Offering an alternative to twelve-step programs, a supportive guide explains how to identify the impulse to use intoxicants, learn self-control, value sobriety, and replace addiction with self-supportive behaviors.

In The Small Book of Hip Checks Erica Rand uses multiple meanings of hip check—including an athlete using their hip to throw an opponent off-balance and the inspection of racialized gender—to consider the workings of queer gender, race, and writing. Explicitly attending to processes of writing and revising, Rand pursues interruption, rethinking, and redirection to challenge standard methods of argumentation and traditional markers of heft and fluff. She writes about topics including a trans shout-out in a Super Bowl ad, the heyday of lavender dildos, ballet dancer Misty Copeland, the criticism received by figure skater Debi Thomas and tennis great Serena Williams for competing in bodysuits while Black, and the gendering involved in identifying the remains of people who die trying to cross into the United States south of Tucson, Arizona. Along the way, Rand encourages making muscle memory of experimentation and developing an openness to being conceptually knocked sideways. In other words, to be hip-checked.

A Small Book about a Big Problem by biblical counselor and psychologist Edward T. Welch guides readers to look carefully at how their anger affects them and others through short, daily meditations. In a fifty-day reading plan journey, Welch unpacks anger while encouraging and teaching readers to respond with patience to life's difficulties. This biblically wise resource is a useful tool for pastors, counselors, and lay helpers who are working with people who struggle with a short fuse. In A Small Book about a Big Problem, Welch invites readers to consider how everyone can find anger in their actions and attitudes, but Jesus, the Prince of Peace, is the only one who can empower his people to grow in patience, peace, and wholeness. How many times today have you been irritated? Frustrated? Anger is so common—yet it also hurts. It not only leaves a mark on us, but it also leaves a mark on others. The wounds we inflict on ourselves and others because of anger—loss of intimacy, trust, security, and enjoyment in our closest relationships—give us compelling reasons to look closely at our anger and lift our eyes to Christ.

"A Wondrous Journey" shows us what can occur when action is taken. When photographer Lynn Cluess Manzione decided to take on a project to counter what certain media are portraying as "women worthy of our attention," she found herself on an incredible journey. Manzione traveled through time with Dr. Martha MacGuffie, a retired surgeon and eighty-six-year-old humanitarian whose poignant story not only achieved the photographer's mission to show that beauty is heart and soul deep, but also offered wonderful life lessons along the way. "A Wondrous Journey" is the chronicle of Dr. MacGuffie's inspiring life story one of triumph, loss, and profound compassion. It is also a journey of self-discovery for Manzione, which leads to what they both share on the pages of this small book with big lessons.

It has been months or even years since you felt normal. Every day is a challenge - getting up from bed, feeling tired and disoriented, worried about yet another repetitive day, in which you have to cope with that omnipresent feeling of anxiety, that horrible energy within you, which prevents you from sitting down calmly, watching a movie with your family, meeting friends or going to the shop. Yes, that dreaded place, where your feet turn into jelly and you fight to stay upright, your vision blurs and everything looks crooked, that damned milk is nowhere to be found, your heart is racing, your palms get wet, your head gets numb and finally that lump in your throat says what you've been fearing all along: "Oh, God, it's happening! It's happening right here, in front of all these people!" You know very well what I am talking about. And you can't stand it. You don't want one more minute of it. You want to feel normal right now. At least for a while, just a quick relief from all these hours, days, months and even years of suffering. Instead you are overwhelmed by a multitude of dreadful symptoms (which I will later address in detail and help you with): high heart rate, shallow breath, sweaty and trembling hands, "jelly" feet, problems with your digestive system, muscle tension, especially in your head, neck and upper shoulders, loss of sex drive, vision and auditory disorders, poor sleep, irritability and aggression - particularly toward your closest ones, withdrawal from social events, fatigue and lack of any desire to engage in physical activities or exercise, obsession and compulsion, claustrophobia and agoraphobia, hypochondria, addiction, feelings of dissociation and unreality, panic attacks and depression. Does it sound familiar? Well, I can promise two things. First, you won't get better now. I know it's hard to tell someone who suffered for many months, even many years, that he needs to set aside even more time. But that's the reality of the situation. If you break your leg, it needs a couple of months to recover. Your overworked nerves are waiting to heal in very much the same way - just give them the time they need! Second, and most important, if you follow the advice in this book, you will recover. Yes, you will be that old carefree fellow that didn't think about himself all the time, but instead enjoyed his life, his friends, his family, going out to the movies and standing calmly in line, at the shop. Not in a hurry to anywhere, content with life. I've tried to make this text as concise as possible - reading long books, when you can't concentrate on anything is hard, I know. I've also made sure to rephrase and repeat the most important parts, so my advice gets through that heavy mental fog you've been experiencing and guides you on the right track. It will be worth it, I promise. And you will also learn how not to fall into the same trap again.

Offers a self-recovery program for substance abuse based on the Addictive Voice Recognition Technique.

THE SMALL BOOK is a no-nonsense, get-better-now directive to addicts who want a better life. No "higher power" is necessary to recover from alcoholism or other drug dependence, using this bold, new approach to addiction. THE SMALL BOOK, taking issue with 'The Big Book' of AA, is the core volume for members of the international network of Rational Recovery (RR) groups, founded by author Jack Trimpey, LCSW. It is a comprehensive guide to rational sobriety that directs addicts toward complete recovery through abstinence & the rational-emotive therapy (RET) of Albert Ellis. In his Introduction , Dr. Ellis says, "One of the very best. Therapeutically, it is unusually sound." Self-inspired recovery is made possible through "voice recognition," whereby the addict becomes vigilant for thoughts supporting further use of alcohol or drugs. These ideas are disputed by the addict, & the locus of control is found within. Trimpey discourages the self-label "codependent" but many people are so dependent on addicts (for love or approval) that self-interset is overshadowed. The chapter, "To the Professionals," is a signal for change in AA-dominated addiction care system.