[MajestyJo]

Thank you for sharing. I love things on the history of AA and how it began. This was dated 1937 and a lot of knowing had come and gone since, and a lot of people have their own preconceived ideas.

I always like the phrase, "Alcohol was my best friend until it became my worst enemy." I heard a Joe and Charlie tape that says, "We don't metabolize alcohol like other people do. It was my understanding, that a regular Joe can have a beer, it goes down, quickly makes it's way up and out and we are ready for another one. An alcoholic doesn't process the alcohol in the beer like the regular Joe. While his friend has whizzed his down the drain, the alcoholic still had a certain amount of the alcohol still in his system. It hasn't passed. When Mr. Joe has 4 beers, he is just feeling a little good. The alcoholic is feeling a lot good, because he probably has 6 beers at least in his system, and now he is ready to go and let's get at 'em.

I understand what you mean, it is an inanimate object until such a time as I choose to pick it up and ingest it at some point. The bottle won't hurt me, but the longer it sits there, be it on the table, or in the cooler, or in the refrigerator, it grows in the alcoholic and addicts mind. We need a defense not against the beer, but the thinking that make me think that this one will be different. I will have a beer and no one will ever know.

If it sits in our head, it will grow all out of proportion and as they say, me along with me is bad company. I can talk myself into anything. Especially that donut I know I shouldn't have, that Lottery Ticket I know I am just going to win and everything will be just fine.
Anything that will take us out of where we don't want to be, alone with ourselves. My magic magnifying mind can conjure up the greatest scenarios. When we go to a meeting, what I like to think of as a God Village, where I can share my feelings. Hey guys and gals, I feel like drinking. Life isn't exactly like a bed for roses these days. When we share, we only have to take a portion of it home. It isn't my drinking and drug problems that I need to worry about in today, it is my thinking problems.

I have to work on my emotional sobriety daily. What brought me to the doors of recovery will take me back out if I don't deal with it. We tend to minimize it, thinking it isn't important, but no matte what it is, if it was traumatic to us, we need to deal with the emotions. I have to feel the feeling in order to let them go.

Many people may slip (Sobriety Loses It's Priority) mentally, emotionally, and spiritually before we physically pick up. That is why I need that spiritual defense against that first drug, no matter what form it take, substitution doesn't work. It just leads you back to your drug of choice or you end up with two addictions.

That is why I am glad it is just one day at a time and I have to practice, practice, practice, and it is just one days feeling, thoughts, actions, experiences, disappointments, rejection, resentments, and the list goes on and on.