Addiction Is the Symptom: Heal the Cause and Prevent Relapse with 12 Steps That Really Work

There's a better way to work the Twelve Steps.

Drugs, food, money, sex, relationships, work . . . Any addiction darkens and potentially threatens our lives. In Addiction Is the Symptom, Dr. Rosemary Ellsworth Brown offers a deeper approach to the Twelve Steps that prevents relapse by digging beyond our addictions--our symptoms--to heal the real problem: emotional dependency. It worked for Dr. Brown herself, and it's been working for her clients and sponsees for 30 years.

Do you have 20 minutes a day to change your life? At the heart of this new approach is Step Four. Precise instructions eliminate trial and error--and self-judgment. There's nothing wrong with you. What's wrong is all the garbage piled on top of you. Here is a way to get your authentic self out from under the lifetime of conditioning that is fueling your addictive behaviors.

This book is for both Program people and "independents." Fans of AA and the steps will find Dr. Brown's approach different, yet familiar and respectful. If you've never taken to the steps, you will likely find Dr. Brown's modifications more appealing. With the Brown Method, you never have to set foot in step meeting if you don't care to--that's your decision. Nor do you need to read the Big Book: Addiction Is the Symptom is complete.

We're all addicted. It's about more than substance abuse. It's about near-universal control issues that profoundly affect our everyday lives and relationships. But self-transformation is possible. Wherever you live on the addiction spectrum, healing emotional dependency means becoming powerful in your own right and reaching your full potential as a human being.

Dr. Rosemary Ellsworth Brown is a psychologist. She graduated from Smith College as an Ada Comstock Scholar in 1989 and completed her doctorate in counseling psychology at Union Institute in 1993. Her academic research focused on relapse, in particular on why AA and its myriad Twelve Step offshoots proved ineffective for the majority of their members.Dr. Brown's research has been not only academic and professional in nature, but also personal. She attended her first AA meeting in 1968, stayed sober for a year, and then experienced a tragic two-year relapse. She returned to the program determined to understand and solve the problem of relapse and devoted the rest of her professional life, and much of her personal life, to doing so.She has been using her modified step method to heal the cause of addictive behavior and prevent relapse among her clients and sponsees for upwards of 30 years.Author's Home: San Diego, California