Chris Raymer to Speak at Texas Drug and Alcohol Recovery Center Saturday October 11

National La Hacienda Treatment Center spokesperson Chris Raymer will host a workshop on sponsorship and working the 12 steps at Mark Houston Recovery Center on Saturday, October 11th, 2008 from 10:00 am - 12:00 noon.

AUSTIN, TX -- Chris Raymer, a national spokesperson for La Hacienda Treatment Center, will be hosting a workshop on sponsorship and working the 12 steps at the Mark Houston Recovery Center on Saturday, October 11th, 2008 from 10:00 am -12:00 noon. He will also be speaking at the Mark Houston Recover Center's Joe Hawk Memorial Hall at 8:00 pm. The Mark Houston Recovery Center is a leading Texas Drug and Alcohol Recovery Center located outside of Austin.

Chris grew up in Kerrville, Texas, and is an alumnus of the La Hacienda Treatment Center in Hunt, Texas where he overcame his addiction to alcohol and became sober in 1987. In the 21 years since he has become a powerful, popular speaker who travels around the U.S. and also internationally, convincing others of the importance of following the Big Book.

Chris' father was an alcoholic, and died from the disease. Chris and his twin brother have both struggled with alcoholism, and he emphatically says that alcoholism is absolutely a genetic disease, and that people don't become alcoholics because of the bad things that have happened in their lives.

By the time Chris was 20, he knew he had a problem with drinking, and he also soon discovered crystal meth. This allowed him to drink even more -- in fact, he spent about 15 years drinking and doing drugs without ever having a bad experience like injury or jail. He entered his first AA meeting in the early 1980s, and went to meetings for several years without becoming sober. He didn't understand why the meetings weren't working for him until he changed his whole approach to recovery.

"Some consider Chris' opinions and speeches to be controversial, while others are grateful for someone finally speaking out and telling it like it is. He claims the problem with AA meetings is that they are often open-discussion, with people sharing stories about their personal lives and histories instead of actually talking about alcoholism," says Mark Houston, founder of the Mark Houston Recovery Center (http://www.markhoustonrecovery.com).

The number one complaint he hears at La Hacienda hospital is of people hating AA because of all the stories people tell, and of having to hear others complain about their problems. Chris believes talking about the 12 steps, and about how to recover from alcoholism instead of dwelling on the past, is the key to recovery. He firmly believes in the power of the 12-step approach, and also of having a spiritual experience by becoming connected with a higher power.

Chris considers the primary purpose of AA to be to carry out the message of the 12 step program, and put these steps into practice in daily life. The Mark Houston Recovery Center shares this same belief, teaching its residents how to live the 12 steps and embrace a spiritual life.

For more information about this event, contact Patrick McNamee at 512-278-4550, or email him at pmcnamee@markhoustonrecovery.com.

About the Mark Houston Recovery Center: The Mark Houston Recovery Center (http://www.markhoustonrecovery.com) is a Texas drug and alcohol recovery center located outside of Austin that offers a 90-day program for males designed around the traditional 12-step approach to recovery. The recovery center also publishes a blog focused on alcohol and drug addiction recovery related topics (http://www.markhoustonrecovery.com/blog/).

Media Contact:
Mark Houston
11503 Parsons Road
Manor, Texas 78653
1-512-278-4550
http://www.markhoustonrecovery.com

This release was published on openPR.