We felt different.... Only after surrender are we able to overcome the alienation of addiction.

Basic Text, p. 22

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But you dont understand! we spluttered, trying to cover up. Im different! Ive really got it rough! We used these lines over and over in our active addiction, either trying to escape the consequences of our actions or avoid following the rules that applied to everyone else. We may have cried them at our first meeting. Perhaps weve even caught ourselves whining them recently.

So many of us feel different or unique. As addicts, we can use almost anything to alienate ourselves. But theres no excuse for missing out on recovery, nothing that can make us ineligible for the programnot a life-threatening illness, not poverty, not anything. There are thousands of addicts who have found recovery despite the real hardships theyve faced. Through working the program, their spiritual awareness has grown, in spite ofor perhaps in response tothose hardships.

Our individual circumstances and differences are irrelevant when it comes to recovery. By letting go of our uniqueness and surrendering to this simple way of life, were bound to find that we feel a part of something. And feeling a part of something gives us the strength to walk through life, hardships and all.

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Just for today: I will let go of my uniqueness and embrace the principles of recovery I have in common with so many others. My hardships do not exclude me from recovery; rather, they draw me into it.