keithj

Welcome, eureka. The line I quoted leaped out at me. It sounded exactly like something I would have said prior to recovery. And then I noticed a subtle difference. You said 'do whatever it takes'. Despite my words, my thinking was always about 'do whatever I thought I had to.'

The big change for me, the difference between being recovered and another failed experiment at sobriety, was doing what other recovered alcoholics did. I had to do it their way, not mine. I didn't want to, but that's what it took for me.

I threw myself into taking the 12 steps as described in AA's Big Book with a recovered alcoholic. I did that and I recovered, just like it promises.