The text says that relapse can be the jarring experience you need to work a more vigorous program.
So if you've relapsed all you need to do is come back and work a more vigorous program , put shame aside i've been there done that, put ego aside, humble yourself and rejoin with new vigor and a new plan.
All are welcome no matter how many times you've tried and fallen, get back up and try try again.
In my first month of recovery I really wanted to replase coz many people at meetings did. I thought that it would be kool and that it would help me work the program better, what a foool! Thank God I didn't. All I needed was time. The addict that I am I wanted results and I wanted them now, In due time, in God's time, not mine. I'm much better now......
That is one of the most misinterpreted lines in the basic text. LOL. I haven't found the need to relapse in 4 years. That being said, that only applies to the drug and alchohol use. There are many types of relapse for me. Spiritual and mental being the two big ones.
What I find to be true for me is that we are not required to be perfect in this program, just vigilant and willing to do what it takes not to use. Sometimes Mentally I get really tired of the program, and almost every day is spiritual warfare. These are two major areas I know of thanks to the fourth step. Working towards fixing them tends to be easier said than done. But I am still trying, and I haven't given up, and I have been praying for at least a week solid the 3rd step prayer trying to do what has been suggested, even if I don't believe it will work.
Sounds silly doesn't it? But I'll be clean for another day, so SOMETHING is different. Relapse is a choice, a decision made on old behavior. Like Vini said it is NOT required to get clean.
Peace out
Brett
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Faith: the substance of things hoped for, the belief in things unseen
And your right Brett there are other types of relapses, many of these can bring a person right back to acitive addiction so we have to be very careful I made the mistake many times over just goijg with the flow of things , I handle them differently now not perfect, hardly but better.
Majority of people who come into the rooms are going to fall once at least , I don't know if there are any poles done so i'm just guessing I know i've seen people come and go here just putting the word out there always welcome back with open arms and understanding.
I was listening to one of the online tapes when I heard this i'm just sharing what I heard and it struck me personally, I have relapsed alot in the past always kinda figured that was the way it was going to be for me, forever, but i'm finding it doesn't have to I can and should be able to stay clean under any and all situations the rest of my life, no matter what comes up long as my program is vigorous and alive, one reason I come around here is to keep me and my mind FOCUSED on who I am and what i'm up against and hopefully I can help someone else, we all help when we post here you all effect my recovery in a helping way thankyou for posting.
I agree with Vini here.....while relapse is not necessary, it can and does happen to many. I never thought it would happen to me but it did.
I didn't have a sponsor, I wasn't listening to suggestions of what worked and what didn't....and I found myself back to the "old life" right away, trying to make a marriage work that wasn't ever gonna be the same.
8 months clean....and I used. But....I found out alot during the 7 months that I was using (and still going to meetings!!!) about myself; what made me use, why I couldn't stop once I started up again and it being much worse than it had been before, right away!!
I found out my god still loved me; he had never stopped; it was ME that turned my back on his help....it was my free will, not his will, that kept me using....shortly after that, I surrendered my will for his will because I knew, I just knew, his will for me was to not use....and I couldn't stop without his help. It was a true blessing in my life when I surrendered and accepted that I could never be successful at using ever again. And it took relapse to see all the things I saw about myself....
Don't give up 5 minutes before the MIRACLE HAPPENS!!! :)
Grateful to be clean and alive today!! thanks to NA and the wonderful fellowship without whom I could ever have done this.....Never Alone!! Never Again!!
-- Edited by NA_ROCKS at 11:52, 2007-06-08
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Just For Today....I will have faith in someone in NA who believes in me and wants to help me in my recovery.
