Alcoholism and addiction affect our lives in so many ways. Some of those effects are similar. All of us who are alcoholics or addicts know the struggle with the mental obsession, the physical allergy, and the disease’s spiritual malady. It is these characteristic symptoms that bind all of us together in our common solution. This is part of what makes the 12-Steps work for all of us.
Of course, there are also differences in the details of how alcoholism and addiction affect our lives. While we all have the same disease, our lives are certainly not the same. For some of us, our disease ruined relationships. For others, it prevented us from even starting relationships. For some, we lost our jobs or careers. Others of us never really got started. Broken homes, broken families, homelessness, couch-surfing — the variations of the fallout from our active disease are infinite because life takes different branches for all of us. Yet getting back on track and finding recovery is still possible for anyone.
Our Disease Takes Us All Off Track
No matter what the details are, alcoholism and addiction knock all of us off the track one way or another. Whatever it looks like, our disease has negative impacts on just about every aspect of our lives. Perhaps it’s missed time with family, failed romances, or missed deadlines at work. However it manifests, our lives become dominated by the disease, and we serve its demands above all other things. That’s just how it goes for us — and there are often devastating consequences. We can take some comfort in knowing that all of us have felt this sting, that all of us were laid low by alcoholism and addiction. Yet, we also see before us a fellowship of people who have recovered from this same hopeless state of body and mind.
It Doesn’t Matter How Far Off Track You Are
The book Alcoholics Anonymous promises us that if we work the 12-Steps, “No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others. That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear.” What could be better? No matter how much destruction our disease has wrought in our life, the 12-Step program of recovery can lift us up and put us into a situation where our experiences can benefit others. The very pain and suffering that was once killing us can be used to help others find freedom and recovery for themselves. That’s a pretty beautiful bargain. We never have to lose ourselves to self-pity or feel useless again.
That is one of the beautiful bits of magic contained in the 12-Step program of recovery. Our experience with the disease and our journey through the 12-Steps will eventually help somebody else in their own journey to recovery. When we are brand new to the program, the experiences of those who went before us are instrumental in helping us find recovery. If we work the 12-Steps, soon we will be in the same position to help others. Based upon our unique experiences with the disease and recovery, this cycle of giving and receiving help is a major component of transforming our lives. It lifts us up as we help others up. It gives us meaning, purpose, and fulfillment like nothing else. No matter what our story is or how low the disease brought us, once we are in the rooms of recovery, our lives will be put to good use in ways that we could never have imagined.
Yes, Your Life Can Get Back On Track
At Jaywalker Lodge, we believe with all our hearts that recovery is not a punishment for our past in active disease. Not at all — those hard times were punishment enough. We believe that recovery is about the hope and promise of a bright, fulfilling future. It doesn’t matter how much we have suffered or how badly we have been wrecked by alcoholism and addiction. The program of recovery carries an opportunity for all of us to heal, to grow, to become the people we always wanted to be, and to live the lives we deserve. However far off the desired path our disease has taken us, the 12-Step program gives us the chance to get our lives back on track.
This promise of hope is available to all who are honest, open-minded, and willing to work the 12-Step program. The spiritual action prescribed throughout the 12-Steps is specifically designed to help alcoholics and addicts find freedom and recovery from the disease. If we do the work, we will get the results. Our lives will be transformed, and we become useful, purposeful, and whole again or for the first time.
There is work that must be done. For some of us, the road ahead may seem long and daunting. But it is a road we can walk, and we don’t need to walk it alone. The recovery community will be walking alongside us, offering us help, guidance, and companionship as we find healing and rebuild our lives. The promise of hope in recovery is real, with just these few ingredients. Anyone can recover and find for themselves the joy of a full and meaningful life.
Alcoholism and addiction can be a devastating and destructive disease, ruining the lives of the sufferer and their family and loved ones. Living in bondage to this disease can negatively impact all areas of our lives, without exception. This often creates hopelessness in the sufferer and makes living a good life seem like an impossible feat. We must not allow ourselves to lose hope, no matter how bad things may seem. There is hope and there is a solution. The 12-Step program of recovery can transform the lives of alcoholics and addicts who honestly desire to recover from their condition. This program is designed to produce the necessary psychic change and vital spiritual experience that can bring about lasting recovery. Entering recovery can begin to heal us and help us to rebuild our lives, as we enter into a cycle of giving and receiving help. Jaywalker Lodge is here to help you begin this exciting adventure in recovery. Call us now at (866) 529-9255.
As Chief Executive Officer Bill provides leadership and manage all day-to-day operations of Jaywalker Lodge, an extended care residential addiction treatment program for adult men.
