Struggle for Sobriety

Hi my name is Steve, and I'm an alcoholic. "Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path." I was led down the right path by many, but was unable not to stray off the path a great many times.

A.A. members on the most part kept their anonymity quite guarded as to avoid having to deal with what their neighbors, friends and even family would think about being a recovering alcoholic. I had just completed a building for this gentleman who I will call Ron. Ron was in the process of paying me and invited me into his house for coffee.

We sat around his kitchen table and Ron could tell that my building foreman and myself were quite anxious to get back to town and also severely hung over. He then asked what our plans were and my foreman exclaimed that we had to get to the bar as it was almost noon. Ron then started talking about his drinking and how he came to the program. Not once did he mention that maybe we had a problem. This was one and a half years prior to my attending my first AA meeting.

I had the opportunity of seeing Ron at least once per month as he would come into the business that I was running. We would talk about HIS recovery and I could tell that he had something that I really wanted but was unable to ask the right questions to get the answer I was looking for. I thought that if he would give me his secret then I could drink and avoid the problems that I was starting to develop on account of my own use. The answers never came as I was afraid to ask the right question.

Ron, little beknownst to him, 12 stepped me for over a year. When I first heard of the tradition that talks about attraction rather than promotion I knew right away what they were talking about as my friend and later, first sponsor, Ron was creating an attraction for me. He never got on his AA podium and preached, only talked about his drinking, where that got him, and how he came to AA.

Drinking was too important

When she became ill after coming home, I took my wife and baby to the emergency room, parked the car, left a note at the desk and had previously arranged a drinking buddy to pick me up and return me home. The first 72 hours were critical and I was drunk.

That little girl, like her father, has been a fighter and is now old enough to understand her dad's disease. She breaks my anonymity constantly but that is ok. I am quite proud to hear her tell people that her daddy doesn't drink and he goes to meetings to help him. I still occasionally am around family and friends that drink and they make remarks, but she puts them in their place. What better way to have your drinking messed with than to have an 8 year old apply the program to your lifestyle.