One Day At A Time May 20 2026

AVOIDANCE

” Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored..”
–Aldous Huxley

Step 1 has a basic principle behind it which is truth. For me that truth is, just as I use tools for recovery, there are tools that my willful mind uses to keep me rooted in my disease. One of the strongest is avoidance.

Recovery can bring up a lot of painful issues and have me recall situations in which I feel uncomfortable. Sometimes I find that these old feelings have a way of creeping into my psyche. Suddenly some old behavior comes rushing back and I find myself using avoidance as a means to protect myself. Other times, I find myself acting very willfully by deliberately putting things off like going to the gym even when I know that it is good for me, I enjoy myself and am always happy for having gone..

My avoidance can take the form of rebellion against a person, chore, or situation.

Recovery has taught me to face situations. Once the situation has been faced, I often feel a sense of immediate relief. I know that the deed is done, my fears whether they be realistic or not, usually fall away, and sometimes I even feel a little silly for having avoided the situation in the first place.

One day at a time…
I will fact the situations that I encounter today with action.

~ Marilyn S.

KEEP IT SIMPLE #essentialsofrec #Avoidance #Destiny

One meets his destiny often on the road one takes to avoid it.

~ French proverb ~

None of us, perhaps, ever thought we’d end up in recovery. But we were working at joining recovery years before we got here! Maybe recovery was our fate from the day we first took a drink or a pill. Others around us could see the writing on the wall, but we couldn’t. We were too busy trying to avoid pain.

Alcoholism and other drug abuse have to do with us trying to find spiritual wholeness— the kind of spiritual wholeness we’re finding now . . . in recovery. So, let’s welcome recovery into our lives. We have found our spiritual home.

Prayer for the Day

Higher Power, I got lost because I acted like I knew the way to a good life. You lead the way. Thank-you for putting me on the right track.

Action for the Day

Today, I’ll think about why it’s my fate to be in recovery. I will list ways that I try to avoid my fate.

© 1989 by Hazelden Foundation

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AS BILL SEES IT #essentialsofrec #BillW #Avoiding

R.S.V.P.–Yes or No?, p. 77

Usually, we do not avoid a place where there is drinking–if we have a
legitimate reason for being there. That includes bars, night clubs,
dances, receptions, weddings, even plain ordinary parties.

You will note that we made an important qualification. Therefore,
ask yourself, “Have I any good social, business, or personal reason
for going to this place? Or am I expecting to steal a little vicarious
pleasure from the atmosphere?” Then go or stay away, whichever
seems better. But be sure you are on solid spiritual ground before
you start and that your motive in going is thoroughly good. Do not
think of what you will get out of the occasion. Think of what you can
bring to it.

If you are shaky, you had better work with another alcoholic instead!

Alcoholics Anonymous, pp. 101-102

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ONE DAY AT A TIME #essentialsofrecovery

STRATEGY

“Better shun the bait than struggle in the snare.”

~ John Dryden ~

Perhaps the most important strategy for beating temptation is to avoid it altogether. Temptation pits me head-on with my disease and all of its cunning and baffling ways. It’s so much easier to stay out of its claws and devices than to try to free myself once caught in its web.

What ways do I bring temptation right into my house or provide access to temptation when I go out? Do I keep forbidden foods in my house? Have I ever asked other family members to go without those things because they are dangerous to me or my recovery? Do I go places or engage in activities that increase my desire to eat compulsively? Have I considered that, for now, I just can’t go certain places because of the risk to my recovery? Have I considered that I might have to give up socializing with certain groups of people because they lead me into temptation? Does watching TV trigger compulsive eating? Does putting myself in the company of a certain individuals lead to self- defeating behavior of any kind? Do I continually expose myself to stressful situations or people that tempt me to eat compulsively? Do I continue doing the things that tempt me to eat to ease the feelings or emotions that come up over it?

Perhaps I am in an unwholesome relationship, or I overspend, or have another addiction or compulsion. What am I willing to do to recover? What am I willing to change to keep myself out of harm’s way?

It is easy to pray for God to keep me from temptation, but I must do my part also.

One day at a time …

I must remember to avoid the people, places and things that tempt me to eat compulsively and provide a way for the disease to touch me again.

~ Diane ~ 

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One Day At A Time #essentialsofrecovery

AVOIDANCE

” Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored..”

–Aldous Huxley

Step 1 has a basic principle behind it which is truth. For me that truth is, just as I use tools for recovery, there are tools that my willful mind uses to keep me rooted in my disease. One of the strongest is avoidance.

Recovery can bring up a lot of painful issues and have me recall situations in which I feel uncomfortable. Sometimes I find that these old feelings have a way of creeping into my psyche. Suddenly some old behavior comes rushing back and I find myself using avoidance as a means to protect myself. Other times, I find myself acting very willfully by deliberately putting things off like going to the gym even when I know that it is good for me, I enjoy myself and am always happy for having gone..

My avoidance can take the form of rebellion against a person, chore, or situation.

Recovery has taught me to face situations. Once the situation has been faced, I often feel a sense of immediate relief. I know that the deed is done, my fears whether they be realistic or not, usually fall away, and sometimes I even feel a little silly for having avoided the situation in the first place.

One day at a time…
I will fact the situations that I encounter today with action.

~ Marilyn S. 

Why not sign up to get emails with all daily posts included?
Or Follow Us On Twitter #essentialsofrecovery

One Day At A Time

AVOIDANCE

”Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.”

–Aldous Huxley

Step 1 has a basic principle behind it which is truth. For me that truth is, just as I use tools for recovery, there are tools that my willful mind uses to keep me rooted in my disease. One of the strongest is avoidance.

Recovery can bring up a lot of painful issues and have me recall situations in which I feel uncomfortable. Sometimes I find that these old feelings have a way of creeping into my psyche. Suddenly some old behavior comes rushing back and I find myself using avoidance as a means to protect myself. Other times, I find myself acting very willfully by deliberately putting things off like going to the gym even when I know that it is good for me, I enjoy myself and am always happy for having gone..

My avoidance can take the form of rebellion against a person, chore, or situation.

Recovery has taught me to face situations. Once the situation has been faced, I often feel a sense of immediate relief. I know that the deed is done, my fears whether they be realistic or not, usually fall away, and sometimes I even feel a little silly for having avoided the situation in the first place.

One day at a time …

I will fact the situations that I encounter today with action.

~ Marilyn S. 

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Step by Step #essentialsofrec #Recovery #Abstinence

13
June

“(Alcoholics) have one symptom in common: they cannot start drinking without developing the phenomenon of craving. This phenomenon …may be the manifestation of an allergy which differentiates these people, and sets them apart as a distinct entity. It has never been …permanently eradicated. The only relief we have to suggest is entire abstinence.”

 – Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, “The Doctor’s Opinion,” p xxviii.

Today, I will not play the game of illusions that I may again be able to drink responsibly; the risk is too high, its costs potentially lethal. I will not try “just one” or “controlled” drinking with the myth or desperate thought that I can undo by returning to the thing that ravaged me physically, emotionally and spiritually – alcohol. For if the physician cited in the Big Book is accurate that we as problem drinkers have a craving for alcohol, any amount of it is paramount to a relapse from which I might not return. Today, I accept that I am an alcoholic, that I cannot play the potentially deadly game of by-passing that fact and, in so doing, I refuse to fuel the craving. Today, I have a choice: I will not drink. And our common journey continues. 

Step by step. – Chris M.

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Big Book Alcoholics Anonymous #essentialsofrec #Recovery #BigBook

1
April

"Assuming we are spiritually fit, we can do all sorts of things
alcoholics are not supposed to do. People have said we must not go
where liquor is served; we must not have it in our homes; we must
shun friends who drink; we must avoid moving pictures which show
drinking scenes; we must not go into bars; our friends must hide
their bottles if we go to their houses; we mustn't think or be
reminded about alcohol at all. Our experience shows that this is not
necessarily so.

We meet these conditions every day. An alcoholic who cannot meet 
them, still has an alcoholic mind; there is something the matter with
his spiritual status."

~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, Working With Others, pg. 100~ 

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