New from Indiana
Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2008 3:21 pm
"My name is Chris, and I'm an alcoholic." How many times have I used that intro in the countless leads to closed and open groups? Although I'm in Indiana, I hope I'm allowed here because this in one of the few groups I've come across that isn't "qualified," that is, a member has to be a lawyer in recovery, a doctor in recovery, a gay or lesbian in recovery, a Christian in recovery. In all my years in recovery, if I've learned nothing, the one thing I HAVE learned is that the addict or alcoholic in recovery is an addict or alcoholic in recovery, and everything else - lawyer, doctor, gay, lesbian, Christian, et al - is not named in Step One as a requirement for membership. There's only one! A brief intro: I live in Fort Wayne, Indiana's second-largest city, and my drinking days were punctuated by a couple of overnight stays in the county jail's drunk tank and a botched suicide attempt with anti-depressants and whiskey at a time that I thought dying was the only way to stop drinking. For my own reason, as part of my own recovery, I don't keep track and don't honestly know how many 24 hours I have been sober; I think my last drink was Jan. 25 or 26 in 1985 or '86. The reason I don't keep track is that I know myself well enough that my ego might lead me into the "It's-been-long-enough-now-that-I'm-cured-trap" when, in stark reality, I'm no more clean and sober than the fella who's got the last 24 hours under his belt. At age 46, I'm the second-oldest of 11 children and, last January, the last surviving of my 10 brothers and sisters - an older sister - gave up her three-year battle to breast cancer. Too many people, even those in the "know" about my history, have told me that I am "strong" for having gotten through all that loss without drinking. Strong? No! The "credit" goes to my Higher Power and what He asks us to do when we can't handle it - hand it over to Him to handle it for us when we can't. Hope I'm welcome here, but how can I go wrong with anything attached to the City of Brotherly Love?