Are you a sober horse thief?

When I first started into NA and AA meetings, I always hear this saying...."What do you get when you get a horse thief to quit drinking?...A sober horse thief." It took a long while to understand what that saying truly means. Being clean and sober are get things, but being in recovery is quite different. Being abstinent from drugs and alcohol isn't equal to recovery. The drugs and alcohol are merely symptoms of a disease. The true way of getting that LONG term clean time is changing the behaviors that make us take drugs in the first place. Not getting aftercare and getting into recovery is the main reason people become so easily cross-addicted. They get away from their drug of choice, move to something else, and then return some time later. Merely stopping your drug of choice and replacing it with another isn't recovery either. If you truly want peace in your life, get a plan together and get into aftercare. Withdrawals are rough, but unless you work on the behaviors that cause the disease, you will face relapses and withdrawals.

[stilltrying1965]

I understand what yo are saying bud. The first time i came o heroin i was so down i started to take cocain to make me happy and it did at first but as you said it took me right back to heroin. This time i have done things different i have a concilor who i can really open up to.And i have staid clean for 2 months now.So i learned a valubil lesson ,,,,James

[avisg]

ga you are so right .I did it the first time I stopped using I stopped the drugs but I was not getting any aftercare there for I stopped using but I really wasn't in recovery .It didn't take all that much to set me right back down the path of using .When I did it the next time with a recovery plan I started truly being in recovery .

[refusingbondage]

Its so true soooo true..  I am really into this these days... I really didnt want to believe it, but its honest to goodness the truth.  Hard to accept as it may be.  

I started to notice on this forum -- every member with 3 digits (or more!) on their clean time trackers mostly all advocate SUPPORT and RECOVERY/AFTERCARE.. hmm.. makes sense to me..

[avisg]

refusing ,
and most of us tryed it would care first some of us many times then we figured out we needed it to stay clean .We are trying to encourage others right off so they don't have to go down the same road .

[dominosarah]

When i quit drinking all i was was a "dry" drunk.  Still the same attitude and behaviors minus the drinking.  When i cleaned up with the pills i knew i had to do something so recovery was the only way for me and still is.  I listened to the ones who had gone before me.  I take what i need and leave the rest at my meetings.....sara

[sterling_silver]

I found this forum about 3 years ago. I did my cold turkey here, off pills. I did about 2 1/2 years clean. Yes, 891 days...........When my mom was dying, my addict brain kicked in. I thought it would be ok to take pills for a couple weeks, to get me through. I knew all about na/aa, but I just did not want to go. I have now completely surrendered. I go to meetings, and I am going to work the program. If you are truly an addict, do yourself a favor, go check it out.

[Addict63]

Hi everyone, I've been out of town on vacation for the last 2 weeks. This is a good subject for me to get back into the forum with.

When I stopped drinking after my 1st AA meeting I was absolutely the same guy less the alcohol. I was just dry. I went to meetings almost every night, and meetings on my lunch hour downtown.

I mostly did 1st through 3rd step tables. It took me a while to figure out what it meant to "turn something over" and to realize my happiness couldn't depend on circumstances going my way; because I wasn't in control of circumstances. But I still was the same guy, just with some acceptance about things. Nothing changed except I felt wonderful being drug and alcohol free.

It wasn't until I was about 8 months sober that I asked someone to be my sponsor. I formed a partnership with another human being. That was something I had never done before. I got equal with someone. Before that moment I was either over you, or beneath you, but never equal with you. He's been my sponsor ever since. Quite a few 24 hour periods.

My sponsor told me the AA program is about CHANGE. I had to change if I expected to remain sober. He suggested I quit doing the 3-step waltz and move on to the 4th step. I did what he suggested. I did the 4th through 9th steps and cleared up my past.By working those steps I learned to love and respect myself, and once that was out of the way I found I could begin to actually love and respect other people. That wasn't just a change for me, it was a complete turn-around in my attitude toward myself and all of humanity just outside my door.  

Our AA promises in the Big Book tell us we will not regret the past, and because of the steps, the past is now behind me. The future will never come because that's tomorrow. I awake every day in the now. All I have is today. I had a good day today, I didn't use. It's all about wanting to get to bed tonight without using or drinking. Wanting. The desire to be clean and sober.

I really enjoyed my vacation. Good to be back.

[dominosarah]

Vacation???  Sounds like heaven to me!!!!!!!

[Skidmore]

this is a good post.One thing Ive learned in NA is that i dont want to be pissing clean and living dirty.Recovery is about change ,and doing things in other ways than when we were using.Drugs and alcohol put addicts thinking and behavier way out of perspective.I am greatful that I have a twelve step program in my life