to be a respected member of AA,, all that is required is the desire to stop drinking. Respect does not require, nor does membership require that one has stopped drinking. I guess for some people it is really easy to stop drinking and they don't have any urges to drink again at all. Lucky for them. They have very little struggle and not so much to learn on their recovery journey. For some people it is an incredibly difficult and ongoing struggle with many relapses and constant cravings. I know some poeple who are not honest about this and people think they don't drink anymore, and they they don't have any stinking thinking,,, like they are graduates, and they go up and receive all their rewards... like that person in miami told us. Others, like myself, who have ups and downs, for some time doing pretty well, and then something triggers the whole thing and having to struggle through the craving and the trigger. Some people are in environments that are alcoholic kind of environments, where the people around them are active and there are pretty much constant triggers and the person has not yet developed any of the tools to cope with that and to make changes. Someone told me that is's like crabs in a bucket; when one crab tries to climb out, the other crabs grab it and yank it back down. We get more humble as we progress in real recovery, and 'holier than thou' trips are not appropriate for us. Rather I've heard the saying often, "There but for the grace of God go I."
love in recovery,
amanda
-- Edited by amanda2u2 at 08:12, 2006-03-22
-- Edited by amanda2u2 at 08:20, 2006-03-22
__________________
do your best and God does the rest, a step at a time
oh wow, amanda, i can relate to THIS......i have more than one addiction/ craving and i just go "one day at a time" and the more inner child / family of origin pain work i do , the better i can control them......i think for me, anyway, my addictions are my not dealing with particular feelings, so i want to stuff them anyway i can......now that i am committed and doing DEEP inner child work, it seems instead of the horrendous cravings, i am identifying the feelings, deeling with them, and thus WAY easiser to abstain....
i always said that addictions are just "feelings trying to get out of thier cage and be FELT"........my worst addiction was my bingeing on food and to fantasize.....i would be "ok" for a while, "normal" than BOOM, eat anything that didn't get me first and i am in "my other happy world" only to come out when i HAD to.........i learned doing inner child work that i was "comforting me" trying to "fill me with SOMETHING" to soothe me.....now i sit with my self EACH night and me and my ic have our "bedtime talks".......since i "understand my ic's needs/ origins of feelings" i don't need to binge/ escape anywhere NEAR where i used to..and the drinking is the same thing.......deal with the feelings, be in touch with me/ my ic/ my hp, and the cravings go WAY down........rosie
this is just my take, so use what works, leave the rest.....rosie
