Mango blast

Have you been to Alanon meetings yet?

I kept trying to get my husband to AA, but I had no idea what I really needed was my own recovery program. Alcoholism is a family disease. We have resources for our own recovery, but that requires reaching out and continually looking for new, healthy, healing therapies for ourselves.

It wasn't until after taking my own recovery seriously, that eventually my husband embraced his own recovery.

Alanon is a "worldwide fellowship that offers a program of recovery for the families and friends of alcoholics, whether or not the alcoholic recognizes the existence of a drinking problem or seeks help."

https://al-anon.org/al-anon-meetings...-anon-meeting/

I posted this in a different thread yesterday, so it may seem a bit repetitive... and yet repetition of hearing others say this is what brought me into healing.

There are other ways to jump-start our own recovery, but for all the books, therapists and good-meaning but not-able-to-help friends and family... it wasn't until I started hitting a lot of meetings and letting the steps take hold in my life, that things really started to change. This family disease of alcoholism is chronic, progressive and recovery is completely counter-intuitive.

Seren

Mine started here, I suppose. Just here...at SR. I went to a couple of Al-Anon meetings, but most of what I have learned about addiction and about how I relate to people in general I learned right here.

PhoenixJ

I am the destructive force that damaged my family. BUT in many ways- I have learned a great deal- matured my awareness of what I did- from through the eyes of my then family, but reading at SR. I will never really konw how they felt, but I try. A very necessary subject. Thank you.

anodes7102

Agree with Seren, SR has been really important to me. Early days at Al-anon and that is helping also.

Ladybird579

Mine started here in Jan 2009 when I joined SR the first time. I had to delete my first username for various reasons but I've been here nearly 9 years. I've never been to alanon as there wasn't one where I lived and nearly all my information has come from here with the odd book I've read.

Mango blast

My 2018 recovery started by bouncing in the New Year at a trampoline park with black lights, music, disco balls and wearing a neon-bright t-shirt.

The first evening of the New Year was spent outside in hot spring pools, with colored lights, boulders, relaxing music and the full moon... then a beautiful, long drive through a moonlit winter wonderland.

Connecting and spending playful time with family and friends, old and new.

2017 was filled with deep issues I had from childhood trauma, healing, learning to connect with LIFE in new ways.

I'm looking forward to today, this month, this year and am excited to see what they bring.

Mango blast

Looking forward to Alanon and new recovery therapy coming my way. My trust in the process is much greater!

glenl

The first thing I tried (and I believed it worked and continues to work) was affirmations - I knew my brain wasn't telling me the right things to do, so I started listening to these affirmation videos on YouTube (Louise Hay, if anyone is interested in looking them up) - it was absurd to me at first. It was embarrassing. I couldn't bring myself to "repeat after me" as she instructs. But I listened every single morning and every single night. For months. An hour in the morning as I got ready for work, an hour at night, sometimes an extra hour if I was having a really hard day.

And the other day, as I started up that video, I really listened to the bit at the beginning, "When you first say an affirmation, it will not seem to be true. If it did, then we would not need to do an affirmation." And that time, I listened more closely and tried to determine whether I believed the things I was saying were true (after 6 months) - I can't claim that I do for all of them, but I did find myself believing *most* of them.

I truly believe doing this put me on this path and got me out of a really bad situation.

I have followed it up with many other things including Al-Anon, but that's still my daily morning and night routine and I feel my mind changing for the better.