[jazpoppy]

Today is a good day. I'm a bit tired, but the weather is nice, I am going for a walk. Also I am very proud of the responses we are getting with this topic. Its so important to be there for those (including myself) who are so confused because we are in recovery and we are in pain. What do we do? Sometimes people tell us to "toughen up" and take motrin or tylenol and that the pain will go away. Meditate the pain away, get steriod shots, use bengay patches, or Lidocaine patches, massage, physical therapy. Well many of us have tried and exhausted ALL of these methods of pain management and while they are helpful in conjunction with certain medications (narcotic or non-narcotic) sometimes we have to swallow our pride, take what we learned from NA, AA, and our sponsors, and use those tools to help us through whatever treatment plan our doctor(s) want us to follow.

This is a true story from a local AA chapter in my area: There was this young lady, who had one year of recovery in AA, she was so pleased and proud of herself as she should be! Well on her anniversary she was invited to speak and tell the story of her long road to sobriety. She got up before the group and told them of her drinking struggles, and then told them of her struggles to stay sober and that she took it one day at a time as everyone had told her to. She also told of her depression that she suffered, and that after 6 months or so of sobriety she was still very depressed, so she sought help from a psychiatrist who told her that she will need an anti-depressant. She asked him if this would mean she was not sober? He laughed and said "Heavens no, this will help you stay sober." She took the medication, and her mood drastically changed for the good. She was happy again! She got her life back! She was very active in AA, she worked, she had fun without drinking, she had new non-drinking friends to hang out with. She was thrilled! She got her 1 year medallion and was so very proud. Well, after the meeting was over she was walking to her car, when a few gentlemen (old-timers with 20 plus years of sobriety) pulled her aside and said that they had to talk to her. The demanded that she hand that medallion back to the secretary as she is still not sober. She was confused and asked why? They told her that she was "chewing her booze". The pills she takes each day for "depression" were booze in a pill. They told her that the pills altered her mood and AA is about abstinence from ALL mind altering substances, and that she was NEVER depressed, she just wasn't working her AA program well enough. They told her that she was still a lush, and had NO recovery at all! She was so devastated, she didn't call her sponsor, she didn't seek an opinion from any of her trusted AA friends, she went directly to the liquor store, bought some vodka and started drinking. She mailed the medallion back to the secretary with an apology for "lying". She went back out, and no one ever saw her in AA again!

This story really makes me angry! She was a very shy person, and she had a lot of trouble feeling good about herself, this achievement was the biggest accomplishment of her life, and she was shot down by 3 or 4 STUPID people that were taking inventory of others and not looking at their own recovery. We all know that taking medication from a doctor as prescribed for a LEGITAMENT reason is NOT cheating, and that this woman was perfectly fine and sober. God bless her soul wherever she is, and I hope she comes back to recovery. I was not an attendee of her meeting and did not know her personally, otherwise I would have marched over to her house and dragged her away from the bottle, brought her to a doctor and got her another professional opinion, and I would have had other AA members with me to support her. All I can do now, is hope and pray that she finds her way back to AA before its too late.

Thank you for reading this, I hope it makes everyone feel better about themselves and realize that we are regular people with a disease, and we are vulnerable to other diseases, and if we are treating our addictions and living longer happier lives, then we also need to treat other ailments and follow your doctor's treatment plan so that we can still live long happy sober lives!

Love

Jaz