This past weekend I went to Father Martin’s Ashley and participated in a speaker’s meeting. It was a pleasure doing this and is a fantastic form of service. Doing this helps my sobriety in many ways. It helps me see what is going on within me and helps me remember what it was like when I was in the early days of recovery.
The common theme the patients shared was their concern for how their loved ones were going to react to them when they returned home. Many had wives and girlfriends that already left, and children who no longer wanted to talk with them. They were afraid that their getting sober would not make a difference in the behavior of their loved ones. I pointed out that they needed to get sober, regardless of what their loved ones did.
The problem is that we are expected to maintain sobriety at the very time we are at the height of the destruction of our use. It is in the first year that we are dealing with angry loved ones, loss of a job, and alienation from coworkers. But we can’t drink. Oftentimes, we leave treatment and return back to the environment we were in when we were at the height of our use. Staying sober is difficult but it can be done with the help from other people who’ve been there and understand what you’re going through.
