Understand how I overcame alcoholism during the recovery stages can be grasped by obtaining insight into the twelve steps. The Al-anon program has something called the three As.
- Awareness
- Acceptance
- Action
Awareness- I had an understanding that I was having an alcohol problem when I began to awaken every morning and stop by the convenient store to get an alcoholic beverage. When I started purchasing a twelve pack every morning that’s when I really began to see that something was wrong. Finally, after getting into a fight with someone who was twice my size and getting banged up pretty bad, I found my way into the rooms of the AA program.
Acceptance-During the stages of alcoholism recovery this one came to light during the first meeting I attended. I came to realize that my life had become unmanageable due to my drinking so often.
Action-The action part of the alcoholism recovery stages was obviously the most difficult of them all. This is where I had to read the AA big book, attend meetings regularly, and change my way of living and thinking.
I never entered into a structured program to help me stop consuming alcohol. What I did do is attended as many meetings in a day as I possibly could. Because of my desperation to find help from God, he met me in my time of need.
The twelve steps led me straight into a relationship with God that I had abandoned ten years prior. I was now reaping the fruit of my wrong choices and trusting that He could untangle the mess that I had made.
During the stages of recovering from an alcohol addiction
As I would read many things about how God could restore me to sanity in the literature I would pray and ask for specific help.
During the second stage of recovering from the addiction to alcohol, I encountered that God had taken away my desire for a drink. I asked and He answered instantly. In some ways I shifted my addiction from the party life of alcoholism to a religious sober life.
I became engrossed in the things of God after being in the AA program for six months, totally clean and sober. He had revealed His faithfulness to me and now there was no turning back.
During those first few months things got tough occasionally. There were times when I had to white knuckle it just to stop myself from going to the store to get a drink to relieve the pain of life.
That was thirteen years ago and I have not touched a drop of alcohol since. Having awareness, choosing acceptance and taking action is what saved my life from the devastating affects of being an alcoholic. Alcoholism should have taken my life on several occasions, but a merciful God protected me. Now years later my recovery continues as I give back to help others get through the various stages of recovery. My story is unique but the basic stages of recovering from an addiction are the same. One thing I forgot to add is the word “discipline.”
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