The Alcoholics Prayer

For normal folks drinking means companionship and colorful imagination. It means release from care boredom and worry. It is joyous and intimacy with friends and a feeling that life is good, but not so feeling that life is good but not so with us in those last says of heavy drinking – pg 151 “A Vision for You” from the big book of Alcoholics Anonymous

When we first start drinking most of us find what we’ve been searching for for years. A sense of ease and comfort. We feel smarter, stronger, carefree, and find the relief most of us have been craving our whole lives. We become masters of fun and partying. Over time whether it be months or years that feeling usually fades. We are no longer able to escape and the consequences begin. Some of us lose our family, jobs, and houses while others get DUI’s, lose friends or have a string of nights that went just a little too far. Whatever bottom it is that we hit there is no such thing as a bottom that is too high or too low. We hit our bottom when we stop digging. It can always get worse. We find ourselves going to any lengths to defend our right to drink and use to the death until we can’t lie to ourselves and others anymore or until we stop pretending it’s still working for us .When we realize we no longer have it in us to continue living like this we say what is known in A.A. as the alcoholic prayer –PLEASE HELP ME!

If you are tired, rundown, or if this thing has you licked and you don’t know how to stop drinking here are a few options you can check out…30 day rehab programs, California rehab centers, AA, and rehab programs in California.

Whatever route you decide to take may you find recovery and life you seek and may you be surrounded by love and success on this new path

Alcoholism and the Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde Effect

“He does absurd, incredible, tragic things while drinking. He is a real Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.”-pg 21 from the big book of Alcoholics Anonymous

This is usually the sad truth behind alcoholism. Alcoholism robs people of pretty much everything good in their lives such as their jobs, families, friends, homes, and happiness and it doesn’t end until the alcoholic either surrenders and gets sober or until there are jails, institutions or death involved.

There’s no reason for alcoholism to have to end in jails, institution or death when there are rehab programs in California as well as Los Angeles rehabs that can help.

There is also support for family of addicts. There’s Al-Anon, and plenty of treatment centers willing and able to work with families to rebuild a broken relationship. When were in the midst of our disease it can seem nearly impossible to find a way out especially when the life of an alcoholic seems to become the only normal one to them. However many people have recovered from this thing that holds us hostage. There are several tools to aid us in our recovery. Through them we can be freed from the bondage of self. We can mend our broken relationships, make right what was once wrong, learn to forgive, love ourselves, our lives, and trudge the road of happy destiny.

Regardless of what we have done or how powerless we think we are there is hope for all of us if we reach out and ask for help and take it one day at a time.

Changing the Alcoholic Double Life in a 30 Day Rehab Program

“More than most people, the alcoholic leads a double life. He is very much the actor.” page 73 the big book of Alcoholics Anonymous

If you are at a point in your life where you are deciding or have decided that you are an alcoholic or an addict this quote might hit home for you. By the time we hit our bottoms there has often been many years of living two different lives just to be able to maintain our habits. Like a chameleon an addicted person will change in every situation as a means to protect themselves from losing things that they consider important to them i.e. family, jobs, ability to drink the way they want, houses etc this all stems from fear…fear of not getting what they want, losing what they have, or not getting what they “deserve”. This can continue on into sobriety if one does not have tools to cope or if they are doing it alone,  many people refer to this as “white knuckling it”. It’s not a pleasant or necessary experience there is plenty of help available that can be found in places such as 30 day rehab programs, drug addiction detox, and dual diagnosis recovery center Los Angeles. Whatever the path one may choose there is no wrong way as long as the destination is the same. Once we get sober we can stop living like actors, chameleons, or addicts and start living healthy, honest, and open lives. We can begin to allow people and ourselves to see who we truly are as well as opening ourselves up to be loved.

Learning in Early Recovery: H.A.L.T.

H.A.L.T.

Hungry – Angry – Lonely – Tired

When getting sober, you may hear the staff at this California alcohol and drug rehabilitation center talk about recognizing what it means to H.A.L.T.  This concept is best served by putting this acronym into action.

What happens when we are hungry?  Perhaps we become easy to irritate, edgy, unable to concentrate, and with our single-purpose focus on that gnawing feeling in our stomach, we may yet be somewhat befogged by the lack of fuel for our bodies.  With all of that, the propensities toward additional misunderstandings leave others, and we may include ourselves in this, prone to unnecessary tension.

How many of us lash out when we are angry?  The bile of fury rises in our throats and we spit fire, with the potential to incite riotous feelings within whomever we come in contact.  Perhaps it inflates our sense of entitlement, fanning the flames of our arrogance which in turn causes us to treat others as less than.  Maybe we become short, curt, and terse coupled with a sharp tone when communicating; we burn people with whom we’ve come in contact with the hot iron of our ire.

Lonely; the word itself may immediately create an idea of a cry for attention.  When we are lonely we may be inclined to seek company that is less than beneficial to our well being.  We may indulge in self-pity, believing we are worthless, never to feel connected in the world.  This encompassing feeling of aloneness shadows our relationships.  Perhaps we fail to be even willing to connect, leaving us reveling in our own pit of despair blindfolded to the truth while thinking only of ourselves.

Tired can cause an inability to think clearly and while markedly impairing our immediate judgment; it may also sharpen our tongue propelling us to quickly lash out at others.  We could, potentially, be unable to focus, our concentration eclipsed leaving us inclined to be unable to complete a task that is required by work or needed by family or an ear for friends.  Maybe we decide we’ll get behind the wheel and in doing that we put others and ourselves at great risk, similar to driving while under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol.  Falling asleep at the wheel can kill.

We are guided by the alcohol and drug rehab staff to check in with ourselves, noting where we are at, being mindful of our responses to others, and, when we find we are feeling one or more of these, we immediately stop and address the issue(s) at hand.  The resolution of any one of them can open us back up to being available to others.  Our self-care directly contributes to our ability to be present and, when we are present, without the anvil of H.A.L.T. weighing us down, we are serving our most important purpose; being of service to others.

Acceptance and Alcohol Addiction Help

“Acceptance is the answer to all my problems today”

pg 417 The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous.

There are a lot of feelings that come up when one begins to get sober. Perhaps feelings of excitement, fear, or uncertainty come up but rarely acceptance. Acceptance often times gets mistaken for surrender however acceptance is not surrender. Surrender is an action while acceptance is a feeling. When you or your loved one surrenders and begins to accept their alcoholism/addiction then there are several places to reach out to for alcohol addiction help. Here are a few:

-Drug rehab in California
-AA
-California rehab centers

When the alcoholic starts the recovery process and decides this is the path they want to take then they can truly begin to understand the meaning of acceptance and live in it. They can begin to know a new freedom and a new happiness with the certainty that everything is as it’s supposed to be. that is the core of acceptance … knowing that things are the way they are and not trying to change it but instead living in that moment with peace and serenity. It is the act of assenting or believing. While surrendering means to give oneself up, and to abandon whether you’re abandoning false beliefs or your previous lifestyle or anything that no longer works for you – it is an act of surrender.

The journey begins when you realize you can’t do this alone, realize you don’t have to, and reach out for help. Best of  luck on finding your road to happy destiny!

12 Step Recovery Programs, The Final Steps

Continuing our deeper look into the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, the basis of 12 step recovery programs, steps 6-12 provide a strong foundation for a recovering addict to move from humiliation and despair into a healthy new life free of drugs and alcohol. Read on for more FAQs on rehab and recovery los angeles, Picking up from the sixth step:

6. We are entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character

When we are working this step we remember that we are human and should not place unrealistic expectations on ourselves.

7. Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings

Step 7 is similar to step 3, but is more specific. We have completed our personal inventory and have a better idea of the roots the addictive behaviors we learned we had when we sought drug rehab help.

8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all

Step 8 is the beginning of making amends, of healing the past with others.

9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others

When we make amends to those we have harmed, we pay back debts. We apologize and do things to help heal the damage that we have done.

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it

Step 10 lays the foundation for the rest of our lives.

11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with our Higher     Power.

Step 11 provides us with daily spiritual maintenance.

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs

We move from the despair of addiction to a state where we act as instruments of our Higher Power and live by example.

Practicing these steps is a life-long commitment, but taking the first step is the most important. If you or someone you love is seeking affordable alcohol rehab or drug treatment, please contact us.

Affordable Rehab and Recovery

“(b) That probably no human power could have relieved our alcoholism.” – The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, pg. 60

With reading that statement, we may not entirely grasp the gravity of its suggestion.  Many times, in a drug rehab  in California, we may put the counselor or therapist to whom we feel the most connected on a pedestal.  Perhaps after leaving this affordable rehab, we begin to refocus our attention from the counselor/therapist to our sponsor, assuming we are working with one.  If not our sponsor, maybe we put the onus of our belief of that power greater than ourselves on another person, boyfriend, girlfriend, wife, husband, public figure, etc.

This is a definitive problem and can further the concept of having a lack of power.  As we attempt to rely on others, we find that, invariably, the human condition, which includes the inevitable mistakes and whatnot, is not a stable and reliable source for us.  We find this direction, if we attempt it, isn’t the best within where to reach/attach our faith.

It may be a struggle to come to the notion that we cannot rely upon others as an insurance policy against our drinking and/or using.  With everything we hear about working with others, being available, being of service, it can be, especially in early sobriety, confusing as to where we are to place our firm assurances.

When we rely on others for our sobriety, we are setting ourselves and the other person up for failure and for the possibility of him or her building a large resentment toward us or, conversely a resentment from us toward the person with whom we want to believe will save us and/or keep us sober.  When that other person doesn’t act, behave, give, respond, in the way we need, this can be used as our impetus to drink and/or use, before we have a spiritual foundation on which to stand.  This can, given resentments are our number one offender, propel us toward taking a drink and, therefore, quite possibly drive us straight through the gateway of misery into the waiting arms of death.

In order for us to follow the well-worn path to success in the program of Alcoholics Anonymous using the design for living provided for us in the The Big Book, it is strongly suggested we find a power great than ourselves and that power may very well need to come in the form of a burgeoning concept of our Higher Power. This is to be a power greater than ourselves and that does not mean another living being or inanimate object, as people can let us down and material items can get lost and/or break.  We are not saviors for others, as they cannot be for us, & just as we cannot, of our own will, save ourselves.

California Drug Treatment and Learning to Steer Away from Deliberate Drinking

“In some circumstances we have gone out deliberately to get drunk, feeling ourselves justified by nervousness, anger, worry, depression, jealousy or the like.  But even in this type of beginning we are obliged to admit that our justification for a sprees was insanely insufficient in the light of what always happened.  We now see that when we began to drink deliberately, instead of casually, there was little serious or effective thought during the period of premeditation of what the terrific consequences might be.” – The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, pg. 37

As we travel along this new path of sobriety, we will be squarely confronted with issues in our lives that we may have, in our life previous to this new route of no longer imbibing, used to justify our drinking and/or using.  Issues where we allow a vast power, the power of our reactive feelings, to swoop down over us; in effect supplanting our connection with our Higher Power and replacing it with said feelings regarding our current trials and tribulations.  These might be situations that we would have, previously, used to assert ourselves alongside our drink or drug of choice.

During these difficult times, we may feel righteously deserving of going out and filling ourselves with whatever drink or drug we please.  We may use the excuse of our situation, whatever that may be, like a shield between us and our Higher Power.  We may, possibly, even believe we are due a time out from our entire acquired sobriety thus far since, perhaps, we had been “good” for so long.  Perhaps we may fall prey to the idea of taking that particular moment and using it to jump at what may seem like a golden opportunity to drink and/or use.

These moments can be deadly.  Who knows if we will be able to return to the path of sobriety.  Maybe, just maybe, this self-indulgent, righteous tear we go out on doesn’t lead us, eventually, back to being sober but into an institution or, worse yet, a grave.

In this California drug treatment, the staff help us learn about the pending potential for our lives to take a turn in a difficult direction or when to recognize we are embroiled in an issue so deeply that it may seem insurmountable without the use of drugs and/or drink in order for us to get through it.  Whether we are there for one of their 30 day rehab programs or a longer stay, they show us that this is one of the insidious ways our alcoholism and/or drug addiction has aggressively taken hold of us, keeping us pinned to the proverbial ground and separated from what we have learned and experienced thus far.  We learn what to do when these feelings encompass us and these tools, in effect, save our lives; much like CPR saves the lives of so many, our embracing and enacting these new ways of living through difficult times will do the same.

Discarding Old Ideas and Starting a New Life in an Addiction Program in Los Angeles

“Is not our age characterized by the ease with which we discard old ideas for new, by the complete readiness with which we throw away the theory or gadget which does not work for something new which does?”  – The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, pg. 52

How many times have we changed our minds about a situation, a person, an idea?  Our beliefs may have fluctuated throughout our lives depending on what we’ve learned, seen, heard and/or come to understand regarding a situation where initially we may have thought differently.  So, in this, we can look back and realize that perhaps our initial ideas weren’t always correct or as informed as we may have thought.

As we approach sobriety and enter an addiction program in Los Angeles, we may need to reevaluate our belief systems, recognizing that the ones we have relied upon have not always led us to make the best choices and/or place ourselves in the optimum situations.  Perhaps it is time to rely on a different source for direction.  In this, we begin to realize our own concepts haven’t been as reliable.  Maybe, in our initial belief systems we were sure there was nothing greater than ourselves, that there wasn’t a greater Intelligent Power to guide us.

If we are as inclined to discard old ideas for new based on what we’ve learned through our lives, doesn’t it stand to reason that, perhaps, we may want to reevaluate our idea of relying on a Power greater than ourselves?  Just as we once could not imagine a sober life and are now learning a new life in an affordable rehab, we can see where perhaps our new life may have room for a power greater than ourselves. Even if we are still unable to fully grasp that idea, an idea which is constructed as we move forward by our own respective understanding, it could be conceivable that we function under the premise that there is a Power greater than us, whether we are ready to accept that in full or not.  When we live through the idea of something bigger than merely ourselves, we begin to live in a way that allows us to extend past our own designs and schemes and we bring the better part of ourselves into the world.

Newcomers in 12 Step Programs for Addiction

As you begin to attending 12 step program, addiction addressing AA/NA meetings, you may hear the statement “The newcomer is the most important person in the room.”

Perhaps you wonder how that could possibly be the case?  When was the last time you were welcome with open arms anywhere?

Upon your arrival to this Los Angeles rehab, the staff will welcome you and will treat you accordingly.  Maybe it’s the first time in a long, long time we are being welcome anywhere.  It can be a foreign feeling, perhaps one that even elicits a suspicion of sorts.  It’s as if it’s in the staff doing that for us, it opens the door to others who may approach us with phone numbers, offering rides to meetings, sit down & extend themselves accordingly.  We may not feel so put off by those people and may even, depending, take them up on their generous offers.

Here’s why the response to their offerings may shed some light on the first idea.  When someone new presents themselves to us, we may need to forgo some of our upcoming plans.  In order for us to keep what we have so freely been given, we must extend ourselves to others.  As we do that, we are given the chance to reinforce our sober time.  We need the newcomer in order to survive.  With said newcomer, we get to go through the steps again ourselves while we are guiding them.  With that connection, they have the ability to inadvertently ground us in the reality of what happens when we are on a run or are coming into the program for the first time. They reinforce for us how that unmanageability exists and/or returns ever-so-shortly and what the state of their internal life is like, which, more often that not, reeks of misery & discomfort.

The connection we forge while working together is like no other and the gratitude that emerges from that very sharing with one another solidifies our spiritual connection.   Without the newcomer, we may not be able to treat our spiritual malady.  If we can’t do that, we may default to the physical craving.  After introducing the first drug or drink into the body, we may then be caught by the mental obsession keeping us bound to the prison of our minds and the substance(s).  In that, it leads us right back to that spiritual malady.  Subsequently the unmanageability that returns internally gets reflected externally and we reach for whatever’s going to, we hope, wipe away the pain and shame from our actions..  Working with one another acknowledges our need for the connections of our human spirit, whether we like it or not.  That newcomer’s desperation is our fuel by which we light the lamps of the roadway of sobriety, guiding us toward serenity.