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Staying Sober at Christmas and New Year in Alcoholics Anonymous
Staying sober at New Year and Christmas the first year in AA can seem like an insurmountable challenge – it is not. Do whatever you need to do to get passed this time of the year for the first time and perhaps focus on the differences to the past. If that is too much find…
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Can Mindfulness Training Help to Treat Alcoholism
If there’s a bigger challenge than making a person quit drinking, then it’s certainly preventing a relapse. The data from the 80s used to show a grim image: the early studies of generic inpatient programs found that 80 to 90% of alcoholics relapsed in the first year after treatment when relapse was defined as a…
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Can Counselling Help Alcoholics and Addicts Stop Drinking?
Before I go through my story I will cut to the chase – I don’t know if counselling can a practicing alcoholic or addict. But I believe that it can help those close to them. Alcoholism affects the people around the alcoholic, and these people can benefit greatly from outside help – and I mean…
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Alcoholics Anonymous is a New Habit Forming Machine
In many ways Alcoholics Anonymous is a new habit generating machine – it almost demands that you leave behind old habits and form new ones to stay sober. The first step in AA asks me to look at my life and my drinking and accept the fact that I cannot drink with safety. It also…
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A Letter to my 18 Year Old Self
It is hard to look back and see how it would be possible before you are 18 for you to be able to take any of my advice. Life has been messy, very messy for you up to this point, and even looking back I can’t see any avenues for escape from the family that…
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Did Drinking Save My Life?
In AA meetings I have heard people share the thought that drinking saved their life. Another goes along the lines of drink was my medicine. This post is about these two things as I have some doubts that this is true – however I might change my mind by the end. Teenage Drinking Like many,…
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How Many AA Meetings A Week do You Attend?
Right now I attend only 1 or 2 AA meetings per week. It has not always been like this and looking back I think I have went through cycles that are fairly similar to other people. Why Go to AA Meetings? I started going to Alcoholics Anonymous meeting over twelve years ago. I only wanted…
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So Smart I Can’t Make Myself Happy
This was my flash of wisdom during coffee with a friend one day last week. I was talking about how many people when sharing in AA meeting sound like they are trying to prove how intelligent they are – so intelligent that they can’t make themselves happy. I find it frustrating when someone is a…
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What is Experience Strength and Hope
I have been at a lot of AA meeting now. I have heard a lot of stuff spoken about / shared. Some of it used to drive me crazy, very little ever has that affect now. However last week at a meeting I listened to someone share for about 10 minutes. The meetings I go…
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A Head Full of Negative Thoughts
Today has been one of those days where as they say in AA my head is out to get me. Writing that sounds like not taking responsibility for my own thinking and life – that is the way thoughts are running around today. This morning I described it as existential angst. Wondering where I fit…