Question by Chaz: In A “12 Step” Program? Is A Family Member? Please Read On…?
I’m a recovering alcoholic (sober 5 years this July…).
I was looking online for books, audio CD’s, downloads, etc. Anything about furthering my recovery outside of AA. I go to meetings, but was just wondering what else there is to life after recovery without talking about AA all the time.
I found mostly blog posts (many just regurgitating each other), anti-AA groups and centers (one even says you can keep drinking!!!??!!!), and a couple overpriced books on Amazon from doctors who’ve never been addicted to anything.
So, over the last 6 months, I’ve gone away from the AA literature and read a lot about, and visited lectures on, the spiritual, metaphysical, self-healing arts.
Quite enlightening! And such a “positive” force!!
Paired with AA, these have put so much “into place” in my life, and given me much more hope for me & my family’s future.
Do you know of any books on such topics from the recovering alcoholic or addicts point of view?
Alternate/Piggyback question: Would YOU (like me) buy it if it existed?
Best answer:
Answer by John Reid
Congrats on the five years. I pretty much dropped out of AA at about the five year mark. A lot of people do but do not go back to the booze. Frankly, I got bored. I could go to a discussion meeting and know exactly what everybody in the room was going to say, sometimes even word for word, no matter what the subject of the discussion.
I began to think of myself as a human being with an alcohol problem instead thinking of myself as an “alcoholic” (meaning some sort of subhuman or alien from outer space), and was shouted down when I mentioned my point of view.
So I just went back to school for a couple years and got on with my life. I did a lot of reading, mostly classic literature, but have not let myself get into the self-healing stuff. For almost 32 years now, I have not seen any need for booze….yeah, O.K. I have felt a desire thousands of times but not a need.
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
What I found when I left AA (I know you’re not leaving, but I did, once I realized how limiting AA really is) was that I needed to stop thinking about furthering my “recovery” and start thinking about living my life. After several years in AA, one gets in the habit of thinking of everything as being about one’s alcoholism, but it isn’t, and when I was away from the meetings for a while I saw that much more clearly.
What I started to do was live the life I wanted to live, the one I can live, now that I’m sober. I read everything I can get my hands on, particularly classic literature. I travel. Whatever interests me…and I learn from all of it. I learn about the person I am and am meant to be. It’s wonderful…
And today, I call myself “recovered”.