LiveInPeace

From the song Already Gone: (rest in peace Glenn Frey)

So oftentimes it happens that we live our lives in chains
That we never even know we have the key

How does that lyric relate to your alcoholism recovery?

For me, sometimes I feel like I have the key, but I am just staring at it and am unsure how to use it to set me free. I am also scared to use it because what do I do once I am free of a lifetime of being in chains? That's all I know.

I also feel like I was brainwashed to think that I don't have the key inside, and that I don't deserve to get the key from the person/people who keep me chained as they continue to punish me instead of giving me the key.

Perhaps the chains are no longer even there, but I continue to live like they are because the people who first emotionally chained me want me to think I still am chained and that they are the only ones with the key. Or maybe that they threw the key away.

How do you all feel about these lyrics and how it relates to your alcoholism and your recovery?

least

I was told by close friends that I had the key to my self imposed prison but I was too depressed to believe them. I had to be sober for a while before I was able to see they were right.

suki44883

We almost always have the key to our self-imposed prisons. Realizing it is another story.

That line in the song has been my signature for years here on SR.

Dee74

Thanks LIP

yeah like others here that song really spoke to me when I first got sober and I realised I had the key to my prison all along.

D

Venecia

What Dee said.

MyShadow

Nice lyric, and so true, gonna miss Frey...Tool-Sober is another good one, but the chorus may offend some.

Thumpalumpacus

Well before I entered recovery -- hell, well before I became an alcoholic -- what that line said to me was that we are in charge of our own thinking, that we can change our thinking once we realize that power lives inside us.

There are a lot of great nuggets like this scattered throughout their oeuvre.

SoberCAH

Great lyric and song, great band and great artist.

LiveInPeace

Sounds like me. So how did you get out of it?

LiveInPeace

So when you all figured out you had the key....how'd you proceed from there? I'm stuck.

Dee74

Let me put in it non poetic language - I spent a lot of years thinking I was born to drink, or my life sucked so I drank or they did that to me so I drank...

finally I realised that I'd gotten into the situation myself...and I could get myself out of it

To stay sober I had to find the right support and use it, and I had to make some pretty big changes in my life cos my old life was all about drinking.

What kind of recovery plan do you have LiveInPeace?
I think that's really the 'key' everyone's alluding to here.

maybe this link will help?
http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...ery-plans.html

D

LiveInPeace

Thanks, Dee.

I follow AA's recovery plan.

Dee74

Thats OK - I still recommend the links - there's nothing there thats antithetical to AA at all

D

Redmayne

Personally, I've always liked that verse in the song, 'Learn to be still,' that goes,

'They're like sheep without a shepherd,

Don't know how to live alone,

Spend all their time,

Running around, chasing the wrong gods home.

Learn to be still.'

Feeling that stillness assisted me, along with knowing the difference between loneliness and being alone helped me in my recovery...

LiveInPeace

Thank you, Redmayne. Those indeed are great lyrics. "Be still and know that I am God."

Redmayne

On the question of the difference between being alone, loneliness and being still, I also like this Islamist saying,

' When the Almighty sends everyone away He does so, so that you and He can spend time together.'

A thought that's both enhanced and strengthened my recovery ...

LiveInPeace

Redmayne, thank you for sharing that. I really like that thought. Someone else once told me that we're never truly alone because we always have God with us.

LiveInPeace

Thank you for recommending the links, Dee. I'm always interested in ways I can enhance my program. :-) I'm trying to work on that now that I'm in the latter steps.

I hope my brief answer didn't come across as snippy. That wasn't my intention. ;-)