This week's opening post is excellent!
I'm not turning into an egomaniac, there are enough of those appearing on media outlets as it is. No this week's OP is by our fellow Weekender Venecia who, as always, is extremely insightful.
She writes:-
Getting sober is hard work. For anyone on the journey, especially early on, it can feel like a punishing course in which the fabled boulder must be continuously pushed up a hill. One often accompanied by the fear it will all come tumbling down forcing the process to restart.
What's easy to forget is how much harder our lives were (or are) in active alcoholism and addiction.
How much did we miss because we were too drunk or too high to participate in life? How many days were spent just waiting for it to be over - the headache, the rotten gut, the fog - yet knowing it would all start over again, sooner rather than later? The endless cycle. The continual loss of self respect.
How many other checked boxes of alcoholism and addiction have been successfully added? Poorer health? Check. Distanced from family? Check. Job threatened or lost? Check. Divorce or a loss of a relationship? Check. Legal problems, financial woes, diminished mental sharpness, lost figure, blackouts, brownouts, violence?
Checkcheckcheckcheckcheckcheckcheckcheck.
That's not living.
It gets better. Yes the road can be rocky from time to time, but in a life of sobriety and recovery, one truth is guaranteed: the hardest parts are behind you
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Thank you for that Venecia
Whilst they are her words, any spelling or punctuation mistakes are 100% mine