Weekly Meeting-Jan.25th-31st "Challenges in Recovery"

[janbear]

What have been major challenges for you since being clean? How did you deal with it and come out the other side of it and stay clean? What did you learn from it?

[janbear]

I can start us off with a challenge i faced. I faced my first death of a family member at 10 years clean. Honestly, it was a reservation i had that i could stay clean if i lost a family member. My father died a couple of years ago, i remember wanting to use as i left the hospital, a meeting was going to start soon so i suited up and showed up. I was in tears most of the meeting and shared what happened and what i felt like doing. After the meeting, good friends were with me and let me cry more, they shared their own experiences with it and i didnt feel alone. I reached out to my sponsor. And i spent a lot of time with my family at home too. It brought about forgiveness in my family and today my mother and i are much closer. God in my life soothed me.
I found that applying what NA had been teaching me made me stronger. I applied the spiritual principles and used all my resources to help me through the challenge. And i stayed clean.

I would love to hear the experience,strength, and hope of others.

[Cheri]

For me the biggest challenges have been being afraid to move on from all that i knew and know. All my friends that I have had since I was a little kid all use something or other to get by, when i got sober it just wasnt the same, i did not fit in anymore and it was hard. When it was all said and done, I knew that I had to do something something diffrent so I moved back home with my dad and took my daughter with. It was the scariest but most productive thing I have done outside of stop drinking. Things are diffrent here, and I have to learn new things, make new friends, live a new life. but I just take it one day at a time..some times just getting up and moving is a challenge for me but I try everyday to get some thing accomplished even if it is just coming here.

[janbear]

thank you Cheri
You shared right when i needed you to. Been having changes occur in my life today, and where they dont threaten my recovery, the changes are sending me out of my comfort zone, it challenges me to change with life circumstances. I feel out of my comfort zone, fear of the unknown.

[sioux]

The biggest challenges this alcoholic faces is living life on a daily basis. Hence "One Day at a Time" and the 7th Step Prayer are essentials for me to be willing to do just today.

[DavidNOLA]

I can play the tapes of the misery back in my head to keep me from heavy duty benders but there is also the challenge that as an alcoholic I will always want to get loaded just to get loaded.
Today, I choose not to because of Alcoholics Anonymous. I know that there is someone else out there I can tell if I feel the need to get loaded.

[bradh]

The biggest challenges I face sober are keeping my anger in check, and watching for that errant member, the tongue.

I used to get in conflicts on a daily basis with my supervisor at work, until the day that she asked me why I did something a certain way. Quite certain that she was picking on me (again), I gave her a short, curt answer.

She looked at me, and said, "No, you misunderstand me - I asked because I like the way you solved this problem".

I started to realize from that day on, that there are many ways to look at problems and challenges - either live in them, or find a (better) way to deal with them. My reactions to problems are not perfect, but I learned a lot more by failing, than by doing the right thing all the time.

I ask for help daily to find the right thought, word, or action to meet every situation I face. I don't always come up with the right way, but when I do, I feel great! Thanks.

[Bronx850]

Hi- My daily challeneges is my faith, becoming one with GOD, and the obstacles within my world of external life. I had to make bold changes within my life. GOD, the chruch, is what the 12 Step program has guided me to. Thank you all for being in my life.