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Old 04-14-2014, 09:21 AM
  # 5 (permalink)  
doggonecarl
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Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Norfolk, VA
Posts: 10,962
There was a thread a couple days ago where a person asked, "What worked for you."

I tend to not discuss the details of my recovery path for a couple reasons: One, what works for me might not work for someone else, and Two, I don't want to thread argument about methodology. But I kept thinking about the question, wondering if I could answer the question. And your post allows me the chance, not to tell you what to change, but what I had to do to get and stay sober.

1. Accept that I could never drink again. Ever. No compromising with my addiction. The line in the sand was drawn, and I wasn't going to cross it.
2. Work daily on my integrity to never waiver from my decision to not drink. Identifying the sneaky little voice of my addiction that would have me dishonor my recovery.
3. Learn to live sober. That means learning to deal with the issues that always sent me running to the bottle: Stress, grief, shame, anger, etc.
4. Learn gratitude. Being thankful for the gift of sobriety. Earn gratitude. My alcoholism was selfish, I had to learn to give of myself as a sober person.
5. Now that I have years sober, I don't make the goal not drinking. I make the goal of every day my recovery and the not drinking takes care of itself.

There are any number of programs/methods that will assist an alcoholic in achiving the things that will ensure their sobriety, both formal and informal. I guess it comes down to this. A person either works on their recovery, or they drink. So what changes do you need to make?
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