Emotional Sobriety

Web Exclusive: A Never-Ending Adventure

One man’s story of how important emotional balance becomes as the desire to drink fades.

"The problem I have with my emotions is that they try to run away with me."

When I entered rehab 24 years ago I told them that I only had two emotions. I was mad or I was okay. That wasn’t really true. I had all the emotions. I just didn’t know how to recognize them or deal with them. They had me do a little exercise. For several days I couldn’t talk. I had to walk around the unit and if someone said something to me I could only respond with feeling words. I also wasn’t supposed to use any feeling word that had anything to do with anger. I could use words like “happy,” “sad,” “fear,” “shame,” “remorse,” “depressed,” “grateful,”... Login to read more
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