Greeting lovely ladies of GROW. I am a grateful recovering alcoholic, living one day at a time. Welcome to newcomers, I pray and hope you read something here this week that will lead you to continue toward recovery from this disease. We are all in this together and I am grateful for how it works.
Thought for the Day from Twenty Four Hours a Day
“Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic. Commencing to drink after a period of sobriety, we are, in a short time, as bad as ever. If we have admitted we are alcoholics, we must have no reservations of any kind, nor any lurking notion that some day we will be immune to alcohol. What sort of thinking dominates an alcoholic who repeats time after time the desperate experiment of the first drink? Parallel with sound reasoning, there inevitably runs some insanely trivial excuse for taking the first drink. There is little thought of what the terrific consequences may be.” Have I given up all excuses for taking a drink?
I chose this reading for our topic this week because I am traveling and visiting family. Being back in the cities where I drank and where I got sober reminds me more than anything that “once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic”. The memories are strong and real and “trigger” feelings without my permission! In AA I have learned through prayer and meditation how to ward these feelings off and return to the ninth step promises of knowing peace and not regretting the past. I use it to remind myself where I do not want to be again.
I have had continuous sobriety since 12.21.1993 but that doesn’t mean continuous emotional sobriety. I had a period of about 14 years of no meetings, no service, no step work. By the grace of God as I understand God, I made it though those years. I know it is true that if I drink again, “in short time” I would return to the same state of mind that led me to AA. That would be powerless, irresponsible, depression, unable to manage my life, no connection to a Higher Power, blaming others for my problems, and no idea what the word serenity means or feels like.
Being with family, as I chose to be, attending parties and weddings and more social gatherings, I am with people I love who drink “normally” and others who might be alcoholics and just haven’t admitted it. Not my circus of course! All I have to know is I am an alcoholic and I admit it. This disease wants me to die, no lie. It truly is “cunning, baffling and powerful”. I have to let go of any thoughts that I too can drink and have the life I have now in sobriety.
I am grateful I have not had to experience relapse and live the “desperate experiment of the first drink”. It is not easy for me to understand when I work with sponsees who relapse. My go to prayer is the Serenity Prayer and that always helps me help them. With support from the members of AA, ladies of GROW, my own willingness to do the work and the grace of God, I have not found an excuse to drink again in 32 years. My Higher Power who I name God, has blessed me with the emotional and physical sobriety to give up all excuses to drink and I am GRATEFUL!
This week’s topic is: If true for you, share the EXCUSES that have led you to drink again and how you returned to work for a life of sobriety so that others who have lived this may know they are not alone. If you have given up all excuses, what is your “GO TO” method to stay sober when choosing to be around family, friends or attending events where others are drinking.