Alcoholism and Addiction
Alcohol and addiction. Cunning; Baffling: Powerful! Alcoholism and addiction is the only disease that tells us that we don’t have a disease.
In the early stages of the disease, alcohol and drugs become our best friend. The drugs drink gives us confidence, courage, poise, style, wit, and grace…or so we think
Then when we are hooked, the demons are loosed that make us want more and more booze and dope to get the same effect. The problem is that the more we drink or use; the less in control we are. By the time we realize our dilemma, the hold the booze or dope has on us is too strong to control by ourselves.
All too often, the addiction soon demands our complete attention in everything we do, shredding our lives in the process. How many among us have lost everything because of what we did when we drank or used. Broken homes, shattered relationships, dismissals from work, overwhelmed by debt and bankrupt on every side of our existence litter our lives
Only when we admit defeat may we claim victory in this battle. It is only when we surrender our will to something greater that we may begin to recover.
The prognosis for we alcoholics and addicts is grim. Less than fifty percent of us ever seek help, much less attain any appreciable sobriety. Of clean and sober alcoholics and addicts less than fifty percent of those who seek help, stay sober for five years. Of those still in recovery at five years, less than twenty five percent will live out their lives in sobriety.
Even in recovery, like a sleeping predator, alcoholism will lie dormant waiting for the right time to gain control again.
Addictions are only a symptom of the greater malady that makes us seek escape from the demons that haunt us. Addiction is a form of running away; our feeble way of coping with reality. The added horror is that our bodies crave the drugs and the booze to keep from folding in on itself. Then when we think it can’t get any worse, our world collapses around us. Some of us seek and succeed in the final act of running away.
We stand at that crossroads the "Big Book" tells us about. Don't drink or drink... live or die. That simple - that harsh.
There is a solution. It is in the fellowship of men and women whose primary purpose in life is to stay clean and sober. And if you want what they have, then I suggest that you seek them out.
Love Manages |
