[Book] How to Quit Whatever You Want to Quit: Ten Steps to Overcoming Lifelong Addictions
Overcoming addictions and compulsions, especially those we have struggled with for a lifetime, requires commitment. Therein lies the challenge. It’s a challenge because most people who struggle with compulsive behaviors and self-defeating patterns have already “tried everything.” So it is difficult for them to have hope. After a while their desire to “do better” remains as just that—a desire to do better instead of practical action-taking in real time. This is where Corinna’s Ten Steps come in! These steps offer a fresh start for people who have almost given up. In fact, the book grew out of the author’s own experience with having tried everything for 20 years to deal with her own addictive behaviors, including addictions to over eating, to soft drinks, to cigarettes, and to unhealthy relationships. Nothing she tried was working. She went to 12-step meetings religiously for 17 years. She was treated by a number of physicians, psychiatrists, and psychologists. She tried pharmaceutical drugs —all to no avail. Until one day, she discovered that the key to her healing had been inside her all along.
Corinna’s Ten Steps draw from a variety of sources -- from ancient spiritual wisdom to modern medicine. Not to be confused with the “Twelve Steps” of AA, her program is more like a plan for connecting with one’s inner self-healing resources—in a way that is both disciplined and fun. Now, with the Ten Steps as their guide, people with lifelong negative habits can literally have a fresh start and approach their unwanted behaviors in a new way—a way that offers immediate hope and practical action steps.
Her down-to-earth writing style is embellished with humor and personal stories. She helps readers feel that they are not alone. We get the sense from this book that if she can do it, anyone can.
The Ten Steps are not just for addicts. They are also a good prescription for anyone seeking to live life to the fullest. If we would all learn the practices she recommends, we would be less susceptible to the self-defeating impulses within us. We'd enjoy life more. And we would know that there is an inner voice within all of us that we can trust if we learn how to listen.