Do you consider your sobriety a miracle ?
Its a cold and its a broken hallelujah.
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2011
Posts: 2,887
Do you consider your sobriety a miracle ?
After bouncing back and forth for decades from complete chemical oblivion to sober days, then weeks and now months, I can't help but to reflect on what got me to this point.
I am not sure if it was misinformation or denial that kept me drinking for far too long. However, I can say, with utmost certainty, that I legitimately did not even begin to conceptualize how deadly this disease is until recently.
While struggling and scraping by and scrounging and crawling for decades, its almost as if suddenly, I finally understand the magnitude.
Is sobriety a miracle ?
And, if so, why are some able to receive it while others (like my father and sister who died at it hands) succumb to its demise ?
Heartfelt thanks in advance for your words of wisdom.
XO AO
I am not sure if it was misinformation or denial that kept me drinking for far too long. However, I can say, with utmost certainty, that I legitimately did not even begin to conceptualize how deadly this disease is until recently.
While struggling and scraping by and scrounging and crawling for decades, its almost as if suddenly, I finally understand the magnitude.
Is sobriety a miracle ?
And, if so, why are some able to receive it while others (like my father and sister who died at it hands) succumb to its demise ?
Heartfelt thanks in advance for your words of wisdom.
XO AO
Forum Leader
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Wisconsin, USA
Posts: 16,945
I am not a very spiritual or religious person, more of a realist i guess. My current sobriety was initially spurred by a single day when i woke up and just finally said, this is it...i cannot do this anymore. Perhaps that idea/realization was planted there by something other than my own thoughts...but what is most important to me is that I acted upon it. And the subsequent sober time has been a lot of work, but well worth it.
Whatever it was I am thankful for it and plan to protect it.
Whatever it was I am thankful for it and plan to protect it.
Member
Join Date: Jul 2013
Posts: 3,359
AO - I don't believe sobriety is a miracle. Anyone can choose to be sober. To surrender and become spiritually enlightened, which in turn removes the obsession and cravings I believe to be a miracle. I don't believe this happens to everyone.
Member
Join Date: Oct 2013
Location: Texas
Posts: 1,329
Well, it's a miracle that I haven't drank in 72 days but it is me who has to make conscious decision every day not to pick up. Like others have said, I was just sick and tired of being controlled by alcohol. I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders with not dealing with the guilt, shame, anxiety, etc., that comes with being an alcoholic.
Member
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: Strailya
Posts: 8,009
I agree with FourSeasons. It was a singular moment of clarity that I was gifted that stopped me drinking. I am ever grateful for that. However, to maintain my sobriety is down to commitment and hard work on my part.
Member
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Washington, DC
Posts: 987
Hi AO, and thanks for another intriguing post.
I don't know if I consider sobriety itself a miracle but I think I consider the process by which I got here to be a miracle. Kind of what you describe in your OP. The fact that, after almost 20 years of drinking---10 of them very destructively---that I was finally able to say, "That's it! I can't fix this on my own and I cannot continue to go on this way either...I need HELP," was indeed a miracle. Some call it surrender and, honestly, I do not have a problem with the word or the concept because, at least for me, it does not necessarily mean you have no free will left or are powerless in other areas of your life.
For me the miracle was asking for help. And receiving it. In spades.
First here, then AA, now both.
And in asking for help for what was the most embarrassing and terrifying thing in my life? Now asking for help on the other stuff is small potatoes.
Sobriety is natural, to my mind. Getting there is the miracle.
Love ya.
I don't know if I consider sobriety itself a miracle but I think I consider the process by which I got here to be a miracle. Kind of what you describe in your OP. The fact that, after almost 20 years of drinking---10 of them very destructively---that I was finally able to say, "That's it! I can't fix this on my own and I cannot continue to go on this way either...I need HELP," was indeed a miracle. Some call it surrender and, honestly, I do not have a problem with the word or the concept because, at least for me, it does not necessarily mean you have no free will left or are powerless in other areas of your life.
For me the miracle was asking for help. And receiving it. In spades.
First here, then AA, now both.
And in asking for help for what was the most embarrassing and terrifying thing in my life? Now asking for help on the other stuff is small potatoes.
Sobriety is natural, to my mind. Getting there is the miracle.
Love ya.
Member
Join Date: Apr 2013
Posts: 638
Sobriety. It feels like a miracle. Maybe because of the many years of trying finding myself actually in this moment where I've come so far, I never ever want to go back. I too believe in miracles, I've witnessed miracles firsthand.
Sobriety itself is and has been work and dedication, thus itself not a miracle, although it feels like one.
Sobriety itself is and has been work and dedication, thus itself not a miracle, although it feels like one.
Administrator
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Australia
Posts: 211,368
I have a natural aversion to declaring myself a miracle LOL but whatever you want to call it, looking back at myself in 2007 and now, it's amazing.
Why do some get it and others not? I don't know.
I could have just as easily not found SR that day I did and ended up another statistic.
Just my personal belief, but I do consider I had some kind of spiritual help that day, and since...
D
Why do some get it and others not? I don't know.
I could have just as easily not found SR that day I did and ended up another statistic.
Just my personal belief, but I do consider I had some kind of spiritual help that day, and since...
D
Member
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: Australia
Posts: 11,351
This is a really intriguing post AlphaO
I remember feeling in the depths of despair and being on my knees and crying. I don't know what I believe , i really don't but I said if you are out there God just take me now , I cant do this anymore. I didn't want my children to see me get worse .
Days later i stumbled across SR .
miracle? Dunno ...big word!
I feel differently internally , more at peace.
If this is the reason I'm so thankful and i know others feel it and I'm so happy for them.
It may take me some more time to reflect on it all but yes , I did say thank you God for listening if you are out there .
I remember feeling in the depths of despair and being on my knees and crying. I don't know what I believe , i really don't but I said if you are out there God just take me now , I cant do this anymore. I didn't want my children to see me get worse .
Days later i stumbled across SR .
miracle? Dunno ...big word!
I feel differently internally , more at peace.
If this is the reason I'm so thankful and i know others feel it and I'm so happy for them.
It may take me some more time to reflect on it all but yes , I did say thank you God for listening if you are out there .
voices ca**y
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: St. Paul Minnesota
Posts: 4,352
If you want to use the word to mean something wonderful like a baby being born then yes. If you want to use it as defying some law of nature like a man having a baby then no. I would love to see my husband go through labor though. I think sobriety is a very natural state. I think you are a miracle AO. Probably should have PMed that last part.
Member
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Massachusetts
Posts: 3,550
I don't really know what a "miracle" is. All I can do is speak for myself and, as to that, I would call my recovery, after forty years of struggle, an "extraordinary event". I cannot claim that I "did it all myself". I needed help and I got it, from other recovering alcoholics. And I also feel lots of support here on SR. It's something I can't pound my gorilla chest and take all the credit for. I will always be indebted to those who helped me. I shall never forget them.
W.
W.
Recovering ostrich
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Tampa Bay, Florida
Posts: 2,551
I don't. Some people are good at math or can play the piano or run fast. I think that recovery is the same way. Some people were meant to be brilliant and they don't struggle much in recovery, for others it is a daily battle. Like anything in life, stuff happens, it isn't personal, it isn't because of what anyone did or didn't so, it just is.
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