I’ve been doing a bit of meditation and prayer on a subject that I feel is a common theme I hear often. I hear a lot of people trying to get sober, feeling depressed anxious and lonely and struggling to stay sober. I hear you!! So was I in early sobriety. I also believe that I was all of these emotions before I got sober and taking away the alcohol just allowed these emotions to be way more prevalent. That is where a program of recovery is really essential to a happy, healthy way of living. I grew up as a alcoholic in an alcoholic family, so I had absolutely no skills to figure out a healthy way to live. I’m lucky that I wanted to stop drinking so bad that before I walked into AA on October 11 2019 I committed myself to go sit through 90 meetings in 90 days. I was skeptical to say at the least and I was fully prepared to go to a long term recovery program if AA didn’t work for me. I went in willing to do whatever. Here’s what I found, yes I found people that drive me crazy, they ramble on about their cats and their mundane troubles in life. I found bible thumpers that went way overboard. I found some that plain ol scared the pants off me. I heard silly slogans that I felt were childish. Through time however I got recovery and slowly began to understand the actual heart of the program. A group of friends who understand me and love me unconditionally grew around me. I just kept going. I started to listen for the things that were meant for my ears and discarded the rest. I got a sponsor and worked the steps, my depression began to lessen. I practice the steps in my life and my anxiety has disappeared. I’ve dove in to the dark places that the disease lives and cleaned it out and I have a reasonably happy,healthy life. I know that AA might not be for everyone but I’d like to leave my thinking with a couple thoughts. If your miserable sober your likely not doing it right. All you need to know about a higher power is that there is one and it’s not you. And lastly it’s easy to get long term sobriety…. Don’t drink and don’t die, if you want to be happy while doing that then I suggest to do the work. I’m taking 24 and hope you do too.
thank you so much for posting this. It’s exactly what I needed to see right now…
I’m glad!!it maybe you that I felt struggling tonight. Trust me this journey is worth it. If I can do this thing, so can you. It’s hard work but Every promise has come true for me and it just takes working as hard on our recovery as we worked to stay loaded.
Yes! Thank you so much. Not sure if you felt this… I’m about a little under two months in and times I convince myself I’m crazy. Like i’ve lost my mind. Other times, I feel the steadiness of settling into myself. Does any of that resonate?
Absolutely did!! Question myself daily for the first three months if I was capable or willing or if I was crazy ect by six months I was settling in and made my commitment to long term sobriety at 10 months. Just every day I woke up and promised myself I would not pick up that day and went to lots of meeting’s trying to keep an open mind to the program. The miracle happened for me.