Are you an Alcoholic?

"The fact is that most alcoholics, for reasons yet obscure, have lost the power of choice in drink. Our so-called will power becomes practically nonexistent. We are unable, at certain times, to bring into our consciousness with sufficient force the memory of the suffering and humiliation of even a week or a month ago. We are without defense against the first drink." page 24...

Read More [...]

Posted in alcoholic, alcoholism, defenseless, mental obsession, physical allergy, spiritual malady, truth

Thank You

I just wanted to take a minute to say thank you to all who have visited or may in the future. Having this as an avenue to communicate has been very helpful and I wish to continue well into the future. Updates are a little slower as things in my family life have complicated, but I am here and writing. Thanks again and God Bless Just...

Read More [...]

Part 3: The Mental Obsession

" The idea that somehow, someday he will control and enjoy his drinking is the great obsession of every abnormal drinker. The persistence of this illusion is astonishing. Many pursue it into the gates of insanity or death." page 30 The Anonymous Press Study Edition of Alcoholics Anonymous  I once heard it put that suffering from our metal obsession meant that when...

Read More [...]

Rarely...

  The line says..."Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path (our directions). The Anonymous Press Study Edition of Alcoholics AnonymousIf this is the case then why is that we have a recovery rate that is below 10% in most parts of the country? Save the studies, I have read them, I am good with numbers, but I have been around for going...

Read More [...]

Sober on the road...

I consider it a true blessing and wonderful gift that I have been privileged to go to meetings all over our country and beyond...While a home group, network of sober friends and a sponsor are vital things, once a foundation is laid down and one gains some comfort in sober life...one must travel! Seek out the ends of the earth...and find us... "We shall be with you in the...

Read More [...]

moments sublime with intervals hilarious....

It is truly a blessing to be present in life today...While this blog is meant to be an anonymous manuscript based on my sober experience, you will all have time to share some of my life and in doing get to know me a little better along the way. "Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change." Alcoholics Anonymous page 84 To be emotionally available to those in need, those people who are suffering,...

Read More [...]

Part 2: The Physical Allergy

" We believe, and so suggested a few years ago, that the action of alcohol on these chronic alcoholics is a manifestation of an allergy; that the phenomenon of craving is limited to this class and never occurs in the average temperate drinker." The Doctor's Opinion The Anonymous Press Study Edition of Alcoholics Anonymous The second part of our discussion shall focus...

Read More [...]

I remember where I was...

I was 17 days without a drink at 8:50 am on September 11th, 2001...I was walking a new patient in the treatment center to the nurse's station for his detox meds. As we rounded the final corner, there stood the staff, silenced and huddled around a small television in the corner of the room. It was the only TV on campus and everyone had been alerted...Cut-off from the outside world unsure of the events...

Read More [...]

Is there a solution?

If you are reading this far into my blog chances are you have a firm sober foundation, you have been sober for a number of years and are an active member of our fellowship, therefore you are one in which the solution has come to fruition... "But the ex-problem drinker who has found this solution, who is properly armed with facts about himself, can generally win the entire...

Read More [...]

Humility...

Humility      "Perpetual quietness of heart. It is to have no trouble. It is never to be fretted or vexed, irritable or sore; to wonder at nothing that is done to me, to feel nothing done against me.      "It is to be at rest when nobody praises me, and when I am blamed or despised, it is to have a blessed home in myself where I can...

Read More [...]

Protecting your profile...

I am going to steer clear of recovery for just a moment to talk a bit about social networking and it's relation to anonymity. While everything I am doing is well intentioned and I have a clear conscious about it, it is also an experiment of sorts. I began this blog in conjunction with a fake (completely anonymous) Facebook profile and linked a Twitter account to it all in an effort to build a sober...

Read More [...]

Posted in networking, sober

Trust...

So much of of the ground work of our fellowship is rooted in trust that I would be remiss if I didn't devote at least one (more to come) post about this very fundamental subject. "The reason you cannot trust is because you yourself are untrustworthy." anonymous No truer words were spoken to me as I entered the rooms, having lived the life, lied, cheated, stole...etc,...

Read More [...]

Praying for...

I was a few days sober when a fellow member took me into a small chapel on the grounds of our rehab center and I dropped to my knees before God for the first of countless times in my sober life. Though I cannot remember the details of that prayer session I am certain that in my spiritual immaturity I mumbled some child-like prayer from my youth. Prayer has and continues to...

Read More [...]

Freedom?

Absolute freedom exists, but true freedom is gained with some sense of morality, mortality and ultimately some control imposed on us in an effort to keep us from doing harm. In active addiction many of us felt as though we had been merely caged animals, locked inside our minds by selfishness and slef-centeredness, as well as remorse, guilt and pity. "All of us felt at times...

Read More [...]

Our Primary Purpose...

The can be no life lived without purpose... I have at various points in the past years called into question my purpose, there seems to be a reason for me to continue on, obligations aside there is a divine purpose.... How comforting it is during these times to know that as a member of our fellowship I have a primary purpose and that despite all other things in my life, I am to stay sober and carry...

Read More [...]

Attraction rather than promotion...

Alcoholics Anonymous has long stood as the last house on the block for suffering alcoholics. We have been sitting on our porch watching the hopeless stumble down the road for 70+ years. We maintain a tradition that makes certain that those who come through our doors are, for the most part, ready for our message. The effectiveness of our spiritual program relies heavily on the willingness of the individual...

Read More [...]

Bottom?

What bottom... There is alot of talk about bottoms in AA, where it is who hit it, who bounced off of it and continued the slide. All of these seem to do a great disservice to the new comer. There is but one bottom, Death and most of us only get to taste it once, save the select few who have been there and done that. When we engage in such trivial chatter in meetings the tendency is to proceed into...

Read More [...]

Is Acceptance the answer?

I tend to challenge this deeply rooted ideas in the fellowship that simply don't hold water... The premise that acceptance is the answer to all of my problems today is no exception. While I whole-heartily agree with the idea that if I am in the presence of God's will (read if I in his will and not my own) then absolutely all that is swirling around me is of his doing. However, my sober experience...

Read More [...]

Made a difference to that one...

Said the little boy... Sometimes there will be blog entries that are nothing but inspirational stories that I have picked up along the way, parables that have increased in depth over the years... An old man sat at the edge of a sea shore looking down the beach below. Off in the distance he sawa small boy walking along the beach throwing stranded star fish back into the ocean. Curious, the old man...

Read More [...]

Hope for the Hopeless...

"For those who are unable to drink moderately the question is how to stop altogether. We are assuming, of course, that the reader desires to stop. Whether such a person can quit upon a nonspiritual basis depends upon the extent to which he has already lost the power to choose whether he will drink or not. Many of us felt that we had plenty of character. There was a tremendous urge to cease forever....

Read More [...]

Just an arms length away from God...

There is an idea, a theory if you will that seems to permeate the very fabric of our fellowship and in doing so robs the hope, steals the wind from countless new people and old timers alike. I beleive today, as I was told,  that the program of Alcoholics Anonymous as it is shared in the spoken word and laid out in our basic text is a path to God. That it's consumation results not only a deep...

Read More [...]

Carrying what message?

I have been often challenged with the question...what is the message of AA? Perplexed and lacking a definite answer I have sought out what I believe to be the best representation of our message possible. Now I have heard all manner of things, most are right but only a small piece of the ultimate puzzle. Yes, AA is a path to God, the steps lead there, freedom from alcohol, so on and so forth. But...

Read More [...]

Are you depressed?

Call it a moment of clarity, or divine intervention, call it whatever you will...seven days into my stay at my only rehab facility, I asked to be weened from my anti-depressants. Sure I was depressed, and I had a prescription, to prove it. However given the current state of my life spiritually, emotionally, and physically, who wouldn't be depressed? Why shouldn't I get this little pill that helps...

Read More [...]

The Social Network Sponsor...

Information whizzes bye at the speed of light, fiber optics, wifi, satellites in the sky...and here we are, recovering alcoholics who for the most part have a very difficult time keeping anything simple. It took just 164 pages for our founding fathers to lay the ground work for the program of recovery we all know and love today. With in those pages the solution to our problem lay, who could have...

Read More [...]

If you want what we have...

The operative word is "we" in the above statement, as in the one thing we share as members of our fellowship...sobriety. Alcoholism effects nearly 15% of the world, that does not, however, mean that everyone in AA is an alcoholic. And even those who are might not be practicing our principles in all of their affairs. To the new-comer, the vulnerable and the weak these people may appear helpful, genuine,...

Read More [...]

Sponsor, Therapist or Meeting....

What to share when and why...From the time I was early in recovery I was told what was appropriate to share in a meeting and what was not by a sponsor, I was also informed when I was beyond their range of expertise and where else I ought to seek advice. While I believe there is a place for everything, I also believe that we are often misguided in where that place is. Here's a breakdown of what to...

Read More [...]

Most common denominator...

The fellowship today tends to lend itself to the idea that most everything in life today, all the heart ache, the troubles, the highs and the lows are associated (no matter how loosely) with recovery from alcoholism. This entitles some to share whatever they please in meetings under the guise that it pertains to their recovery. Let's keep in mind though, that we are here to share in the common solution,...

Read More [...]