ALCOHOLICS AND ADDICTS - THE 12 STEPS

Alcoholics and Addicts need the 12 Steps on a daily basis for the rest of their natural lives - where does the confusion lie?. One hears a terrible amount of bullshit in relation to the recovery process. It comes from a desire to play God in another persons life and it rarely, if ever, helps them.
'I need to feel things'
'Put yourself first when it comes to Step 8'
'Be good to yourself'
'Wait two years to do the Steps'
Statements like that serve one purpose. - to serve up someones out-of-control Ego and to get the other guy drunk so his can be deflated, and possibly dead. There is a Fellowship book somewhere in the next 12 Step group you go to. That book has a tendency to be far more accurate than any addict or alcoholic sitting in the seat next to you. Even if one doesn't agree to all the principles of it - one must admit that it is, in essence, the only real shot at peace that one has left. Alcohol and Addictions are, by their very nature, killers. Bullshit and dishonesty are its main forms of food. It likes a bit of defiance and resentment for starters, then it works on a bit of pride and anger - and finally, after layers of misery, it washes you down with A HIT. Be honest. Do the program - do it the hard way, the only way. And get it out of the way so you can have an amazing life.
Back tomorrow

IT WOULD BE CARELESS OF ME NOT TO MENTION THE ORIGINAL 12 STEPS OF AA

Twelve Steps

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.

2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to others, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

ALCOHOL WANTS ME TO PRETEND I'M SOBER

'Be yourself'. 'Love yourself'. 'Need yourself'
I have met so many detached folk in recovery who repeat the above sentences over and over in order to remind themselves that they will never believe them. I have a hard enough time slowly becoming myself, hoping one day I will actually realize that I have a self, not to mind being so brazen and dishonest as to claim that I love myself. Years of 12 step groups, counselling and pain have gifted me with one asset that has saved my ass over and over - the ability to be somewhat honest with my 'devastating weaknesses and all its consequences'. It will more than likely take me the rest of my life to define my concept of love. Then it will take me another lifetime to connect it with the self I am supposed to be. Then and only then will I begin the process of connecting them both. In the meantime - I go to meetings.