So I was going to load up on beer today and listen to the Bears Packers game. I stocked up yesterday cause the liquor stores dont open till later on Sunday If at all on Christmas sround here. But I didnt feel lke drinking, being drunk on beer last three days my stomach just wanted to eat so I cooked up a steak instead. Think this is the first Christmas Iv been sober for 15 years. Any way I go in cycles like drinking for a few days and then teetotaling a few, last 30 years. Thinking about all the good money I spent on beer and cigaretts, If I had that money now I could buy a pretty nice new car. Well Ill be hanging around here. Merry Christmas!
Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. Those who do not recover are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves to this simple program, usually men and women who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves. There are such unfortunates. They are not at fault; they seem to have been born that way. They are naturally incapable of grasping and developing a manner of living which demands rigorous honesty. There chances are less than average. There are those, too, who suffer from grave emotional and mental disorders, but many of them do recover if they have the capacity to be honest.
Our stories disclose in a general way what we used to be like, what happened, and what we are like now. If you have decided you want what we have and are willing to go to any length to get it - then you are ready to take certain steps.
At some of these we balked. We thought we could find an easier, softer way, but we could not. With all the earnestness at our command, we beg of you to be fearless and thorough from the start. Some of us have tried to hold on to our old ideas and the result was nil until we let go absolutely.
Remember that we deal with alcohol - cunning, baffling, powerful! Without help it is too much for us. But there is One who has all power - that one is God. May you find Him now!
Half measures availed us nothing. We stood at the turning point. We asked His protection and care with complete abandon.
Here are the steps we took, which are suggested as a program of recovery:
We admitted we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable.
Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
Many of us exclaimed, "What an order! I can't go through with it." Do not be discouraged. No one among us has been able to maintain anything like perfect adherence to these principles. We are not saints. The point is that we are willing to grow along spiritual lines. The principles we have set down are guides to progress. We claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection.
Our description of the alcoholic, the chapter to the agnostic, and our personal adventures before and after make clear three pertinent ideas:
a. That we were alcoholic and could not manage our own lives.
b. That probably no human power could have relieved our alcoholism.
c. That God could and would if He were sought.
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Easy Does it..Keep It Simple..Let Go and Let God..
Here's hoping today is your Sobriety Birthday, and Congratulations on seeking out this Forum, lots of really good stuff, straight from the heart, and we all stay sober sticking together, on this Forum, as well as Meetings.
As a new person to this program, want you to know you are the "life blood" of this program. "We stay sober, One day at a Time, and try to help the Alcoholic that still suffers"
So here's hoping you will stay around, you can send a message to anyone on this Forum by clicking on the Reply button, for any Post you Read , or you can send a private message to anyone, by clinking on their name, it will give you the option at that time to "Send Private Message"
Hope to see you on the Board Again,
My best wishes to you, keep coming back, it works!
My drinking behavior was about the same as yours. Drink a day or 2, not drink for a week, drink a day, not drink for 3. The way I drank doesn't matter, what makes me an alcoholic is the fact that when I took the first one, I never knew when it would end and the way drinking made me feel - shame, guilt, remorse. Hell! I could of paid my house off years ago!!
I too hope today is the first of many 24 hours of sobriety for you. It can be. Just do the same thing tomorrow you did today.
Keep posting
This gal's rootin' for ya!
Love and hugs,
Doll
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* We eventually realize that just as the pains of alcoholism had to come before sobriety, emotional turmoil comes before serenity. *
Great to have you here. I wasn't a daily drinker or a morning drinker or on the street or a lot of other stuff either. I generally binged on weekends (sometimes during the week) but kept things pretty well hidden as far as my job and nieighbors were concerned.
The important thing here is : The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. Hang on to that desire.
Pick up a copy of Alcoholics Anonymous and read it. You might not relate to everything in it... I didn't at first. But it was a life saver for me. Try a variety of AA meetings and talk frankly and openly with some of the people there afterwards. It can really change your life if you want it to.
