Sobriety Survival101

Reflection for the Day As long as I stubbornly hang on to the conviction that I can live solely by my individual strength and intelligence, a working faith in my Higher Power is impossible. This is true, no matter how strongly I believe that God exists. My religious beliefs—no matter how sincere —will remain forever lifeless if I continue trying to play God myself. What it comes down to, we find, is that, as long as we place self-reliance first, true reliance upon a Higher Power is out of the question.  How strong is my desire to seek and do God’s will? Today I Pray I pray that I may not place my self-reliance above reliance on God. May I know that there is no conflict between taking responsibility for my own actions, which I have been taught is the essence of maturity, and looking to God for guidance. May I remember that if I stick to the “do it myself” rule, it is like refusing to ask for a road map from a tourist information bureau—and wandering around forever lost. Today I Will Rem

"We were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character." Surrender is the initial part of working each Step. Surrender prepares us to ask God to remove our defects. Respect and honest humility are keys that open doors to powers that are so great that they dare not approach us when we are exerting our wills. The loving higher powers do not want to hurt us, and going against our un-surrendered will would definitely hurt! We have a blessed tendency to not violate certain basics of humanity. If we betray, exploit or manipulate others without their knowledge or permission, the shame and guilt can exact a high price. The Sixth Step gives us a chance to actualize our disapproval of the way we have been living our lives. The danger here is that our illness of addiction tries to make us forget that we are tapping into a greater power that enables us to work our way back to health through the Twelve Steps. We find that submission calms us and allows us to do our part

"SUGGESTED" STEPS Our Twelfth Step also says that as a result of practicing all the Steps, we have each found something called a spiritual awakening. . . . A.A.'s manner of making ready to receive this gift lies in the practice of the Twelve Steps in our program. — TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, pp. 106-07 I remember my sponsor's answer when I told him that the Steps were "suggested." He replied that they are "suggested" in the same way that, if you were to jump out of an airplane with a parachute, it is "suggested" that you pull the ripcord to save your life. He pointed out that it was "suggested" I practice the Twelve Steps, if I wanted to save my life. So I try to remember daily that I have a whole program of recovery based on all Twelve of the "suggested" Steps.

  50 Essential Tips To Help You Stay Clean And Sober Making the decision to get clean and sober is the easy part.  Actually staying clean and sober – that’s a different story altogether. Here are some of the lessons I’ve learned in recovery.  Hopefully some of these lessons can help you as well: 1. For your first few months sober, your only goal each day is to make it through without a drink. 2. Don’t overestimate your control over your addiction.   Everyone does at some point . 3. Practice complete abstinence .  Don’t fool yourself into thinking you can moderate your alcohol intake .  It won’t work out in the long run. 4. Seek out in-patient treatment if you can afford it. 5. Take physical care of yourself.  Exercise regularly and eat well. 6. Cut out toxic relationships from your life.  This includes friendships and romance. 7. Build new healthy relationships with positive people. 8. Reconnect with friends and loved ones who may have

The AUDIT Test for Alcohol Addiction (Alcoholism)  The AUDIT (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test) was developed by the World Health Organization (WHO). The test correctly classifies 95% of people into either alcoholics or non-alcoholics. It was tested on 2000 people before being published. (The  pdf format version  of the AUDIT is available through the WHO website. Copyright 1993 World Health Organization.)(2) To correctly answer some of these questions you need to know the definition of a drink. For this test one drink is: One can of beer (12 oz or approx 330 ml of 5% alcohol), or One glass of wine (5 oz or approx 140 ml of 12% alcohol), or One shot of liquor (1.5 oz or approx 40 ml of 40% alcohol).  1. How often do you have a drink containing alcohol? Never (score 0)  Monthly or Less (score 1)  2-4 times a month (score 2)  2-3 times a week (score 3)  4 or more times a week (score 4) 2. How many alcoholic drinks do you have on a typical day when you are drinking? 1 or 2 (0)  3

  Step 1 - I admit that I am powerless over my addiction and that my life has become unmanageable     ·      Have you seriously damaged your relationships with other people because of your addictive behaviors? If so, list the relationships and how you damaged them.       ·      If other people have told you how you how your have hurt them, then write down what they said.       ·      Describe any missed appointments that resulted from your addictive behaviors.       ·      Describe any memory lapses where you cannot account for where you were.       ·      Describe any times that you cannot recall how you got home.       ·      Describe times and ways that you have significantly neglected or damaged relationships with your loved ones in order to indulge in your addictive behaviors or because you were recovering from your addictive behaviors.       ·      Describe any illnesses that have resulted from your addictive behaviors.       ·      If your addictive behavior contributed to exces

•  What was the religion that your family of origin practiced or claimed to be a part of?       •  List the positive and negative aspects as you see it of your family’s religion.       •  Have you made a break with your family's religion or have you stayed with it? Explain why you have taken your particular course of action.        •  What other people have helped you to see the unmanageability of your life? Do they believe in a Higher Power and if so describe their belief as far as you know of it.        •  Recall some of your best friends from childhood or adolescence. Describe what you liked best about them and what they liked best about you? Do you think that these qualities have any relationship to a Higher Power? Explain.        •  From the following list of groups, write Yes or No according to whether you could share in their values or not?    Group Share Values? Twelve Step Group   Conservative Christian church   Liberal Christian church   Synagogue   Mosque   Hindu temple

The balance between mind and spirit comes hard for me. The eternal split. Two entities, perfectly aware and yet perfectly unwilling to cooperate. —Mary Casey The program directs our spiritual growth, a human aspect that had atrophied, if ever it had existed, for most of us before abstinence. And the process of developing our spiritual nature is painstaking. Living by our wits, or the fervent application of “situational analysis,” had been our survival tools for months or years. To return repeatedly to the old tools for quick solutions to serious situations is second nature. Learning to rely on spiritual guidance for solutions and to use it to sharpen our analytical focus takes patience and continual effort. Within our spiritual realm we find our connection to God. We have been given the wisdom; all the knowledge we need is at our fingertips. The confidence to move ahead and offer our special talent to others comes from our Spirit. We are all that we need to be. Our mind and our Spirits