If you are new to sobriety, congratulations. It will be a journey filled with wonderful life events. However, when I became newly sober I had to face many problems that I created while drinking. Upon completing my final stay a rehab I came back to town to find I no longer had my own home. I had a standoff with the police at which time I caused a lot of destruction to my apartment and i was not allowed to return. Luckily, family took me in. I also found myself without a job. I had been placed on medical leave but that exhausted and I was let go. As you can imagine, I had no money as well. During this time in early sobriety I was forced to sell my vehicle to survive financially since I had accrued large credit card debt. And lastly I had burned many bridges with people, that I hardly had anyone to turn to except some family that I am very grateful. for………..Why am I telling you all this? I just want you to know that difficult things happen while in sobriety and especially in early sobriety. The key message here is that one does not have to drink over the hardships. I feel that they can be overcome by anyone in time. Stay strong an continue to stay sober because the good things to come will be far greater than early hardships. My wish for anyone newly sober is that they continue to have faith that God can and will protect you from taking that drink no matter what is going on in ones life.. May God bless you on your journey.
Monthly Archives: June 2016
Changing My Way Of Thinking
One of the first things, among many , that I learned about staying sober was that i had to begin to change my way about thinking. For me this meant that I had to abandon the negativity that consumed my being. For many years, while drinking, my thoughts about life were that filled with hate and selfishness. I hated my way of existing, I hated people and I hated that God could let me live a life I had. Self pity also consumed my mind as I was always thinking ” why me”. In sobriety I have learned that I had an illness that consumed my mind, body and spirit. It took some time but I began to see that, when drinking, I had not a choice in the way i was living because I was sick. I know realize that God had been there all along with me regardless of my feelings about him. You see, I believe he had great plans for me and it took taking a good look at my past lifestyle to see how I could be useful to others suffering from Alcoholism. As far as hating people I now know that we are all God’s children and hating another human being is to hate God. Now going on 13 years of sobriety I have caught myself occasionally slipping back into old thinking patterns of negativity. My wife even mentioned this to me. Thanks to her I have recognized my faults ans have been able to pray for God to remove that character defect, as they say. I certainly am not perfect but I know if I continue my path of prayer and believing in myself I will be fine. i suppose this will always be a work in progress. I pray that if you suffer from negativity or self-pity that you too can find a way to a wonderful new way at looking at life. May God Bless You!