Secular Organizations for Sobriety (SOS) is a nonprofit network of autonomous, non-professional local groups. Its sole purpose is to help individuals achieve and maintain abstinence. It can be from alcoholism, drug addiction or food addiction.
SOS credits individuals for achieving and maintaining their own abstinence. Secular Organizations for Sobriety does not compete with any other recovery program. Recovery itself is what’s important.
James Christopher began SOS in 1985. He’s an alcoholic who’s been sober since the 1970s. Mr. Christopher shares his techniques in several books.
How to Stay Sober
Twelve-step programs insist that sobriety is only possible through submission to God or a Higher Power. However, research by the U.S. government and many others disproves that myth. This book can help non-religious alcoholics maintain their own beliefs and personal integrity yet achieve lifelong abstinence.
The author reports that there is no such thing as an alcoholic personality. He argues that alcoholics or addicts can only achieve sobriety by making it their number one priority in life.
Moreover, sobriety has to be priority number one each and every day. This is possible only by personal choice.
Self-reliance and self-respect should replace dependence on religion or a Higher Power. Mr. Christopher provides the guidelines in this practical book.
SOS Sobriety
In this practical book, James Christopher describes in detail his successful “sobriety priority” approach. It has helped many people to abstain. And make no mistake. His is an abstinence-only system. He is highly critical of programs that promote “controlled drinking” for alcoholics. It’s his strong view that addiction is not simply a behavioral problem. He argues that it has a genetic and physiological basis.
Unhooked: Staying Sober and Drug-Free
In this book, the author presents his program of effective strategies to achieve and maintain sobriety. His is a cognitive, rational approach.
Unhooked describes the evolution of SOS. The personal stories it presents reflect frustration with A.A. and the need for an alternative to it. The book also presents excerpts from the SOS Newsletter. They convey the diversity and open-mindedness of the program.
Escape from Nicotine Country: How to Stop Smoking Painlessly
The author acknowledges that “The prospect of stopping smoking is scary as hell. I know-I’ve been there.” He was a 30-year smoker. Escape is his guide for quitting smoking. And without pain or weight gain.
His system involves gradually reducing smoking, exercising, and eating the proper diet. Now he offers his remarkable and simple self-help program to all those who want to kick the habit.
Resources
National Newsletter for S.O.S. Buffalo, NY: S.O.S.
S.O.S. International Newsletter. Buffalo, NY : Secular Organizations for Sobriety/Save Our Selves (SOS)
Sobriety Handbook. The SOS Way. Oakland, CA : LifeRing, 1997.
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