coming_clean

What is by AA/NA definition....early recovery?

sugarbear1

I'm not certain "early recovery" is defined by AA or NA. I have 13 months, I feel like a baby and still have some brain difficulties on occasion. (dyslexic things, word retrieval, off balance, of course, it could also be my age). dunno. It's better than last year, but I am still pretty new.

Sapling

I just watched a guy get a 30 year chip this morning...That I see every Sunday...His message was you never graduate from AA....At 30 years I'll take his word for it.

RobbyRobot

We can share our own experiences about early recovery without wondering what are 'official' definitions of early recovery. Each person has their own ideas, and often enough there are others who share those same ideas collectively.

For myself, early recovery was my still learning how to live my life sans alcohol. This took me around two years sober before I had enough sober experiences to pretty well know nothing in my life was directly threatening my sobriety. So I guess that was my version of early recovery.

I've lived a recovered life now for many years, and the only difference between my early recovery years and my now recovered years is -- ongoing experiences living a spiritual life sans alcohol. For me, I have graduated, and I have recovered.

Threshold

for me, it seems like it is only something I can determine in retrospect, when I notice/feel how far I've come. The funny thing about that is that as I grow, I realize how much MORE I've come...and the idea of early recovery grows. lol.

as if the bar follows me and is always just one "insight" ago.

that being said, I've been in recovery only four years and not clean/sober all of that time. I don't think I could be called a veteran by any definition.

coming_clean

Thank you all

miamifella

I think I spent about five years in early recovery.

Its one of those things that is easier to define in retrospect than while you are in it.

tomsteve

7 years sober and i'm still a greenhorn. early recovery to me could be 2 years in. early recover to someone with 30 years could be 10 years in.

FredG

Early recovery, is all the time in sobriety from your sober date until others start calling you an oldtimer, or until you totally feel safe in your sobriety, which for me will never happen.