Heroin, Oxycontin, and Other Opiates: 

Breaking Your Addiction           

 "There is a “carrot and stick” to opiates.  Imagine a jackass chasing a carrot dangled in front of him on a stick.  The animal will chase that carrot until he is exhausted, remembering the taste of the first carrot.

            "Now imagine that his master finally allows him to eat the carrot in the shade.  The carrot only satisfies his hunger for a few minutes.  In what seems like a moment, his master will be hitting him with a stick to get him moving again.  Soon his belly is rumbling, his sides hurt from the stick, and he knows he must get up to chase another carrot.

            "Opiates are the carrot and the stick.  The high, and the escape from pain, are the carrot.  Withdrawal and all the problems opiate addiction causes are the stick.  Addiction is the master.  Guess which role you play.  This workbook will help you stop."

Heroin, OxyContin, & Other Opiates: Breaking Your Addiction  (c)2005 by Ken Montrose 

The kindle version of this workbook is free through Friday 12/13 at:https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001K8MG0S 

Free This Week:
Heroin, Oxycontin, & Other Opiates: Breaking Your Addiction

https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001K8MG0S

     "There is a “carrot and stick” to opiates. Imagine a jackass chasing a carrot dangled in front of him on a stick. The animal will chase that carrot until he is exhausted, remembering the taste of the first carrot.
     "Now imagine that his master finally allows him to eat the carrot in the shade. The carrot only satisfies his hunger for a few minutes. In what seems like a moment, his master will be hitting him with a stick to get him moving again. Soon his belly is rumbling, his sides hurt from the stick, and he knows he must get up to chase another carrot.
     "Opiates are the carrot and the stick. The high, and the escape from pain, are the carrot. Withdrawal and all the problems opiate addiction causes are the stick. Addiction is the master. Guess which role you play. This workbook will help you stop."

Lucky Man

‘I can charter a plane if you’re still afraid of flying,’ Cara texted.  ‘It would just be your friends on the plane.”

‘Thanks, but I’ll pass,’ I texted.

I wondered what it would be like to have the money to charter a plane whenever you wanted to. For a second I was jealous.

I remembered something the comedian Stephen Wright had said. You can’t have everything, where would you put it? Cliché as it seemed, I took a long look at all I had and decided I’d hit life’s lottery.

Today I’ll take another look at all I have to be grateful for.

Dogged Determination ©2018 & 2019 by Ken Montrose

Dogged Determination is a work of fiction. Any similarity between the characters and anyone you might know is purely coincidental.

Other works by Ken Montrose are available at: www.greenbriartraining.com https://www.pinterest.com/kenmontrose/mt-rose/

Free This Week:

Hauling it to the Curb: 

Cleaning Up Your Life in Early Recovery

Here's an excerpt:

Denial Dictionary

•    alcoholic: anyone who drinks more than we do, or drinks a cheaper brand in rougher places; "If you want to see alcoholics, stick your head in the door at Bubba's. I'm going to the country club for a wine tasting.”
•    coupla: an unspecified amount greater than two; “I’m gonna have a coupla beers.”

https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001K8MG0S

The ebook version of Forgiveness in Recovery will be available free of charge from 6/10 to 6/14. 

Written for people new to recovery, this workbook helps the reader develop a realistic outlook on forgiveness. Basic, and sometimes difficult, truths discussed in Forgiveness include:
▸ The people we hope will forgive us don’t have to.
▸ Seeing the other person’s point of view isn’t always easy, our point of view may not be easy for them to see.
▸ We do well to practice the AA slogan clean your side of the street.
▸ Forgiveness is a wonderful gift, but one we may have to give judiciously.
▸ Part of recovery is learning to forgive ourselves.

https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001K8MG0Shttps://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001K8MG0S

The kindle version of Home Groupies III will be available for free on Amazon from 6/10 until 6/14.  Here's an excerpt:

Surprise and Suspicion
“What’d you do?” my wife asked as I handed her the flowers.
“Nothing,” I said. “Can’t I buy you flowers without being accused?”
“No – what did you do?”
“I bought you some flowers,” I said. “Because I love you.”
“OK, you’re forgiven,” she said, taking the flowers.

Today I will do something nice for someone.
(Even if they’re likely to question my motives.)

https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001K8MG0S
-----

Free this week:

ebook: The Road Way Less Traveled: Starting Recovery Young

https://www.amazon.com/Ken-Montrose/e/B001K8MG0S

Here's an Excerpt:

Singing Rats: 

A parable about changing people, places, & things

There were three houses in a row.  In each house lived one man.  These houses became infested with singing rats.  The rats sang special songs that touched the souls of each man, even though each rat sang a different song.  These rats carried fleas, and the flea bites made the men sick.  The rats ate most of the men’s food, made nests in their furniture, ordered junk from the internet, and ran up huge phone bills.  Soon the three houses were falling apart because the men were too busy listening to the rats to make home repairs.
Eventually, all three men realized they had to change their lives.  The first man made up his mind he would live with just one rat and the rest had to go. “Once I make up my mind, I stick to my guns,”  he said.  “I can handle a rat or two.”  Two months later, the rats threw him out, but kept his car and his credit cards.  “Don’t come back, or we’ll rat you out to your probation officer,” they told him.
     The second man put up a tent in his yard, and decided he would only go back into his house to eat.  “That way I can still have music with my meals.”  Two years later he replaced the rats with dancing mice.  “It was the noise from the rats that was ruining my life,” he said.  When they buried him, the mice danced on his grave.
The third man burned his house to the ground.  All the rats that weren’t killed ran to his neighbors’ houses, too afraid to return.  The third man also lived in a tent for a while.  Slowly, a little at a time, he built a new house where his old house had stood.  He bought a mean cat.


 Which man are you most like?       

The Road Way Less Traveled: Starting recovery young, p. 7. © 2002 by Ken Montrose)

ebook version free this week from https://www.amazon.com/Ken-Montrose/e/B001K8MG0S

Five People

I woke up the next day not looking forward to the funeral.

When I trained addiction counselors, I always gave them three or four gratitude exercises.  The only one that raised eyebrows was asking them to name five people they were grateful they were not. Some thought it was a cold approach to gratitude.

I thought of five people. Some names were serious, others not so much.

I was grateful I wasn’t Katie.  I had a heavy heart, but I was alive with a full day ahead of me.  I was grateful I wasn’t my wife. She had to put with me.  I was grateful I wasn’t a fan of certain NFL teams. The list went on.

Today I’ll make a list of five people I’m glad I’m not.

 Dogged Determination ©2018 by Ken Montrose

Dogged Determination is a work of fiction. Any similarity between the characters and anyone you might know is purely coincidental.

Other works by Ken Montrose are available at www.greenbriartraining.com https://www.pinterest.com/kenmontrose/mt-rose/

Free This Week on Amazon, Kindle Versions of:

AArdvarks: A Daily Recovery Message Novella

Dancing With Rachel (novel)

Home Groupies (daily recovery message novella)

Another Day

“Long day?” Dr. Deb asked as she turned out the light.

“Sure was,” I said. “Katie was one of a kind. I like Cara in much smaller doses. Not sure what’s going on with Kim and Josh.”

“Tomorrow’s another day.”

“It’s the day of the funeral, but it’s still another day.  Who knows what good might come from it?”

Today I’ll be grateful for another day.

 Dogged Determination ©2018 by Ken Montrose

Dogged Determination is a work of fiction. Any similarity between the characters and anyone you might know is purely coincidental.

Free This Week:

Dancing with Rachel

AArdvarks: A Daily Recovery Message Novella

Home Groupies

https://www.amazon.com/Ken-Montrose/e/B001K8MG0S

Free Kindle Workbooks (can be read on any Mac or PC)

Forgiveness in Early Recovery by Ken Montrose

Written for people new to recovery, this workbook helps the reader develop a realistic outlook on forgiveness. Basic, and sometimes difficult, truths discussed in Forgiveness include:

▸ The people we hope will forgive us don’t have to.

▸ Seeing the other person’s point of view isn’t always easy, our point of view may not be easy for them to see.

▸ We do well to practice the AA slogan: ‘clean your side of the street.’

▸ Forgiveness is a wonderful gift, but one we may have to give judiciously.

▸ Part of recovery is learning to forgive ourselves.

Available free of charge  January 29^th – February 2^nd at: https://www.amazon.com/Ken-Montrose/e/B001K8MG0S

Smart Bears, Angry Rats: A Somewhat Sci-Fi Daily Recovery Message Novella by Ken Montrose

Smart Bears, Angry Rats is another in a series of thought-for-the day books, focused on recovery, but applicable to everyday life. A book within a book, Smart Bears, Angry Rats tells the story of a scientist seventy-five years into the future trying to cure cancer. He hopes to win back his estranged wife, but becomes addicted to a drug called “Lil' Bit” instead. Carelessness leads to chemically enhanced mice escaping, with dire consequences 150 years from now. The reader peers over my shoulder in present day through the eyes of my wife and children while I conjure up the daily messages.

Here's an excerpt:

Somes

Blondie was reading over my shoulder. "If the world is as bleak as you paint it to be," my daughter asked, "then why does Sonya seem sorta happy?"

"She believes in 'somes'."

"Sums?"

"Somes. Somebody, somewhere, is working on something better. When your grandmother was a little girl, cancer was a death sentence. She was diagnosed at forty-five and lived another thirty-five years. Why? Somebody, somewhere, working on something came up with better cancer treatment."

"Wasn't it somebody working on something in a lab that caused the whole world to collapse in your story? In fact, wasn't he working on a cure for cancer?"

"Yep. You can focus on bitter ironies, or you can have hope. Sonya has hope."

Today I will have some hope, and hope in the somes.

Available free of charge  January 29th – February 2nd at: https://www.amazon.com/Ken-Montrose/e/B001K8MG0S

Tuesday, March 3^rd, 2020

If Nothing Changes

My wife I drove two hours to see Brat Boy’s volleyball rematch. The lanky kid with the wild hair and the gold headband started this time. Once again he glared across the net at Brat Boy. Once again Brat Boy got the better of him, blocking his shots and smiling at his antics.

“If nothing changes, nothing changes,” I said. My wife looked at me, puzzled. “They say it in AA. People stop drinking, don’t change anything else, and wonder why life doesn’t get better. It goes along with ‘more, louder, harder.’ If something doesn’t work, people tend to up the intensity of what didn’t work long before they try a new approach.”

Dr. Deb said, “Got it. Gold headband boy was even more intense, more out of control this time. That’s why he got embarrassed again.”

Today I’ll remember the slogan, ‘if nothing changes, nothing changes.’

 2020 Vision ©2017 by Ken Montrose

2020 Vision is a work of fiction. Any similarity between the characters and anyone you might know is purely coincidental.

Other works by Ken Montrose are available at: www.greenbriartraining.com https://www.pinterest.com/kenmontrose/mt-rose/

Heroin, Oxycontin, and Other Opiates: Breaking Your Addiction to Them

The Kindle version is FREE 9/3 - 9/7 http://www.amazon.com/Ken-Montrose/e/B001K8MG0S

This workbook looks at the carrot and the stick of opiate addiction. The exercises are geared to helping the reader recognize what motivates him to continue using these drugs. It also discusses common-sense approaches to recovering from addiction.

Excerpt           

"There is a “carrot and stick” to opiates. Imagine a jackass chasing a carrot dangled in front of him on a stick. The animal will chase that carrot until he is exhausted, remembering the taste of the first carrot.

"Now imagine that his master finally allows him to eat the carrot in the shade. The carrot only satisfies his hunger for a few minutes. In what seems like a moment, his master will be hitting him with a stick to get him moving again. Soon his belly is rumbling, his sides hurt from the stick, and he knows he must get up to chase another carrot.

"Opiates are the carrot and the stick. The high, and the escape from pain, are the carrot. Withdrawal and all the problems opiate addiction causes are the stick. Addiction is the master. Guess which role you play. This workbook will help you stop."

Heroin, Oxycontin, & Other Opiates © 2005 by Ken Montrose

Other Free eBOOKS 9/3 - 9/7, available from: http://www.amazon.com/Ken-Montrose/e/B001K8MG0S

• Forgiveness: A guide for people in Recovery
• AArdvarks: A Daily Recovery Message Novella
• g-NAts: Another Daily Recovery Message Novella
• Smart Bears, Angry Rats: A somewhat sci-fi daily recovery message novella
• My Favorite Character Defects: The Next Book Written By Your Addiction