36 Today:)
12 Step Recovered Alcoholic
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 6,613
36 Today:)
According to my late sponsor, I took my last drink on Saturday 9 Feb 1980. I got my self to AA with the help of a very kind 12 stepper who spent his entire Sunday afternoon with me. I was at death's door and only 22 years of age. I didn't know much about the drinking problem, all I knew was I wanted the misery and madness to stop, and I was willing to do anything to make that happen.
I went to meetings, I got a sponsor, I took antabuse, I took the steps. I didn't really have any faith, I felt hopeless, I didn't think I would last 21 days, my previous record. 21 days is such a long time. I never even took a note of the day I stopped.
I had no belief in a god, no experience of a happy sober life, all sobriety had been miserable in my experience.
Three months later, I am into step nine, my sponsor rings and tells me I have 3 months up! I couldn't believe it. While I was plodding away with the steps, the desire to drink had gone and it never came back. The whole world seemed to change at that point, from cold and forbiding to warm and welcoming.
My ideas and attitudes changed too, though often in spite of my self.
As I look back over 36 years of continuous sobriety, the striking thing for me is that none of it was my work. I never succeeded in changing a single thing about myself, I did not engineer my own recovery, nor lay out my life plan. I don't think I had much to do with it at all. The things that happened in my life, the doors that opened, the people I came to know and love, have all been beyond anything I could have imagined.
I came to AA a non believer who was willing to believe if I got some proof. I followed some simple suggestions and I got my proof. The central foundation of my sobriety today is a loving God as I understand him through experiencing the work he has done on me. My relationship with Him has enabled me to withstand all that life has thrown at me without the need for a drink, and it has given me the freedom to go anywhere that free men can go. In fact it has given me total freedom from alcohol and/or the influence of alcohol in my life. And it has been done pretty much in spite of myself (That means the credit goes to Him not me)
Thank you for being here and sharing this moment with me.
Just a parting thought. I found the steps impossible to understand in advance. I took the action first, and the understanding came some time later.
I went to meetings, I got a sponsor, I took antabuse, I took the steps. I didn't really have any faith, I felt hopeless, I didn't think I would last 21 days, my previous record. 21 days is such a long time. I never even took a note of the day I stopped.
I had no belief in a god, no experience of a happy sober life, all sobriety had been miserable in my experience.
Three months later, I am into step nine, my sponsor rings and tells me I have 3 months up! I couldn't believe it. While I was plodding away with the steps, the desire to drink had gone and it never came back. The whole world seemed to change at that point, from cold and forbiding to warm and welcoming.
My ideas and attitudes changed too, though often in spite of my self.
As I look back over 36 years of continuous sobriety, the striking thing for me is that none of it was my work. I never succeeded in changing a single thing about myself, I did not engineer my own recovery, nor lay out my life plan. I don't think I had much to do with it at all. The things that happened in my life, the doors that opened, the people I came to know and love, have all been beyond anything I could have imagined.
I came to AA a non believer who was willing to believe if I got some proof. I followed some simple suggestions and I got my proof. The central foundation of my sobriety today is a loving God as I understand him through experiencing the work he has done on me. My relationship with Him has enabled me to withstand all that life has thrown at me without the need for a drink, and it has given me the freedom to go anywhere that free men can go. In fact it has given me total freedom from alcohol and/or the influence of alcohol in my life. And it has been done pretty much in spite of myself (That means the credit goes to Him not me)
Thank you for being here and sharing this moment with me.
Just a parting thought. I found the steps impossible to understand in advance. I took the action first, and the understanding came some time later.
Member
Join Date: Jun 2012
Posts: 5,229
thats awesome!
people with years and years sobriety cast a tall shadow for others with less its intimidating as we sit in awe of geeze how? ::scratching heads:: But its also very inspireing to know that it is indeed possible and can be done. Despite the stuff that life has probably thrown at you in the last 36 years you still remained sober. Thats pretty stinking amazing good job!.
people with years and years sobriety cast a tall shadow for others with less its intimidating as we sit in awe of geeze how? ::scratching heads:: But its also very inspireing to know that it is indeed possible and can be done. Despite the stuff that life has probably thrown at you in the last 36 years you still remained sober. Thats pretty stinking amazing good job!.
Member
Join Date: Sep 2015
Location: glasgow scotland
Posts: 1,004
Hi Mike .
Congratulations my friend you have been an good example to me since I joined here and even through cyber space its apparent to me that you live the program thank you from the bottom of my heart , take care .
Regards Stevie recovered 12 03 . 2006
Congratulations my friend you have been an good example to me since I joined here and even through cyber space its apparent to me that you live the program thank you from the bottom of my heart , take care .
Regards Stevie recovered 12 03 . 2006
You can have reasons, or you can have results, but you can't have both.
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: Syracuse, NY
Posts: 1,232
All right, all right -- all you young 'uns talking that you're under 36 can stop now. 
Gottalife, today I'm celebrating 30 days sober after 25+ years drinking. Your post is deep and it made a few amazing things pop out to me:
Thank you for sharing this and giving us an opportunity to contemplate what decades mean, and how the passage of time will help us understand the hidden blessing in our struggles. May the sun continue to shine for you, each and every day!
Gottalife, today I'm celebrating 30 days sober after 25+ years drinking. Your post is deep and it made a few amazing things pop out to me:
- You were sober before I started drinking!
- I drank for more years than you were alive when you got sober!
- The blessing and miracle of sobriety never get boring!
- Even an affliction as terrible as addiction can be a way to shine a light into someone's life. Look at the wonderful things (God!!) that came into your consciousness through that dark back alley entrance of alcoholism!
Thank you for sharing this and giving us an opportunity to contemplate what decades mean, and how the passage of time will help us understand the hidden blessing in our struggles. May the sun continue to shine for you, each and every day!
Sober Alcoholic
Join Date: Aug 2011
Posts: 3,539
It's been a pleasure knowing you Mike. I'm glad I told you about SR all those years ago 
You're doing a lot of good (but isn't that what it's all about?)...
BTW Dick B. is now attending that big meeting in the sky bless his soul. (Why is it that there seems to be something about lawyers that I find disagreeable?)
You're doing a lot of good (but isn't that what it's all about?)... BTW Dick B. is now attending that big meeting in the sky bless his soul. (Why is it that there seems to be something about lawyers that I find disagreeable?)
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