Sharing and Caring

[MajestyJo]

This may be a duplicate and posted elsewhere.

How do you get started quitting your drug of choice.

We do this one day at a time. Asking for help is the 1st Step.
I was living at the YWCA and talked to my social worker there and through her counselling got into a treatment center. I detox by myself in my room at the Y, I didn't know that there was such a thing as a detox center and that I didn't have to do it alone. It was those five days of hell that I remember when I think of picking up. I never wanted to go through them again. When I got into treatment, I found 12 Step programs and have been going to them since then. That was in August 1991 and I haven't found it necessary to pick up since, yet it is a one day at a time, things like my computer, food, and other things will sneak into my life and I had to recognize them for what they were.. I had tried my way for eight years before that, I could stop, but couldn't stay stopped.

Just keep coming, reading the posts here. There is a lot of good material posted here. If you feel like sharing, press reply and share your thoughts and questions to that post. If you don't find anything to answer your questions, click on NEW THREAD and a new window will open up and you can share your thoughts there. Each has a separate section, but it doesn't matter where it is, it is more important that you share what is important for your recovery.

I am an addict, an alcoholic, an adult child of an alcoholic, and my drug of choice was always 'more' and it doesn't matter where I post I qualify. I have an eating disorder, my son is a self-admitted addict, and I have been known to get carried away with Nevada Tickets.

For many years, I blamed my husband and my father for my drinking. My husband I kicked out and my father passed away as a result of his disease, and I was alone and I was still drinking and taking prescription medication (dried up alcohol). When I hit my bottom, I was alone. No one was around for me to blame and I had to look at myself. I use to say, "If you can't beat 'em join 'em." It got so bad I had to be drunk to be around my husband. I couldn't accept life, and drinking was my coping tool. It stopped working for me and what had been my friend became my enemy. My disease increased, I kept having to have more and my pill addiction increased. I finally got to a stage where I was sick and tired of being tired and sick. I surrendered and reach out and asked for help. I was 49. Hopefully you won't have to continue drinking as long as I did. For me to drink is to die, I chose to live.

One of the reasons I got involved in service was to give back what was given to me. They said "If I didn't give my recovery away, I wouldn't keep it." This is a selfish program and your recovery comes first. I think it is about balance. It is important to have a life outside of the rooms. That is one of the reasons for recovery, to get a life and start living it and being a part of the word around us.

You can not help those who are willing to work a program. I have let go of several sponsee by saying, "If you aren't willing to work an AA program, I can't be an AA sponsor." I couldn't do it for them, all I could do was carry the message, and what they did with it was none of my business. In Al-Anon, they call it detachment. We don't give advice, tell them what to do, just share our experience, strength and hope.

A lot of the whiners made me grateful that wasn't were I was at. If you aren't enjoying recovery, what are you doing wrong? Have you done the Steps? Do you have a sponsor?

I found that my way wasn't always the right way for someone else, it was about what was good for me and my recovery. I took a little from one, none from another, and a lot from others. I was very involved for the first ten years of my life and then due to health issues, I couldn't go out there and do and the internet has been a way for me to do service in today.

Posted in part in 2006