The Two Phases of Sobriety

DURING MY first two years in AA, my sponsor died after a slip at the age of forty-two, when he had had about four years of sobriety. Only a few months later, a near relative also lost his sobriety, after approximately seven years in AA, although the entire seven years had not been totally successful. Those two negative experiences involving people close to me left me questioning the chance I had with this program. At the time, I had been sober in AA for a year and a half, but I found myself in a very gray mood about my prospects for continuing that way.