Three Gorski books on relapse

BOOK TALK RECOVERY BOOKS, REVIEWED BY PEOPLE IN RECOVERY

	Staying Sober: A Guide for Relapse Prevention, by Terence T. Gorski and Merle Miller Reviewed by Diane J..
	Readers interested in Gorski's Relapse Prevention Model (also known as the "CENAPS relapse model", from the name of Gorski's organization) will want Staying Sober, his standard text on the topic. Intended for the relapse-prone individual, and written, according to CENAPS, "at an eighth-grade reading level," Staying Sober goes point by point through Gorski's definitions of addictive disorders, "Post-Acute Withdrawal Syndrome (PAWS)" and its relation to relapse, mistaken beliefs about relapse, and the importance of family involvement and a support group. Gorski's central, and I think valuable, thesis is that relapse is a process that ENDS in the decision to drink or drug rather than an uncomplicated "out of the blue" event.
	Staying Sober Workbook: A Serious Solution for the Problems of Relapse, by Terence T. Gorski Reviewed by Diane J..
	The Staying Sober Workbook appeared to me to cover much the same ground in "exercise" fashion, and would probably be very useful for people who are attracted by Gorski's approach and like the idea of working on specific assignments related to it. (I would read Staying Sober first before deciding on this one.)
	Passages Through Recovery: An Action Plan for Preventing Relapse, by Terence Gorski Reviewed by Diane J..
	"Passages Through Recovery", on the other hand, is billed as a guide to Gorski's "Developmental Model of Recovery." It was originally a Hazelden publication, and the superior editorial input shows--this is a much smoother text than "Staying Sober". It is also a much more "generic recovery" type book, with sections devoted to working the 12 steps, co-dependency, and family of origin emotional issues (also the Hazelden touch, possibly). In this work, Gorski divides recovery into six developmental stages: Transition, Stabilization, Early, Middle, and Late Recovery, and Maintenance (outlined first by Stephanie Brown in Treating the Alcoholic: A Developmental Model of Recovery (John Wiley, 1985). The "stage chapters" contain general comments by Gorski on each stage of recovery, exercises, and inspirational thoughts. There are some useful things here, including an interesting exercise on the "Addictive Voice" (no credit given here either, unfortunately) and some thoughts on the challenges of maintenance. On the whole , though, I think the reviewer for the "Jerusalem Times" who called the book "a melange of trivia" was pretty fair.