The “Slipper” Needs Understanding – Page 99 “As Bill Sees It.”
“Slips can often be charged to rebellion; some of us are more rebellious than others. Slips may be due to the illusion that one can be `cured’ of alcoholism. Slips can also be charged to carelessness and complacency. Many of us fail to ride out these periods sober. Things go fine for two or three years — then the member is seen no more. Some of us suffer extreme guilt because of vices or practices that we can’t or won’t let go of. Too little self-forgiveness and too little prayer — well, this combination adds up to slips.
“Then some of us are far more alcohol-damaged than others. Still others encounter a series of calamities and cannot seem to find the spiritual resources to meet them. There are those of us who are physically ill. Others are subject to more or less continuous exhaustion, anxiety, and depression. These conditions often play a part in slips — sometimes they are utterly controlling.”
Every Tuesday morning I head off to a 7am meeting. For me, its’ truly the best way to start the day, and what I like most about this specific meeting is that it’s focused around the “As Bill Sees It” book. I believe I like it because it is a different chosen theme for the meeting. Of course if someone needs to go off topic that’s fine, but it helps each of me think of different perspectives of my addiction.
One of the trickier parts of 12 Step Programs like AA is that it can work if you let it. Seems like an odd statement, yes? You have to stick around this program to allow it to work. You will hear what you need to hear if you allow your mind to be unclouded by drugs and alcohol and open to something new. A change will come if you allow it to. The reason, and I don’t believe I am alone in this thought, we slip and/or relapse is because we stop believing in change after we ‘get it together.’ We see the change, so we believe AA has worked. We are all set now. No need to continue going to meetings.
Wrong.
It’s true that you’re now a functioning human being, but addiction is a progressive disease. It’s always there and it needs treatment. So, whether it’s a program for alcohol and drug treatment like AA or NA, or other types of behavior therapy, you must stay vigilant in the treatment of your disease.
Recovery Rob BIO
Recovery Rob is a 48-year-old man who has more than twenty years of sobriety, whose drugs of choice at one time were alcohol and drugs, and he has worked in and around the field of addiction for more than 20 years. Having just recently launched his own website, www.askrecoveryrob.com, he hopes to reach out and continue to help others who work through their process of addiction and recovery. Recovery Rob is a professional writer who has published two novels and is currently working on his third. He has been writing and working as Pat Moore Foundation’s premiere blogger and content writer, which helps keeps Pat Moore Foundation’s addiction and recovery blog top-rated.