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Old 05-07-2013, 02:57 AM
  # 4 (permalink)  
Gottalife
12 Step Recovered Alcoholic
 
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Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 6,613
Welcome back. Glad to see you are back into recovery.

In my experience it takes a bit more than just meetings to achieve permanent sobriety. Bill W warns us about this quite early in the Big Book. It goes something like this: "For unless a man continues to perfect and enlarge his spiritual life through self sacrifice and service to others, he will not survive the certain trials and low spots ahead."

He's talking about the things that life throws up to everyone, not just alcoholics. I lost my job and had all my gear stolen at 6 weeks sober, lost my first relationship at about 3 months, I lost my wife of 20 years to cancer about 5 years ago. My father and my sponsor died. In each of these drinking did not come up as an option. All the way through I was working the steps and working with others, and God kept me safe and protected just as promised. It wasn't a gift, a price had to be paid. The destruction of self centredness.
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