trACTION
A friend of my partner (and friendly acquaintance of mine) has gone and gotten drunk. It's affecting my partner fairly roughly, for the friend spent time with us for several hours Saturday night. Then he went to a party...
He's pretty new to the program; had about 60 days and was in and out a couple or so times before that. I can relate to that. I picked up several start chips, a few 30-day chips and I think a 90-day chip before I went out for about 6 months. When I came back I started again, got a 30-day chip, got drunk and then picked up what I hope will be my last start chip.
I downloaded some audio files from the AA Grapevine (Funny, I just typed "Grapevice". A wino has a grapevice! snicker snicker) and in one of them a fellow mentioned his opinion about "slipping" in early sobriety. It was much to the effect that one can't really slip when one hasn't gotten any traction yet. That was me! I just couldn't get any traction in my program until it was time, until I hit my bottom. That bottom was when I was trying to commit suicide after about 6 months of more drinking.
After about 45 days, I drank one more time. I'm ambivalent as to whether that was still not having traction or it was a slip. Doesn't really matter... The point is: I got traction and haven't slipped in 2 years, 9 months and 15 days. I pray that I keep good traction.
My hope is that this fellow gets good traction. While my wish is for everyone that seeks it to get it, I especially hope that this one does. That might not be politically correct, but the realist/cynic in me is not too surprised when some of us go out. This one surprised me and it saddens me that such a good person with so much potential, who was seeming to get it, falls under John Barleycorn's jackboot.
Untreated alcoholism sucks. Recovering from alcoholism can be so amazing. It's a shame so few of us are.
He's pretty new to the program; had about 60 days and was in and out a couple or so times before that. I can relate to that. I picked up several start chips, a few 30-day chips and I think a 90-day chip before I went out for about 6 months. When I came back I started again, got a 30-day chip, got drunk and then picked up what I hope will be my last start chip.
I downloaded some audio files from the AA Grapevine (Funny, I just typed "Grapevice". A wino has a grapevice! snicker snicker) and in one of them a fellow mentioned his opinion about "slipping" in early sobriety. It was much to the effect that one can't really slip when one hasn't gotten any traction yet. That was me! I just couldn't get any traction in my program until it was time, until I hit my bottom. That bottom was when I was trying to commit suicide after about 6 months of more drinking.
After about 45 days, I drank one more time. I'm ambivalent as to whether that was still not having traction or it was a slip. Doesn't really matter... The point is: I got traction and haven't slipped in 2 years, 9 months and 15 days. I pray that I keep good traction.
My hope is that this fellow gets good traction. While my wish is for everyone that seeks it to get it, I especially hope that this one does. That might not be politically correct, but the realist/cynic in me is not too surprised when some of us go out. This one surprised me and it saddens me that such a good person with so much potential, who was seeming to get it, falls under John Barleycorn's jackboot.
Untreated alcoholism sucks. Recovering from alcoholism can be so amazing. It's a shame so few of us are.
