Alcoholism is a disease. I know this because my life is proof of the truth in that statement. I have been sober for over six months now, and it has not been easy at all!
There are times when I feel like giving up or just turning back to alcohol, but then I remember that there are people who care about me and want me to be healthy again.
Even though alcoholism can be a very slippery slope, with one slip leading to another until you find yourself drinking again without any clue how you got there- by remembering what’s important to me and why I stopped drinking in the first place, makes living each day sober so much easier than ever before.
Daily Reflections April 29
Some may think that we have carried the principle of group autonomy to extremes. For example, in its original “long form,” Tradition Four declares: “Any two or three gathered together for sobriety may call themselves an A.A. group, provided that as a group they have no other affiliation.”* . . . But this ultra-liberty is not so risky as it looks. A.A. COMES OF AGE, pp. 104-05
A.A has made me fully accept the necessity of discipline and that, if I do not assert it from within myself then others will pay for my disobedience in Alcoholics Anonymous meetings every day
I am an active alcoholic who abused every liberty life allowed him but I’m learning to respect Tradition Four which says we should always maintain our sobriety outside those walls as well because without self-respecting authority over oneself there can be no true freedom or integrity when dealing with other people.
Conclusion paragraph: I had to learn respect. Tradition Four points me in a spiritual direction, even though my alcoholic inclinations would prefer that I stay away from spirituality.
This applies to groups too; if we don’t assert discipline and self-respect on our own, then the group will enforce it for us one way or another.
The AAs have made this necessary lesson clear by making me fully accept the necessity of discipline so that I may continue healing spiritually as well as physically with their help.
