12 Steps to Freedom
In the Alcoholics Anonymous 12 step program, you never complete the 12th step. You must spread the word and share your experiences until the day you die.
After becoming sober and entering a program like this, you enter the world of recovery. The common misconception of the 12th step program is that it is a belief in God that successfully rids you of your addiction. It is not necessarily God, but a Higher Power; not necessarily religion, but spirituality.
The day you become sober is known as your birthday. Your other birthday is now referred to as your "belly button" birthday and seems less important. Your new friends are the ones that go to the meetings with you at the place referred to as "the club." People there joke about their pasts. Humor is a good thing, but when they were living in that time it was just plain sad. One man laughs about his bum life on skid row and his "cardboard condo." If another bum was on his spot he would yell at them to get off his lawn.
They joke and call the meth addicts "tweaks" and everyone laughs about it. The meeting is called "Don't Meth Around." Meth seems to be the most common, and the meeting room is full of kids and adults. They call it a "nudge from the judge" when a person comes to the meetings from a court order.
The founders, Bill and Dr. Bob, are known by their first names in true anonymity. Bill wrote most of what they refer to as "The Big Book." It's like a Bible for alcoholics. When they can't attend a meeting they can read some of the stories in the back of the book. The meetings are a type of high, listening to people's stories and saying, man I'm glad I never got that far. Suddenly you have a wave of support carrying you along, which is a necessity for struggling alcoholics. They attend "marathons" in which they attend meeting after meeting until their souls are completely bare.
There is always the temptation of a drink. One slip, and twenty years of sobriety can be wasted. It happens. One guy relapses over and over again. He says his life would make a good movie, called "The Chronic Relapser."
They all accept they are powerless. Perhaps we'd all be better off in life if we accept we're all powerless.
Accept it and just move on. Then you truly can be free. Of course we all, in some way, aknowledge this powerless feeling, yet we don't fully accept it. We still want to feel in control. Sometimes we can't control the things we do. Once we can accept this universe of meaninglessness and seemingly random happenings, we can be happy. We just step out and have faith in something.
In AA they say "one drink is too much and a thousand is never enough."
After becoming sober and entering a program like this, you enter the world of recovery. The common misconception of the 12th step program is that it is a belief in God that successfully rids you of your addiction. It is not necessarily God, but a Higher Power; not necessarily religion, but spirituality.
The day you become sober is known as your birthday. Your other birthday is now referred to as your "belly button" birthday and seems less important. Your new friends are the ones that go to the meetings with you at the place referred to as "the club." People there joke about their pasts. Humor is a good thing, but when they were living in that time it was just plain sad. One man laughs about his bum life on skid row and his "cardboard condo." If another bum was on his spot he would yell at them to get off his lawn.
They joke and call the meth addicts "tweaks" and everyone laughs about it. The meeting is called "Don't Meth Around." Meth seems to be the most common, and the meeting room is full of kids and adults. They call it a "nudge from the judge" when a person comes to the meetings from a court order.
The founders, Bill and Dr. Bob, are known by their first names in true anonymity. Bill wrote most of what they refer to as "The Big Book." It's like a Bible for alcoholics. When they can't attend a meeting they can read some of the stories in the back of the book. The meetings are a type of high, listening to people's stories and saying, man I'm glad I never got that far. Suddenly you have a wave of support carrying you along, which is a necessity for struggling alcoholics. They attend "marathons" in which they attend meeting after meeting until their souls are completely bare.
There is always the temptation of a drink. One slip, and twenty years of sobriety can be wasted. It happens. One guy relapses over and over again. He says his life would make a good movie, called "The Chronic Relapser."
They all accept they are powerless. Perhaps we'd all be better off in life if we accept we're all powerless.
Accept it and just move on. Then you truly can be free. Of course we all, in some way, aknowledge this powerless feeling, yet we don't fully accept it. We still want to feel in control. Sometimes we can't control the things we do. Once we can accept this universe of meaninglessness and seemingly random happenings, we can be happy. We just step out and have faith in something.
In AA they say "one drink is too much and a thousand is never enough."
posted by summer | 9:35 PM
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