I haven't been in this community for very long but something has occurred to me that I think is a real problem. What I'm seeing a lot from these Community posts is people failing miserably with their attempt to get sober and stay sober. I'm hearing a lot of self will power but not much of a solution. I wonder how many people in this community are familiar with the program of Alcoholics Anonymous. We read certain materials at every meeting across the country. One of the readings is called
How it Works.
The name comes from chapter 5 in the AA big book which is our textbook for recovery. I'm not going to read the whole reading but those of you who are having trouble getting sober and staying sober, you really need to seriously get to a meeting and pick yourself up a copy of the Big Book. Sometimes they just give them to you for free by way of someone else's donation. I'd be willing too bet that you can probably find most of it online for free in reading format or audio.
There really is a solution to alcoholism and or addiction. It is found in this book. This app should not be a replacement for a program of recovery. Sometimes when I hear people's feelings in this community I think people are looking for recovery for nothing. Nobody is going to hand it to you on a silver platter. It's going to require significant changes in your life. We have a saying that the only thing that you have to change is everything.
The reading how it works says,
Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. Those who cannot are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves to this simple program. Usually men and women who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves.
You can look this up online very easily. I think quitting drinking and staying quit was probably the hardest thing I've ever had to do. I did it many times and failed miserably. Once I was serious and I was willing to go to at least one meeting every day, that was when things started to change in my life. I too have relapsed. I relapsed many many times if you want to call it that. You see because in order to have a real relapse, you have to first actually be sober for a significant period of time. We're not talking about just a day or two. I stayed sober for almost nine years. before I relapsed and it was the biggest mistake of my life. As I've stated before in another post, the reason that I relapsed was I believed the LIE. The big fat lie. This time everything would be okay and this was going to fix me and my problems. I also like how it says in a chapter in the book called the Doctor's Opinion. That is probably my most favorite part of the book.
This was the reading that began the big change in my life. Once I understood this, my disease of alcoholism took on a totally different meaning. It goes like this;
Men and women drink essentially because they like the effect produced by alcohol. The sensation is so elusive that, while they admit it is injurious, they cannot after a time differentiate the true from the false. To them there alcoholic life seems the only normal one. They are restless irritable and discontented, unless they can again experience the sense of ease and comfort which comes at once by taking a few drinks--- drinks which they see others taking with impunity. After they have succumb to the desire again, as so many do, and the phenomenon of craving develops, they passed through the well-known stages of a spree, emerging remorseful, with a firm resolution not to drink again. This is repeated over and over, and unless this person can experience an entire psychic
change there is very little
hope of his or her recovery.
If anyone who is reading this can relate to any of this, your answers are in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous. Until you get totally honest with yourself and are willing to make the change you are probably never going to totally recover. You have to make as much of a commitment to recovery as you have to drinking and or doing drugs. I hope that I helped someone here today.
I really want to see each and everyone of you recover because there is a much better life waiting for you.