3 Blocks to Sobriety
Does this shit actually work? All this fluffy spiritual shit they tell me is a necessity for sobriety; is it true? I don’t like the whole “God” thing. It’s not for me. I don’t pray.
Walking in the door yapping about what you “won’t do” doesn’t yield a great start to this sobriety thing. No one gives a shit about what you “won’t do”. We aren’t begging you to get sober. You are the one that washed ashore. Isn’t that a funny metaphor? Years spent on the edge of drowning adrift in the ocean; only to wash ashore at the feet of a community of people who used to do the whole ‘self-imposed drowning thing’ - the thing you are still catching your breath from - but now they can swim with ease & comfort. They can swim for miles. You stand and start whining about what methods you are unwilling to practice in order to learn how to swim? How absurd, right?! Yet, these are common occurrence among those struggling with addiction.
You have a problem with the “God” thing? Yeah, no shit. Even those that believe in God have a problem with the “God thing.” The crux of the issue is that Drugs and Alcohol have become your God. You may or may not have a belief in a God. But, with certainty we can say that you lived for one God and one God only. Drugs and Alcohol. You must find a true God to fill the space. The structure or conception is of your own choice. “Okay, but I won’t pray”. Alcohol and Dope had you on floors. Belly to floor type shit. But, you won’t drop to your knees in humility and pray to Whatever is listening? Got it. Makes perfect sense.
You have to stop whining and fighting long enough to take some uncommon spiritual action you may have a chance at this thing. Why? You do not have to be happy, excited or hopeful about this sobriety shit! You just have to walk it out! Pivot. Adjust. Adapt. Take new action and experience a new life. The whinny prospect has to give up all of his unreasonable and delusional preferences if he expects to change for the better. Why? The deepest core of addiction is this: “It is all about me and how I feel.” When the prospect doesn’t feel good he will then try to fix the feeling with drugs and/or alcohol. When we set our feelings aside in importance we start to grow up.
You must have an open mind. This is a non-negotiable. The best catalyst for an open mind is to look at your current reality. How is it looking? Are you happy? Is the family singing your praises? How is your health? Job? You get the point. We don’t beg the prospect to open his mind and change. We point to the reality he is standing in and say “your choice.” We must see our brokenness. We must feel at a visceral level or need for help. Once your mind snaps shut against the spiritual stuff you are toast. Not because you have to believe in the spiritual plane. But, because you are in defiance. Pride. Ego. These will choke out the prospect quicker than any else. The kicker is he forfeited his own breath. The pride and defiance are within him. They came from nowhere else. They devoured him from the inside out.
Humility and an open mind will lead any prospect to a New Life. However, you have to honor the pain within in order to retrieve the humility needed. The victim crap, has got to go. This life is 100% your responsibility. It is not on anyone to fix your life up for you. Until you shoulder this responsibility, and walk with it daily; your sobriety - if any - will be precarious. You will look for freedom but it will side step you.
