Still Powerless

I went into the restaurant, ordered a glass of wine, and drank it. I had no real thoughts about it, no mental defense against the first drink. I had had 22 years of sobriety and lost it with one sip. My alcoholism had taken hold of me years before that. It had me before I stopped going to meetings. The first thing to go was my spiritual condition, then my sponsor, and then the meetings. For the next six years, I didn't go to meetings. I tried other things instead: church, nature, counseling, self-help books and other programs. And then I drank again.