I want to introduce myself to you all. My name is Rebecca and I am 21 years old. I am not a recovered or recovering alcoholic, but I would love to learn about how many of you recovered and continue to recover from your addiction. I struggle with resisting things in my life and I wanted to know how you continue to overcome your battles. Do you turn to a high power or have you found other ways to fight your addictions?
Aloha Becca and welcome to the board. I relate to your introduction cause I've gone thru that myself specially when I was younger. Took me to 37 years of age to want to stop trying to control the uncontrollable in my life and seriously reach out for help like you are doing now. I was powerless over alcohol which owned me and I didn't know it. I didn't even know I should resist it and therefore wasn't saying no (which is a complete sentence) to it. Obviously with this habit I could only keep getting the same results trying it my own way. I needed to meet and sit and listen to others who had the same dis-ease I had and h ow they were able to change for the better. Like you I came to a place I knew nothing about to get help for something I didn't know anything about and didn't even know that I didn't know.
The first step of our twelve steps is "1. we admitted we were powerless over alcohol and that our lives had become unmanageable". I just listened. Step 2. said "Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity". I related to two things on that step...I needed help from someone or thing that knew more than I did, had more experience than I did and who was willing to help me. The second thing I related to on that step was the last word. I related to that word very deeply cause I knew I was insane at the time I was done. I was screaming "uncle" just to keep the demons away.
The third step starts with "made a decision which asked me to do something different than what I was always doing...trying to manage my life and ending up in a mess of a swamp each and every time. Alcoholics are compulsive...Alcoholics are risk takers...we are compulsed toward doing things which are not healthy and often fatal in spite of known consequences. "made a decision to turn my will...and my life...over to the care of God as I understand him". Though the pronoun in the actual step is "we" I had to take it personal or I would have never lived long enough to read your post. I was living in a way which was taking my life...make sense?
Alcoholism is a disease described as a "compulsion of the mind with an allergy of the body". If not arrested by total abstinence we either or both go insane and/or die from it.
There are 12 steps and you can google them either for alcoholism, drug addiction or just other compulsions
I "live" the steps...I wake up in them and go to sleep in them...I practice them in all my affairs.
Hope this has been supportive. Keep coming back and listening to other offer their experiences, strengths and hopes. (((hugs)))
Welcome Rebecca....I too was yearning to learn when I was introduced to AA. Alcohol took everything I had and I was beaten to the brink of death. I was given a Big Book in rehab and one line in the foreward to the book caught my complete attention.
To show other alcoholics PRECISELY HOW WE HAVE RECOVERED is the main purpose of this book.
PRECISELY...in exact terms; without vagueness.
That's what I wanted to know....How they did it. I then started attending daily meetings and listened for people that had recovered...Doing exactly what they did. Those are the the people I surrounded myself with. They were willing to help me....Why? I think for the simple reason that they knew that I wanted it....Nothing else. The book taught me what an alcoholic is...The causes and conditions for my problem...And a spiritual solution to solve it. The people in AA that had found that solution...By doing what's in the book....Helped me. It solved my problem.
Welcome Rebecca, ... If you want to learn how we did what we did to get and stay sober ??? ... I suggest you read the book Alcoholics Anonymous ... That, my dear, was and is our guide ... on a daily basis ... we have groups all over the world that follow the suggestions in that book and we work 'together' to lift ourselves to a 'higher plain' of spirituality that most people, alcoholic or not, never reach ...
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'Those who leave everything in God's hand will eventually see God's hand in everything.'
The program of recovery in Alcoholics Anonymous is based on "the 12 steps". There's plenty of detailed info about that elsewhere (start with the book "Alcoholics Anonymous", often referred to as our "big book'") so I won't attempt to explain all of that here. But you mentioned that, although you do not have a problem with alcohol, you do have other challenges. There are huge numbers of organizations that have been established to help people deal with just about every type of challenge you can imagine, which have developed based on the same 12 step model found in AA. This includes such issues as gambling, overeating, compulsive spending, etc. It's very likely that there is already a group of people with your exact same issues and challenges who have already found each other, and are already helping each other address that particular issue using the same 12 step principles that were first established in AA.
Of course you're certainly welcome here, but there may be a limit to how much help you can get from an AA-based site that is intended to help people recover from alcoholism and is not tailored to the particular issues you want to address. I encourage you to do a bit of Googling and find such a group that is tailored to your exact needs. When you find these groups, note that if they say they are a "12 step program", this means they use the same type of 12 step recovery method as found in AA. Or, if you feel comfortable enough to mention what issues you are dealing with, there may be folks here who can help you find the help that is best for you. Welcome!
