An analogy I like to convey to anyone who feels they are not progressing fast enough.
It's like a walk into the woods; we all don't go the same distance in, but that is the length of the journey back out.
Impatience and instant gratification are usual traits of the addict, and they can hamper the patience and tolerance necessary to continue the journey out of the woods. Part of the dilemma is the steady celebration and reinforcement of early sobriety. The coins for every 3 months up to that first year and the pink cloud which usually accompanies this period.
When I heard that the first year was a gift and when the work really starts, I was skeptical.
Well it rang true for me after my first year, I made it to 22 months and relapsed.
Things were getting a bit routine and I became complacent, allowing that primitive part of my brain to convince me I could drink safely.
Now, 4 years later, I admit to myself every day that I cannot recapture the magic that was my long term affair with alcohol. Do I miss those nights of uninhibited feelings of power and glory?
Of course I do; but what I ALSO remember is where I ended up, when the thing that turned me on, had turned on me.
2 comments:
Just found your blog today and wanted to say it's one of the most visually pretty ones I've seen. I read it through from start and was left wondering about your background more, I felt it put me into the start day and up to the present but I have no idea if you are starting sobriety again this blog or coming in as a longterm sober addict. I found not knowing that made me unable to think about what you were saying as much as I wanted, because I was thinking about this question - not wanting to judge but rather to relate your remarks about your present perspective to where you are in the longterm recovery process today. I am a non-addict freshly into Al-Anon who REALLY wants to learn about addiction and recovery, so I can be more compassionate and informed. It's a world that is SO much more complex than the typical non-addict lay person understands. Thank you for sharing and I look forward to following your blog. (PS, I have a professional background in safety and found your blog on top 100 sober blogs, the name "Stop, Drop, and Recover" caught my interest.)
I love the "walk into the woods" analogy. I had an addiction to nicotine once and so I know how hard it is to stay quit.
A great person once told me, "It took you X number of years to become a smoker. You need to give it a bit of time to undo all those years of habits." That freed me to be kind to myself and have the confidence to believe I could do it.
Wishing you all the best.
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