WHEN IT GETS TOUGH

There are certain, proven things we can do that will help us preserve our recovery and resume our spiritual growth. The first is to recognize a slump in our recovery. The meetings aren’t so much fun anymore. We don’t hear people sharing honest pain, it sounds more like wining. We feel critical where we used to feel compassionate. This is not a mushy program where we preach ‘all will be well if...." NA is a hard line, street-wise recovery program that has worked for all kinds of people with addiction.

While what we do will vary, it is consistent with our own experience because that is what we recommend. Write down, recall, the things that really stand out in your memory from when you first got clean or first started feeling recovery in your life. Take enough time with this to get several distinct things together that you can start doing again. Then start doing them. It may not work right away, but doing these things is almost sure to get positive results for you. If you went to many meetings, go to many meetings today. If you read recovery literature when you went to bed, read recovery literature when you go to bed. If you got phone numbers and called people, do that. If you went out to coffee several times a week after meetings, do that also.

Another thing that comes up is for you to look around in your life and try to find things that could be better. Is there something undone you should be working on? Is there someone you need to go see? Is there something blocking your progress that you really haven’t dealt with? Get a grip on these things by writing them down if you are a writing person. If you like to ‘keep it in your head’, fine: just number the things. Make it less overwhelming by numbering. You are seeking things that have been irritating you and your spirit is telling you to deal with them now. You don’t have to do this alone.

Share what is happening in your home group. Let your sponsor, and some sponsees, know all about it. Share some of your lists with others to actualize what you are doing and get the emotional and personal support you may need to see it all through. Don’t put things on the list that you are totally powerless over. Maybe put them on another list but not on the list of things to actually do.

In many cases, the list will only point to things within that are unresolved and need to be dealt with there. In other words, the outside things are not really important to us at all. It is the closure we need to place on emotional issues. It is important to dismiss nagging thoughts. If you cannot act on them, don’t list them.

Recalling and repeating people we spoke to will give us some folks to visit. Some books we read, or even movies we saw will also help us reawaken.

Pray, really pray, for God to help you through your crisis. Write out your prayers, or recite the same ones in your mind. Some people can envision things with their eyes closed and that works for them. Repeat the prayers daily for a while, sometimes more than once a day. Some people write things on paper and tape it around their house or car where they can see it.

When it gets tough to stay clean, we have many resources built up from years of recovery. Addiction is such a powerful disease, it will wait for any chance to throw us into active addiction. If this happens to you, do the same thing you would do if you fell into an open sewer, get out as quick as you can, any way you can. You don’t have to stand for it. With all the pain and hopelessness we do through, we deserve better now. People will help you if you ask for help. So will God.