Recovery is about so much more than sobriety: Fact. Sober thinking often takes considerably longer than simply abstaining from our substance(s) of behaviour(s) of choice: Fact #2. Practising recovery, in all one's affairs, is perhaps best thought of as the business of a lifetime...
So I am coming to believe...
You can take the brandy out of the fruit cake, but you're still left with a fruit cake. The awkward and unpalatable truth in recovery, is that the road often gets steeper and narrower before we discover the promised land. Take the substance of behaviour of choice out of the equation and you are left with the illness. As I was reminded by someone who's been around more than a few days, it's an 'ism' not a 'was-m'.
So what is this 'ism'? An Internal Spiritual Maladjustment? The I, Self, Me syndrome? These resonate. So too does Incredibly Short Memory. This is why, for me, recovery is a daily priority. What gives me peace of mind and well being today may not work tomorrow. I have a tendency to fall asleep. Not literally, but psychologically, I become blinded to even the simplest of truths; I want things to be other than they are. Recovery is about falling awake. Waking up to my truth, and to the truth.
Jung spoke of this spiritual malady - the void known all too well by many who has fallen pray to the relentless grip of addiction - a cavity no human power can adequately fill. To those of us in recovery it becomes plain to see our powerlessness in the face of this void which we may have attempted to fill by any means known to us. These attempts were, however briefly, the solution to the problem we left unaddressed. Ours is a problem of living. Our healing, if it is to be sufficient, must address this.
You can take the brandy out of the fruit cake, but you're still left with a fruit cake. The awkward and unpalatable truth in recovery, is that the road often gets steeper and narrower before we discover the promised land. Take the substance of behaviour of choice out of the equation and you are left with the illness. As I was reminded by someone who's been around more than a few days, it's an 'ism' not a 'was-m'.
So what is this 'ism'? An Internal Spiritual Maladjustment? The I, Self, Me syndrome? These resonate. So too does Incredibly Short Memory. This is why, for me, recovery is a daily priority. What gives me peace of mind and well being today may not work tomorrow. I have a tendency to fall asleep. Not literally, but psychologically, I become blinded to even the simplest of truths; I want things to be other than they are. Recovery is about falling awake. Waking up to my truth, and to the truth.
Jung spoke of this spiritual malady - the void known all too well by many who has fallen pray to the relentless grip of addiction - a cavity no human power can adequately fill. To those of us in recovery it becomes plain to see our powerlessness in the face of this void which we may have attempted to fill by any means known to us. These attempts were, however briefly, the solution to the problem we left unaddressed. Ours is a problem of living. Our healing, if it is to be sufficient, must address this.
No comments:
Post a Comment