Almost a week away

Written by freethinkerscottonwood on . Posted in Blog

We’re about a week away from the Emotional Sobriety Webinar! It’s pretty exciting. We have a lot of people registered for the event, and the panelists are all getting prepared. BTW, if you haven’t read Allen Berger’s book 12 Smart Things to Do When the Booze and Drugs Are Gone: Choosing Emotional Sobriety through Self-Awareness and Right Action . (Hazelden Publishing), then we highly recommend it! And Marya Hornbacher’s Waiting: A Nonbeliever’s Higher Power (also from Hazelden) is one of our all-time favorite books! If you just enjoy great writing and a good story, you’ll enjoy Marya’s book.

BTW, in case you were wondering, while we are a secular AA group, that doesn’t mean you have to be an atheist or an agnostic to enjoy the meetings. A lot of our members are neither, but love the freethinking approach to sober living!

You can still register for free!

Webinar Agenda

Written by freethinkerscottonwood on . Posted in Blog

Welcome and introductions

Part I: The Problem (about 1.25 hours)

  • Marya Hornbacher, “Addiction to the rush: The cycle of craving, crisis and crash”
  • John R, “Spiritual Bypassing”
  • Joe C, “Emotional Inebriety”
  • Dr. Allen Berger, “A brief Introduction and definition of Emotional Sobriety”
  • Brief Panel Discussion + Q & A

Break (10 Minutes)

Part II:  Bill W’s  “The Next Frontier: Emotional Sobriety”

Panel Discussion + Q & A

Emotional Inebriety?

Written by John Runnion on . Posted in Articles, Blog

Tom B, an old-timer who gave pitches about Emotional Sobriety for years, came up with a fun list of questions to think about … You can also hear his pitch at

Tom B on Emotional Sobriety

Tom defined emotional sobriety as “when my beliefs and feelings about me match the facts about me.” We may have better definitions now. Here is the list of “inebriety questions” transcribed:

  1. Do you accept criticism well? 
  2.  Are you usually hurt or angered by criticism?
  3. Do you have a difficult time accepting compliments? 
  4. Do others think more highly of you than you do yourself? 
  5. Do you depend on others to make you feel good about yourself?
  6. Does what others say about you unduly influence your feelings and beliefs about yourself?
  7. Do you often do a good job and know it, yet don’t feel good about it?
  8. Do you often feel like a loser, even though you know you’re a good person?
  9. Do you often put yourself down?
  10. Looking honestly at your life, do you treat yourself very well?
  11.  Do you treat others better than you treat yourself?
  12. Do you do nice things for others in order to get attention or compliments?
  13. When you express love for someone, are you hurt when he or she doesn’t respond in kind?
  14. Do you often feel afraid, even though you know everything is okay?
  15. Do you often feel you’re not enough?
  16. Do you often feel you’re falling short of what you should be and what you should do?
  17. Does it bother you a great deal when you know that someone dislikes or disapproves of you?
    1. (Do you kiss ass to make them like you?)
  18. Do you often refrain from doing or saying what you know you should for fear of how others might react to it?
  19.  Do your feelings depend on how your significant other is treating you?
  20. Do you feel you’re a good person no matter what others might think?