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We were now at Step Three. Many of us said to our Maker, as we understood Him: "God, I offer myself to Thee — to build with me and to do with me as Thou wilt. Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will. Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of Thy Power, Thy Love, and Thy Way of life. May I do Thy will always!"
I was at a crossroads. Faced with two bewildered little children and a failing business, I toyed with swapping my two nightly beers for a six-pack to knock the edge off the day. I couldn't do it. I knew if I repeated the alcoholism modeled by my father, my children would end up as scarred as I had been. I needed help.
Spouses often complain that they have lost themselves in the process of their significant other’s addiction. They find that they have become people that they not only never intended to be, but that they do not like. In family treatment, you get to find yourself again. You will come to know and accept that your loved one’s addiction is not your fault and that you cannot make them relapse.
All addiction is essentially addiction to self. Recovery is a spiritual growth process that enables the self-centered person to become available to make connections outside of self. In other words, in active addiction, every connection is ultimately a connection to one’s own ego. Even when it seems like I am connecting to you, I am really only connecting back to myself.
For faith in a Power greater than ourselves, and miraculous demonstrations of that power in human lives, are facts as old as man himself. We finally saw that faith in some kind of God was a part of our make-up, just as much as the feeling we have for a friend.
"Powerless over alcohol," I would argue, refers to the original "allergic reaction theory" of Bill Wilson's physician and mentor Dr. William Silkworth. This pioneer in addiction treatment had come to believe that alcoholics were physically different from non-alcoholics in how their bodies reacted to alcohol. And the neurobiological studies from today's research are proving him right.
If you haven't made the concession of being alcoholic yet, don't quit! And if perchance you are still drinking, then don't quit trying to quit! The primary purpose of taking this step is to bring about the conviction and admission that you are alcoholic. Part of your conviction should be the absolute certainty that the next drink will lead to undesirable consequences (to say the least).

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