Stolen Hours : Breaking Free from Secret Addictions

All of us keep a secret now and then, but at least one out of fifteen people is a chronic Secret Keeper. These are persons whose secrets have power over them and make them misbehave, become sick, or violate others. Burdened by unhealthy secret-keeping habits, they "steal hours" away from their public lives to act out their secret behaviors or passions—sometimes for decades—but rarely get found out.

Many are everyday folks. Your next door neighbor. The person ahead of you in the supermarket line. The driver beside you on the freeway. Or maybe you—or someone you love.

The book describes the 8 mindsets of persons with these secret-keeping traits and their relationship to self-defeating behaviors such as alcohol/drug abuse, compulsive gambling, sexual addictions, and eating disorders. The author speaks from both his personal recovery experience based on his own 40-year history and his professional knowledge as a licensed chemical health counselor. Written in an upbeat style, Stolen Hours offers practical and spiritual ways to confront the problem and encourages readers to pursue healthy whole-mindedness.

John Prin, BA, LADC, writes and lectures on recovery topics to a variety of audiences about healthy ways to think, behave, and live. His career as an addictions counselor began with his own recovery from chemical addictions in 1996.