I now recognize this self deception in others, particularly those who are coming up with justifications that X or Y will not help them get sober. I lived it for 18 years.
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Dunno if itâs really the first. But itâs certainly a communal thought here today. 
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Library Sciences is the real deal. Takes quite a bit of education and training.
A man walks into a library and asks the librarian to look up a book for him and then promptly walks away.
The man comes back to the library a year later and is completely shocked that he never found the book. He asks the librarian to look up the same book. Again the man promptly walks away.
A year passes yet again and this time the man comes back to the library and is mad that yet another year has passed and he still doesnât have the book. For a third time, and in an angry voice, the man demands the librarian looks up the book. Before going to the card catalog the librarian reminds the man she as attempted to look up the book for the last two years but the man kept leaving before she could.
The man gets even angrier at this comment. Yelling at the librarian that not everyone looks up books in the same way. The man then tells the librarian, despite her years of training, that he will just do it his own way.
The man storms off, having not found the book. Eventually the man dies without ever having found the book.
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The moral of the story?
Libraries are death traps
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Thank you. I was legit worried people would get the wrong message.
Do you have a Christmas cactus and did it bloom? Mine hasnât yet
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I thought you were just sharing a day in the life of a librarian. From everything my librarian friend tells me, this is pretty on the nose.
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I donât have one, but we have a ton at the shop. Not all have bloomed yet
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Derek is a mighty, beautiful sunflower in his own right
'cept his tootsies
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Iâm glad someone explained it because I was not getting that one lol
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I have a Christmas cactus. Itâs not bloomed yet. Iâll call it Derek. If it doesnât boom, Iâll use it as an excuse to relapse (Iâm just kidding) 
this is Sober Derek Christmas Cactus
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but it will still count as a âtriggerâ, right?! lol
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I bet the librarian didnât make the guy comfortable enough. they should have put up more cozy arm chairs and healthy snacks. i donât blame the guy.
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And my @Mephistopheles Christmas carrots to guarantee me a prosperous and sober 2023 
Hyvää joulua!
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One of my biggest strengths is acknowledging my weaknesses. I am absolutely powerless against booze and drugs. Anytime I put them in my body I would absolutely lose. All the willpower in the world is useless against the disease. I wouldnât use willpower to fight cancer so why TF would I use it against addiction?
My willpower is great for getting an extra mile in on a run, or finishing that extra task a work. A program of recovery is great for treating my disease
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My drugging and drinking was like a never ending game of limbo. I just kept going lower and lower.
Every day I would do something I swore I would never do in order to feed my addiction. I was crossing off ânot yetsâ faster than I could create them.
There is no lower limit for addiction. It can, and will, always continue to get worse.
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I love simplicity. Itâs made my sobriety so much easier. For me I do not have to go through the mental gymnastics of âis this a relapse or not â. For me itâs very easy, if I knowingly take a drink or drug then I have relapsed. No excusing it, no justifying it, no talking my way out of it. I do this because for me any drink or drug I take must have a consequences. If nothing else happens from that drink or drug at least I have lost my nearly 2,000 days. I cannot afford to think that a drink or drug wonât come without a terribly high cost.
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And whatâs really scary specifically to âslipsâ is they give the alcoholic a false sense of security in their âsobrietyâ making it highly likely they slip again. Itâs just so scary and I hope I never lose a healthy amount of fear for going back to the misery that was my last two years of drinking.
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So Iâve been sober from alcohol for just over 5 months. But Iâve also been taking weed edibles at night on a daily basis to help me sleep. When I really started reflecting on it, it wasnât only to help me sleep, it was also to escape. And I could tell by my anticipation in the evening that the weed was problematic. So here I am, 1.5 months free of weed. Sober as a judge I like to call it. Feeling all the feels and facing life head on.
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Iâm glad you recognized it for what it was.
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Early in my sobriety there was a gentleman in my home group who had is son die at 2 years old. Within a few hours of sharing at an AA meeting. The dude was an absolute rock. Rather than using his trauma as an excuse to drink he literally showed up at a meeting.
Years have gone by and I had not seen him around much since Covid. Recently heâs been showing up at meetings (still sober) sharing his story and how AA helped him stay sober during that time.
Not sure what exactly my point is here, but I do know that grief is not an excuse to drink because this guy showed me itâs not.
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