Just a thought and something I just sent to a newcomer and had me thinking about my path to recovery. Not in a 12 step inpatient program , a more conventional obedience program. Yet when all the poison was out of my system - it became my choice DEFINITELY - seeing the devastation and how deadly this thing (dis-EASE) is! :
To a Newcomer - Congratulations on everything you just said and achieved or accomplished.
Life only gets better and better with sobriety.
Feelings are fluid and happy doesn’t equal sobriety all the time-i learned to accept ALL my feelings, acknowledge, feel, process, knowledge of why I felt this way or that way … etc etc … then let them go.
Issues and problems will arise. I just learn how to deal/handle things differently in sobriety.
Just sayin, because I SERIOUSLY felt that life (especially in sobriety I felt life should only be happy and problem free) - Seriously felt that if I wasn’t happy and had any issues/problems —— then I wasn’t doing something right. (I even had a sponsor tell me that if im fearful - im not sober and im doing something wrong - CRAZINESS- even told me to drop a sponsee because of his work. Wasn’t illegal! Maybe unethical for some people. I told my sponsor that my sponsee came to me to help him stay sober! Not for career advice or anything else - he asked me for help with stopping drinking. He asked me because he knew of me through my sisters who he knew and drank with - nobody in my family ever got sober or help with their behaviors and actions - my father died - drinking in his last days. Im not going to call him or anyone else an alcoholic except say that “IM an alcoholic” - myself.
That thinking of Life “should be happy and problem free … Caused me a Lot Of Pain early in sobriety.
I don’t usually say how many years I have away from drugs, alcohol (I usually just say many consecutive years/days of Sobriety- Yet - I will say it right now - my sobriety Date is 5/13/93 from every thing - 1/27/91 stopped methadone and Xanax - 90mgs and 8mg of Xanax to “0” over night - with many anti seizure meds and for the first week some other meds to calm me and not let me Die / 12/3/96 I stopped smoking cigarettes … cigarettes too!!!(eventually-3 years sober I stopped smoking cigarettes - one of the greatest gifts I have given myself - besides sobriety.
Stay safe!
Stay Strong!
Stay Healthy!
Stay SOBER!!!
Stay this path and you WILL have a Life Beyond anything you could ever imagined.
ALSO, what my Sponsor Said to Me When I Was Crying(complaining about everything). He would say I can’t promise you that things will get better, YET, I Promise You That Things Will Get Worse if I Pick Up (alcohol/drugs/+++).
Sending you Love and Hugs and Good Vibes.
For Me, AA saved my life. Don’t let that scare you. I’ve seen many ways people stay sober.
Mine was AA!
🫶🏻:v:
