One of the hardest things I think alcoholics in sobriety have to deal with is our egos. I know I go to meetings where someone wants to talk about how they feel. Someone might try to tie it in with alcoholism, but it rarely works out. After someone brings this up, others want to go back and talk about themselves and how they feel and what it is that’s bothering them. Has nothing to do with working these Steps or the program itself.
Not talking about sobriety is what a number of people in this program have brought up to me. Their concern is what happened to the Washingtonians, when they fell apart. That’s because they crumbled because they lost their primary purpose. Staying sober each and everyday. Not always easy to pull people back into why we are there in the first place.
A lot of this comes from what they have learned in programs, which got them into AA.
I can remember there were no “rehabs” back when I came in. The result was that I had to learn to stay sober, grow along spiritual lines, find a Higher Power, and to put these Twelves Steps into action. We rarely talked about emotional problems. That we learned were outside issues, which we were to talk to our sponsors about, or psychologists.
We rarely hear about prayer of meditation anymore. The “speakers” talk about just how important what their thoughts are about. I’ve even been clubbed because I told one of these people, who was going on and on, and probably drinking, that they needed to be quiet and listen. Changed the subject of the meeting to stopping picking on people and listen to their thoughts.
However from time to time I know I will find those newcomers, who have been so hurt by their drinking alcohol that they almost did what I nearly did. Commit suicide. They are willing to listen and follow the directions which help alcoholics like ourselves to get sober and stay sober. Hopefully these “alcoholics”, who want to talk about almost everything but this program, may end up going through what the BB warned us about. That is that there might come a time, when we will have no mental defense against that first drink and only the God of our understanding can help us stay sober.
Anyway I had to stop and think about what some of these alcoholics, like myself, are going through and thinking about. I know that I have been chewed out for trying to help us get back to where we need to be in the Steps and the Traditions. But I am grateful that there are those who are dedicated to staying sober and willing to do what it is we need to do on a daily basis in this program.