A Mind-Powered Disease

A Mind-Powered Disease™ is life-giving for those who suffer from alcoholism, addiction and other obsessive behaviors. It is also exceptionally insightful and informative for family, friends and medical and behavioral health professionals. Bob Anderson’s communication flows out of 44 years of living experience in recovery. His message has helped thousands to achieve genuine recovery and success in life. Gently and repetitively, he exposes the mind-powered nature of alcoholism as he teaches about recovery. He provides personal examples to reveal both the strange and hopeless world of his old life as well as the transformation into a new life by the Twelve Step Program. Although he speaks as an alcoholic with alcoholism, he puts Twelve Step Recovery in the reach of anyone. A Mind-Powered Disease™: Dispels the misconception that alcoholism is primarily an inability to control drinking. Describes how the obsessive mind functions as a mind-powered disease and compels repeat performances, which results in confusion and despair. Teaches how the application of the Twelve Step principles produces genuine recovery and true success in life through a change of character. Helps the sufferer to find true happiness, freedom and peace of mind as a way of life. Publication of A Mind-Powered Disease brings together a series of audiocassette recordings from a retreat conducted by Bob Anderson. Bob Anderson was a leader in a 12 Step Recovery Program for over 44 and a half years. He got sober in Cleveland, Ohio in December 1952. On December 11, 1952 Bob entered an alcoholic hospital. On December 13, 1952, he was released from the hospital. This date marks his sobriety anniversary. Bob was sober and active in this 12 Step program until the day he passed away- April 16, 1997. At two and a half years sober Bob realized that he was in a serious dilemma. That is, he was the same man, sober, as he was drunk. Although sober he thought and acted the same way. He was still mean and mad. He also realized that no matter how hard he tried or how much he vowed to change, he repeated the same performance. He was still irritable, restless and discontented. He was not happy, joyous and free in the day he was in. Nobody ever explained to him the disease of alcoholism and that lack of power is the dilemma. They would say, "keep coming back, eventually you’ll become a winner." They would talk about how they lost their house, their jobs or whatever they lost and how they got a new house, their job back and whatever else, but nobody would talk about the in between. Nobody would describe how the alcoholic mind functioned and how untreated alcoholism manifested into an unmanageable life. On a search to resolve his dilemma, Bob began a search for an answer to this dilemma. Through trial and error, he found the answer. He became aware of how alcoholism, ego and self functioned in the day he was in. He found that the alcoholic lacks the power to live to good purpose, because he lost the power of choice in thinking, not just in drinking. He also found a way of life in which he could treat this disease and change, daily, through the application of the 12 Step Recovery Program. Once Bob found this way of life, he devoted over 35 years of his life to teaching the 12 Step Program of Recovery. He has helped and continues to help thousands of alcoholics to recover, from all over the world through his works. Over the last twenty years of his life, he conducted numerous meetings, workshops and three-day retreats. These meetings, workshops and retreats were recorded. Although these works were recorded of Bob, they have never before been transcribed and published in one book until this present volume. The objectives of this book are to create awareness of the true nature of alcoholism as a living mind-powered disease and to offer a new method of life that will treat the disease of alcoholism and enable the sufferer to become happily and usefully whole. In this work, Bob Anderson wakes up the reader to the true nature of the disease of alcoholism, not just as a word, but as a living mind-powered disease. Rather than relive "drunkalogues" and memories, Bob looks inwardly to offer personal examples of how the disease affected him and how he recovered. He explains that alcoholism is alive and functioning and needs to be treated. He shows how alcoholism functions by exposing how the alcoholic mind reacts or looks at people, places and things. Once the nature of the disease has been presented to the individual, the purpose of the Twelve Step Recovery Program becomes necessary and clear. At this point, Bob explains the application of the Twelve Steps, as a way of life, to build a new life of success, peace of mind and wellbeing that has no reference to alcoholism and the trouble it produces. He teaches us how to apply each step in our lives to build a new character, as a way of new life. At the end of each step, frequently asked questions are answered. The benefits of this application are that the individual will comprehend the word serenity and will know peace. Our whole attitude and outlook on life will change. We will know a new freedom and a new happiness. We will intuitively know how to handle situations that used to baffle us. Read more