Truth and tough love

Your Story
93

I went out for a walk today and was listening to a Russell Brand podcast (it seems to be the only time I can shut off everything and everyone else off and just listen) and he basically did the same thing. He had a guy call in to his show about cannabis use and you could tell he didn’t want to be addicted but he had excuse after excuse. RB just told him straight out “I don’t think you’re really ready to do this”. The caller was clearly taken aback but by the end of the call I think he was at lease willing to admit “yeah, you’re right, I need to stop the excuses if I really want to quit” (I’m totally paraphrasing here!!).

But at least calling in to the show (or logging onto TS) the person is at least THINKING about it. They may not be ready yet but they are on their way.

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94

My last two meetings had basically the same theme. Guys brought up topics and then got a bunch of answers they didn’t want to hear lol. They needed to hear it though

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96

The guy today has 4 months sober, so he decided, without a sponsor, that he should reach out to his ex-wife and try to win her back. He wanted advice on how to do that.

You’ve been around enough to know how that turned out.

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98

Not stupid. Just running completely on self-will. And people let him know lol.

100

Self-will and stupidity are pretty closely aligned

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102

Hey! People can exercise self-will and do the right things. You can’t fix stupid, true. That’s the difference. Fools and wise men each have free will. The difference is one is exercising it in the absence of discernment.

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103

If your self-will is aligned with God’s will then you are on the right path.

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104

Fools make bad decisions. Kinda what makes them fools.

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106

It sucks watching people needlessly suffer

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107

Likely because Derek takes the “responsibility” statement in most all AA rooms to heart. He cares for the sick and suffering.

I have no doubt that he places his sobriety above all else though.

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111

I think she’s been watching someone who is going down on a sinking ship, but will not accept her lifesaver.

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114

It’s not anything I lose sleep over, but it’s similar to the perfect who brings up a topic at a meeting then goes ourselves to smoke 3 cigs during the meeting. But hey, I’m staying sober today and sharing my ESH helps with that. I suppose they are helping me.

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This all comes from the fact that the only person who can help an addict is the addict. You have to admit yourself that you have a problem before anyone can help you.
Everyone and everything that is there to help are tools to help achieve sobriety. But the majority of the force has to come from the addict.

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117

So just to be clear, staying busy is not a recovery program. If you expect to stay sober by doing chores on the weekend you are going to drink again. I think there’s a couple good examples of that around here today.

If you don’t work on your recovery then your recovery isn’t going to work.

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118

Thanks for the reminder, I’ve not put in as much this week and boy I’ve felt the pull

119

Oh shit. It’s not literally “clean up your side of the street?”

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120

This made me laugh.

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121

Give me some of your wisdom, Derek!

122

My life is a unmitigated trainwreck at this point lol. But each day I wake sober and I go to bed the same way. I stopped fighting everyone and everything and things got better, at least on the inside. Fuck if I know what tomorrow brings, but I know I can handle it.

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123

Well, that makes me feel related to at least. Lifes a trainwreck is a book I could write. But, yours would likely be several hundred pages longer than mine. :joy:

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