, Tommy used guided imagery to produce cold at the site of bleeding to decrease the blood flow. He also noticed faucets on his blood vessels that could be switched on or off. Fourth, He learned auto-hypnosis which enabled him to perform the post-hypnotic instructions given by the hypnotist.

Health care is not taking as an important one in United States. Inspite of the fact that the U.S. leads the world in health care ranking very low on a number of health measures.

Drs. Gary Null, Carolyn Dean, Martin Feldman, Debora Rasio and Dorothy Smith, authors of “Death by Medicine” report in their groundbreaking research that 783,936 people die every year in the United States from conventional medicine mistakes. This is the equivalent of six jumbo jet crashes a day for a year.

Of the 783,936 annual deaths due to conventional medical procedures, about 106,000 are from prescription drugs, according to Death by Medicine. That is a conservative number, because of underreported cases of adverse drug reactions some experts estimate that approximately 200,000 deaths occur annually.

The truth of the matter is the problem is not with health care the problem is that Traditional Western Medicine (TWM) is based on disease care.

If you went to an MD and said, “Doc, I am feeling great, but I would like to feel even better, what would you suggest I do?” The majority of TWM doctors would not know where to begin, because their training is in the management of disease. TWM helping someone feel better ends when the complaints have ceased to appear, whether the root cause of the complaint was healed or not. Once there are no symptoms, TWM has nothing to offer.

The body is designed to heal itself provided it has the proper support to do its job. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is based on a concept of balanced qi (pronounced “chee”), or vital energy, that is believed to flow throughout the body. Qi is proposed to regulate a person’s spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical balance and to be influenced by the opposing forces of yin (negative energy) and yang (positive energy). Disease is proposed to result from the flow of qi being disrupted and yin and yang becoming imbalanced. Among the components of TCM are herbal and nutritional therapy, restorative physical exercises, meditation, acupuncture, and remedial massage.

Holistic, Metaphysical, Energy or Mind, Body, Spirit healing has existed since the beginning of time amid religious beliefs and practices, along with the mystery, superstition, fear, and misunderstanding. Holistic Healing is now becoming recognized regardless of what anyone chooses to believe or think. Ask almost anyone about their spiritual well-being and they will probably tell you, “Yeah, I am a spiritual person, I go to church frequently.” Therein, the confusion arises out of the association of healing with religion. The majority of people, including religious leaders, do not understand the difference.

If you are free of symptoms you may not be sick, but that does not necessarily mean that you are completely healthy either. If you were to consider being disease free as health there is still the question of just how healthy are you?

Holistic health care-TCM

Homeopathy, and Naturopathy has the goal of having every system in your body functioning at or as close as possible to 100%. You can be healthy in Mind, Body and Spirit provided you have the proper support to do the job.