"HEALING: Preparing for the Next Wound"

(lizarch.com)

"A man who suffers before it is necessary suffers more than is necessary." - Seneca

"Worry is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but doesn't get you anywhere." - Anonymous

*****

Learning to live without the next drink prepared me for whatever battles I will have had to face without that drink. And I've had plenty.

My Recovery from Alcoholism prepared me for my diagnosis, treatment and eventual Recovery from Cancer. 

"HEALING: Preparing for the Next Wound" may sound a bit Ouch-y!, but life is tough and as a young kid, the only tools in my toolbox were alcohol and other drugs. I would and did get through practically everything with a drink in my hand.

Alcohol was my solution to everything, yet it solved nothing (much like worry in the opening anonymous quote). And alcohol, so much like any other addictive substance, caused me unnecessary suffering, much more, in most cases, than any pain it was attempting to offset or relieve. 

I used alcohol preemptively to kill the pain of any impending doom I may have anticipated. As a preemptive measure, alcohol failed miserably. 

Addiction is a cul-de-sac, a road with no apparent end or escape.

RECOVERY. RECOVERY. RECOVERY. 

Recovery is healing, learning to cope with all of life's issues, large and small, without dependence on a substance to deaden any possible future pains.

"HEALING: Preparing for the Next Wound" is another way of saying that Recovery taught me to live life on life's terms. 

After overcoming alcohol, cancer was a little bump in the road compared to what it may have been had I not learned to survive my Substance Use Disorder (SUD) first.

Nothing about Addiction is empowering, but Recovery from Addiction IS empowering.

RESILIENCE: Recovery taught me resilience. 

And the Next Wound?

I am Ready. I am Willing. I am Able.

ALCOHOLISM: Loving to drink. Living to drink. Dying to drink. Dying from drinking.

RECOVERY: Wanting to live. Learning to live. Loving to live. Living with love.

Addiction prepared me for nothing. Recovery has prepared me for everything.

Period.

*****

[Please NOTE: The quotes excerpted here are two of the 180 found in All Drinking Aside: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal]

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