An every-day addict
“We can never fully recover, no matter how long we stay clean.”
Basic Text, p.80
After getting a little time in the program, some of us begin to think we have been
cured. We’ve learned everything NA has to teach us; we’ve grown bored with the
meetings; and our sponsor keeps droning the same old refrain: “The steps-the
steps-the steps!” We decide it is time to get on with our lives, cut way back on
meetings, and try to make up for the years we have lost to active addiction. We do
this, however, at the peril of our recovery.
Those of us who have relapsed after such an episode often try to go to as many
meetings as we can-some of us go to a meeting every day for several years. It may
take that long for us to understand that we will always be addicts. We may feel well
some days and sick on other days,
but we are addicts every day at any time, we are subject to delusion, denial,
rationalization, justification, insanity-all the hallmarks of the typical addict’s way of
thinking. If we want to continue living and enjoying life without the use of drugs, we
must practice an active program of recovery each day.
Just for today: I am an addict every day, but today I have the choice to be a
recovering addict. I will make that choice by practicing my program.