“Let no alcoholic say he cannot recover unless he has his family back. This just isn’t so. In some cases, the (spouse) will never come back …(R)ecovery is not dependent upon people. It is dependent upon his relationship with God.”
– Alcoholics Anonymous, Third Edition, 1976, Ch 7, pp 99-100.
Today, grant me understanding why my alcoholism, sobriety and recovery are dependent only on me and that I cannot make my recovery a condition of what someone else does or how some situation plays out. Just as none of those dynamics can be “blamed” for my alcoholic drinking, neither can they be the reason for my recovery. To place conditions of my sobriety on someone or something else does little more than substantiate my refusal to take responsibility and consequences and exert emotional blackmail on an external source that I cannot or will not stop drinking if I don’t get from them what I want. Today, my addiction, my character defects, my spiritual defects are my responsibility, the result of my reckless and selfish behavior, and no one else’s fault; likewise, no one and nothing outside of me are responsible for my recovery. And if addiction is as selfish as the Program says, then so it is for my recovery. And our common journey continues.
Today, grant me understanding why my alcoholism, sobriety and recovery are dependent only on me and that I cannot make my recovery a condition of what someone else does or how some situation plays out. Just as none of those dynamics can be “blamed” for my alcoholic drinking, neither can they be the reason for my recovery. To place conditions of my sobriety on someone or something else does little more than substantiate my refusal to take responsibility and consequences and exert emotional blackmail on an external source that I cannot or will not stop drinking if I don’t get from them what I want. Today, my addiction, my character defects, my spiritual defects are my responsibility, the result of my reckless and selfish behavior, and no one else’s fault; likewise, no one and nothing outside of me are responsible for my recovery. And if addiction is as selfish as the Program says, then so it is for my recovery. And our common journey continues.
Step by step. – Chris M., 2014
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