Originally Posted by
copperducky 
he said it was sad because "those" people had lost everything...their homes, their spouses, their life savings, their jobs etc. At the time a little bird in my head wanted to say..."you will too if you don't stop". But that birdy never sang loud enough back then. I think he didn't lump himself in with "that crowd". I'm thinking that he does now. I'm hoping that he does now.
But like you said...work on me and I'm doing that at this very moment.
Thanks
Honesty and acceptance are the spiritual principles of the first step in AA.
Regardless of the program the alcoholic chooses to use in recovery, if you can't totally accept that you will always end up in the same predicament when you start drinking, your odds of relapse are pretty bleak. It takes time for this to truly register... it took me months after admitting myself into rehab and working a program on a daily basis.
I can only speak for myself, but I would be cautious about judging someone's level of acceptance from superficial evidence over a week or two. This is a forever kind of thing, and it takes awhile to swallow that reality and adjust our thinking and expectations accordingly.
Sobriety has been an incredible gift for me, and I hope he is on the path. Just manage your expectations, its early days for him now.