Wisdom Of The Rooms - 2019

[bluidkiti]

February 25

This guest post was submitted by Brian P.:

Quote of the Week

“You Have To Be In It To Win It.”

I came to my first A.A. meeting hoping to learn a few tips on how to
moderate my drinking. After about 20 minutes I realized we were talking
complete abstinence— nothing else. I had tried abstinence many times,
and failed, and yet after that first meeting the compulsive desire to drink
all day and every day just vanished. So I started attending meetings regularly, and amazingly found I had stopped drinking alcohol, just like that.

After 6 months, I decided that A.A. really worked, I was now cured, and I could stop with the meetings. They took up so much time! And I drank again. It was the meetings and the fellowship and the program that were keeping me sober, and yet I gave them up. So I came back, but did the same thing four more times. I acquired five 6-month medallions. After those three years, I understood that addiction is a permanent condition, and needs permanent therapy to be kept at bay. And yet—after another ten years I was cured again, this time for real, I said. Finally, no more need to go to meetings or work the Steps. And I drank again...

Fifteen years after my first meeting I took what I hope was my last drink,
25 years ago. I must have needed 15 years to understand Step One. I now
understand that the meetings and fellowship and the program are not an option, not a quick fix, but a permanent and necessary answer to a permanent disability. I have tried to avoid working the program for the rest of my life but have learned that I have no choice.