Opening Our Hearts, Transforming Our Losses

By: Al-Anon Family Groups

Narrated by: anonymous Al-Anon members

Length: 5 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

Grief and loss affect almost every aspect of living—or having lived—with alcoholism. Members share how they have learned to acknowledge and accept these losses with the help of Al-Anon Family Groups. The stories shared here reflect the experience, strength, and hope of hundreds of members.

©2007 Al-Anon Family Group Headquarters, Inc (P)2021 Al-Anon Family Group Headquarters, Inc

Healing and recovery through the steps....

The wisdom, compassion, and power of the Alanon family experience is a precious gift.

The anonymous voices were perfect!

I really appreciate that sometimes the voice sounded female or male while I thought of the section as written by a female or male and sometimes it didn’t match! As a gay guy it means a lot to me to hear my story with in this way.

opening our hearts

I found this enlightening. I will read over and over again to gain insight.

After my son died from addiction

I had heard about this book mostly related to others in Al anon who read it after divorce or death of a spouse. I thought I’d never need it until my son passed from an accidental overdose. Faced with grief and 8 years of the program under my belt, I set out on a journey to take time and grieve in my own way and at my own pace. The first thing that struck me while reading was that my grief started many years ago when it became apparent that my dreams for his normal life and my expectations of how our family would grow and socialize together were never going to be what I dreamed. Over time my dreams changed to hoping he could maintain sobriety, a job and a relationship with his fiancée which was true and they were married. It lasted 3 months when he relapsed entered detox and rehab again and those dreams were put back on hold but still within reach. He deteriorated quickly then recovered for a few weeks or a month then repeated the cycle. My dreams changed again that he would just be sober, then again that he would be alive tomorrow and that dream ended just 10 months after their wedding day. I miss him dearly, still with the help
Of Alanon and my Alanon family I am surviving one day at a time. I hope the same for you, whatever it is you’re have lost.

Worth every cent

As a person affected by others’ drinking behaviors, and had a terrible childhood partly because of it, this is a must read to begin my grieving process. I am grieving “what never was” as it states so eloquently. I reference this book often and I thinks it’s a nice companion to use prior to step 4. The only reason I gave performance a 3 star is because some of the readers were very breathy or slow. Thanks for your service.

Easy to follow - important for those of us in recovery

I found this Al-Anon book that is part of the conference approved literature to be what I needed to hear. I will come back to this again….

Helpful

I needed this right time. It’s been years on a roller coaster. I need to get off.