Adapt and survive.
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Heywood,Gtr.Manchester
Posts: 242
Adapt and survive.
The Sobertime calendar tells me I am now 840 days sober, so time for a little bit of reflection based on peoples misconception , not just about me but my life today, including social factors, environment, income etc.
Accepting the fact that my alcohol-ISM started in my early thirties and that during this time I managed to get through two wives, three children, one who even today is quite close to me, three of my four careers plus various ,'hangers on' girlfriends, pets etc. I wondered how I ever survived!
My time in AA, was relatively fruitless and for many years I plugged on , going to meetings throughout the Greater Manchester area in the northwest of the UK and came away with nothing , when I eventually found how to get my own copy of ,'the Big Book', I also sought other books that taught me about spirituality and of course I drank.
A marked turning point came when I was given 10 CD's that contained a recording of a,'Big Book Study' by Joe and Charlie. A light lit up in my head now I understood, here was at least something I'd been searching for , but I still drank, go to hit my rock bottom.
Throughout all this and the disasters that befell me, I built a relationship with the god of my understanding supported by fundemental Buddhism which deals with the cessation of suffering.
I never gave up, drunk or sober attempting to change my perspective, sometimes clinging on by my fingernails, fighting my own self will, that was in fact killing me and adapting my life on every front, because by now I had lost all those material things that in truth supported my drinking and the lifestyle of a successful, professional man that went with it.
When I had reached the stage when I was so disabled through alcohol , I could only crawl on the floor to my bed. When I was alone and unaided by human hands my alcohol-ISM was taken from me.
So when people question or simply don't understand as to why I live my simple, sober life in what might be described as,'reduced circumstances' I remember how I learned to change my perspective, helped by two words, ADAPT and SURVIVE, quite succinctly put on page 275 of the 4th Ed. of,'Alcoholics Anonymous' in the story,'The Keys of the Kingdom,' in the para, that begins,'A.A. is not a plan . . . . .' Those material things? I'm not really bothered about any longer, although it seems to cause others a problem, but then again I'm sober. Mike W.
Accepting the fact that my alcohol-ISM started in my early thirties and that during this time I managed to get through two wives, three children, one who even today is quite close to me, three of my four careers plus various ,'hangers on' girlfriends, pets etc. I wondered how I ever survived!
My time in AA, was relatively fruitless and for many years I plugged on , going to meetings throughout the Greater Manchester area in the northwest of the UK and came away with nothing , when I eventually found how to get my own copy of ,'the Big Book', I also sought other books that taught me about spirituality and of course I drank.
A marked turning point came when I was given 10 CD's that contained a recording of a,'Big Book Study' by Joe and Charlie. A light lit up in my head now I understood, here was at least something I'd been searching for , but I still drank, go to hit my rock bottom.
Throughout all this and the disasters that befell me, I built a relationship with the god of my understanding supported by fundemental Buddhism which deals with the cessation of suffering.
I never gave up, drunk or sober attempting to change my perspective, sometimes clinging on by my fingernails, fighting my own self will, that was in fact killing me and adapting my life on every front, because by now I had lost all those material things that in truth supported my drinking and the lifestyle of a successful, professional man that went with it.
When I had reached the stage when I was so disabled through alcohol , I could only crawl on the floor to my bed. When I was alone and unaided by human hands my alcohol-ISM was taken from me.
So when people question or simply don't understand as to why I live my simple, sober life in what might be described as,'reduced circumstances' I remember how I learned to change my perspective, helped by two words, ADAPT and SURVIVE, quite succinctly put on page 275 of the 4th Ed. of,'Alcoholics Anonymous' in the story,'The Keys of the Kingdom,' in the para, that begins,'A.A. is not a plan . . . . .' Those material things? I'm not really bothered about any longer, although it seems to cause others a problem, but then again I'm sober. Mike W.
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Heywood,Gtr.Manchester
Posts: 242
The,'Big Book' Study recordings were handed to me at an A.A. meeting, like most other AA recordings they are,'bootleg' copies available only at A.A. meetings, I would be very surprised if you found any in a public library. Meetings , that's where you go.
Currently Active Users Viewing this Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
