If You Want To Fail In Your Sobriety

In the early stages of sobriety, several people (including an addictions counsellor) told me to think of sobriety in this way:

"Just think - you only have ONE THING TO CHANGE about your life and self.....

That one thing is:

EVERYTHING."

Obviously, this seemed an insurmountable task - to change EVERYTHING about myself and in my life. But thinking about this phrase actually helped me in untold ways, and I am still sober and clean. Life is not perfect and I am not perfect, but I only have to deal with life on life's terms today. I no longer have to deal with life on life's terms - PLUS - navigating back and forth between the world of drugs and alcohol - and reality. When I wake up every day, I am IN reality and don't have to wonder what the heck is going on. This in itself is the one advantage that cannot be induced or enhanced by any drink or drug on or off the market.

If you don't believe in my words, however, and believe that you need to make sobriety more complicated than "just change Everything," and particularly if you 'Don't Get It,' then maybe you're not quite ready to live a sober life.

There are an infinite number of ways to relapse - but few (and simple) ways to stay sober.

I've just offered a simple concept, however, some people may need to hear the reverse in order to realize the value of sobriety. Some people aren't ready to be sober yet. Some people will need that one last awful drunken (or high) experience and all the hell that will accompany the high, in order to WANT TO GET sober.

Here's a fast track to that experience - just so that you can get it overwith and come back to the real world sooner (all the best to you - luck and all - in case you don't make it back out)

Here are some things that will help you FAIL in your sobriety:

* Hang out with your old friends
* Argue with your family and make sure that you let them know that YOU ARE RIGHT!
* Make life ALL ABOUT YOU - ALL THE TIME
* Keep that extra bottle in the freezer - just in case
* Avoid all 12-step or other recovery meetings
* Sober up ALL ALONE
* THINK EVERYTHING THROUGH - all the time - I mean - every minute detail, before ever taking action
* Use your brain to dissect all the problems in the world
* Focus on what's wrong with the world - instead of what is wrong with YOU
* INSIST on having things YOUR WAY
* Bend that elbow, first thing upon waking - don't think - just DO IT

These are just some little SURE-FIRE TIPS on finding the pathway to relapse.

I hope these have been helpful - and I hope you avoid the above pathway.