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Pamela7030
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800 Posts |
 Posted - 09/09/2009 : 4:58:45 PM
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NA Thought for the Day
September 9, 2009
Like other incurable diseases, addiction can be arrested. We agree that there is nothing shameful about being an addict, provided we accept our dilemma honestly and take positive action. We are willing to admit without reservation that we are allergic to drugs. Common sense tells us that it would be insane to go back to the source of our allergy. Our experience indicates that medicine cannot cure our illness.
Although physical and mental tolerance plays a role, many drugs require no extended period of use to trigger allergic reactions. Our reaction to drugs is what makes us addicts, not how much we use.
Many of us did not think that we had a problem with drugs until the drugs ran out. Even when others told us that we had a problem, we were convinced that we were right and the world was wrong. We used this belief to justify our self-destructive behavior. We developed a point of view that enabled us to pursue our addiction without concern for our own well-being or the well-being of others. We began to feel that the drugs were killing us long before we could ever admit it to anyone else. We noticed that if we tried to stop using, we couldn’t. We suspected that we had lost control over the drugs and had no power to stop.
Certain things followed as we continued to use. We became accustomed to a state of mind that is common to addicts. We forgot what it was like before we started using; we forgot about social graces. We acquired strange habits and mannerisms. We forgot how to work; we forgot how to play; we forgot how to express ourselves and how to show concern for others. We forgot how to feel.
While using, we lived in another world. We experienced only periodic jolts of reality or self-awareness.
Each of us has a few things that we never did. We cannot let these things become excuses to use again. Some of us feel lonely because of differences between us and other members. This feeling makes it difficult to give up old connections and old habits.
We all have different tolerances for pain. Some addicts needed to go to greater extremes than others. Some of us found that we had enough when we realized that we were getting high too often and it was affecting our daily lives.
At first, we were using in a manner that seemed to be social or at least controllable. We had little indication of the disaster that the future held for us. At some point, our using became uncontrollable and anti-social. This began when things were going well, and were in situations that allowed us to use frequently. This was usually the end of the good times. We may have tried to moderate, substitute or even stop using, but we went from a state of drugged success and well-being to complete spiritual, mental and emotional bankruptcy. This rate of decline varies from addict to addict. Whether it occurs in years or days, it is all downhill. Those of us who don’t die from the disease will go on to prison, mental institutions or complete demoralization as the disease progresses.
As addicts, we have an incurable disease called addiction. The disease is chronic, progressive and fatal. However, it is a treatable disease. We feel that each individual has to answer the question, “Am I an addict?” How we got the disease is of no immediate importance to us. We are concerned with recovery.
We begin to treat our addiction by not using. Many of us sought answers but failed to find any workable solution until we found each other. Once we identify ourselves as addicts, help becomes possible. We can see a little of ourselves in every addict and see al little of them in us. This insight lets us help one another. Denial of our addiction kept us sick, but our honest admission of addiction enabled us to stop using. The people of NA told us that they were recovering addicts who had learned to live without drugs. If they could do it, so could we.
NA Book, Pages 5-8
“Share your experience, strength, and hope with another and see the miracles transform your life!” |
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Freefly
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964 Posts |
Posted - 09/14/2009 : 10:18:12 AM
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AA Thought for the Day
September 14, 2009
Character Defects
Step Six -- "Were entirely ready to have
God remove all these defects of character" --
is AA's way of stating the best possible attitude one can take
in order to make a beginning on this lifetime job.
- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, p. 65
Thought to Ponder . . .
If I want God to remove my character defects, I'll have to stop doing them.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
Patience, Understanding, Tolerance.
Day by Day is the only way.... |
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Pamela7030
Moderator
800 Posts |
Posted - 09/14/2009 : 1:00:49 PM
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NA Thought for the Day
September 14, 2009
Understanding powerlessness—and how admitting our own powerlessness is essential to our recovery—will help us get over any negative feelings we may have about the concept.
We are powerless when the driving force in our life is beyond our control. Our addiction certainly qualifies as such an uncontrollable, driving force. We cannot moderate or control our drug use or other compulsive behaviors, even when they are causing us to lose the things that matter most to us. We cannot stop even when to continue will surely result in irreparable physical damage. We find ourselves doing things that we would never do if it weren’t for our addiction, things that make us shudder with shame when we think of them. We may even decide that we don’t want to use, that we aren’t going to use and realize we are simple unable to stop when the opportunity presents itself.
We may have tried to abstain from drug use or other compulsive behaviors—perhaps with some success—for a period of time without a program, only to find that our untreated addiction eventually takes us right back to where we were before.
Narcotic Anonymous has many years of experience with literally hundreds of thousands of addicts. This firsthand experience in all phases of illness and recovery is of unparalleled, therapeutic value. We are here to share freely with any addict who wants to recover.
From the NA Step Working Guide, Page 3 and the NA Book Page 10
“Share your experience, strength, and hope with another and see the miracles transform your life!” |
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Freefly
Administrator
964 Posts |
Posted - 09/15/2009 : 08:08:08 AM
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AA Thought for the Day
September 15, 2009
Amends
It is important for me to realize that, as an alcoholic,
I not only hurt myself, but also those around me.
Making amends to my family, and to the families of alcoholics still suffering,
will always be important.
Understanding the havoc I created and trying to repair the destruction,
will be a lifelong endeavor.
- Daily Reflections, p.173
Thought to Ponder . . .
It is the highest form of self-respect to admit mistakes
and to make amends for them.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
Accountable Actions.
Day by Day is the only way.... |
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Freefly
Administrator
964 Posts |
Posted - 09/16/2009 : 07:43:11 AM
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AA Thought for the Day
September 16, 2009
Easy Does It
The slogan "Easy Does It" is one way we AA's remind each other
that many of us have tendencies at times to overdo things,
to rush heedlessly along, impatient with anything that slows us down.
We find it hard to relax and savor life.
When one of us is in a dither to get something done or get somewhere in a hurry,
a friend may gently remonstrate, "'Easy Does It,' remember?"
- Living Sober, p.44
Thought to Ponder . . .
While it isn't always easy, if I keep it simple, it works.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
Been Enjoying Sobriety Today?
Day by Day is the only way.... |
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Freefly
Administrator
964 Posts |
Posted - 09/17/2009 : 08:38:15 AM
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AA Thought for the Day
September 17, 2009
Primary Purpose
It is the great paradox of AA
that we know we can seldom keep the precious gift of sobriety
unless we give it away. . .
our Society has concluded that it has but one high mission --
to carry the AA message to those who don't know there's a way out.
- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, p.151
Thought to Ponder . . .
We give away to keep.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
Hope, Encouragement, Love, Patience.
Day by Day is the only way.... |
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Freefly
Administrator
964 Posts |
Posted - 09/18/2009 : 07:58:21 AM
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AA Thought for the Day
September 18, 2009
Change
I must face the fact that the resentment process is not only fruitless,
it is self-defeating. . .
Here I am burning myself to a crisp over something
he or she may not even be totally aware of, something I can't change.
At the root of my resentment is a compulsion
to change the things I cannot change -- to wit, another person.
So, maybe what I need to do is take a look at changing myself.
- The Best of the Grapevine [Vol. 3], p.107
Thought to Ponder . . .
When I change the way I look at things, the things I look at change.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
Acceptance, Belief, Change.
Day by Day is the only way.... |
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Freefly
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964 Posts |
Posted - 09/19/2009 : 08:41:54 AM
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AA Thought for the Day
September 19, 2009
Mystery
My whole story is a sort of divine mystery to me.
I don't know how an intelligent human being
ever could have gotten into such a mess,
and the more firmly established in sanity I become,
the more amazed I am that I ever got out of the mess.
- Came To Believe . . ., p.99
Thought to Ponder . . .
I had to get sober to be amazed.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
Always Awesome.
Day by Day is the only way.... |
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Freefly
Administrator
964 Posts |
Posted - 09/20/2009 : 11:45:03 AM
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AA Thought for the Day
September 20, 2009
Airborne
I have found that the process of discovering who I really am
begins with knowing who I really don't want to be.
And although the disease of alcoholism is like gravity,
just waiting to pull me down, AA and the Twelve Steps are like the power
that causes an airplane to become airborne.
It only works when the pilot is doing the right thing to make it work.
- Alcoholics Anonymous, pp.456-7
Thought to Ponder . . .
Recovery is discovery.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
Achieve Anything.
Day by Day is the only way.... |
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Freefly
Administrator
964 Posts |
Posted - 09/21/2009 : 08:33:05 AM
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AA Thought for the Day
September 21, 2009
Anger
If we were to live, we had to be free of anger.
- Alcoholics Anonymous, p .66
Thought to Ponder . . .
Anger rules nothing except itself.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
Avoid Anger.
Day by Day is the only way.... |
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Pamela7030
Moderator
800 Posts |
Posted - 09/21/2009 : 7:53:34 PM
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AA Thought for the Day
September 21, 2009
Like all the remaining Steps, Step Three calls for affirmative action, for it is only by action that we can cut away the self-will which has always blocked the entry of God—or, if you like, a Higher Power—into our lives. Faith, to be sure, is necessary, but faith alone can avail nothing. We can have faith, yet keep God out of our lives. Therefore our problem now becomes just how and by what specific means shall we be able to let Him in? Step Three represents our first attempt to do this. In fact, the effectiveness of the whole AA program will rest upon how well and earnestly we have tried to come to “a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.”
To every worldly and practical-minded beginner, this Step looks hard, even impossible. No matter how much one wishes to try, exactly how can he turn his own will and his own life over to the care of whatever God he thinks there is? Fortunately, we who have tried it, and with equal misgivings, can testify that anyone, anyone at all, can begin to do it. We can further add that a beginning, even the smallest, is all that is needed. Once we have placed the key of willingness in the lock and have the door ever so slightly open, we find that we can always open it some more. Though self-will may slam it shut again, as it frequently does, it will always respond the moment we again pick up the key of willingness.
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, Pages 34 and 35
The more we become willing to depend upon a higher Power, the more independent we actually are.
“Share your experience, strength, and hope with another and see the miracles transform your life!” |
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| Information in this forum is not monitored or provided by a medical professional. The information reflects member opinions only. Do not act on advice from these forums without first consulting a qualified medical professional. All content is copyrighted and protected by Aelius Group. |
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Freefly
Administrator
964 Posts |
Posted - 09/22/2009 : 06:26:54 AM
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AA Thought for the Day
September 22, 2009
Reality
Beaten into complete defeat by alcohol, confronted by the living proof of release,
and surrounded by those who can speak to us from the heart,
we have finally surrendered.
And then, paradoxically, we have found ourselves in a new dimension,
the real world of spirit and of faith.
Enough willingness, enough open-mindedness -- and there it is!
- The Language of the Heart, p.246
Thought to Ponder . . .
We surrender to win.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
Honesty, Open-mindedness, Willingness.
Day by Day is the only way.... |
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Pamela7030
Moderator
800 Posts |
Posted - 09/24/2009 : 11:19:22 AM
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AA Thought for the Day
September 24, 2009
Restore us to “Sanity”
To clergymen, doctors, friends, and families, the alcoholic who means well and tries hard is a heartbreaking riddle. To most AA’s, he is not. There are too many of us who have been just like him, and have found the riddle’s answer. The answer has to do with the quality of faith rather than its quantity. This has been our blind spot. In no deep or meaningful sense had we ever taken stock of ourselves, made amends to those we had harmed, or freely given to any other human being without any demand for reward. We had not even prayed rightly. We had always said, “Grant me my wishes” instead of “Thy will be done.” The love of God and man we understood not at all. Therefore we remained self-deceived, and so incapable of receiving enough grace to restore us to “sanity.”
Few indeed are the practicing alcoholics who have any idea how irrational they are, or seeing their irrationality, can bear to face it. Some will be willing to term themselves “problem drinkers,” but cannot endure the suggestion that they are in fact mentally ill. They are abetted in this blindness by a world which does not understand the difference between sane drinking and alcoholism. “Sanity” is defined as “soundness of mind.” Yet no alcoholic, soberly analyzing his destructive behavior, whether the destruction fell on the dining-room furniture or his own moral fiber, can claim “soundness of mind” for himself.
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, Pages 32 and 33
Step Two
“Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.”
Alcoholism is a disease….dis-ease
Although we are not responsible for our disease, we are responsible for our recovery.
“Share your experience, strength, and hope with another and see the miracles transform your life!” |
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Freefly
Administrator
964 Posts |
Posted - 09/24/2009 : 6:24:02 PM
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AA Thought for the Day
September 24, 2009
Trust
When I put my faith in the spiritual power of the program,
when I trust others to teach me what I need to do to have a better life,
I find that I can trust myself to do what is necessary.
- Daily Reflections, p .226
Thought to Ponder . . .
Trust God. Clean house. Help others.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
Try Relying Upon Steps and Traditions.
Day by Day is the only way.... |
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Freefly
Administrator
964 Posts |
Posted - 09/25/2009 : 07:59:59 AM
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AA Thought for the Day
September 25, 2009
Action
My AA way of life now demands constant action -- an active self-honesty
and recognition of the necessity of living in day-tight compartments.
Patience must be practiced.
In gratitude, I must humbly come to believe every moment of every day.
- Came To Believe . . ., p.96
Thought to Ponder . . .
Never mistake motion for action.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
Accountable Actions.
Day by Day is the only way.... |
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