4th day without a drink, 3rd meeting
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Eastern North Carolina
Posts: 86
4th day without a drink, 3rd meeting
It's been a while, but I am going back to AA after 5 years. My longest sobriety has been at AA and lasted over 11 months. I did not throw my books away and was able to find them. I've heard it said and it is true for me, if you leave AA and start drinking, you have a belly full of booze and a head full of AA. Also, the disease of Alcoholism continues even while not drinking and gets worse, this is also true for me. There are other things said at meetings and the literature that are similar, these things can and probably will happen, and one is death.
The first meeting I went back to this week is very early in the morning and I was frightened. I knew there was a lot of day left after the meeting and that was really frightening. But I realized on the way home that day, I needed to pick up my Big Book and read.
I made it a point to reintroduce myself and keep it short and to the point. I am extremely nervous in front of people and I find sharing to be very difficult. I also don't like to share how stupid I can be, but I know this thing is serious and I need to stay focused, because the liquor store and a lot of trouble is right around the corner. Glad to say I am not in any legal trouble.
I need to read, get an inventory started, do 90 meetings in 90 days, listen and share a little bit. I've been told to just listen for those first 90 days. But I feel if I do need to share, I think I should, just keep it to the point and short and find a sponsor.
Perhaps some of you can help me with starting over.
On that, thank you SoberRecovery for letting me share.
The first meeting I went back to this week is very early in the morning and I was frightened. I knew there was a lot of day left after the meeting and that was really frightening. But I realized on the way home that day, I needed to pick up my Big Book and read.
I made it a point to reintroduce myself and keep it short and to the point. I am extremely nervous in front of people and I find sharing to be very difficult. I also don't like to share how stupid I can be, but I know this thing is serious and I need to stay focused, because the liquor store and a lot of trouble is right around the corner. Glad to say I am not in any legal trouble.
I need to read, get an inventory started, do 90 meetings in 90 days, listen and share a little bit. I've been told to just listen for those first 90 days. But I feel if I do need to share, I think I should, just keep it to the point and short and find a sponsor.
Perhaps some of you can help me with starting over.
On that, thank you SoberRecovery for letting me share.
Member
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Baton Rouge, La.
Posts: 15,242
Support to you from another member of AA who
was taught this amazing program of recovery that
I use and incorporate in my daily life to achieve
many of lifes rewarding gifts promised to us.
When I entered recovery 28 yrs ago, I began with
willingness and an openmind to the program of AA,
which for me was the only program I had ever heard
of. So, I embraced it and hung on tight where many
other folks with yrs of quality sobriety guided me
along with each step I took wanting exactly what they
achieved over the yrs.
To be happy, joyous and free from my addiction
to alcohol and from all the heavy baggage I had
been carrying on my shoulders for many yrs.
Today, I use SR and continue to pass on my own
ESH, experiences, strengths and hopes with others,
while forever remaining openminded to many other
recovery methods available and offered to those
seeking help for their own addiction.
Stay the course as you build a strong solid recovery
foundation for yourself to live upon for yrs to come.
And....
Welcome to SR. Another recovery lifeline many
use on a daily bases. Just one of many recovery
tools in helping us achieve sobriety.
was taught this amazing program of recovery that
I use and incorporate in my daily life to achieve
many of lifes rewarding gifts promised to us.
When I entered recovery 28 yrs ago, I began with
willingness and an openmind to the program of AA,
which for me was the only program I had ever heard
of. So, I embraced it and hung on tight where many
other folks with yrs of quality sobriety guided me
along with each step I took wanting exactly what they
achieved over the yrs.
To be happy, joyous and free from my addiction
to alcohol and from all the heavy baggage I had
been carrying on my shoulders for many yrs.
Today, I use SR and continue to pass on my own
ESH, experiences, strengths and hopes with others,
while forever remaining openminded to many other
recovery methods available and offered to those
seeking help for their own addiction.
Stay the course as you build a strong solid recovery
foundation for yourself to live upon for yrs to come.
And....
Welcome to SR. Another recovery lifeline many
use on a daily bases. Just one of many recovery
tools in helping us achieve sobriety.
Member
Join Date: Aug 2011
Posts: 2,308
Hi Nod15,
Great to hear you made it back. AA is the only thing that has kept me sober in conjunction with Sober Recovery and given me meaning in life through my acceptance of a higher power. Eight years sober and along with AA.
What happened last time you were sober with AA and relapsed? What do you think caused the relapse? What would you do different this time around?
all the very best in your recovery,
CaiHong
Great to hear you made it back. AA is the only thing that has kept me sober in conjunction with Sober Recovery and given me meaning in life through my acceptance of a higher power. Eight years sober and along with AA.
What happened last time you were sober with AA and relapsed? What do you think caused the relapse? What would you do different this time around?
all the very best in your recovery,
CaiHong
Member
Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: East Coast USA
Posts: 1,068
nodl5,
Welcome back. So you are in ENC? That's could mean a lot of places but in case you are in far far ENC I will be attending the following meeting next week when I'm on vacation. Been going there every summer for 4 years now. It's a great meeting. Five days a week Monday through Friday @ 7:30am. Try it out if you are in the area.
TURNING POINT
OBX Presbyterian Church MP 8.6,
907 S. Croatan Hwy Kill Devil Hills
Welcome back. So you are in ENC? That's could mean a lot of places but in case you are in far far ENC I will be attending the following meeting next week when I'm on vacation. Been going there every summer for 4 years now. It's a great meeting. Five days a week Monday through Friday @ 7:30am. Try it out if you are in the area.
TURNING POINT
OBX Presbyterian Church MP 8.6,
907 S. Croatan Hwy Kill Devil Hills
Member
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: northern michigan. not the U.P.
Posts: 15,281
Originally Posted by nodl5 
Perhaps some of you can help me with starting over.
.
.
Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path.
it would be wise to find a sponsor,too, to guide ya through and to help keep it simple.
Soberpenguin
Join Date: Oct 2013
Location: Ontario CA
Posts: 9
Hi Nod,
it is is fantastic you are back! AA really does take the fun out of drinking . Jumping right back into the stepwork with a sponsor (someone actively working them) would be the way to go, as it is working the program that gets us to recover, not necessarily meetings. Glad you are back!!
-Jon
it is is fantastic you are back! AA really does take the fun out of drinking
. Jumping right back into the stepwork with a sponsor (someone actively working them) would be the way to go, as it is working the program that gets us to recover, not necessarily meetings. Glad you are back!!-Jon
Member
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: Colorado
Posts: 3,781
Welcome, Nodl!
I’m so glad you’re back! We have two great members from NC and are always around our room here. Grunge & Tommy.. I’m sure they will be around soon to say hello.
You’re never alone here! So glad you found us and please keep coming back!
Wishing you the best and have a great week!
I’m so glad you’re back! We have two great members from NC and are always around our room here. Grunge & Tommy.. I’m sure they will be around soon to say hello.
You’re never alone here! So glad you found us and please keep coming back!
Wishing you the best and have a great week!
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Eastern North Carolina
Posts: 86
Thank you for your replies.
One person asked, what did I think caused me to relapse or to leave AA? Short answer for the relapse is I quit going to meetings and talking to my sponsor. He was a busy person being a sponsor to a lot of people and didn't call or anything. A person can only handle so much and I should have called someone.
Why did I quit going to meetings? That's a good one. It's been a while, but i think I was busy one weekend and missed several meetings in a row. And I probably thought I could handle it on my own like I tend to do about everything else and didn't remember about people, places, and things and one day a bottle of booze looked better than a blue chip. Here we have chips to serve as a reminder of our paths to the promises in the Big Book. The blue chip is 1 or multiples of 1 year.
I picked up my return chip today, which is another white one. The white chip also is the 1st chip you get when you join.
Thanks again for letting me post.
One person asked, what did I think caused me to relapse or to leave AA? Short answer for the relapse is I quit going to meetings and talking to my sponsor. He was a busy person being a sponsor to a lot of people and didn't call or anything. A person can only handle so much and I should have called someone.
Why did I quit going to meetings? That's a good one. It's been a while, but i think I was busy one weekend and missed several meetings in a row. And I probably thought I could handle it on my own like I tend to do about everything else and didn't remember about people, places, and things and one day a bottle of booze looked better than a blue chip. Here we have chips to serve as a reminder of our paths to the promises in the Big Book. The blue chip is 1 or multiples of 1 year.
I picked up my return chip today, which is another white one. The white chip also is the 1st chip you get when you join.
Thanks again for letting me post.
12-Step Recovered Alkie
Join Date: May 2010
Location: West Bloomfield, MI
Posts: 5,797
My history around relapse has been that if I'm a real alcoholic or if you prefer, the type of alcoholic described in the big book, trigger or no trigger, lots of knowledge or not much knowledge, lots of willpower or not much will power, lots of meetings or just occasional meetings, IF IM POWERLESS OVER ALCOHOL I WILL DRINK AGIAIN. PERIOD ---- Unleeeeeess I can "experience a complete psychic change." There can be a ton of knowledge, desire, the force of will, the knowledge that I should call someone, attendance at 100's of meetings, a photographic memory of what's in the AA book, etc and those things maybe will get me through a couple tough spots but in the long run..... we have one option to get past the insanity that precedes the first drink: complete psychic change - or at least a psychic change sufficient to overcome our alcoholism.
Short of this change, I'm not recovered .....and not recovered = I WILL drink again. Nothing too complicated there. So really, that's why I drank again. It wasn't backing away from meetings or not calling my sponsor specifically........ it was that I failed to progress through all 12 steps (which guarantee that psychic change) nor did I find a suitable alternative to get a complete psychic change. So.... of course I drank again.
Short of this change, I'm not recovered .....and not recovered = I WILL drink again. Nothing too complicated there. So really, that's why I drank again. It wasn't backing away from meetings or not calling my sponsor specifically........ it was that I failed to progress through all 12 steps (which guarantee that psychic change) nor did I find a suitable alternative to get a complete psychic change. So.... of course I drank again.
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