<p>Addiction is hellish, lonely, and exhausting. Whether your &ldquo;drug of choice&rdquo; is food, alcohol, sex, narcotics, gambling, all, some, or none of the above, when you are caught in the grip of addiction it can be so difficult to heal and set yourself free. Difficult, but not impossible.</p><p>I am living proof. And so are people whom I&rsquo;ve coached and counseled over the past 30+ years.</p><p>As for me, today I am a successful professional with a fulfilling life. But in the past, I was a tormented person with a void inside of myself &mdash; a void that I tried to fill with food, with achievements, with awards, with praise, with all kinds of external experiences and substances.</p><p>None of it worked. The temporary comfort that I found was always just that: temporary. The void would always return &mdash; along with the compulsive, self-sabotaging behaviors that hindered my life and that I loathed so much..</p><p>Through a process of self-discovery &mdash; supported by some incredible teachers and mentors &mdash; I began to learn that love, security, comfort, and peace cannot be found in a bottle, in a pint of ice cream, or in someone&rsquo;s bed. These qualities must come from within. These are qualities that we can generate inside of ourselves&mdash;like the sun generating its own warmth and light &mdash; without requiring any external substances to do so.</p><p>Once I learned how to do this &mdash; once I learned how to become &ldquo;emotionally self-reliant,&rdquo; generating the feelings that I craved for myself, by myself &mdash;then I found &mdash; as did many of the people whom I subsequently coached and counseled &mdash; that our previous &ldquo;drug of choice&rdquo; no longer held power over us.</p><p>We found that our addictions and compulsions subsided. Like a true miracle, we felt at peace and at home within our own lives.</p><p>This is what my book,&nbsp;<em>Welcome Home</em>, is all about.</p><p>I originally wrote this book in 1990. In honor of its 25th anniversary, I re-released the book with updates and additions in 2015.</p><p><em>Welcome Home</em>&nbsp;is written in a personal diary format (but it is not a replica of any actual, personal diary). I chose this diary format because it captures not only my personal struggle with addiction, my healing journey, my challenges and some of the lessons that I learned along the way, but it also reflects my years of professional experience in supporting others through the struggles and triumphs of releasing addictions.</p><p>And as you read this book, you may feel like this could be your diary&hellip; your story. That was my intent &mdash; that the diary entries touch people who been gripped by addictions.</p><p>Each entry is followed by a &ldquo;self help suggestion&rdquo;: a brief exercise that can be done at any time. You can read the book chronologically or flip around and soak in a passage that calls to you.</p><p>I hope that&nbsp;<em>Welcome Home&nbsp;</em>becomes a much-loved addition to your library&mdash;perhaps resting on your bedside table or on your desk, somewhere visible, serving as a daily reminder that with patience and courage, it is possible to learn how to become emotionally self-reliant: depending on ourselves, not external substances, to successfully handle life&rsquo;s challenges, and to provide all of the love, happiness, and comfort that we could possibly desire.</p>