It took me 23 years, seven residential treatment centers, numerous outpatient treatment, groups, sponsors, meetings, counselors, therapists, hospitals and jail to finally figure out that if I wanted to get sober and stay sober, I had to continue doing one thing – the same thing – not drinking. That’s it. That one thing. Everything else and anything else I did or might do was secondary. I wanted desperately to get sober and to stay sober, but that didn’t matter either. I had to become a non-drinker, which meant that no matter what the fuck happened or how I felt about it – drinking was not an option. I had loads of OTHER options – but not drinking.
I think that becoming a non-drinker, permanently, is a place folks have to move into inside their own heads. Some folks need help staying in there, others do okay on their own. Either way – it’s no small miracle to arrive and move-in for the duration.
