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SUGGESTED READING AND LISTENING:
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Suggested reading and listening: The
books and music listed below have been suggested by our readers and recommended
for reading and listening to help us understand our addictions.
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A Childhood Taken Away by a Mother and Grandfather
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- One of the most beautiful aspects of life is the relationship
and love between a mother and child. To go through life without a
mother's love can be difficult. The only thing I received from my
mother was an addiction to gambling. As a baby to adulthood I was
raised around gambling. During these frequent card games for money
there was terrible language used, arguing, and fighting. I could
play a hand of poker at the age of five -- Linda Sommer Farley
- Linda tells us what life was like for her growing up. She
shares with us the trauma of having an abusive grandfather and a
mother with a gambling addiction and how it
effected her throughout her life. She expresses her embarrassment of
growing up poor and the challenges she faced through out her school
years due to her poverty. She wrote this book with the purest of
intentions - to in some way help others.
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Hats
& Eyeglasses
Hats & Eyeglasses (Tarcher/Penguin) is
Martha Frankel's hysterically funny and heartbreaking story of how a
harmless love affair with poker turned into an online compulsion that drove
her to the edge of despair.
It has been lauded as "Intimate and exuberant" (O, The Oprah Magazine);
"Sparse and honest" (The Associated Press); "Honest and funny" (USA Today),
and "Fast paced and amazingly funny" (The New Orleans Times Picayune)
Visit Martha Frankel's web page:
http://marthafrankel.com
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Women Overpowered By
Compulsive Gambling
Readers of Women Overpowered by Compulsive Gambling will
experience a genuine detailed explanation of how gambling affects the
lives of women who have become obsessed with their high-stake habit of
gambling. A full narrative is provided as to how female gamblers obtain
their funds to gamble. The book covers every aspect of gambling from
character changes and the harsh reality of denial. The story is told
through the authors' eyes as a compulsive gambler with reference to her
gambling colleagues. Gambling like any other addiction is overpowering; it can and will drive
you to insanity. If you have not succumbed to insanity it just might cause
you to consider committing a crime to obtain finances so you may continue
with your addiction to gamble; thus leading you closer to the gates of
prison or worse yet death.
Gambling is described as one of the most “baffling and insidious”
addictions that can never be cured but it can most definitely be
arrested through diligent, hard work in the Gamblers Anonymous
Program. Two words in my vocabulary, baffling and insidious remind
me what gambling will do to you. The word baffle in my dictionary
is described as: frustrate, thwart, foil, and perplex. The meaning
of the word insidious enthralls me the most: ambush, sly,
treacherous, seductive and the meaning that tears at my heart the most, is
having a gradual and cumulative effect: subtle. As the snake slithers
through the grass seeking its prey for food, so does the gambler seek
funds to feed their addiction to gamble. Unfortunately, the gamblers
addiction is a slow subtle and treacherous deterioration
unbeknownst, especially to the gambler herself. Gambling will perplex you,
it will frustrate you and above all it will thwart every emotion you
possess. It will turn you into that slithering snake! You will become
enthralled by anger, greed and hatred. You will destroy everything good in
you. If you are suffering from a gambling addiction reach out for help
through Gamblers Anonymous, grasp the program with all your might, and
take it to heart for it may just save your life……
- Rosemary A. Cunliffe North
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maandpanorth@cox.net Web
page:www.roseacunliffenorth.com
book may be purchased at www.Xlibris.com
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SANITY MAKES A COMEBACK!
Allison Bottke's
Setting Boundaries With Your Adult Children: Six Steps to Hope
and Healing for Struggling Parents and the S.A.N.I.T.Y.
Support Group Network are powerful resources to help parents and
grandparents who have challenging adult children gain S.A.N.I.T.Y. in a
world spinning out of control. Tell a friend in need…help change a life.
Visit
www.SanitySupport.com. |
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- Maita Floyd lectures nationally and internationally
on the topics of her writings. For information on
how to purchase Maita's books, you may contact her at:
mfloyd@royaloakslife.net.
She is also very active in community service: Member of the Governor of
Arizona Commission on Violence Against Women Task Force (Public
Awareness), Maricopa County District Attorney Office Victim/Witness
Advocate, and Hospice Volunteer.
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- STOLEN YEARS, in my
little corner of the world. Ms. Floyd was given
the ABPA Glyph award for best history/biography
book.
Fascinating book rolls back the calendar to World war II. Gives a
revealing insight into the trials and challenges of the least-known
minority - the European Basques. A wartime chronicle is related by
an observant, curious teenage Basque girl. The author spent four
oppressive years of German occupation.Truly a historical gem.
- ENGAGE BRAIN
before speaking
Listening instead of using hurtful words. "It could be worse"
"Get over it" "I know how you feel" Hurtful words.
Listen more and speak less. We can NEVER walk in someone's else shoes.
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We
have some music written by
Debi D. from Arizona. Debi has written four songs which
tell the story
of our struggle to stop this devastating problem. Check out a sample
of her music under 'What's New.' "These songs can be
purchased for download at
Radiance Road. Anti-trigger
scripts and deep relaxation tracks designed to help gamblers deal with grief
and self-esteem issues are also available at very reasonable rates. "
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50 Ways to Love Your Mother
Jane Monachelli has packed this little book with
practical ideas, not things, to help those who are caregivers for their aging parents and/or
relatives. Our loved ones are living longer and we're faced with the
dilemma of how to help them enjoy the final season of their lives. This book
offers many suggestions and includes helpful information on websites,
catalogs, gadgets, etc. It is a perfect gift to a friend who is caring for
an elderly parent. It should be offered in retirement homes, nursing homes,
and hospitals to caregivers as it would be invaluable to one who is seeking
ways to make life better for a loved one.
Jane considers this book a tribute to
her mother, who passed away in 2002.
Jane Monachelli, M.A., L.P.C., lives
in Phoenix, AZ and you may visit her site:
http://www.50waystolove.com |
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 Beyond
the Glitz and Glamour of Las Vegas: Death and Addiction
- by Rosemary A. Cunliffe North
A true story of a woman whose worst nightmare comes true
with the loss of one of her children. Her son, Andrew, is brutally and
senselessly murdered in Las Vegas at the age of twenty-one. In order to
escape the harsh reality of a world without her son, the author starts
spending time at the casinos. Her addiction to gambling begins slowly but
she soon becomes obsessed with a powerful compulsion to gamble. After years
of gambling, she finally admits defeat and says: “My name is Rose, and yes,
I am a compulsive gambler.” The Twelve Steps of the Gamblers Anonymous
program helps her find recovery, her lost spirit, her family, and her Savior
Jesus Christ, and she is rewarded with a much deeper love for her family and
a better understanding about her addiction to gambling. Her book is
available through her publisher http://www.wheatmark.com/bookstore
and will soon be listed on
http://www.amazon.com and other
on-line book stores.
If anyone would like to contact
the author about her book, please do so at:
r.cunliffe@cox.net
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- A Place Where Weeds & Roses Grow -
Joan Spencer, Canada
‘Weeds and Roses’ is a shockingly truthful account of one woman’s
downward spiral into pathological addiction, her six years in this
self-made hell and her courageous battle to overcome insurmountable odds
in order to live addiction free. In the telling of her story the author
keeps you on the edge of your seat as chapter by chapter the tension
builds and builds. You find yourself wondering what she will think of
next to raise money to support her addiction. And just when you think
she can’t sink any lower or pull off one more scam she does, each
deception more clever and more desperate than the last. ‘Weeds and
Roses’ should be required reading for anyone contemplating entering a
gambling facility for the first time. The story serves as both a warning
as to the dangers lurking in the shadows of “recreational gambling”, and
a lifeline to those who have already fallen victim. Ms. Spencer’s “A
Place Where Weeds & Roses Grow” can be purchased through her Publisher’s
online bookstore at
Windshift Press & Windshift for
Writers It is also available at Amazon.com or you
may order it through a large number of other good booksellers. For a
sample chapter or to ask the author a question, Joan welcomes you to
contact her at chickchack@shaw.ca
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 - Unbreakable -- A Story of
Crime Addiction
by Steve Cattell, England
I recently met Steve Cattell through the Internet, resulting in an
exchange of e-mails. He is currently writing a manuscript about the life
of crime he led that evolved into a relationship with a Higher Power and an
affiliation with
Offenders-Anonymous.org.uk The book Unbreakable
will be published in February 2008, and his audience could be anyone who
has ever taken anything that didn't belong to them. It's a shocking and
painful read but will open your eyes to an addiction problem that has been overlooked
by society for generations. Steve spent 24 years in prison, 12 of them in
solitary confinement, before he found the help he had asked for at the age
of 15. The book will burn an image in your mind and heart on his method of
handling pent-up anger. Today he is dedicating endless hours helping young
people who are on a self-destructive journey.
If you have any questions about his life story his e-mail address:
steve_cattell@yahoo.co.uk
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 No Limit - The Incredible Obsession of Brian Molony
by Gary Ross
The true story of a compulsive gambler whose habit led
to the largest bank scam in Canadian history. Just how does an otherwise moral,
upright, and law-abiding citizen pull the biggest bank scam of all time?
An account of one man's affliction by a little-understood but
long-recognized disease-compulsive gambling. Available on Amazon.com.
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 The Big
Book of Alcoholics Anonymous
Originally published in 1939, when A.A. membership numbered about one
hundred. At the time of the third edition, in March 1976, the
membership of A.A. was estimated at 1,000,000. Approximately 21
million copies of the first three editions of Alcoholics Anonymous have been
distributed. Available at most book stores and Amazon.com. |
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 The Shadow of Chance: The Pathological Gambler--
- by Julian Taber
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- Dr. Taber describes the distortions of normal
thought, the personal agony, and the social destruction caused by an
addiction to gambling action. He reviews major obstacles to
recovery, and the steps necessary to alter the thinking and behavior of
the gambler in order to achieve a normal life.
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