The people who are successful are taking massive action. They are not just getting out of treatment. They are following through, they are taking all of the suggestions, and they are pushing themselves to make positive changes. They go to meetings, they go to therapy, they follow through in every way. You want to be one of those people who “makes it.” So follow through.
I’ve had to do a lot of soul searching and working through a lot of issues that I had never dealt with, even in my 18 years of sobriety. It brought me to my knees, and I am still working through it. The guilt of going back out. The shame of telling my dear friends in AA that I went back out. It was really really difficult. But I had to be honest and share and let people know that NO MATTER HOW LONG you are sober you are still only ONE ARM’S LENGTH from that first drink.
Addiction is a chronic, progressive illness. No one can be cured. If someone is suffering from addiction, they cannot relax at any time. The brain neurochemistry changes… so these people are prone to relapse.
There is so much more to recovery than just attending meetings and staying clean and sober. It truly is a way of life and a path to living, not existing. Through my experience I have learned that all bottoms have trap doors, that words have meaning and that they were right when they said, “If it hasn’t happened yet, it will” if one returns to using.
Yes, every addict makes a choice to take a drink, to swallow prescription pills, to smoke marijuana and to put needles in their arms, etc. But why someone would continue making that choice despite the destructive consequences is the important question. Perhaps it’s instead a consequence of many different reasons.
I was in a little town in Alaska. It wasn’t the end of the world but you can see it from there. And all of a sudden I thought, “I can drink!”It’s also that same thought you have if you look off a large building and go, “I can fly!” And within a week it was like … gone.
