tonight i celebrate going into my 23rd year clean. my true Recovery birthday is still a few monnths aways but since about 7 years clean i have not let stinking thinking,an ugly divorce when i had 12 years, 27 surgeries in 22 and a half years make me go back out. a dear friend of mine in Bahgdad, India sent this to me and i wanted to share it with you. i would also like to see you share it with sponsees and other addicts. anything that can help you stay clean is worth a read to me. I would also like some prayers for my sponsor Charlie D. he lives in Deer Lodge MT. He is waiting to die. Charlie has a year more clean than i do and has been my sponsor for the past 11 years. the Dr.'s gave hime 90 days to live and his is still hanging on. I pray to God to surround him with loving Angels to take him home in his sleep so it can be an easy journey home. he is one hell of an example of NA. you all you should be so lucky to have such a sponsor. i wish you all a Happy and Clean New Year and may it be filled with love, Joy, Happiness and peace and serenity. stasy clean and be good to yourself. NA hugs and Love, JJ in Arizona
2- If you're looking to have an image in NA, look around at the meetings you go to and take a look at whom you're trying to impress.
3- An addict is a person who wants to be held while he's isolating.
4- Addiction is the leading cause of relapse.
5- A treatment center is where you go and pay $25,000 to find out that NA meetings are free.
6- The idea that alcoholics, drug addicts, sex addicts, overeaters, smokers, etc, etc, should all just go to NA Meetings because a disease, is a disease, is a disease…was started by a treatment center that only had one van.
7- This is a ' JUST FOR TODAY' program. If you are clean and sober today, you are tied for first place in NA.
8- If USING is interfering with your work, you're probably a heavy USER. If work is interfering with your USING, you're probably an ADDICT.
9- I often obsessively pursue feeling good, no matter how bad it makes me feel.
10- When I was new, I didn't think I had any obsessions until I started thinking about it. Then it was all I could think about.
11- How come if DRUGS kills millions of brain cells, it never killed the ones that made me want to USE?
12- From a newcomer reading the WHY ARE WE HERE for the first time: "We will Comprehend the word DEATH and we will know peace."
13- If God were small enough to be understood, He wouldn't be big enough to be God!
14- If you want to quit USING; you are going to have to quit USING.
15-Newcomer: How do I know how many meetings I should attend each week? Old-timer: Gradually cut back until
you USE. Then you'll know.
16- I would rather go through life CLEAN, believing I am an ADDICT, than go through life USING (HIGH), trying to convince myself that I am not an ADDICT.
17- Resentments are like stray cats: if you don't feed them, they'll go Away.
18-The difference between a problem USER and an ADDICT is that:
(B) When ADDICT is taken away from the DRUGS, the problem begins.
19- Before I came into NA, I was dead, but I did not know enough to lay down.
20- I USED when I was happy. I USED when I was unhappy. Actually, I am a reason to USE.
21- You don't have to be sick to want to get well. But if you don't want to get well, you ARE sick.
22- I can't do His will my way.
23- In order to change the way we feel we need to change the way we act.There is only one way to coast, and that is down hill.
23- The good news is you get your emotions back; the bad news is you get your emotions back.
24- All we ask is that you completely change your attitude as soon as Possible.
25- I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all.
26- Joy isn't the absence of pain — it's the presence of God.
Happy New Year JJ – I really like these Thanks
Words of wisdom! I especially like three and five. Too bad no one told me about five until I was about 500,000 into treatment and surgery. (I had two open heart surgeries as a direct result of my addiction) Hope you're having a good day.
-Erin