The Library

I want to congratulate our Group on the completion of the first two weeks of our "cruise". I can see how the members are being more open in their sharing, and I can tell already that we're building a very special and "safe" container for us to come to regularly. I feel li...

Before the 12 Step Program, I couldn't bear Shabbos without my family near me. I hated being alone and all unto myself. The worst thoughts and urges would appear, and I didn't know what to do with myself. Baruch Hashem, not anymore. If anyone wants to really "prove" to th...

Once we stop acting out, we embark on a journey of recovery. "Recovery"? from what are we recovering? We are getting our Sanity back! (we probably did have it when we were five or six years old...). After all, it is insane (see Websters, really) to be doing all kinds of t...

Someone posted: "having a handle on the lusting is proving to leave me with enough energy, which can be more profitably used elsewhere". R' Dov responds: Please consider that you are really only recognizing the tip of the iceberg when you say this. It is much, much more...

For my wife, the best day of our lives together was the day she realized that I had started to change. It was after about a year of sobriety, soon after my 4th & 5th steps (which incidentally, I felt I had done a lousy "job" on). We have never watched our wedding vide...

The basis of addictive behavior is "I want to feel good right now". Certainly being be'simcha is a yesod of yiddishkeit (and as AAs say "if you are sad all the time you are not working the steps right"), but nowhere do we see any Torah source saying "if it feels good, do ...

When my house is on fire with lust, and my body is telling me "I need it, I need it," and it feels clear that it is in my absolute best interest to do this crazy thing, I need to remind myself that it is a 100%, total, lie. But that is not enough. I must also have a truth...

I was frum before and I'm frum now, but it is clear to me that my relationship with Hashem was not personal and not real to ME, before sobriety. All addicts who recover through AA feel the same way, it seems. So I say, without what you call "the Yetzer Hara" - I call it "...

Ilan wrote me today: Sometimes I wonder, "how can an amazing guy do nonsense like this?" I was thinking yesterday that I cannot really beat this addiction. Even if I put a filter on this computer at the university, there are five computers next to this one. I thought ...

One of the most inspirational members of our Forum is a guy named Dov (see his story here). He is sober in SA for 11 years and continues to join SA meetings until today. He often posts how the 12-Steps help him remain sober and live with Hashem day by day,...

Gentlemen, Please allow me, please to introduce myself. My name is Duvid Chaim. For your information, the Big Book Lunch & Learn Study Group (BBL&LSG) will focus on your recovery through the most widely tested and proven recovery method to date; by "wor...

Do you want JOY in your Life?? Of course you do!! Who doesn't want JOY in their life? What's wrong with being a "thrill seeker?" In fact, we learn from the Ramchal that HaKodesh Baroch Hu specifically created man to bask in His light and receive His Joy. ...

Yankle posted on the forum: I regret that I have lost yet another streak. I do not know if I should stay on the list or chart, as I can't seem to fight any more. How far I have fallen from who I was! I am divorced and alone. The loneliness gets to be too ...

A "Step" is a way to get from place A to place B. To get successfully from place A to place B you need two things, the theoretical knowledge of what it takes to get from one point to another, and the practical recognition of how to apply and use that kno...

"London" writes on the forum to someone who believes that Torah and Mussar will be enough to get him out of his addiction: My question to you is simply this: is what you are doing now working, are you staying sober, staying stopped, and leading a purposeful life? If you a...

Intro from Dov: A guy wrote back and forth with me basically saying that he really wants to change - yet every suggestion that the program has made for him to actually do, he has refused. All he wants is to recover secretly, on his own. He is sure that unlike everybody el...

I want to share today a few wonderful things that have come about for me through this program of 12 steps. I feel like I have not shared in a while and so I will do some "service" and share my "experience, strength and hope." My life has completely changed since I started...

GYE Writes: We all know that Chazal tell us how Torah is an anecdote against the Yetzer Hara and that learning Torah protects us even during the times that we are not learning. The question is, why didn't our Torah learning protect so many of us in our struggle with lust ...