A silent moment for the addict who still suffers

Hello fellow addicts and alcoholics.

It has been a while since I last posted, but I couldn’t sleep tonight and spent a good three hours reading through the forum. I noticed a number of people who posted about struggling with the first few days of sobriety and how they were thinking about using again. Unfortunately, after those posts, they didn’t post again. I hope they have continued to stay sober, but a part of me knows it is much more likely that they didn’t prevail in the good fight.

More and more, I have found myself taking a silent moment for the alcoholic who still suffers. Upon reflection tonight/morning, I think I know why it is important to do this on a regular basis.

First, it helps me feel like I am not alone in my struggles. As someone who doesn’t go to meetings (i have been to one, which is where I got the silent moment), it is easy to feel isolated and to forget that others share my experiences.

Second, it reminds me of what my drinking was actually like. Somehow, my alcoholism magically becomes less destructive the further and further away I get from day 0. Sure, I know my drinking was a problem, the list of negative consequences is endless, but sometimes it’s easy to not fully appreciate how toxic my drinking was.

Lastly, it’s a call to action. It calls me to be empathetic (something I forgot how to be when I was drinking) and to share the suffering of those who are like me.

The silent moment is not only an admission of intimate understanding, but a tool for my own sobriety.

So, if you are reading this, please take a silent moment for the addict who still suffers. Make it a long moment, and deeply reflect on what it was like when you were struggling, when you couldn’t stop, when you wished you were someone else, because, at this very moment, someone is wishing they could put the bottle down, regretting the pain they caused, and can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. We owe it to them, and ourselves, to acknowledge their struggles.

-Elliok

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Nice spoken :slight_smile:

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