Originally Posted by
laurie6781 
No he DID walk the way he talked, until one day, he let his 'guard' down a wee bit, and King Alcohol started talking again. He was human, we are not perfect.
BULL. I have been sober and clean a very very long time. Your time will come to be TESTED, AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN, and unless you are a 'saint' and 'perfect', then through the 'stinking thinking' you will have to manage to at least pick up a phone and call, or you could end up right where I have seen MANY end up.
No it is not Ever Vigilant against alcohol it is EVER VIGILANT against the OLD WAYS, OLD THINKING sneaking in, because those start LONG BEFORE WE PICK UP A DRINK.
It can start by 'skipping' doing a 10th Step every evening, getting irritated at a co worker or a family member and letting it stew, or someone 'cutting you off on the street, etc They only happen once in a while, but then they happen again, and again. Complacency can and does set in on most of us from time to time in our ongoing recovery.
Oh my friend stay Vigilant. It takes years and years for the 'old ways' to completely leave and they can still pop up now and then.
And yes I AM RECOVERED from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body, however, I am still recovering in how I act and react with my fellow man.
J M H O
Love and hugs,
I'm sorry you disagree with my experience, that must be hard for you?
I know I am not unique in that though. My experience has been that if I need to stay vigilant about alcohol then I'm still using self reliance as a way to stay sober and need to revisit the work. This program has never taught me how to avoid a drink, it clearly states its purpose as leading me to a god that will remove my problem. And by doing the work repeatedly, and having an active prayer and meditation life, that promise has come true in my life and the lives of many others. If my solution to my problems is nothing more than geting to a meeting or picking up a phone then its only a matter of time till I drink again. Drinking placed me in a position where I was beyond human aid, its foolish of me to believe that relying upon humans will resolve my problems. Do I talk to my sponsor? Of course, a solitary self appraisal is seldom sufficient. Do I go to meetings? Yes, to find people to share my experience with. Do these two things keep me sober? Absolutely not. They help guide me, show me how to access that god I need but are not-and can never be- my solution.
What happens if the phone isn't answered or the meeting is cancelled? Do I whimper and become fearful that I might drink? No of course not, I have a spiritual solution that is between god and myself.
Time means absolutely nothing, its an arbitrary marker we choose to use to somehow gauge "success". The friend you mention is a great example of this. I've seen plenty of people with extraordinary quantities of time who clearly have not lived this solution and who's solutions are middle of the road solutions-90 in 90, think the drink through, stay away from drinking places, cleaning coffee pots keeps ya sober, don't drink and go to meetings, no mention of the only solution AA offers-and as the result are living a life totally reliant on self and other humans. And then people wonder why they finally drink again. On the flip side I've also seen people have that lightening bolt spiritual experience and within a matter of weeks or months their life is changed, revolutionized, and then i get the pleasure of seeing their life progress as they go on and share that experience.