When I got sober, I went back to AA because it was the only place I had gotten anything like relief from my drinking in the past. But this time, I stayed. And I stayed because I recognized that those people knew how to stay sober and I did not, and then I followed that up with the thought that I better do what they did because it worked for them.
If you are willing to listen, you will hear the people here saying that a trip to Vegas early in sobriety is a bad idea - no matter what your intention is. Which makes more sense?
- Don’t go, let the wife take the tickets and a friend. You are celebrating her recovery by protecting yours.
- Go, get drunk, lose the cost of the tickets and the travel. And possibly the wife and your freedom, maybe your life. Drinking does not fuck around, the repercussions are swift and certain and can be fatal.
- Go, with a solid plan to connect to sobriety - call the LV AA hotline, get phone numbers and call some people before you go, call people while you are there, go to a meeting in person and online while you are there. Vegas is called Sin City for a reason, booze and drugs and over-indulgence and “slips” are glamorized and glorified there. There are TV shows and movies whose entire plot line is drinking in Vegas! It’s the belly of the beast, and it would be foolish to go in armed only with rosy optimism and good intentions.
What you paid for the tickets is irrelevant - we piss away money freely, in large amounts, when we are drinking. And the money is spent already, it is gone out of the budget, what you would be missing out on is seeing a concert. And you can stay sober without a concert, you can stay married without a concert.
Without sobriety, we have nothing. That is the point that I feel compelled to smash home again and again. You do not know how to stay sober, this is a demonstrated fact. And as we continue to drink, we lose money, dignity, jobs, spouses, families, freedom. One of the most powerful lines in the AA book goes like this “If you have decided you want what we have and are willing to go to any length to get it - then you are ready to take certain steps.” And if you do not have the desire for what we have or the commitment to go to any length to get it, then we cannot help you. Because all we have is a way that works for us, and we can share that with you. And anyone who co-signs your bullshit denial and justification is not truly interested in your health and well-being.