Sober Recovery Essay

I spent a weekend setting up a Word Press account, and then hammered out my first blog.It took me about a year to write five blogs total, and yet it felt like one of the most significant things I had ever done; my biggest treasure.

Because I love to turn everything into a lesson, there is an almost endless supply here.

If the word “manifest” didn’t make me gag, I’d tell you all about how vision boards actually work (they do!

For everyone else, it mostly comes down to white knuckling it or AA.

But in recent years 12-step programs have been attacked on many fronts, charged with being too religious, dogmatic, disempowering, cultish.

I thrashed against concepts like “powerlessness” and “character defects,” made grand pronouncements in meetings, and challenged my long-suffering sponsors.

Over time, I made peace with the program and have been clean and sober since 1982.

Which is unfortunate because although 12-step is not the only way to get sober, it is one way, and it’s been effective for millions of people over the past 80 years.

I certainly had a lot of judgments when I first started going to AA, but in my state of utter ruin I was in no position to be picky.

This may come as a surprise to those who think that the program is all about ‘turning it over.’ Countless people do precisely that, but sobriety doesn’t happen in the absence of a tremendous amount of real-world footwork.

And footwork, be it psychotherapy or working the steps, is what changes your brain and paves the way from addiction to freedom.