A recovery metaphor-
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 347
A recovery metaphor-
I was thinking last night, of a way to explain what it feels like, coming into recovery.
Living with addiction is sort of like growing up on a boat. The ground is always moving underneath you, sometimes you learn to stay upright, when the water is gentle, but at times it's completely impossible, and it's all you can do to lie flat and hang on for dear life. Coming into recovery... it's like washing up on the shore and standing up. Even though you're on solid ground, it takes a while to stop reeling and constantly counterbalancing, because that's all you know. People on land might look at you like you're insane for hanging onto a railing, because they've always stood on solid ground, and can't understand being that involuntarily imbalanced. Over time, you start to gain your land legs though, and stop having to reel back and forth just to stay upright. Then you wake up one day, and realize that you can walk a straight line on dry land for the first time. You always remember the buck and roll and learning to walk again, but you learn to stay upright and walk among the 'land people.'
Living with addiction is sort of like growing up on a boat. The ground is always moving underneath you, sometimes you learn to stay upright, when the water is gentle, but at times it's completely impossible, and it's all you can do to lie flat and hang on for dear life. Coming into recovery... it's like washing up on the shore and standing up. Even though you're on solid ground, it takes a while to stop reeling and constantly counterbalancing, because that's all you know. People on land might look at you like you're insane for hanging onto a railing, because they've always stood on solid ground, and can't understand being that involuntarily imbalanced. Over time, you start to gain your land legs though, and stop having to reel back and forth just to stay upright. Then you wake up one day, and realize that you can walk a straight line on dry land for the first time. You always remember the buck and roll and learning to walk again, but you learn to stay upright and walk among the 'land people.'
Member
Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 179
SCT: what a wonderful metaphor. I especially like the thought of finally washing ashore on an island (which I take to be a beautiful place) and being uncomfortable there for awhile until we have our land legs.
To be in paradise and no longer sea sick is good.
Thanks for sharing: this is beautiful.
To be in paradise and no longer sea sick is good.
Thanks for sharing: this is beautiful.
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Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: 49 degrees north
Posts: 1,036
SCT
Wonderful!
I love analogies, metaphors, similes, etc. Like biblical parables, poetry, aphorisms, they assist in understanding what seems unknowable. We never know which one will "fit;" it is personal to each of us. What has a deep impact on me may produce a blank stare in others, and vice versa.
Some of my best "work" is done when I try to take a metaphor to its limits. Sometimes I get trapped and there are holes I cannot plug. Other times I am able to "extend" the metaphor and it fits. Either way, the "work" helps us discover who we are and, sometimes more importantly, who we are not.
If it fits, "wear" it. Like a favorite old shirt, we can depend on it to make us feel just a little better when we put it on, regardless of what others may think. I apologize for the simile...
Thanks for the thought for this day.
warren
Wonderful!
I love analogies, metaphors, similes, etc. Like biblical parables, poetry, aphorisms, they assist in understanding what seems unknowable. We never know which one will "fit;" it is personal to each of us. What has a deep impact on me may produce a blank stare in others, and vice versa.
Some of my best "work" is done when I try to take a metaphor to its limits. Sometimes I get trapped and there are holes I cannot plug. Other times I am able to "extend" the metaphor and it fits. Either way, the "work" helps us discover who we are and, sometimes more importantly, who we are not.
If it fits, "wear" it. Like a favorite old shirt, we can depend on it to make us feel just a little better when we put it on, regardless of what others may think. I apologize for the simile...
Thanks for the thought for this day.
warren
Member
Join Date: Feb 2009
Posts: 1
Hi! I am doing a project on alcoholism and am going to use what you have written in my paper. It is extraordinary and actually has inspired a large portion of my paper. I would love to talk to you more about it. Write back if you are interested. Thank you!
Member
Join Date: Jan 2015
Posts: 1
hi SCT- please reply
hi SCT- your description is beautiful, and i shared it with one of my clients (i am a professor and therapist) and she loved it. Would you be okay if i quote it in a book i am writing to help people with addiction? Please reply to this post. Thanks! And take care-- The Professor
Redmayne
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Manchester, England, UK.
Posts: 1,543
I like it...
I like the metaphor, it's really great. Perhaps because in my early days of recovery I felt like I was swimming in an ocean towards the beach, with a steady determination to reach the shore and join my friend who was waiting and waving to me. With each stroke as I neared the shore I felt stronger and more sure in my sense of purpose and what I was trying to achieve whilst in the same sense, aware that once I arrived on the shore I would still shaky and unsteady on my feet and need her support. We often laughed about this.
Although in real terms, the biggest laugh was when , in the early days I remarked that I couldn't understand why everyone seemed to be moving in slow motion only to be told that they were behaving quite normally. As I soon eventually became aware of. Which emphasised the need, in recovery to take it easy, one day at a time.
Although in real terms, the biggest laugh was when , in the early days I remarked that I couldn't understand why everyone seemed to be moving in slow motion only to be told that they were behaving quite normally. As I soon eventually became aware of. Which emphasised the need, in recovery to take it easy, one day at a time.
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