Day: July 20, 2015

Sober Does Not Mean the past Is Forgotten

I can’t begin to tell you how many times I have sat in a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous and heard a member share, with a great deal of emotion, that he/she wishes their family would just forgive and forget and move on with life. The alcoholic will speak of the hard work they have done to find sobriety and maintain sobriety. They have begun the task of changing who they are and they have made every effort to mend fences and regain the trust of their loved ones and yet something will happen and their family will react with skepticism. Oftentimes the alcoholic will be discouraged and talk about how unfair it is that their loved ones still cling to the old days and the old hurt. When will it ever go away?

Quite Frankly It Never Does

An alcoholic needs to put this all in perspective. Speaking for myself, my addictive career spanned almost three decades. It would be one thing if I had just been in a drunken stupor for those three decades; if that were the case they could have found a way to adjust and their lives would have moved on with the knowledge that Rob would never get better.

However, for this addict, the history of my drinking/drugging was one that fostered hope only to have that hope crushed time and time again. Trust would be established as I gave up liquor and pills only to have that trust squashed once again each time I relapsed. My son and daughters have seen it all… Periods of sobriety would follow only to see it all gone once again, finally culminating in a total disconnect from me.

Overall my addictive career included multiple trips to detox and in-patient treatment centers… so that it really did resemble an emotional trip on a roller-coaster for those who loved me. Trust, no trust, trust, no trust, and on and on it went until skepticism was the only possible reaction for them.

 Recovery Is Multi-faceted

During recovery from substance abuse it is not only the alcoholic who is recovering. The family and loved ones of the alcoholic need to recover as well for they have been affected by this disease every bit as much as the alcoholic. Their lives have been in turmoil for years. Their lives have been disrupted and their emotions strained to the point of breaking time and time again and recovery does not come easily.

I have said often that addiction takes no prisoners. Those who love an addict are affected every bit as much as the one with the disease and this important fact needs to be remembered by the alcoholic.

It is not enough to make amends and then move on. A simple apology does not erase the years of psychological damage that has occurred and any alcoholic who thinks the damage ends with an apology is a fool. The lives of the loved ones have been shattered and it takes time and effort to rebuild those things which were trampled during the drinking years.

Is It All Hopeless Then?

Not by a long shot but it would be silly to think that years of suffering will just magically disappear because the drinking has ended. Through the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous I have come to realize that recovery is an ongoing process. Each night before I go to sleep I review my day and my actions. Did I say something that caused worry or harm? Did I do something that caused worry or harm? If so amends need to be given the next day. Communication is vital as I move forward. My actions need to be explained to those who care about me. I do not live in a vacuum and I need to realize that important fact and act on it.

Related to that truth is the fact that I must be willing to listen to their concerns and show empathy towards them. In a very real sense my actions of the past have made them sick and they need to be treated as someone who is recovering from an illness and the illness is me.

The greatest gift I could have offered my family would have been to simply leave. An absentee parent is much better than an in-house addict. But an addict doesn’t see the harm they are causing because everything is focused on them… I believe I will never be able to make amends for my actions.

My job is to move forward. We are taught in AA that ours are a journey of progress and not perfection. As long as I am aware of who and what I am and I continually try to improve my life then the pain I caused will eventually subside. It most likely will never go away but it will subside and my loved ones will be able to live without fear.