12step Al-Anon Inspiration NA Narcotics Anonymous relapse relapse prevention Serenity Prayer

Inside My God Box

I have a secret. Actually, hundreds of secrets, hopes, fears, desires, wishes all written on little scrapes of paper I’ve collected throughout the years and stuffed into my God Box. This is my way of Letting Go, Letting God – surrendering them to my Higher Power. Instead of worrying, ruminating or obsessing over life, I write it down and Turn It Over. My first sponsor, over 13 years ago, had one. She thought everyone should have one. At first, I thought it was little childish until I went through some…

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12step

Dear Laura

I came across this website I would like share with you. The site belongs to musician Brad Mersereau.  He has devoted it to his sister Laura’s memory who sadly did not find her way to recovery and died at 46 from alcoholism.  It is a very powerful reminder that addiction in itself is a form of insanity, it affects our loved ones profoundly, destroys lives and that some of us won’t make it to sobriety. The following is an excerpt from his site, one of a series of very poignant…

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12step

Solitary confinement

When I was using, sometimes I felt like I was living in solitary confinement.  My addiction was my incarceration–a lonely, frightening and lifeless jail of my own doing.  Now that I’m clean and sober there is a whole dimension of solitude I’ve learned to embrace rather than fear. During my first year of sobriety, dealing with solitude was difficult.  Like many others entering recovering, I had to let go of friends who used and using patterns I had developed that were social.    Although I had developed other social networks with…

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12step

Hellidays II

We’ve heard it before that people in recovery have it especially hard during the holidays.  Everything from bad memories associated with drinking/using, to seeing loved ones out of control, to having to resist those urges to partake in a little holiday cheer like the rest of society.  The holidays are the ultimate test of the addict/alcoholic’s commitment to sobriety. I personally don’t like the holidays much.  I’m not a very christmasy person, not being traditional makes me feel bad, not giving in to the mass-consumerism makes me feel guilty and not…

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12step

Other’s people drinking bugs me

Other people’s drinking sometimes gets to me. A few months ago, I witnessed a house guest and very dear in-law of mine get drunk every night on California Merlot. Now this man has been drinking wine with his meals most of his life but within the last few years he went from consuming a half bottle of wine to two bottles a day. His drinking reminded me of my own late father who drank only with his meals, like most Europeans. Growing up I witnessed too many drunken scenes and…

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