Marcel Legros - Play the Game of Life

Most alcoholics seek recovery only when their addiction has taken them to a place where there is no other choice, except to face extreme suffering or death. In recovery circles, that point of realizing just how bad things have become is referred to as ‘hitting bottom.’

All alcoholics use alcohol to cover up deep emotional pain. We use it to hide from daily stress and to forget about our lies, failures, or pain. Hitting bottom occurs when the pain caused by drinking is much more powerful than the pain we’re trying to cover up by our drinking. For most hopeless drinkers, hitting rock bottom is essential for recovery. Extreme suffering is a powerful healer, transforming misery into wisdom, happiness, and health. Most alcoholics and addicts enter a recovery program with a willingness to ‘do whatever it takes’ to get well again. Those feelings are sincere, but unfortunately, short-lived. Once the pain and suffering fades from memory, your willingness to stay sober quickly fades. If you’re an addict or alcoholic, you need constant reminders of how bad things were before recovery, and how good it is now you’re sober. If you keep the memory of your own suffering fresh in your mind, your chances for permanent sobriety are very good!

You can’t save up sobriety any more than you can save up sleep. One bad day and all you’ve worked for is erased immediately. It would be nice if we could bank our sobriety and our sleep, but we can’t, so we have to do certain things to stay sober.

• Stay healthy. This seems overly simplistic, but important. Sleep when you’re tired, eat when you’re hungry, talk with supportive friends when you’re lonely. In our previous life as alcoholics, we likely ignored all these basic human needs. It takes practice to regain basic healthy habits. A lot of relapses occur when we are in a weakened state of mind. Take care of yourself and you won’t find yourself in this position.
• Stop lying. It’s easy to stop telling big lies but not easy to spot all the little ones we tell every day. Lying or omitting the truth is relapse behaviour. If you’re doing something you don’t want someone else to find out about, you’re acting in a dishonest way. You must be thorough in spotting your dishonesty if you want to stay sober.
• Stay connected to your support system. Go to AA meetings regularly and stay in touch with others in recovery. Every time a recovering alcoholic relapses, the first sign of trouble is a reluctance to go to a meeting. If you don’t feel like going to a meeting, that’s exactly when you need to go.
• Service work. There is nothing more rewarding and powerful than to helping another person with the same problems. Over time, you become someone all the newcomers look up to for advice and support. If you feel strong enough in your own recovery, become a sponsor and extend the help that was previously given to you. Every effort you put into your program, you receive back ten-fold.
• Develop a strong spiritual base. You don’t have to be Christian to follow the program of AA. That idea kept me from getting help for many years, but I’ve found it to be completely false. I’ve met people who adopted a plant or nature as their higher power. It’s not difficult to believe in a power greater than yourself. Nature, time, gravity, love, and faith all hold incredible power much greater than myself. It makes no difference what you believe in as long as you stand for something. Everyone is motivated by their ideal. Align your thoughts and actions with your ideal - that’s having a spiritual foundation.

Your old thought patterns led you into addiction and despair, so you must work every day to change your thinking first. Living sober is a great way of life - enjoy your adventure!