This month's issue focuses on stories of relapse. Have you experienced relapse as part of your recovery?
Yes, I have relapsed once.
16% (202 votes)
Yes, I have relapsed more than once.
33% (423 votes)
No, I have not relapsed.
52% (671 votes)
Total votes: 1296
Willing to go to any Lengths..
Until I was willing to go to any lengths to get this.. I did not....I have been in the program a total of 4 times. I have gotten a sponsor then blew them off.. tried working the steps but never got past 2. Until I was willing to go to ANY LENGTHS. When I was willing to do that my life changed. I got a home group, I got a sponsor and worked the steps, I do service work, I have alot of old timers phone numbers who have and had what I want and i call them. When i have an issue or problem I call my sponsor and one or two of the old timers just to double check. Today my life with my higher power and solid program my life is beyond what i thought it ever could be or would be... So if you are new.. Get a home group, Grab a sponsor and work the steps... Then someday you get to give it to somebody else and I tell you this you will get more out of it than they will.. Sobriety Rocks.... If you are willing to do anything...
2 weeks sober.
I relased after 14 years after being diagnosed with life threatening illness, it has taken 11 years of hell to walk back though the doors of Heaven on earth, AA.
if you pick up a drink knowing that you to are alcohic you to will walk back though the doors of hell.
Thankyou God for bringing me back home.
GRM Melbourne Australia
welcome
welcome back!
:)
Joe
Wisconsin, USA
Relapse is part of our Disease
Relapse might or might not be part of our recovery, but it sure is part of our disease. If that aspect of our disease will or will not be affecting me, I do not know today. I am going to any length today to prevent it. I ask my Higher Power in the beginning of the day to help and direct me in that task, and I thank my Higher Power at the end of the day for helping and directing me. In between, I do all I can (my best) to remind myself of my Higher Power (and not of my disease).
When questioned, if they had asked their Higher Power for help and sobriety that day, not one fellow who slipped had ever answered with yes.
My recovery is not a thing which I go and get, and then put together out of all the parts which are supposed to make and keep me sober. It is the result of my need and desire to live a spiritual life. My disease is only my Higher Power's tool to beat me into submission and humbleness. That's why it does not go away, that's why I could relapse. I am not cured. I only get a daily reprieve based on my spiritual condition on this very day.
In love, peace, and recovery,
Mo
relapse
I was taught and I believe that relapse is NOT a part of recovery and it worries me that this subject is being approached in that manner. We talked about "slips" and welcomed the "slipper" back with open arms but never suggested that it was part of recovery!
Spirituality, meeting, sponsoring and sponsors, service, working the steps and growing up, etc. are the parts of sobriety.
I have been to too many funerals and seen too much tragedy because of this thinking.
Please, please......rephrase this topic!
?
Are you suggesting we not welcome the "slipper" back with open arms? And you would suggest... what exactly?
relapes are common!
Don't worry relapes are quiet common!
Many Paths to Recovery
Unfortunately, I too have been to many funerals and I usually only read these posts, but this caught more than my eye.
To qualify, I relapsed a number of times to the point that some who believed they were (was going to say something else here) had not relapsed or only relapsed a acceptable number of times had believed that it would be only by God’s Grace (which it is with most alcoholics - God‘s Grace) that the program would take with me.
Because of those AA’s who keep telling me to come back at several meetings I attended, a sponsor who believed that I could, a wife, family and friends and especially a God who loved me, I am coming up on 30 years of continued clean and sober sobriety, including being a trusted servant to 10 years of taking meetings into a maximum security detention center, 15 years of taking books and meetings to a socialist country, 14 years of being a webmaster for this socialist country’s AA site and 10 years of being a webmaster for our local AA site.
For those who haven’t relapsed, don’t believe that it is just as easy coming back as it was to come through the doors the first time. It is ‘h---l’ to be still drinking (and doing what ever) and having from time to time a clarity of mind (the committee in your head) telling you that there is a better way of living - “And Knowing It !”
If one hasn’t relapsed, that doesn’t make them more of a member the same way as those who drank more, makes them more of an alcoholic. Unfortunately relapse is part of some member’s recovery (at the time of taking this poll 53%) the same way that some members experience divorce or unemployment after sobering up. Had relapse been a condition to be expelled from membership, both Bill W. and Doctor Bob would have been asked to leave.
Some where in the Big Book, (not a page counter) it says our past will benefit us in helping the next alcoholic.
I believe that ’Relapse’ is a very good topic to bring up both on this forum (I thank the Grapevine for providing it) and in the meetings. It tells members that if you relapse you will still be provided a seat around the tables and it allows those who have relapsed to give an account of the (here comes that word again) h----l that one goes through.
Relapse is not a part of recovery
I hear in meetings more now that 'relapse' is a part of recovery. To think I have a relapse in me and that it is a part of recovery, is saying that I have not conceded to my inter most self that I am Alcoholic and that I may still have the illusion that I can drink like a normal person.
The doors to AA swing both ways but not for everyone. Many who relapse end with death, jail, asylums or the pitiful existence of the hopeless drunk and not the rooms of AA with the possibility of a life beyond our wildest dreams.
relax
Obviously relapse is not suggested or encouraged. But if you ever find that you have indeed relapsed, I would imagine it would be helpful to see the relapse as a learning experience in a larger arc of recovery than as an end to recovery. And I'm sure you would tell a friend who has relapsed not to give up and that its going to be ok, just get back on the horse and learn what you need to do better.
No, I have not relapsed
Since getting sober 4 years ago, I have not been overcome by the compulsion to pick up a drink, thank God and AA. I know that if God did not take the obsession, and I wasn't given the grace to go to meetings, I would be drinking and doing dry goods. Then I would be truly lost in darkness, and I wouldn't even know it. God would be totally lost to me, except in my own delusions of grandeur and savior complex. Because of the grace of God available thru the mechanisms of AA, I have tasted again some spiritual food. Honesty brings me light every time I have the courage to share what I'm truly feeling in a meeting. I'm not perfect; I don't do everything the program says yet. I struggle with the practice of sponsorship and fear the 12 steps. But one day at a time I try to take small, unfamiliar steps toward new life, new surrender to the Higher Power, and more open relationships with people. Thanks, AA.
Sober at 15 years old
I was given the gift of sobriety at 15 years old and haven't found it necessary to drink in 23 years. I have had hardships of loss through death, divorce, and economics. I have had joys of graduations, marriage, children, and purchases of a home. I have tended to my daily activities of nothing spectuacular except my gift of sobriety. I have not found it necessary to drink because I have worked all 12 steps and continue to the best of my ability daily.
Thank you AA's
Hang in there!!
Do hang in there!!
thanks
john
step work is the key
Did you get a sponser?
Recovery
My recovery started April 8/1982 at Guest House, Lake Orion Michigan.
No I have no relapsed. Do my best to live one day at the time.
Val
San Antonio, TX
Relapse and God's Grace
Thanks, Grapevine, for the iPoll on relapse. I decided to write today because of an online comment from someone who credited God's grace for sobriety but who also "fears the 12 steps." It got me thinking a bit about relapse, God, and the Steps. I went on to write a really long post at the iPoll page before I realized maybe I could send it to the Grapevine!
Anyway, thanks for the question. Sober since 1/1/92 by the grace of God.
Relapse
I relapsed last week after 75 days for the second time in a row. Do you suggest I tell my home group in a meeting. Did the first time and really don't want to do it again.
Telling the group
I am the fellow that wrote "Many Paths to Recovery" just to let you know a bit of my story.
No you do not have to tell openly to your group especially if you did not get a reprieve from the last time you opened up. However I suggest you find someone, preferrably a sponsor to share it with. Sharing is therapy whether you share on this forum or you share with a sponsor.
Some, and most likely those who have not relapsed would have us do it in front of City Hall at noon hour with a sign hung around our neck.
It is some time said, it is like learning to ride a bike with your father (like a sponsor) we fell a lot and our father did not scoll us for falling. I wanted to stop but my father like my sponsor said I could do it, just kept trying.
Did I suggest that you should have sponsor to keep your bike up while you were trying to peddle???
And some may say that you did not ask God to release the desire of alcohol. God works when we do the peddling - keep going and have some (a few) that you really trust to share with.
Dont beat yourself up over this. Have a sponsor, have a plan as to what course of action, and start peddling. The balancing of the bike will come with God's Grace. We love you, and you deserve to have a sober life.
Write again and let me know how you are doing - I will pray for you and will check back to this forum later to see how you are doing.
Hugh H. London Ontaro
Telling the group
I am the fellow that wrote "Many Paths to Recovery" just to let you know a bit of my story.
No you do not have to tell openly to your group especially if you did not get a reprieve from the last time you opened up. However I suggest you find someone, preferrably a sponsor to share it with. Sharing is therapy whether you share on this forum or you share with a sponsor.
Some, and most likely those who have not relapsed would have us do it in front of City Hall at noon hour with a sign hung around our neck.
It is some time said, it is like learning to ride a bike with your father (like a sponsor) we fell a lot and our father did not scoll us for falling. I wanted to stop but my father like my sponsor said I could do it, just kept trying.
Did I suggest that you should have sponsor to keep your bike up while you were trying to peddle???
And some may say that you did not ask God to release the desire of alcohol. God works when we do the peddling - keep going and have some (a few) that you really trust to share with.
Dont beat yourself up over this. Have a sponsor, have a plan as to what course of action, and start peddling. The balancing of the bike will come with God's Grace. We love you, and you deserve to have a sober life.
Write again and let me know how you are doing - I will pray for you and will check back to this forum later to see how you are doing.
Hugh H. London Ontaro