"No, the average alcoholic, self-centered in the extreme, doesn’t care for this prospect (working the steps) — unless he has to do these things in order to stay alive himself.
— TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 24"
After my recent relapse, I find myself becoming complacent. After barely surviving and after only 7 days of sobriety! I hope that I don’t lose the feeling of desperation I felt a week ago. If I forget that I’m dealing with a fatal disease for even a minute, I’m headed down the wrong path.
Do you go to meetings? That may help put your focus on staying sober. What happened that you barely survived? Whatever it is keep it in the forefront of your mind…
Step 1. Admitted we are powerless over alcohol. That our lives had become unmanageable.
It helped me to write down all the ways drinking has made my life unmanageable. I then would look at my list if and when I thought about drinking again. I needed to be reminded how bad it was and what I left behind.
The Big Book also says something like…
We learned that we had to fully concede that we were Alcoholic. This is the first step in recovery.
If I didn’t fully concede early on, i never would have made it through those early days. I wasn’t part alcoholic. I was a real alcoholic. There was no drinking successfully for me ever again.
