NA Textbook...Eye-Opening
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Join Date: Sep 2011
Posts: 278
NA Textbook...Eye-Opening
I bought the blue NA textbook for my son while he was in jail...but he 'escaped' before the next visit. So it's been sitting in the front of my car because I was going to exchange it at the recovery store. But today, I decided to read it. Because my sponsor said addiction is addiction...whether it is drugs, alcohol, (which is just another drug in liquid form,), sex, work, overeating, gambling...other people...especially addicts!
I learned a lot about addiction...but even more about recovery. It is helping me to understand and not be so angry. All the stories in the back of the book are different...yet the same. Addicts do the same kinds of things....after reading it I saw my son in every story...and I saw myself pop up in many of the feelings that addicts have...the lonliness, low self-esteem, don't know where to fit in...suicidal at times.
I wish I could send this book into the hands of every addict and friend and family member who loved an addict. I wish the whole world could heal. But I know it can only start with me.
Whether my AS will ever read this book or not...I am keeping it. It dissolves a world of ignorance inside of my head and has given me a new understanding of why addicts do certain things. I feel compassion today. Every addict in recovery is a miracle...so many don't make it. It is very painful for them...as it is for all involved...but they don't get help until they want it...and most of them are living in the depths of hell and wish they were dead....but there is hope. There is a way out....for anyone...no matter what race, religion or non- religion, country, income level, education...NA does not discriminate...neither does addiction.
Also going to open meetings has helped me learn the addict's tricks...no reason to be angry...they do what they do because they feel they have to....it's not about US! Wake-up call for me!
I learned a lot about addiction...but even more about recovery. It is helping me to understand and not be so angry. All the stories in the back of the book are different...yet the same. Addicts do the same kinds of things....after reading it I saw my son in every story...and I saw myself pop up in many of the feelings that addicts have...the lonliness, low self-esteem, don't know where to fit in...suicidal at times.
I wish I could send this book into the hands of every addict and friend and family member who loved an addict. I wish the whole world could heal. But I know it can only start with me.
Whether my AS will ever read this book or not...I am keeping it. It dissolves a world of ignorance inside of my head and has given me a new understanding of why addicts do certain things. I feel compassion today. Every addict in recovery is a miracle...so many don't make it. It is very painful for them...as it is for all involved...but they don't get help until they want it...and most of them are living in the depths of hell and wish they were dead....but there is hope. There is a way out....for anyone...no matter what race, religion or non- religion, country, income level, education...NA does not discriminate...neither does addiction.
Also going to open meetings has helped me learn the addict's tricks...no reason to be angry...they do what they do because they feel they have to....it's not about US! Wake-up call for me!
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Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: "Happy Rock" (Gladstone) Oregon
Posts: 1,360
What I have learned with the help of Al-Anon and Nar-Anon has made me a better person. I like myself more when I'm not trying to make the addict fit my expectations of what a (mother, husband, friend) is supposed to be. And wow, the Anon's work with everyone else too - especially me 
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