Books by Don Worth, Ph.D. are now available on Amazon.

You may also obtain a copy of Good News, Bad News, Who Can Tell?, at the following locations.

-Julio's Cafe, Clarksburg, WV

-Fish Hawk Acre's Cafe, Buckhannon, WV

-Appalachian Glass, Weston, WV

-Bird in Hand Coffee Shop, Baltimore, MD

-Family & Marital Counseling Center, Weston, WV and Clarksburg WV

An amazingly simple step-by-step guide to recovery from opioids. This book offers a new and helpful view of recovery and opioids that sheds the idea of addiction, addicts and all the shame that goes with the biomedical view of addiction. Step 1 involves understanding opioids and substance use from a more helpful relational perspective. Step 2 helps you develop an early recovery plan and a long-term recovery plan that includes developing a sleep routine, dietary guidance, tools for reducing anxiety, and ways to use relationships to aid in recovery. Step 3 offers tools for monitoring your recovery and relapse, as well as ways to make U-turns and return to recovery quickly, giving you more influence over recovery. There is also a chapter for families and friends to provide guidance on how to help loved ones with their recovery. An easy read with personal stories and examples from the author, an easy-going down-to-earth therapist who has been helping folks in West Virginia succeed in their recovery for over 30 years.

Kirkus Reviews

TITLE INFORMATION

GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS, WHO CAN TELL?

Ed. By Don Worth

Archway Publishing (268 pp.)

$35.95 hardcover, $17.99 paperback, $8.99 e-book

ISBN: 9781665730709      November 6, 2022

BOOK REVIEW

Edited by Worth, this absorbing collection of stories, essays, song lyrics, and poetry shares lessons learned during the Covid-19 lockdown.

While working in a counseling center during the pandemic, Worth, a psychologist, noticed an unexpected change in his patients’ mental health—many were getting better. The title of this book is inspired by a Buddhist parable that cautions against overreacting to seemingly positive or negative events; outcomes are never certain. While most consider Covid to be a wholly negative event, Worth chooses to withhold judgment and find wisdom and hope in the pandemic accounts collected here. Arranged according to categories of people, the collection includes the stories of physicians, clergy, artists, restaurateurs, and others from both the U.S. and India. Teacher Morgan Gulley, for example, describes the challenges and successes of making instruction “as normal as possible.” Summer Aguiar, a student, discusses isolation and how she “learned to be okay with being alone.” At the book’s close, Worth reflects on the ways life’s struggles can be regarded as useful and opportunities to evolve. This collection, extraordinary in its scope, approaches the pandemic in an engaging, unconventional way. The writing, especially, stands out. The poet Smita Agarwal deftly captures the eerie dawning of the pandemic: “A new way of life … / All around, humans with sandpaper-breath / Topple like skittles, as flies to wanton boys.” Meanwhile, Andy Fraenkel, a teacher of the Vaishnava/Krishna tradition, explains with philosophical clarity that we have within ourselves the power to overcome our anxieties: “We have the choice whether to focus on the negative or on the positive, to focus on that which is destructive or that which is healing and nourishing.” Worth’s epilogue succeeds in drawing definite conclusions from the myriad experiences and emotions captured here. One telling lesson: “We are relationship creatures,” and we would benefit from further “appreciating and cultivating relational connections.” This is an important collection that not only records a range of pandemic experiences, but demonstrates how we can learn from this and other events. A novel, thought-provoking angle on the recent world health crisis.

                                 Kirkus Indie, Kirkus Media LLC, 2600 Via Fortuna Suite 130 Austin, TX 78746 indie@kirkusreviews.com