I for one believe.
 

Jack McCarthy had his fifteen minutes when he wrote that, as far as I'm concerned. Be it that you regard alcoholism and drug addiction as a disease or a maladaptive behavior or whatever else you can pull out of your lexicon, the basic fact remains, for me anyway, that each and every addict at some point tried with all he/she had to get sober. So this morning, I need a moment to remember all of the men and women who have touched my life for a brief time and then decided they weren't quite yet done with the insanity.
I believe.
I do.

Thanks Dan, nice reminder. Count me in with the believers.

Oh god If I had a nickle for every detox or nut house I have been in the past ten years..I did try and I believed it everytime.The one thing I didnt do was completley surrender to the simple program of AA.Self will still slams the door shut some days,as long as I dont drink no matter what,one day at a time I believe all will be well.... :wave:

I'm a believer.

Having been there myself, I can say I'm a believer too Dan.

Good post Dan.

Add me to the list Dan!

If I say I believe does that mean I agree with Dan?

what splen said. heeheehee.

I hope you do.
No pressure.
We all have free will:biglaugh:

Add me to the believers list!!! I think that what is important is to just keep believing, as many times as is necessary. My son believed for 10 years, and because he kept believing and believing and believing...he is, by the Grace of God clean today.

Thank you Ann.
I kind of wanted, no, hoped this thread would retain a modecum of respect.

It's sad that unless you've been there, these words will seem without consequence. Or you might have been there, and somehow, by some unseen grace, you came to believe that you could try harder. What makes me strong in my recovery, for this 24 only, is that I'm able to separate myself from the justifications and the rationalizations of others. For this 24, I accept that I am one of the lucky ones. And I am going to remember the power of speech and words the next time I'm questioning an opinion. Because opinions are just that. They have nothing to do with the fact that I believe. What matters is that the one addict given up for dead and without value may still have a fight left in him. What matters is to believe that as long as his/her heart is beating, we may be given the immeasurable gift of saying Welcome Back.

Salut Dan,
Can I add my two cents and say I too think that while we have breath in our bodies we can still change, especially if we want it hard enough, if we try hard enough and most importantly (for me) if we think/believe it enough. You never know maybe if we give up someone then that someone might have just have been a second, a heartbeat away from starting to try and get clean/dry, now to me that would be a tragedy! I say never stop thinking "I can't" we damn well can and let's continue to try and to succeed.
thanks for listening.
passionately indigo x

Without belief how can we have hope, without hope how can we believe?

Salut Indigo:hug:
Oui, oui and oui again!
Well said.

All my life I have had to fight one thing or another and even as a child I believed that as long as your alive there is a fighting chance for anything. As long as you have a dream you can move forward. It is when we stop dreaming, we die. Wonderful thread!

Dan,
Thanks for this thread. Im new enough to keep going back and forth as to
"whether I believe". Sometimes I do,sometimes what I see coming in the future seems so overwhelming I think maybe I would prefer insanity. Only
to remember what if felt like day after day of living in it.
It brought me back to what my friend sent me a while back

"Bob. Keep in mind that sobriety is not the same as Sanity! One must
endeavor to come to "one's mind" even before you can tackle the
abstinence/sobriety issue. That's the heart of the 12 steps...to ask God to
restore our sanity (not make us sober)! Keep the faith and keep on
trucking, my man. I have great faith in you!"

That inspires me every day to believe in trying to achieve "sanity" at all
cost. Today I believe. I believe God can restore my sanity,it's a matter of
me choosing to believe that he can and will.
Thanks Dan
CRS

Welcome Back Ted.

To believe is to achieve! Thanks Dan!

i believed for 2 years and here i am. sober for 5 days and ready to tackle day 6 when it gets here. those who haven't dealt with addiction don't realize the real and true effort it takes to overcome. even if we fall, picking ourselves up takes real courage and strength. i will keep fighting the good fight. glad to see you all are too.
audra