Planting Seeds | The Power of Sustained Effort | Social Work | A.A. | Recovery | Rebuilding Relationships
Janice was raised in a dysfunctional home and with parents who had a history of alcoholism in their lineage. Not a blame thing, just the reality of her beginning in life.
Through high school and her younger years, Janice only experimented with alcohol and drugs. She was driven to do better things with her life and made all the efforts to do just that.
The standards were much higher for the boys in her family than they were for Janice. This could be both a relief and a challenge, but Janice persisted and continued moving forward with her idea of success.
Janice decided to go to grad school with Social Work as the focus of her degree.
Janice was an athlete in college, which helped her curb her drinking, not to mention, she began to work with families in her Social Work capacity, and became exposed to A.A., ALANON, and Adult Children of Alcoholics groups.
Janice started a family and, whilst doing all the things a great mother does, she started to drink like an alcoholic, and lose control.
Therapy, anti-depressants, and being insanely busy didn’t curb the drinking, but drinking was not recognized as the culprit … until prodding from a therapist.
A.A. was given a try and that’s when a light started to go off. It was not necessarily a smooth process but when it started to stick, after a stint in a treatment center, things started to change.
In early sobriety, Janice was so involved with sobriety, she neglected her family for a period of time.
At about six months sober, this started to change, and Janice began to repair the damage done to her relationships.
Janice’s mission became, and still is, the oft-ignored relationships we sacrifice due to our addiction(s) and the subsequent behaviors.
Janice’s book, Rebuilding Relationships in Recovery, speaks about the science of addiction; making amends; and the ongoing work required to repair our most cherished relationships (links below!)
Find Janice here:
Janice Johnson Dowd, LMSW, Author, Speaker
https://www.amazon.com/Rebuilding-Relationships-Recovery-Addiction-science-based/dp/B0D66G562C/
