April 8, 2018 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

Sunday, March 8, 2018

Today’s thought from the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Anyone can get sober . . .

The trick is to stay and to live sober.
 — Living Sober

Newcomer

At one meeting someone mentioned having had a slip. He had been back in recovery for three days. No one criticized him; in fact, everyone applauded. To be honest, it makes me think about seeing what it would be like to have a few drinks or a drug again, just for a day or a weekend.

Sponsor

Over the years, I’ve watched people come and go in recovery. I’ve been grateful to the people who relapsed and were lucky enough to come back and share their experience. They taught me a lot by talking about how their disease had continued progressing even when they weren’t active in it, and about how much more quickly their misery had returned this time. I’m grateful to them for having had the slip for me; now I don’t have to risk it. There’s a danger in going back out to experiment with controlled using; few who leave ever make it back. This is a life threatening disease. People like us, who depend on using an addictive substance, can die from it. We understand the seriousness of our addictions and have no need to test recovery by trying to use “safely.”

Today, I want life – all of it. I embrace my recovery; I stick close to those who know how to stay stopped.

You are reading from the book:

If You Want What We Have by Joan Larkin

If You Want What We Have © 1998 by Joan Larkin