RISK ASSESSMENT: "There Are Sharks Out There."

(screenrant.com)

"You can come aboard the lifeboat, but I'm not jumping in after you because there are sharks out there." - Dallas Taylor

"They may get your drunk before you can get them sober" is an A.A. expression often heard in a Recovery Meeting. The suggestion is to not offer help to another person by going into a barroom unaccompanied by a fellow person in recovery.

When I first got sober, I got rehired at a bar I had worked at far from sober for many years. I stayed sober this time while pouring drinks for others. I thought the days of my dark descent into full-blown, textbook-case alcoholism were over. Somehow, I managed to stay Sober for a year and a few days before a drink somehow ended up being served to me and casually sipped by me without thinking. And then another and another until another year passed.

I guess my alcoholism was not as manageable as I had imagined. My eight-year stretch of going on the wagon and falling back off again began here.

Being a bartender was a rickety-ass lifeboat for me. It definitely was not my smartest move to get back into my bartending groove. Maybe now, with 18 years clean and sober I could! Others have. 

Everyone has to do their own Risk Assessment. My Risk Assessment is NEVER AGAIN!

Do as you Wish.

I drank like a Fish.

I was not a First-Time Winner.

The Sharks had me for dinner!

*****

Check out my NEW Non-Fiction, BECOMING UNBROKEN: Reflections on Addiction and Recovery (Find it on Amazon, Book it here): https://lnkd.in/dkF767RT 

Or immerse yourself in my Descent into Addiction and eventual Recovery in my Autobiographical Fiction, ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal (Find it on Amazon. Book it here): https://lnkd.in/esP83n-c 

#alcoholism #addiction #recovery #books

I hope you enjoy BOTH of my BOOKS on ADDICTION & RECOVERY! (Print & Kindle Versions of Both are Available!)

"There Are Three Mysteries in the World... "

 "There are three mysteries in the world: the air to the bird, the water to the fish, and man to himself." - Hindu expression

 

(Escher on pinterest.com)

Between Sky and Sea

Are You and Me.

Bird. Fish. Man.

We do not know what we do not know,

But what we seed is what we sow.

Bird. Fish. Man.

How we live is how we grow.

Catch is as Catch can.

Bird. Fish. Man.

*****

Check out my NEW Non-Fiction, BECOMING UNBROKEN: Reflections on Addiction and Recovery (Find it on Amazon, Book it here): https://lnkd.in/dkF767RT 

Or immerse yourself in my Descent into Addiction and eventual Recovery in my Autobiographical Fiction, ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal (Find it on Amazon. Book it here): https://lnkd.in/esP83n-c 

#alcoholism #addiction #recovery #books

I hope you enjoy BOTH of my BOOKS on ADDICTION & RECOVERY! (Print & Kindle Versions of Both are Available!)

MARCONI INVENTED the First Long-Distance Wireless. I NEARLY Destroyed One!

Guglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi, who is credited as the Inventor of the Radio, was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1909. Radio Shack opened their doors in 1921 and closed them in 2015. Jim Anders received a DIY Radio Kit circa 1960. Something like a Mr. Potato Head, it was a box that contained all the parts necessary to build your own radio from scratch: Spools, Wires, Screw, Control Knobs, Gizmos, a Ceramic Filter, Nuts and on and on. 

I should have been given a Mr. Potato Head instead. It would have been more my speed. I knew nothing about electronics then, and not a whole hell of a lot more about electronics now. 

"You alone can do it, but you can't do it alone" - Dr. Ron B

This Quote by Dr. Ron became something like "When I tried to stay sober alone, I wound up drinking alone" for me. I knew how to drink. My Resume included a 50,000-drink history. I drank every day for 30 years. If I was sick, I drank a pint or more of Blackberry Brandy, my self-prescribed cure-all. My only respites from drinking during all those years were during my increasingly more frequent and progressive hospital visits for alcohol poisoning.

"You alone can do it, but you can't do it alone" - Dr. Ron B

I could and did get drunk alone, but clean and sober? No way, Jose. No way, Dr. Ron.

My experience has shown me that my addicted brain will continue to lie to me long after all alcohol and other substances have left my body. Effects upon behavior, thoughts, memories, dreams, actions, wishes and emotions (however you may wish to experience and describe it) will linger long, long after you taper off or go cold turkey. It seems Addiction stands waiting for you to let down your guard so that you may once again become entrapped by it.

A brain changed by years of drug and alcohol use needs to stay connected to the human race or the hamster wheel of addiction may hypnotize you back into its futile spin. 

 

If you wish to think that you are somehow different than the multitudes who have preceded you, proceed with caution. When I thought that way, multiple relapses followed.  

I am reminded here of "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" by Paul Simon. To refresh your memory, one Stanza goes like this: 

"Slip out the back, Jack

Make a new plan, Stan

You don't need to be coy, Roy

Just get yourself free

Hop on the bus, Gus

You don't need to discuss much

Just drop off the key, Lee

And get yourself free."

Recovery is just like that, but instead of "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover," it's "50 Ways to Live Life Sober" and all 50 Ways are with the help of others. 

For my third and final time (today): "You alone can do it, but you can't do it alone" - Dr. Ron B

With your little old self, you might start with Mr. Potato Head and work your way up to a DIY Radio Kit. But if you're anything like me, when it comes to Recovery from Drugs and Alcohol, my simple recommendation is NEVER DO IT ALONE.

*****

Check out my NEW Non-Fiction, BECOMING UNBROKEN: Reflections on Addiction and Recovery (Find it on Amazon, Book it here):  https://lnkd.in/dkF767RT

Or immerse yourself in my Descent into Addiction and eventual Recovery in my Autobiographical Fiction, ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal (Find it on Amazon. Book it here): https://lnkd.in/esP83n-c

#alcoholism #addiction #recovery #books

I hope you enjoy BOTH of my BOOKS on ADDICTION & RECOVERY! (Print & Kindle Versions of Both are Available!) Enjoy!

IS "THE UNIVERSE... UNFOLDING AS IT SHOULD"?

"And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should." - Max Ehrmann

This quote is part of "Desiderata," a prose piece written in 1927 and later adorning the walls of thousands of college dormitories in the 1970's in verse form. It's worth a Google search if you are interested in the full text.

Authenticity, Self-Assertiveness and Loving and Being True to Oneself are at the core of "Desiderata," suggesting to me that the best is yet to come. Or has the best already come and gone?

I don't know. 

But I do know and do feel that living in Recovery allows the Possibility of the best of all possible worlds. Addiction allowed me not much of anything besides my necessity to fulfill my Minimum Daily Requirement of Drugs, NO Satisfaction Guaranteed. Misery implicit. Addiction is Suffering for no purpose, Endless Discontent. Nothing seemed possible at the end of my drinking career. 

I will settle for Serenity, Clean and Sober over Drunk, Drugged, Desperate, Isolated & Alone.

 "And whether or not it is clear" to me, "no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should." 

Without Recovery, the nothingness of Addiction would return, no unfolding, no unfolding.

Recovery is good.

*****

Check out my NEW Non-Fiction, BECOMING UNBROKEN: Reflections on Addiction and Recovery (Find it on Amazon, Book it here): https://lnkd.in/dkF767RT 

Or immerse yourself in my Descent into Addiction and eventual Recovery in my Autobiographical Fiction, ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal (Find it on Amazon. Book it here): https://lnkd.in/esP83n-c

#alcoholism #addiction #recovery #books

I hope you enjoy BOTH of my BOOKS on ADDICTION & RECOVERY! (Print & Kindle Versions of Both are Available!)

THROUGH THE LENS OF RECOVERY: A SMOOTHER PATH FORWARD

(templeton.org)

"... closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet." - Alfred Lord Tennyson in The Higher Pantheism

Replace "He" with "Recovery" and the Immediacy with which I seek Recovery is expressed to me here. I see life, interpret life and live my life as fully in Recovery as possible. "I don't want to ever go back there" is an expression fraught with meaning for me. That, or something very close to it, is often heard in Recovery Meetings. 

Too much horror. 

As much as I am repelled by the very thought of Relapse, I know that it will always be out there. A drink or drug will always remain within my arm's reach.

Having been through the Meat Grinder that is Addiction, having Relapsed multiple times, having lived in Recovery for many years now, I know that I must focus on my recovery every day, gently, but without fail. I have seen too many lives lost too soon. Focus. I must Focus.

In my addiction, I faced many consequences that I simply would not have gone through had I been in recovery the whole time: Surgery from a robbery gone horribly wrong while in a blackout state, multiple attempts on my life, arguments, firings, homelessness, on and on. Make your own list looking back on your life. If you are in recovery now, stay in recovery, live there, make it your home. 

Let me take a moment to look at a few of the problems I have faced in recovery. I had pneumonia, but dollars to donuts, if I'd still been drinking and drugging, I wouldn't have sought help when I finally did. Alcohol was the cure-all that cured nothing but caused more problems than alcohol could possibly fix. In recovery, more than a dozen years after I quit drinking and smoking, I was diagnosed and treated for cancer. Again, if I'd been in the soup, I'd have likely died before seeking treatment or at best, sought treatment far too late, after it had progressed to the point of being beyond help. Sober, I sought medical care immediately. If I'd been drinking, I likely would not have sought help until after the cancer had progressed too far to be treatable. As far as I know, Alcohol is not the Cure for Cancer. A smooth path forward. Recovery is my best and smoothest path forward no matter what else may happen. 

Today, every day, I see my life through the Lens of Recovery. Gratitude is at my feet. Gratitude moves me forward. Responsibility sets me free with every decision I make and every action I take. What is beyond my control is beyond my control, but a brain hijacked by addiction has little or no control. The illusion of control is one of the saddest circumstances to occur while under the influence. 

"By the time I had a reason to stop drinking, reason no longer had anything to do with it."

Lost. So lost. I was so, so very lost.

Often times, advise sucks. It is so easy to give it when you're not in the situation you are trying to help. But I can tell you this, to quote what one will often hear in the Rooms of Recovery: "Sponsor Yourself and You've Got a Fool for a Sponsor."

Addiction colors the decision-making process. "It's the Alcohol talking. It's the Addiction talking." I heard that countless times back in those nightmare days. And it's true, even in Recovery, years of addiction can still shade decisions made. Parts of my brain need outside voices to provide me clarity, to help guide me forward. 

Addiction Separates/Recovery Connects. 

Pause when agitated. Pause each day if for no other reason than to prevent yourself from becoming agitated. Let Gratitude be at your feet. Let Gratitude move you forward. Take responsibility for your decisions and actions. Seek help. Give help. Everybody wins.

Addiction loses when you are connected to Community. Seek help. Give help. Win.

Through the Lens of Recovery I will find my Smoothest Path Forward.

BAR NONE.

*****

Check out my NEW Non-Fiction, BECOMING UNBROKEN: Reflections on Addiction and Recovery (Find it on Amazon, Book it here): https://lnkd.in/dkF767RT 

Or immerse yourself in my Descent into Addiction and eventual Recovery in my Autobiographical Fiction, ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal (Find it on Amazon. Book it here): http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO

#alcoholism #addiction #recovery #books

I hope you enjoy BOTH of my BOOKS on ADDICTION & RECOVERY! (Print & Kindle Versions of Both are Available!)

"It's not the mistake that matters but what you do about it." - Jeff Jarvis

Getting drunk was like borrowing happiness from tomorrow. 

Tomorrow never came. Unless you count waking up in the hospital and not knowing how you got there.

It's not that way today. Most of the wreckage of my past (deep in my addiction and recently) has caught up with me and I have dealt with my lion's share of it. I will continue to do so as I grow older and hopefully a bit wiser. 

REPAIR and REPLACE sums it all up in a nice little package. I could spell out countless examples, but we all have our own Catalogs of Mistakes. The Serenity Prayer offers a Window from which to view our mistakes. I try to accept the things I cannot change and to change the things I can. I got Cancer many years after I quit smoking. My chemo and radiation treatments have been followed by due diligence. 

Today gives me the opportunity to turn yesterday's mistakes into tomorrow's wisdom. Naturally, I fail early and often. I grew little emotionally from my teenage years through my 30-year drinking and drugging career, but I now have the chance to live a better, cleaner and more sober life. 

Today, I try to appreciate what I cannot change, to learn from what I can change and to share where and when I can that LIFE IS GOOD. 

Today, living CLEAN and SOBER is a sort of an insurance that my tomorrow's will be as gratifying as they can be. To paraphrase, "It's not my mistakes that matter, but doing what I have done and will continue do about them" that count for me.

Stated another way, I have LIVED and LEARNED. 

Happiness IS INSIDE OF today when I allow it. It cannot be begged for, borrowed or stolen. It is unwrapped in the present, the unsought product of peaceful thoughts and productive actions. As Abraham Lincoln has said, "When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion."

What I do about my mistakes makes me feel better, not worse. 

Simple. Not Easy, of course, but Definitely Worth It!

Happy to Listen. Happy to Share.

Happy for the state of being we call happiness.

Change what you can. "It's not the mistake that matters but what you do about it." - Jeff Jarvis

*****

Check out my NEW Non-Fiction, BECOMING UNBROKEN: Reflections on Addiction and Recovery (Find it on Amazon, Book it here): https://lnkd.in/dkF767RT 

Or immerse yourself in my Descent into Addiction and eventual Recovery in my Autobiographical Fiction, ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal (Find it on Amazon. Book it here): https://lnkd.in/esP83n-c

#alcoholism #addiction #recovery #books

I hope you enjoy BOTH of my BOOKS on ADDICTION & RECOVERY! (Print & Kindle Versions of Both are Available!)

ADDICTION: F.O.M.O. in SLO-MO (Fear of Missing Out, DOWN the RABBIT HOLE. Slowly, Buh-Bye!)

Living a Clean and Sober Life is the Best!

Sometimes I get so hung up on what I did wrong when I was deep in the drink, I forget what I missed out on. Sins Committed and Sins Omitted. Damned if you do and damned if you don't. Substance use and abuse is an alternate universe. No wonder when someone queries, "What do I have to change?" The answer is "EVERYTHING."

We pay a high price of Admission to enter that alternate world. The cost is not mere Dollars & Cents. There is an emotional toll. Everything you do and everything you don't do becomes entrenched in Acquisition and Use. "So, what's the USE," I used to say and think and feel and live. "I may as well Drink and Drug." Been there, done that. Done.

The purpose of this post is not to Condemn you. "You are not a bad person. You are a sick person." That can be said (and I've heard it said) with a tone of Holier than Thou. When said with compassion and understanding by a fellow alcoholic or addict (I will save discussion of those two terms for another post) in the Rooms of Recovery, you may be saved from drowning in the Past. In the Rooms of Recovery, I have found people who have been through the same Meat Grinder that I was wedged through. What a Relief to Discover: YOU ARE NOT ALONE. Welcome to the Road to Recovery!

Addiction broke my world. I lost connection with what little family and friends I had as alcohol and other drugs consumed me. Drugs and alcohol controlled my every move, eventually to the exclusion of all else. Exclusion played a subtle and not so subtle role in my behavior: FEAR OF MISSING OUT! Addiction Double-Crossed me. F.O.M.O. (Fear of Missing Out) played a role in my drug and alcohol use until it pulled the rug out from under me, and I MISSED OUT on EVERYTHING! I was Sunk when I was Drunk as a Skunk. 

I wanted to be invited to every party, to go to every party. Life was a Party (Woo-Hoo!) until it wasn't. Drug use led to drug dependency led to drug abuse as down the rabbit hole I went. The need to stay connected with the in-crowd, with my kind of people, changed as time passed and people passed, and Addiction took a Chokehold on my life until there was nothing left to soothe me except more.

F.O.M.O. in SLO-MO.

Addiction became more time-consuming than a job (when I had one). Been there, done that? Well, if you haven't lost your job yet, stick around. You will. It's all downhill or soon will be. Addiction is the Trend without End.

So much time spent doing things I can't even remember. It's funny because it isn't. 

Today, Recovery is worth my time, my every moment. It is irreplaceable, invaluable. Being WASTED is a Waste of Time. DUH-uh!?!?!

Recovery gives me time to do, time to be. to Do, to Be. 

Scooby-Do-Be-Do! 

Time for me to be silly. Time for me to be serious. Time for me to enjoy life. Time for me to live. Time for the pain of Addiction to be replaced by the Joys of Living in Recovery. 

Love and Respect yourself and your new Recovery Peeps!

No more F.O.M.O. in SLO-MO! Ain't Nobody Got Time fer Dat! 

Time to finish this post. lol! 

Enjoy your Recovery. We know it ain't Back THERE, Down THAT Rabbit Hole!

Buh-Bye, fer Real this Time!

Oh, what the hell. Hit REFRESH!

*****

You've got to believe me when I tell you: This Post is in Neither of my Books.

#Enjoy ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal. Find it on Amazon. Book it here: https://lnkd.in/esP83n-c 

&/or

My NEW, Non-Fiction, BECOMING UNBROKEN: Reflections on Addiction and Recovery. It is also on Amazon and may be found here: https://lnkd.in/dkF767RT 

Both books are available in Print and Kindle editions.

"An Attitude of Gratitude" is Somewhat a Platitude. Nevertheless, nothing less will do!

(Wayne Dyer)

"Looking through the lens of gratitude brings us into the immediate moment." - Hazelden (05.24/08)

"The Lens of Gratitude" in this opening quote scattered my thoughts in a few directions, Lickety-Split, on reading this quote from Hazelden. When I first got clean and sober, it was recommended that I make a Gratitude List. It pissed me off. Stupid Gratitude List. "A Grateful Recovering Alcoholic" I had heard it all before and been repulsed by it.

I wasn't even sure I was grateful to be alive back then. My Precious Alcohol had died, and I was in a period of mourning, thinking I could never drink again. I could not drink again, could not, could not (but, of course, I did). I relapsed again and again. Drinking is what I did, all I did, all I knew.  

Making a List of what I was Grateful for seemed so phony to me in my early days of recovery. Not too different than a child's wish list for Santa Clause, but the wishes were a list of feelings that I wanted. Alcohol had robbed me of everything. I felt nothing. Numb. Empty. Desireless. 

It would take me several years in recovery to realize that Gratitude was a way of looking at things, a feeling inside that colored the world around me. "When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change." - Wayne Dyer

Making a Gratitude List is a Great Idea, a reminder to ourselves that we should be grateful to be alive,

In my mind, but not quite yet on paper, my Thanksgiving Day posts awaits. 

Grateful for Hope, Expectations, Another Clean & Sober Day.

And not too far away...

Santa on his sleigh.

Oh, Jim! Grow up [but not too soon]!

What's for Dinner? GRATITUDE [that's the only clue I'll give you]!

*****

GIVE A GIFT OF RECOVERY THIS HOLIDAY SEASON:

ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal 

(Find it on Amazon. Book it here): https://lnkd.in/esP83n-c

Check out my NEW Non-Fiction, BECOMING UNBROKEN

#alcoholism #addiction #recovery #books: Reflections on Addiction and Recovery 

(Find it on Amazon, Book it here): https://lnkd.in/dkF767RT 

Both Books are Available in Print and Kindle Editions.

"THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT," A Cumulative Tale, meets "PEOPLE DON'T LIKE CHANGE, BUT THEY LIKE TO HAVE CHANGED." - Will Bowen

"THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT" is a Nursery Rhyme with Eleven (11) Verses, each Verse adding to the one before. Briefly, it starts out "This is the house that Jack built" in Verse One, proceeds to "This is the malt that lay in the house that Jack built" in the Second Verse and proceeds to this in the Final Verse:

"This is the farmer sowing his corn, that kept the cock that crow'd in the morn, that waked the priest all shaven and shorn, that married the man all tatter'd and torn, that kissed the maiden all forlorn, that milk'd the cow with the crumpled horn, that tossed the dog, that worried the cat, that killed the rat, that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built."

"MY NAME IS JIM AND I AM AN ALCOHOLIC." I lived in THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT. Addiction is Progressive in much the same way as the Cumulative Tale and Nursery Rhyme Condensed, above, presents. Like a House of Cards, it would Tumble and Fall, and I would either Die or Get Clean and Sober.

THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT is one of dozens of Analogies of Addiction possible. You see, "Alcohol is my poison, my prison. A brick wall, a trap door, a cancer, a bad joke, an empty bottle, an excuse, a leaky faucet, a loan shark, a broken promise, a cracked mirror, an earthquake, an avalanche, a train wreck, a recurring nightmare. Alcohol is my insanity." ADD ANY DOZEN ANALOGIES OF YOUR OWN!

The Cumulative Tale that is THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT is also the Cumulative Tale of 50,000 drinks over the course of my 30-year Drinking Career. THE HOUSE THAT ADDICTION BUILT, like the first house built by The Three Little Pigs, was built of Straw, a House of Cards, destined to fall. 

THE HOUSE THAT ADDICTION BUILT eventually collapsed and I found Recovery. After a few relapses and eight (8) years of struggle, finally, I have found my way free. That Dilapidated House is all but gone forever and in Recovery, together, another, stronger and much more real House continues to be built.

"PEOPLE DON'T LIKE CHANGE, BUT THEY LIKE TO HAVE CHANGED." - Will Bowen

Together, we learn to take Responsibility for ourselves and do whatever needs to be done to maintain another day in Recovery. None of us, No One, wants to go back there. The Remains of that Ramshackle Pile of Sticks can never, will never make the lies it has told us all ever come true. ever be real, every do anything but Rule Over Us. 

"PEOPLE DON'T LIKE CHANGE, BUT THEY LIKE TO HAVE CHANGED." Well, I guess, I'm People now, too.

Recovery is, truly, "Possible, Doable, Irreplaceable." I "like to have changed."

*****

#Enjoy ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal. Find it on Amazon. Book it here:  http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO &

My NEW, Non-Fiction, BECOMING UNBROKEN: Reflections on Addiction and Recovery. It is also on Amazon and may be found here: https://lnkd.in/dkF767RT 

Both books are available in Print and Kindle editions.

THE DAISY CHAIN OF RECOVERY

 

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/daisy-chain-recovery-jim-anders

"SOBRIETY IS MY NEW ADDICTION." - Damn! I wish I'd said that!

I am so grateful that I thought to write down "Sobriety is my New Addiction" when I'd heard it on the "Intervention" TV Show on A&E many years ago. That little lamppost lights my way to this very day.

50,000+ drinks and countless other upside-down, inside-out, come-to and/or pass-out doses of other drugs over my 30-year Drinking Career preceded my very first day of Sobriety. On-again/Off-again Use, Abuse and Abstinence over the next eight (8) years served to conclude my Addiction Resume.

Coasting into my Eighteenth Year of Continuous Sobriety, still today, "Sobriety is my New Addiction" rings true to me because in Recovery, every day IS NEW! Addiction was so Freaking Tired!

Recovery is my Magnificent Obsession (Yes, there was a 1954 Movie titled "Magnificent Obsession." but that's a moot point). I try to see, do, act, and feel everything through the lens of Recovery. My Eight (8) Hours a Day (or more) plopped on a barstool in any of a dozen or more regular hangouts (not counting 2 to 4-day binges) pale by comparison to a single one-hour Recovery Meeting. Recovery has become more than a commitment to an occasional Meeting. Recovery is my Magnificent Obsession (a little repetition in Recovery beats one endless drink or drug after another, for sure). 

My life had become my Addictions, eventually replacing all other connections to living. Today, I breathe Recovery. It is my All, my Everything. I "wear it like a loose-fitting garment." Damn! I didn't come up with that one either, but it remains a favorite Recovery expression.

In the final analysis, who said what becomes unimportant. I embrace those thoughts and actions, mine and others, and try incorporating them into this new way of living I finally found. "Yard by Yard, it's hard. Inch by Inch, it's a cinch." I heard that in a Recovery Meeting, too!

Learning to accept responsibility and live with the consequences of my actions are sweet victories to me. Addiction is a Malignant Obsession. 

Recovery will always be fresh, new and exciting. Addiction will always be haggard.

Dr. Jim (that's me) offers you this Prescription: "Take 2 Meetings & Call me in the Morning!"

"Stick that in your pipe and smoke it," lol.

[Drops microphone]: "Stick a fork in it. I'm done."

*****

#Enjoy ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal. Find it on Amazon. Book it here:  http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO &

My NEW, Non-Fiction, BECOMING UNBROKEN: Reflections on Addiction and Recovery. It is also on Amazon and may be found here: https://lnkd.in/dkF767RT 

Both books are available in Print and Kindle editions.