How you Can Stop Drinking and Start Living Recovery
Most people get confused when it comes to quitting drugs and alcohol, because they see it as a process of elimination. They believe the main point is in getting off the drugs and then coming up with a strategy for dealing with future triggers that might lead to a relapse.
If recovery were truly this simple then we would probably see much higher success rates. Unfortunately we do not, because achieving good results in recovery takes an awful lot of effort.
On of the harder truths to swallow in early recovery is the intense level of effort needed to stay clean at first. If you want to have an awesome new life in recovery then the price you pay is putting up a heavy initial investment in personal growth. Most people learn as they go through life that putting forth a modest effort will give them modest results, but this is not the case with addiction. If you approach early sobriety with anything less than a 100 percent effort, you are going to relapse.
This can be somewhat tricky because as newcomers in early recovery we will usually seek guidance from oldtimers in the program who have been around for a while and try to copy their strategies. This will not work for the newcomer and it will cause them to relapse. If your sponsor has multiple years in the program and you try to imitate him and his recovery strategy then you’re likely to end up relapsing. Why? Because we progress and change as we stay clean and sober. The things that helped us get clean will not keep us clean 10 years from now….we have to keep changing as we go along. If we want to understand how to stop drinking then we need to realize that we will change as we progress in recovery.
Not only this, but the level of dedication and hard work you must put forth as a new person in recovery is extremely large. Don’t imagine that you can find some magic loophole to get to the serenity and peace that your sponsor has. That serenity was earned. It is not a magic gift that you can claim without putting in the footwork.