Recovery: Freedom From Our Addictions

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Listen to this episode of The Art of Charm in its entirety to learn more about how Russell handles his addiction to social media, why you have to be willing to confront pain to grow, what addiction wants, why confession is a tradition that works, patterns Russell identifies within himself and how he works to break their hold on him, what’s involved in the amends process, what the secular world can learn from religion, why Russell has been a vegetarian since age fourteen, why Russell has waited until now to write this book, how Russell has acted as a tool of reconciliation for Jordan, and much more. When we say that anybody can utilize the teachings in this book, we mean just that—anybody. Early on, Brand makes the point that we all suffer from inner turmoil in one form or another. And while those with tangible and easily defined addictions may require help more urgently than others, a program of self-discovery and transformation can benefit anybody who feels ready to change. With a rare mix of honesty, humor, and compassion, comedian and movie star Russell Brand mines his own wild story and shares the advice and wisdom he has gained through his fourteen years of recovery. Brand speaks to those suffering along the full spectrum of addiction—from drugs, alcohol, caffeine, and sugar addictions to addictions to work, stress, bad relationships, digital media, and fame. Brand understands that addiction can take many shapes and sizes and how the process of staying clean, sane, and unhooked is a daily activity. He believes that the question is not “Why are you addicted?” but "What pain is your addiction masking? Why are you running—into the wrong job, the wrong life, the wrong person’s arms?"

The feeling you have that 'there's something else' is real. What happens when you don't follow the compulsion? What is on the other side of my need [...]? The only way to find out is to not do it, and that is a novel act of faith.” PS my favourite quote from the book, and a reminder of how much we are changed by everyone we interact with:In the book’s technical aspects, it is well written - a surprise to me as I didn’t know Brand was an accomplished writer. If anything, it is at times over written to disguise the fact that it gets repetitive as it goes along. There is one theme - recovery - and while the structure (the 12 step program) ensures that this theme follows a trajectory, the analysis starts to feel shallow, and dare I say it, a bit prescriptive, after a while. You can skip passages and you won’t really lose out on much. This book, Recovery: Freedom from Our Addictions, approaches the topic of addiction recovery from two directions. Not only does Russell Brand offer insights into the 12 Steps utilized by most support groups, but he also uses the 12 Steps as a springboard to discuss his own unique perspective on recovery. Those who remain wary of the 12 Steps may find that they can relate to Brand’s particular take on them with relative ease.

Yes - grain of salt - yes - but that’s with anything…Could probably skip the whole anecdote in step 6… Russell Brand is an extremely intelligent, strangely likeable and often hilarious man. He has made mistakes in life (one rather famous one involving Jonathan Ross will probably never be forgotten) but he has also overcome a lot too. This book goes through how he has managed to maintain sobriety for many years. Exploring the very core of your mind and understanding how to regulate patterns to help promote positive change into your life. He does this by challenging your current perspective and displays a detailed account of how you can recover and improve your emotions, thoughts and feelings of misery and unhappiness. It is a very particle approach for anyone and not just those with well know serious addictions i.e. alcohol, sex and drugs. It allows anyone to enter the realm of reprogramming their minds to improve their quality of life. Tools to help you understand the areas of concern or difficulties and creating structured and effective solutions to counter them. Some believe the 12 Steps incite negativity, focusing too much on character defects and the shadier moments of our past. As Russell Brand points out, however, they also tell us to hope for a restoration to sanity. And that hope only exists if we accept ourselves capable of a better lifestyle. We learn this when we identify our character defects through Step 6 and seek humility in Step 7. Humility cuts through the lies we tell ourselves and straight to the truth of who we are inside. We should not see this as negativity, but rather as a more narrowly directed extension of the hope in Step 2. With a rare mix of honesty, humor, and compassion, comedian and movie star Russell Brand mines his own wild story and shares the advice and wisdom he has gained through his 14 years of recovery. Brand speaks to those suffering along the full spectrum of addiction - from drugs, alcohol, caffeine, and sugar addictions to addictions to work, stress, bad relationships, digital media, and fame. Brand understands that addiction can take many shapes and sizes and how the process of staying clean, sane, and unhooked is a daily activity. He believes that the question is not "why are you addicted?" but "what pain is your addiction masking? Why are you running - into the wrong job, the wrong life, the wrong person's arms?"Fortunately, our growing understanding of human nature and the multiplicity of self makes it easier to accept others’ faults. And to an extent, it also makes it easier to forgive ourselves. Some will still struggle with this, but amends help by allowing us to see our evolution in progress. The better self that we conceptualized in Step 2 and discovered in Step 7 begins to take over. Russell Brand—not to mention the Big Book, in its Ninth Step Promises—suggests that this process ultimately leads to our full-fledged transformation into the higher self within.

The concept of twelve-step programs began in the early 20th century United States as a way to help alcoholics recover and rehabilitate, but it’s been widely applied to treatment of a number of addictions since then. This program is simple and it works well with complex people. It is made up of ancient but timeless principles: overcome the ego, connect to a Higher Self, a higher purpose and serve others. Step 12 is the apex but also a spur to remind us that our work is never finished, we are on a journey of discovery and service and each of us has a unique purpose to realize and an intended self to recover.” I didn’t necessarily agree with everything that was written, but there were some very interesting ideas in this book. Also, it was deeply personal in places, so I guess it wasn’t easy for Russell to be this open and sincere with the whole world. It’s something I really appreciate. And seeing the growth in his persona was phenomenal. This is where I open myself up for criticism. I accept that the 12 step program does help many. I know a few people who are clean and sober exclusively due to it. I also know many more who have tried it and it has not worked. Even Russell talks about it as a cult. A helpful cult to many but one that has its own ingrained problems. It is not the only way to maintain sobriety. Whether you’re a gnarled and boisterous apprentice mechanic or a Cambridge don, solving conundrums from your high-tech wheelchair, there is in most cases a comparable inner world. If not a basic binary, a universal pantheon of inner deities and demons which, in our race to total rationalism, we have unwisely discarded. The Greeks knew these gods dwelt not on Olympus but upon the summits, crags and slopes within. This inner realm interfaces with external phenomena for good or for ill. This program, like all mythology, is a methodology for management.”With nearly fourteen years of clean time under his belt, Russell Brand understands recovery quite well. He speaks on it often, offering revolutionary messages of hope and change. From time to time, he even involves himself in politics, fighting for greater access to treatment and an overhaul of laws that punish addicts rather than help them. So it comes as little surprise that he would eventually disseminate his understanding of recovery in the form of a self-help book. Most people that get involved with twelve-step programs go, ‘Oh, wow. Everyone should be doing this!'” says Russell Brand, author of Recovery: Freedom from Our Addictions. “Because of course once you get rid of drugs and alcohol one day at a time, you start to realize that drugs and alcohol were never the problem. The problem was your own emotional state — your own reaction to the world.”

My qualification for writing this book is not that I am better than you, it's that I am worse. I am an addict, addicted to drugs, alcohol, sex, money, love and fame.' Addiction is when natural biological imperatives, like the need for food, sex, relaxation or status, become prioritised to the point of destructiveness. It is exacerbated by a culture that understandably exploits this mechanic as it's a damn good way to sell Mars bars and Toyotas.” In Step 9 we make restitution that in our old life, our old plan, we would never have countenanced. It is a fine example of the broader 12 Step philosophical trope that ‘You can’t think your way into acting better but you can act your way into thinking better’. Under the guidance of a mentor, with the support and community of other people on the same path, you have, by following the actions suggested by this program, broken loose from your prior confinement and become a different person. Whilst Step 9 seems to be about making amends to others it is we who are amended.” The premise of his program is that the 12 steps followed by Alcoholics Anonymous can work for anyone. Recovery is the 12 steps, as translated by Russell Brand.” — Sunday Times (UK) In today’s episode, we cover building relationships with Geoffrey Cohen, Dr Carole Robin, Colin Coggins and Garrett Brown, David Siegel,As I write this review I am 600 days sober (I didn't know the exact number before starting this review. It just worked out well.)