Saturday Evening Post

[majestyjo]

From "March 1941 SATURDAY EVENING POST:"  

"In discussing their work, the A.A.s spoke of their  

drunk-rescuing as 'insurance' for themselves.  

Experience within the group has shown, they said,  

that once a recovered drinker slows up in this work  

he is likely to go back to drinking himself. There is,  

they agreed, no such thing as an ex-alcoholic. If one  

is an alcoholic -- that is, a person who is unable to  

drink normally -- one remains an alcoholic until he  

dies, just as a diabetic remains a diabetic."  

c. The Jack Alexander Article about A.A.  

(A.A. Pamphlet P-12), pages 13-14 

[majestyjo]

A person, who has relapsed several times over the 20+ years he has been in the program justifies his actions by saying that, "He doesn't like numbers and when he has a drink, all he does is change his dry date." He feels he maintains his sobriety, yet I feel that if I was to drink, I would slip in other areas before I physically pick up a drink, and that I would have lost my sobriety (peace of mind) long before I would pick up the drink.



When I had under two years in recovery, I heard a woman say that she went to meetings to make a deposit on her life insurance. Almost twenty years later, she is still going to meetings.

I've said it before and I'll say it again; how can a person, who has studied the illness of alcoholism through attending meetings on a regular basis, speaks honestly on a one to one with a sponsor and tries to work the 12 step program into their lives on a daily basis, ever seriously consider picking up a drink again?

Let's not kid ourselves, there has to be something seriously wrong with the above, or they're just not serious about quitting in the first place.



Angus

Not sure I am in total agreement, but I do know that a person has to be willing to stop using and until they find that willingness to do it for themselves, as much as they would like to do it for others, it just doesn't happen.  I proved it many times over and saw it happen in others, many times over.  If you don't deal with what brings you to the doors of recovery, it will take you back.

[majestyjo]

As far as I am concerned, I am always, one arms length away from a drink or drug.

It has been the spiritual connection and spiritual awareness of "Do I want to live or do I want to die." There have been times in my life, I didn't care.

So many people rush through the Steps. They say work the steps, work the steps. Well until you are at least a year sober, you are not mentally, emotionally and physically capable of being truly honest with yourself. You are still detoxing. I thought I had honest first, and I realized that I had a mind that was half open, a willingness not to go back to where I came from. It took me two years to complete come to an honest decision that I was an alcoholic. Not just an addict who used alcohol like he used pills, men, work, service, busy, and my computer to escape my reality.

I have heard people relapsing after 12 plus years. I have gotten back to the stage in my life that brought me here, I was sick and tired of being tired and sick. But for the Grace of God, I have not relapsed. I have not abused my medication.

For me it has been sharing here and at my online home group that has kept me sober over the years, my contact with others which allows me to do service because I have not been able to get out to meetings because of health issues.

Without you, there is no me!

[majestyjo]

When I came into recovery, I did two meetings a day for two years. That was about all I was capable of and had to give myself time to heal. For the most part, I used the slogans, the mini Steps because I was too sick to grasp the full meaning of the Steps. I did go to Step and Tradition meetings, Big Book meetings and Discussion meetings. I found that speaker meetings kept feeding my denial because I compared instead of identifying.

At ten years sober, I was still doing 7-10 meetings a day because of service. Over the years, f2f meetings have been less, aside from my Al-Anon meeting, an AA meeting when needed, and service in the jail, my recovery has been sharing online. I do have recovery friends who I keep in touch with. I have a sponsor. When I need an attitude adjustment, I make sure I go to an AA or a NA meeting.

I just have to walk downtown and I see people who carry the message to me. I meet up with people who are in recovery that I know. People who were in recovery and are back using. There are others, who I don't know if they have been in recovery or not, but they remind me of what I don't want to go back to. It is worse out there now than when I came into the rooms of recovery. The combos are different, they seem to have variety packs these days. All sound and look lethal.

[majestyjo]

The 12 steps are enabling steps, they enable an alcoholic to stay off the drink but do not compel one to stay sober. If an alcoholic decides to drink he/she will, and it's unlikely that coffee and donuts will prevent that. The usual reason for drinking after a period of sobriety is nearly always the same for a s-l-i-p - sobriety - loses - it's - priority; and that is exactly what Jack Alexander was so emphatic about in his article to the Evening Post in 1941. That message has not changed - you have to give it away to keep it, but you can't give away what you haven't got.

Angus

In a way, I agree about the amount of wellness you need to start the Steps. I was one of the really sick ones. All I was able to do was put one foot in front of the other. I took the body and the mind slowly followed and could take in what I was hearing. Many times people do the steps and think it is a done deal. It takes 11 months to get alcohol out of your system. You are still doing the steps under the influence. I don't know about anyone else, but I was totally incapable of self-honesty in my first year. Heck I didn't know I wasn't honest, I would have been highly affronted if you suggested anything else. Yet the truth is, self-honest only comes with healing.

I went to Step discussion, Big Book discussion and Topic discussion. I heard how others at done it. I talked things over with my sponsor. Even if I am still on Step One, there is no reason I can't sit in on a Step 6 or 10 discussion. I did each step to the best of my ability at that time. As they say, I came, I saw, and I conquered. Not by myself, but with the aid and help of the fellowship, my sponsor and my Higher Power.

In the beginning, me alone with me was bad company. Why should I take this mind, just out of active addiction to a room to try to reason and look over my life and expect to make sense of it. My best thinking got me here. By going to meetings, listening and sharing, I was able to find myself reflected in the people around me. The Steps to my way of thinking aren't work, they are a way of life.