Today is the 1-year anniversary of our blog, Off The Couch! To celebrate, we're having a book giveaway on Twitter. It's going on right now. For more details, check here.

April 13th is the 1-year anniversary of Off The Couch! To celebrate, we're having a book giveaway.

When: Tuesday, April 13 at 1pm ET (10am PT)

Where: Twitterverse

How to Participate:

1. Follow @NewHarbinger on Twitter.
2. On April 13 at 1pm ET (10am PT), visit http://twitter.com/NewHarbinger and retweet our current post.

Selection of Winners:

1. The first 12 people who retweet the post will receive a free book of their choice.
2. We will let the winners know that they have won, and the winners can DM us with the title of the book they want.
3. We will also have a couple bonus book giveaways throughout the day. At different times, we'll announce that whoever is the first person to retweet that current message will receive a book of their choice, so pay attention to our tweets all day!

Prize:

• We send each winner their specified book. Free book! Free shipping!

excerpt from Don’t Pick On Me

Bullies who pick on you like it when you get angry or upset. It gives them the satisfaction of knowing that whatever they did got to you. So if someone picks on you, it’s important to try not to let your feelings show.

by guest blogger Doreen A. Samelson Ed.D., MSCP, author of Feeding the Starving Mind.

Your body image is how your think and feel about your body. Poor body image is common in Western cultures that emphasize perfect young bodies. To improve your body image try the 6 steps of ACCEPT. Use 3 by 5 cards to make ACCEPTance cards for each step of ACCEPT.

Excerpt from The Body Image Workbook

Body image forms gradually, beginning in childhood. Life experiences lead some people to relate to their bodies in positive and satisfying ways, while other people travel a less enjoyable path. The factors that influence body image development can be divided into two basic categories:

1. The historical influences from your past are the forces that shaped how you came to view your appearance in the ways that you do.


2. The current influences are the events and experiences in everyday life that determine how you think, feel, and react to your looks.

Excerpt from The Anorexia Workbook

Mental Volleyball

At this point, you may be wondering if this is about anorexia or sports. Don’t worry—volleyball does relate to anorexia. How? Well, the strategy of volleyball is a great way to describe how you are responding to thoughts about yourself. Imagine that a volley ball match is going on inside your mind. Instead of volleying a ball back and forth, the teams inside your head are volleying thoughts about you.

New Harbinger Reorganizes, Created Publication Technology Department

by Bridget Kinsella

"As it sees the increased need for electronic versions of its books along with the potential opportunities for digital book files, New Harbinger reorganized its 50-person staff and created a new publication technology department.

Read the rest of the article here.

Excerpt from The Family Recovery Guide

The seeds of healthy growth are sown in the transition stage; in early recovery, they begin to take root. Here, the foundation for the individual identity is set in place, bringing new found stability. Early recovery can be a time of unparalleled personal change, hope, and excitement; it can also be a time of trauma, especially at home, where the family members are still functioning with out a strong, healthy family system. Even as growth begins, tensions and set backs are to be expected. During early recovery, the alcoholic and co-alcoholic are still extremely dependent on their relationships with their recovery programs. Their main focus at this time is education about alcohol ism and the process of recovery in general, and on the specific ways in which each particular individual has experienced these realities. To facilitate this education, they learn recovery language, which helps them organize their past experiences and under stand their ongoing thoughts and feelings. By internalizing this new language and the abstinent behaviors that were set in place during transition, they begin to solidify their new alcoholic or co-alcoholic identities. The healthy behavior they practiced in transition starts to become less conscious and more automatic as their impulses to drink or take care of the drinker finally begin to decrease.