Still Seeking Sobriety!
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Thread Starter
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Cocoa, FL
Posts: 18
Still Seeking Sobriety!
I was here a while ago and everyone was unbelievably great. At the time I felt so motivated to get sober. But I stopped coming back here and continued with my normal devastating life. It's so hard. Even though I think about getting sober and imagining what life's possibilities could hold; I just can't stop! I've missed so much of life and it drives me crazy that I just keep doing this to myself.
I've heard it said so many times that you have to be ready. I am READY!!! I just can't stop from living this comfortable stupid routine. My self confidence is at an all time low. I had a best friend; she and I were involved several years ago but became close friends after breaking up, and lately she has been avoiding me completely. So now I feel rejection from my closest friend. I'm very alone.
I'm consumed with thinking about what life could be like. So how do I get sober and make it happen???
I've heard it said so many times that you have to be ready. I am READY!!! I just can't stop from living this comfortable stupid routine. My self confidence is at an all time low. I had a best friend; she and I were involved several years ago but became close friends after breaking up, and lately she has been avoiding me completely. So now I feel rejection from my closest friend. I'm very alone.
I'm consumed with thinking about what life could be like. So how do I get sober and make it happen???
It all starts with change. I had to do something different than what I had been doing previously, cause obviously my way wasn't working out too well. I had to have an honest desire to change and then begin to allow others to help me. I couldn't get sober by myself. I needed to learn from others what worked for them....but it was only after I had tried everything else that I was willing to listen. Glad you are here. We do recover.
Recovery is NOT DRINKING and feeling GOOD about it.
It takes a daily program of action to learn how to be comfortable in your own skin without a substance.
Forward we go...side by side-Rest In Peace
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Serene In Dixie
Posts: 36,740
Here is the link to your first post with us....
http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...-sobriety.html
What are you now willing to do for yourself?
It's certainly time for you to make healthy positive changes
Welcome back to SR ...
http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...-sobriety.html
What are you now willing to do for yourself?
It's certainly time for you to make healthy positive changes
Welcome back to SR ...
Hey, if you really want it you all ready got it. Under our using we're all by nature sober. You just need to reclaim your birthright. I'm guessing you know what to do, the question is your determination. It involves not picking up, moment after moment, after moment...Obvious but not always easy or we'd all be sober.
“Anguish emerges from craving for life to be other than it is. It is the symptom of flight from birth and death, from the pulse of the present. It is the gnawing mood of unease that haunts the clinging to ‘me’ and ‘mine.’ … Craving can vanish in awakening to the absurdity of the assumptions that underlie it. Without stamping it out or denying it, craving may be renounced the way a child renounces sand castles: not be repressing the desire to make them but by turning aside from an endeavor that no longer holds any interest.”
“Anguish emerges from craving for life to be other than it is. It is the symptom of flight from birth and death, from the pulse of the present. It is the gnawing mood of unease that haunts the clinging to ‘me’ and ‘mine.’ … Craving can vanish in awakening to the absurdity of the assumptions that underlie it. Without stamping it out or denying it, craving may be renounced the way a child renounces sand castles: not be repressing the desire to make them but by turning aside from an endeavor that no longer holds any interest.”
What worked for me was to go to as many A.A. meetings as possible. i got phone numbers of people who had at least one year clean and called them when i wanted to drink. i read as much of the literature as i could get my hands on. i asked someone to sponsor me and guide me thru the Twelve Steps & Twelve Traditions. i did what i was told to do and followed the directions my sponsor gave me. i developed faith in a power greater than myself to help me stay sober. i became willing to be of service at a group that i asked if i could make it my 'Home Group'. i helped someone else stay sober each and every day.
Member
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 1,622
Going to meetings will not help us recover. There is no step in the programme of alcoholics anonymous that says we go to meetings. However, we meet for fellowship and support and we learn how to carry our message.
In order to recover, we do the steps. I suggest you find an AA group with strong sponsorship. Find someone who will sponsor you using the Big Book. That book is the only place where the detailed specific instructions on how to recoever can be found. You can recover in a matter of days.
The Primary Purpose Groups believe in sticking to the programme that worked in the early days. The one in Dallas has a great site and can hook you up with the right sponsor. There is nothing wrong with our programme (which has nothing to do with discussion meetings). It still works today. That is my experience.
In order to recover, we do the steps. I suggest you find an AA group with strong sponsorship. Find someone who will sponsor you using the Big Book. That book is the only place where the detailed specific instructions on how to recoever can be found. You can recover in a matter of days.
The Primary Purpose Groups believe in sticking to the programme that worked in the early days. The one in Dallas has a great site and can hook you up with the right sponsor. There is nothing wrong with our programme (which has nothing to do with discussion meetings). It still works today. That is my experience.
Member
Join Date: Apr 2009
Posts: 3,095
Hmmm. It doesn't sound all that comfortable to me. But, you already know that.
Here's what worked for me: After trying willpower, doctors, anti-depressants, counseling, jail time, outpatient treatment, inpatient rehab, more jail time, and AA without step work, I recovered through AA's 12 steps.
I hit a day where I was ready. Where I really had no answers left. Where I really was willing to go to any lengths to get and stay sober. I called a guy I didn't like much in AA, but I knew he had a solution because he spoke of being recovered as the result of the 12 steps. I met him that day, still drunk, and we talked about the hopeless nature of alcoholism. We talked about my own experience with craving and obsession. He shared his experience with me and asked me to share my own. He told me what he knew of alcoholism and what he knew of a solution for alcoholics like me. I started taking the steps on the first day I didn't drink. I took all 12 steps, in order, and had a spiritual awakening, just like it promises. I haven't taken a drink since that first day I started, and my life is fulfilled beyond my expectations. It's been that way for some time now.
Being ready means taking action. Like Pilgrim said, AA meetings are what you get. They can be a very helpful part of the process, but they are not the process itself. If you are ready like you say you are, make that call today. I'd be willing to bet that if you called a local AA hotline and told the person that you are ready to take the steps with someone who has had a spiritual awakening, they could hook you up that day.
It can happen today. You may already have had your last drink. Today, my friend, you can start to recover and be free of this bondage that we both know.
How ready are you?
Here's what worked for me: After trying willpower, doctors, anti-depressants, counseling, jail time, outpatient treatment, inpatient rehab, more jail time, and AA without step work, I recovered through AA's 12 steps.
I hit a day where I was ready. Where I really had no answers left. Where I really was willing to go to any lengths to get and stay sober. I called a guy I didn't like much in AA, but I knew he had a solution because he spoke of being recovered as the result of the 12 steps. I met him that day, still drunk, and we talked about the hopeless nature of alcoholism. We talked about my own experience with craving and obsession. He shared his experience with me and asked me to share my own. He told me what he knew of alcoholism and what he knew of a solution for alcoholics like me. I started taking the steps on the first day I didn't drink. I took all 12 steps, in order, and had a spiritual awakening, just like it promises. I haven't taken a drink since that first day I started, and my life is fulfilled beyond my expectations. It's been that way for some time now.
Being ready means taking action. Like Pilgrim said, AA meetings are what you get. They can be a very helpful part of the process, but they are not the process itself. If you are ready like you say you are, make that call today. I'd be willing to bet that if you called a local AA hotline and told the person that you are ready to take the steps with someone who has had a spiritual awakening, they could hook you up that day.
It can happen today. You may already have had your last drink. Today, my friend, you can start to recover and be free of this bondage that we both know.
How ready are you?
Member
Join Date: Apr 2009
Posts: 3,095
We had a woman join our homegroup last week who got sucked into Cliff's group after rehab in Dallas. She moved to my town (far from Texas) and within a week had found us (listed in the Primary Purpose directory), had a sponser, taken on a sponsee, and declared at the podium, "Thank god there's real AA in this town."
The girl is on fire. 2 months out of treatment. It reminds me what real strong AA can do for someone.
Member
Join Date: Apr 2009
Posts: 3,095
Karen,
I sent you a PM with a link to Big Book Sponsorship for permanent recovery for all addictions That's a very truncated list, but there are a number of groups in GA.
Solution oriented and not so solution oriented meetings are all over the place. The spectrum is large. For me, it's the difference between someone sharing the 'experience' of it was really good to spend their first 4th of July sober, to the experience of being powerless over alcohol, the experience with the steps, and the spiritual awakening that comes as a result.
I sent you a PM with a link to Big Book Sponsorship for permanent recovery for all addictions That's a very truncated list, but there are a number of groups in GA.
Solution oriented and not so solution oriented meetings are all over the place. The spectrum is large. For me, it's the difference between someone sharing the 'experience' of it was really good to spend their first 4th of July sober, to the experience of being powerless over alcohol, the experience with the steps, and the spiritual awakening that comes as a result.
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