My favourite recovery reading..
Redmayne
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Manchester, England, UK.
Posts: 1,543
My favourite recovery reading..
Keeping it simple, in my recovery now, a day at a time well into its' eleventh year. Is all encompassed in the book 'Alcoholics Anonymous' 8th Edition, in the chapters titled,
'The Doctor's Opinion' xxv
'More About Alcoholism' p.30
'How It Works' p.58
and in the personal stories,' The Keys to the Kingdom' with particular reference to the paragraph starting on p.275 , 'A.A. is not a plan for recovery that can be finished and done with.'
Having in late 2016 gone through what, using the surgeon's words,'a very stressful and traumatic experience' in hospital involving an emergency life saving operation followed by five weeks in a medically induced croma. The physical and mental after effects, if and when you regain consciousness are not for the faint hearted...
As one neurosurgeon later told me,'It's a bit like turning a television on in which the fuse has already blown and expecting it to work again.' Not going to happen, ok...the good news in the years that follow is that you do eventually get better..
Although , a bit like recovery from drinking, no one can predict the time it takes or the quality of life that follows for the sufferer... it's very much down to the individual.
In all of this I have been ably assisted by a copy of 'Joe and Charlie's Big Book Study Meeting' which was handed to me at the last AA meetings I attended in Nov., 2007 which along with my copy of the Big Book and other AA literature I've picked up over the years, remain my most treasured possessions.
After all, no sobriety, no me. I may as well be back in the medically induced coma which isn't far off the delusional life I lead in my drinking days..
'The Doctor's Opinion' xxv
'More About Alcoholism' p.30
'How It Works' p.58
and in the personal stories,' The Keys to the Kingdom' with particular reference to the paragraph starting on p.275 , 'A.A. is not a plan for recovery that can be finished and done with.'
Having in late 2016 gone through what, using the surgeon's words,'a very stressful and traumatic experience' in hospital involving an emergency life saving operation followed by five weeks in a medically induced croma. The physical and mental after effects, if and when you regain consciousness are not for the faint hearted...
As one neurosurgeon later told me,'It's a bit like turning a television on in which the fuse has already blown and expecting it to work again.' Not going to happen, ok...the good news in the years that follow is that you do eventually get better..
Although , a bit like recovery from drinking, no one can predict the time it takes or the quality of life that follows for the sufferer... it's very much down to the individual.
In all of this I have been ably assisted by a copy of 'Joe and Charlie's Big Book Study Meeting' which was handed to me at the last AA meetings I attended in Nov., 2007 which along with my copy of the Big Book and other AA literature I've picked up over the years, remain my most treasured possessions.
After all, no sobriety, no me. I may as well be back in the medically induced coma which isn't far off the delusional life I lead in my drinking days..
Redmayne
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Manchester, England, UK.
Posts: 1,543
By way of explanation
When Epictetus said,'The educated are free because they are able to leave their bonds behind and use their minds, to imagine, explore, challenge existing thoughts and theories'...
Epictetus, his name means Acquired which is very apt when applied to the content of this thread. Said this he meant the process of learning new things and using those new things learned to test our own existing view of the world and ourselves...
Which for me and many others in recovery, perfectly reflects the content of this post..
Epictetus, his name means Acquired which is very apt when applied to the content of this thread. Said this he meant the process of learning new things and using those new things learned to test our own existing view of the world and ourselves...
Which for me and many others in recovery, perfectly reflects the content of this post..
Guest
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: Atlanta
Posts: 8,674
I love the mention of "acquired" in relation to your affinity for Epictetus.
And I am quite partial to pp 84-88, and 417-418 but believe How It Works is essential.
Only over the past few months out of my 3+ in sobriety have I enjoyed more of the stories. I took to flipping randomly thru the book and read some pages of whatever I stumbled upon. Always more to learn and whether I feel like Our Southern Friend or anyone else is "like me" - he or she is, indeed.
And I am quite partial to pp 84-88, and 417-418 but believe How It Works is essential.
Only over the past few months out of my 3+ in sobriety have I enjoyed more of the stories. I took to flipping randomly thru the book and read some pages of whatever I stumbled upon. Always more to learn and whether I feel like Our Southern Friend or anyone else is "like me" - he or she is, indeed.
Redmayne
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Manchester, England, UK.
Posts: 1,543
' God has entrusted me to myself'
Another quote from Epictetus that fits well with recovery I think is,'God has entrusted me with myself.' Which, balanced against, 'handing our will and lives over to the God, of our understanding, ' makes, in recovery, perfect sense...
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