What It Was Like
My name is Mark, and I am a real, recovered alcoholic.
I “grew up” (refused to grow up – a spoiled rotten brat) drinking and doing all of the other hippie stuff rock-and-rollers did in the 60’s. I played keyboard in bands and sometimes the only “pay” we’d get for our performances was drunk and otherwise altered.
I got sent to “AA” on court cards and heard some bells going off, but I was far from ready back then. After spending too much of my life in jail from my 10 DUIs and hurting others I decided to get help. In March of 1987, with the help of my loving parents, I checked in to the Betty Ford Clinic.
What Happened?
I managed to stay “sober” for the next 2-1/2 years going to a lot of meetings – sharing the same kind of generally unrelated stuff you hear most people share at most so-called AA meetings. I attended literally thousands of “AA” meetings and had Our Text practically memorized. I have this high I.Q. that has done me little good in life, and when it came to staying sober, I believe it is a major liability. I guess I was too smart to actually do what is says we do. I suppose I thought I was working the program (Not like I do today!) until I put something before it. Only there, and then, was I willing to follow direction from those in whom the problem had been solved and do it the precisely the same way those who wrote the book and others have been doing it for over 70 years.
I stayed for the suggested year required to build a foundation in AA – which is knowing that, and taking AAction like, this is the most important thing in my life, and did the main things I was directed to do, which were:
Work The Program
- Keep It Simple
- Read and re-read The Solution (164 pages)
Get to a lot of meetings and get my hand up to share what I did today to stay sober – the MAIN reason to be at an AA meeting (at first – the ONLY reason to be at one)
What a concept! If someone would have shared this, presuming we could actually hear and DO this, I and others may have recovered long ago. Perhaps many would not have to have died slow miserable deaths, like I had been experiencing, for some of us to stay sober.
To be open and honest, I didn’t like any of it. What I LIKED got me wanting to die and worser. (That is not a typo . . . worser is a word that describes where many of us drank ourselves to.) I DO like the results!!
Lessons Learned
I did the same things I have done for over 12 years (precisely what We of AA do) this morning that are, at the very least, largely responsible for my sobriety and new life. Before my eyes opened I asked God to direct my thinking – asking especially that it be divorced from self pity, dishonest or self-seeking motives. I prayed the 3rd, 7th step, and Lord’s Prayers, praying for alcoholics – especially those still suffering. I reviewed the previous 24 hours (in the morning – as directed on page 86 of the original manuscript), got down to the local detox to try to cAArry This MessAAge! •Thy will be done!
H.A.L.T. is an independent 12-Step Substance Abuse Meeting for Alcoholics and Addicts following the format of AA that meets at Noon Monday through Saturday at Solutions, 2975 South Rainbow Blvd. Suite J, Las Vegas, Nevada 89146
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