Daily Reprieve

WARNING WILL ROBINSON, WARNING!  ITS THE HOLIDAYS!  OK, if you are not familiar with an ancient TV program I used to watch as a child called “Lost in Space,” that might not make much sense to you.  But if you are alcoholic/addict, the threat of the holiday blues can be lethal.  I would advise you to do a few things to protect yourself.  The first time I relapsed was during the Christmas holidays.  If I could go visit myself prior to that episode, these are some of the things I would like to say.  Maybe it will be helpful to you.

1.  NO ISOLATION.  Stay as connected with recovery minded individuals as you can arrange.  Remember that you can be alone in a room full of people if no one has any ability to relate to you.  Plan ahead if you are going out of town.

2.  NO MORBID SELF REFLECTION.  Avoid times of introspection.  Get out of your head.  Slap yourself if you need to, or masturbate, or both.

3.  HELP SOMEBODY ELSE.  Find ways to commit yourself to helping others.  In the military there is a phrase, “its harder to hit a moving target.”  If you sit still, the disease will find you.  Serve at the missions, help provide meals for the homeless, whatever you can come up with.  Obsess with thinking about others welfare in any way you can.

4.  DON’T PUSH THE PANIC BUTTON DURING EMOTIONAL PAIN.  Be aware of the self-delusion of this disease.  Assume that you going to experience some down times, some deep dark times.  The disease will take normal blues that come from heightened expectations and exploit them.  Intense emotional pain can overrule the judgment center of the brain and promote the idea that you need to do something rash to overcome it.  No matter how legitimate it might seem, commit to doing nothing.  Know that it shall pass if you don’t respond to it.  Or you will be better equipped to handle it when normal life resumes after the holidays.

5.  DON’T STAY DOWN!  If you get hit, get back up.  If you are unable to resist and you do slip, shorten the life of the relapse.  Call others in your network as soon as a breath of sanity returns.  Pick up a white chip and start over.  Don’t waste time asking why.

That’s all I can think of right now.  If you get stuck and need someone, you can contact me here on this site.  I will get back to you as soon as I possibly can.  Now, hopefully, I will follow my own advise.  Time to face the music – Nooo, its Christmas carols!  The elves are eating my brain…a little weird.

Rule 62:  Don’t take yourself too damn seriously! [From the 12 x 12, page 149]

NOTE:  If anyone can think of something I have missed here, please comment.

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This entry was posted on November 23, 2008 at 11:42 pm and is filed under Uncategorized with tags Addiction, Alcoholism, Journal, Life, Personal, Recovery, Spirituality. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.