What Are You Working On?

[tryintohelp]

"We either make ourselves miserable or we make ourselves strong.
The amount of work is the same."

Don Juan -- Journey To Xtlan

[Doggonefool]

What am I working on? Acceptance? My sobriety date was 05/26/2003. When I lost my sister to alcohol that July, I remained sober. In September of 2004, when I survived breast cancer and treatment, I remained sober. When I lost my dog to cancer, I remained sober. In December of 2005, when my husband of 25 years abandoned me to go on a family cruise alone, I forgot about recovery, and took a drink. I tell myself that relapse doesn't erase what I've accomplished. Does my sobriety date change?

I get knocked down; I get up again; ain't never going to keep me down - Chumba Wumba Tub Thumpin

[Gmoney]

When we use we lose. Although the experience of staying clean for extended periods of time can never be taken away from us, a clean date or "sobriety date" signifies the start of recovery or re-start, if you will. If I were to go back to the first time I got clean and count that as my clean date, my clean date would be some time in 1985. Fortunately for me, I'm honest enough to accept that whenever I used I wasn't clean or sober and that relapse means just that: "To slip or fall back into a former state (as of illness)." My clean date is 8-24-98 and since then I haven't found it neccessary to use any mood-changing or mind altering substance. The saying, "Don't pick up, no matter what!" still applies and I also believe that relapse begins long before the actual use of a drug or drink. If I'm not progressing...I'm regressing and relapse never happens by accident. We have a choice.

In NA, our Basic Text tells us that there are those of us who have stopped using for extended periods of time and thought that we were alright. We always looked at the stopping instead of the using. I cannot "forget" about recovery because staying clean has to always come first.

[jdh1276]

I totally agree with GarryW... well said.