The Abstinent Self

July 6, 2014 by

First entry:

What does addiction do to the self?

 

in this book by Becca Imbur, founder of Bimbur Books:

Creative book for creativity by Becca Imbur

Filed Under: Addiction, Drawings Tagged With:

Comments

  1. Anne Giles says
    July 7, 2014 at 7:32 AM

    Thank you, Dan, for helping me think about a “recovering self” and Lara H, for helping me think about drawing her. Thank you, Laurel, for your support!

  2. Laurel Sindewald says
    July 6, 2014 at 6:43 PM

    Thank you, Anne, for your kindness and your willingness to share. What a lovely book! Truly one of a kind.

  3. Lara H says
    July 6, 2014 at 10:35 AM

    I agree Dan. The recovering self seems far more whole in my experience than my pre-recovering self was. Interesting, Anne didn’t include an image of her “Recovering” self, only the “Abstinent” self. I look forward to seeing what her recovering self might look like!

  4. Dan Smith says
    July 6, 2014 at 8:07 AM

    Anne:

    I would suggest that the recovering self can be far superior to the “whole self.” It certainly has been in my case. The “whole self” is the one that got in trouble with addiction in the first place. It was full of holes that needed to be filled in a variety of ways with false and easily dissolved filling.

    The new, recovering self, one that embraces spirituality, gratitude, humility, mental and physical health and the need for help from others in recovery, is far more whole. The “whole self” of the past embraced the moment and had little use for thinking ahead, for consequences.

    I don’t want what I had. I want what is possible, what I have seen in myself and in others.

    Dan Smith