honesty

It’s hard to rationalize that next drink after speaking out loud the latest excuse, to feel all alone when in a meeting room full of alcoholics, and even harder to break faith with your program when it has been aired in the public forum. That’s because alcoholic thinking wilts under scrutiny. The dark mental process that warps logic until a drink becomes the answer to alcoholism cannot survive when exposed to the light of day.

That is why it’s so important in early sobriety to share one’s struggle and avoid brooding alone. The same goes for those with some recovery under their belt. It doesn’t take much to slip back into old habits; a solid recovery requires attentive maintenance. Of course it takes much more than an open acknowledgment of our problem to find sobriety and enter recovery, it also takes diligent hard work, brutal honesty, and discipline. One thing is for sure though, lock an alcoholic up in a room with just their thoughts and there won’t be a problem they can’t solve… by drinking.

Hope and change. Bah! Straight talk express. Boring. I'll put the nation on the road to recovery!

Fact: I drank on duty.
Fact: I inhaled... deeply.
Fact: I did not have sex with that woman, at least not that I can remember.
Fact: I'll not raise your taxes, but I will make you attend a meeting and share.

Sad Fact: I'm a recovering alcoholic with no political experience, but I'm still better qualified to run the country than our current choices.

Check out the video to see me on the campaign trail.

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Thanks for the post! You can read more from Bill Urell at Addiction Recovery Basics.

I think getting honest about recovery can actually be called Step 0 in recovery. Before we tackle anything else, is absolutely necessary to get completely honest. Why? So we can accurately define our problem. Dishonesty often becomes a way of life for most people engaged in addictive behavior. We lie to ourselves and others about our behaviors our feelings and our use. We construct what is almost a fantasy land of lies and self deception to enable and permit us to continue to use.

Even in active addiction recovery, it is tough to break those old habits of self deception and lying. Dishonesty can often become woven into the very fabric of our lives. Not only do we fear being found out in our deceptions, but there is a great deal of fear associated with actually telling the truth. The Catch-22 here is that you cannot enter a meaningful recovery while practicing lies and self deception.

The first person you have to start telling the truth with is yourself. The kind of truth where you go into the bathroom close the door behind you look yourself right in the eyes in the mirror and ask some questions. Am I really ready to commit to this? Have I suffered enough? When you get some honest answers to questions such as those, you can truly enter into addiction recovery with a good foundation in place.