Alcoholism Support Group
Alcoholism is the continued consumption of alcoholic beverages, even when it is negatively affecting your health, work, relationships and life. If you think alcohol is causing you to lose control, it's time to seek help. Our group is a safe place to vent, check in, get back up if you fall, and reach sobriety.
Someone in a meeting once said there are around 350 Americans, and 10 percent of them are alcoholics. He said of that 35 million Americans, 1% were in recovery. That had a huge impact on me of how privilaged I am to have a life that includes a need for recovery. It also can make it hard for my ego to accept that although in this equation I am one of the few, who can connect the dots and use it as a guide to right living and happiness, it can also make me seperate myself from others and judge them.
Identifying that even out of great news I can produce judgment of others that is harmful, gives me humility that powerlessness doesn't have to be good or bad, it can just be, and if I want to help others, I'll need a higher power to guide that effort. If I don't want to help others, like I am doing more often than not these days, I have to admit the consequence for that, if I want to stay part of the 1% who is well enough to carry a message for others to get relief through spirituality and help. That consequence is selfishness and the harm it causes both individuals and processes going forward. If you're using the 12 steps and AA as your guide and extension of a higher power, it is nice enough to tell us if we are selfish we are slowly killing ourselves and ruining our day to day experiences.
What do you think?
and you are so right, we who have the good fortune to final embrace recovery should resist the temptation to judge, but rather open our arms with the message of hope (step 12), fully knowing the challenges others face in addiction. as you mention, I feel so fortunate to know this new life and anxious to share it with others when they are ready to listen. but I also experience a sense of hopelessness sometimes when my best intentions to help another isn't enough. i lost an acquaintance to a meth addiction this past summer and still trying to figure what I or my community could have done to stop his pain, and eventual death.
good topic and thanks for sharing. looking forward to hearing what others have to say...
About not getting a sponsor, I think the 12 and 12 refers a sponsors to your closest AA friend. The more I grow the more I see clearly that my sponsor, who I got just because I was in "take suggestions" mode because my own ideas had become that miserable, has flaws, and isn't perfect. It's bigger than that though, not only do I see his flaws, but I also see how he manages and deals with them, and that is what makes him a great sponsor, so now after he was able to convey the steps to me, he is sponsoring me by his actions. Outside of AA's message he is nice enough to send life lessons my way since he is older than me, and it's no longer a requirement he be part of the process, like I see some newcomers struggle with, this notion that it's a get a sponsor or die ultimatum if you want to be an AA member, but more so a his behaviors in the right manner offer something to consider when I get to those situations. Anyway, I fear I may have gotten too wordy there, something I don't want to do today, so I'll stop.