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Old 02-25-2017, 05:12 AM
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Gottalife
12 Step Recovered Alcoholic
 
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Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 6,613
It's Different for the Young Alcoholic

At least it seemed different to me. It is the same disease, same symptoms, same solution, but the difference was in my story and life experience. It is so easy to get hung up on the stories.

When I read the Big Book, I read about mostly men who had achieved things in their lives before losing it all to alcohol. There was Bill the stock broker who made his millions. Bob, the doctor who had a medical practice, #3 the Lawyer. They had wives, families, businesses. They had some idea what life was about.

And when it came to getting sober, they had some idea about what they were trying to get back.

Not so for me. I had never achieved anything. My life crashed on take off. I had no experience of life, had no idea what normal was, just this enormous frustration that I was unable to get to the places my contemporaries could get to. I lost nothing but opportunity. The opportunity to grow and develop and achieve. I never knew what any of this was all about, what it felt like, or even that it existed.

So when I am sitting in my first AA meeting, being told how things can get better, and what a wonderful life awaited me, they were talking about things beyond my experience, and beyond my ability to imagine. To me the future looked like a big black hole without booze.

A little faith had to come in here. I could see older folk that were happy and sober as the result of the steps. Maybe that could be me? The other option had no appeal.

Then I heard that saying about looking for the similarities. My story was different for sure. There were some similarities, but mostly it was completely different. The real similarities were in the way I drank and the effect that alcoholc had on me. The obsession of the mind, the phenomenon of craving. The unhappiness, the feeling of uselessnes, the spiritual malady. Those were some of the similarities, the common ground if you like.

When I forgot about age, and worked with others on the basis of a common problem and a common solution, I commenced to get results.

Now my story is more similar, except that what achievements that came my way were not lost through alcoholism, I got to keep them, and have a life time of positive memories.

Hopefully this might encourage a few young ones. It really is an exciting journey as a young person. I know. I experienced it.
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