Andrew Bevan - Voluntary Mentor
Overcoming Fear and Addiction
When I tell people that I've been sober for more than 20 years, they usually offer congratulations with a comment such as “we admire your...
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The OAD Clinic
Welcome to our blog
Andrew Bevan - Voluntary Mentor
- Dec 20, 2022
- 4 min
The Ideal of Abstinence
Alcohol treatment practitioners have different views on abstinence. Some take the approach that it’s possible to have a goal of...
146 views
Andrew Bevan - Voluntary Mentor
- Nov 16, 2022
- 4 min
Grief and Addiction
In 1969, Elizabeth Kübler-Ross described the five stages of grief. In my experience, these also characterise aspects of confronting...
154 views
Andrew Bevan - Voluntary Mentor
- Oct 18, 2022
- 5 min
The Quest for Peace
All of us, presumably, would like to be at peace. Most alcoholics and drug users are restless. They can’t sit still. They’re not...
158 views
Andrew Bevan - Voluntary Mentor
- Aug 16, 2022
- 4 min
The Existence of a Brotherhood
In an earlier blog, we briefly commented on how Special Forces (SF) use meditation techniques as part of training and preparation (see...
122 views
Andrew Bevan - Voluntary Mentor
- Jun 14, 2022
- 4 min
Suffering and the Search for Meaning
Suffering is part of what it is to be human. The “art of living” (Discourses of Epictetus, 1.15.3) is in large part how we cope with...
130 views
Andrew Bevan - Voluntary Mentor
- Apr 5, 2022
- 4 min
Choose Life
We hear the cry of many, and perhaps we have done it ourselves on occasion – “what is the point of it all?” We do it when we are sick,...
163 views
Andrew Bevan - Voluntary Mentor
- Feb 5, 2022
- 4 min
Inordinate Desire and Excessive Appetite
Alcoholics can’t stop at just the one drink. Whatever the good intentions, one drink is followed by another until oblivion is reached. It...
210 views
Andrew Bevan - Voluntary Mentor
- Sep 3, 2021
- 4 min
Meditation and Addiction Recovery
In an earlier blog from last year, called Be Still – Mindfulness in Lockdown, we talked about how lockdown was an opportunity to stop...
175 views
Andrew Bevan - Voluntary Mentor
- Jun 2, 2021
- 4 min
Motivation, Discipline and Reward
Alcoholics and drug users find it tough to stick to a treatment programme. Motivation comes and goes. Discipline is something different....
215 views
The OAD Clinic
- Jul 6, 2020
- 4 min
The Brain and Addiction - Part III
Do we have three brains? Now we know that in the early century XX neuroscientists were able to understand the roots of some of Jon’s...
662 views
The OAD Clinic
- Jun 1, 2020
- 4 min
The Brain and Addiction - Part II
Reptilians Among Us Late in the morning in April 1899 Christfried was crossing the cobbled central square of Erlangen, in Bayern. His...
88 views
The OAD Clinic
- May 25, 2020
- 4 min
The Brain and Addiction - Part I
I want to vs I have to You know what you have to do, but you can’t help doing the opposite. How many times have you been there? Don’t...
125 views
The OAD Clinic
- Nov 8, 2019
- 5 min
Exploring the Mechanism of Maintenance Therapy
Understanding Opioids Over the past few decades, much has been revealed about opioid dependence that has shaped our comprehension of...
404 views
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