Jsober

I've been sober a few years and I've been thinking (in gratitude) lately about how so few people in my life have gotten sober.
I started thinking about it because an old drinking buddy of mine is having dire health consequences( life or death stuff). I don't know why but I thought this might get him to sober up. He is still trying to figure how to drink. I can relate- I drank worse than him.
My sister died of this disease and another friend died suddenly drunk driving.
I guess my question is, why do some get this gift and most others keep suffering or die?
- The power of the disease, Gods grace? I don't know and probably won't ever know but I just wanted to get some others thoughts. Thanks

Dee74

I don't know the why J - I just know that several really fine people are no longer with us.... and that sucks.

It makes it even more important to me to stay the course, y'know?
D

FeelingGreat

I've often wondered why impending death doesn't scare some alcoholics sober too. There was a pair of brothers who lived near me and died of liver failure within a day of each other, and they had plenty of opportunity to quit.
Maybe some people just get so depressed they don't mind committing slow suicide.

Notimetoloose

It is a great question and one that I have thought about many times...

Soberwolf

I don't know why

tomsteve

we are dealing with alcoholism. cunning, baffling, powerful.

it isnt easy for me to accept many will die. i have had some people very close to me die from alcoholism- some of them have been suicides- but for me i have to accept that that is the fact and continue my journey being very careful not to trip over the ones that fall by the wayside.

NestWasEmpty

This may sound off the wall - I've always Wished someone would come up with a miracle pill that can make people feel as good as alcohol does . Without the side affects & health risks :ie addictive consequences .
I don't know maybe for the ones that can't get to the long term part of Sobriety to realize it does get Better

kittycat3

I don't know the why either. But I can also see many that have had the gift of sobriety, even those that I thought were hopeless.

I know it takes tools, strength, and perseverance, as well as support from others, but at the end of the day, when I've slipped, it's me making the choice to bring the booze to my lips. That's it. I can vent about peer pressure, feeling like the only one who is sober, whine that I need my wine to cope, but every slip I've had starts with a choice to drink. The times I've made the wrong choice and drank are times that I feel like I've risked my life. I'm grateful to be here and sober, and I don't know why I have another chance at it when so many don't, but I'm gonna take it.

Hypocritical

It is a gift. A gift you have to accept and appreciate.

tursiops999

good question. I really don't know why/how I got sober. It felt like a gift. I try to develop daily habits that help me remember how precious that gift is, and how much it needs tending and care and protection. Like remembering to say each day "I'm grateful to be sober". I hope I never forget.

Fly N Buy

If one miracle pill would make me feel groovy, I'd want 20!!! Insidious insanity.........more, more, more......

thisisme

Because we, the sober, are the glory of our time.

Jsober

Thanks for your insights. We are the lucky ones that is for sure! I can accept that. The why is a mystery and I can accept that too. I just have to keep on because I can lose this gift at anytime.

TrixMixer

The universe calls; Some of us are just lucky we were home!

I just took the call and ran with it---still running!!!!!--LOL!!!


Trix

tomdecel

This guy I've known (a client of mine) for over 20 years walked into my office 3 weeks ago. He looked terrible. He had been diagnosed with viral meningitis. He is fairly young at 52, healthy, fit, smart, hard worker.

I just got a call an hour ago from one of his employees. He was not feeling too well on Monday so he went to the doctor. They did a cat-scan and found bleeding in the brain. Immediately rushed to the hospital and further evaluation revealed a brain tumor. Im still in shock.

I can not stop thinking about the fact that as alcoholics, we can do something about our condition, while there are so many people with conditions so grave that we don't know if they are going to be alive the next moment, and have no control over the matter.

I am also very thankful this moment to have seeked the road of recovery years ago.

Lovenjoy

great question. i wonder about this often myself. seeing people sick and suffering and knowing there is a solution - why not choose sobriety? it is baffling for sure. yet these are sober thoughts - i didn't see the choice when i was active. what woke me up and not others?

i have 5 brothers, four are alcoholics - one is in recovery and one is being killed by the disease. my brother with life or death illness from drinking doesn't see the correlation at all and neither do most of the family. yeah there's a specific physical issue but a quick google and it's all there - alcohol is the culprit and alcohol nullifies all treatment..... he looks like death warmed over and there's absolutely nothing anyone can do unless he makes a choice. i can't even talk to any of the family about what i know and how i feel..... there's no point.

makes me sad and really angry at what this disease is capable of. and so very, very grateful to have received this gift - i will treasure it all the more because of those who haven't discovered it.

Nevertheless

I think most everyone here knows how tuff the first few months are. I have been sober over 5 years. But I think it was the day before my 6 month mark that I became obsessed with "giving in". I had pulled into the beer store parking lot,opened the door,and had one foot on the ground before I went WOOAAH. Fortunately I stopped and got the hell out of there. That craving went on well past the next day.
It's hard to say where I might be right now if I hadn't have pulled my self together.
There is a very fine line which side of the line we fall on in a situation like that.
So to answer your question Why? In my situation I remembered being so fed up with it I fell on the sober side of the line.
I heard a saying long ago,when it comes to booze. Us alcoholics remberers are broken,but our forgetters work very well.
Somehow my rememberer started working again.

Fred

Fluffer

I was thinking about this today as I walked to work through part of the skid row neighborhood in my city. There were dozens or even hundreds of addicts milling about obviously with one foot in the grave. It seems so insane to just keep marching into certain death with that lifestyle, but then I remember that the high is, in their minds, the only means to escape the misery. Just so sad.

gaffo

I sat with a friend yesterday who just went through a gross break up that took five years or so! She would not, could not see the glass as half full. She just could not stop feeling sorry for herself. She is drinking and smoking herself to death and always has been. I hate to watch it. She will die like so many of my drunk friends.

I hate to say this but I am glad to not let drunk people in close to me anymore and I don't make friends in bars these days. I had some good times for sure but the bad drama is just too much.

I guess I just got lucky and found that line that I couldn't cross. I need to focus on the positive things. The longer I stay sober the better I feel. I cannot waste a single precious moment trying to explain this to people who simply won't understand. Either you get it or you don't.