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Becoming
clean and sober is important - no question about
that.
The operative definition of sober is
"abstaining from alcohol and drugs", and if you
want to save your life, clearly that's the first
change you'll need to make.
But who, other than a
funeral director, would want to live the other
(dictionary) definition of sober: "serious,
solemn, grave"?
No, recovery
isn't about becoming clean, sober, and solemn.
It's about living a better life - about loving
relationships, satisfying work, invigorating play,
about good health and good spirits. Of course you
can't build this better life without getting
sober.
But it's equally true that you can't stay
sober without building a better life. You can't,
our experience shows, have one without the other.
Treatment
for the disease of alcoholism/addiction is, in
fact, unique in that it not only eliminates the
symptoms of the illness but has the potential to
make life better than it has ever been before.
It takes time,
patience, and hard work.
And with a solid
recovery, you can:
- Regain the
freedom to make choices.
- Begin to find
pleasure in friends, family, nature, art, music,
work, etc.
- Rediscover
peace of mind -- or discover it for the very first
time.
- Escape from
fears of people, of new experiences, and of
financial insecurity.
- Benefit from a
new honesty in your relationships.
- Stop pitying
yourself and start caring about others.
- Achieve
liberation by giving up your need to control
people, events, everything about your life.
- Become
comfortable with yourself and with others; feel
loving and be able to accept love.
- Learn to solve
life's problems with thoughtful actions instead
of blotting them out with chemicals.
- And (possibly
most important of all) learn how to break the
cycle of addictive behavior handed down from
parent to child so that your children, or the
grandchildren you already have, will not have to
suffer as you have.
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