Sharing the real me
“Sharing with others keeps us from feeling isolated and alone.”
Basic Text p. 81
Intimacy is the sharing of our innermost thoughts and feelings with another human
being. Many of us long for the warmth and companionship intimacy brings, but those
things don’t come without effort. In our addiction, we learned to guard ourselves
from others lest they threaten our using. In recovery, we learn how to trust others.
Intimacy requires us to lower our defenses. To feel the closeness intimacy brings, we
must allow others to get close to us-the real us.
If we are to share our innermost selves with others, we must first have an idea of
what those innermost selves are truly like. We regularly examine our lives to find out
who we really are, what we really want, and how we really feel. Then, based on our
regular inventories of ourselves, we must be as completely and consistently honest
with our friends as we can be.
Intimacy is a part of life, and therefore a part of living clean-and intimacy, like
everything in recovery, has its price. The painstaking self-scrutiny intimacy calls for
can be hard work. And the total honesty of intimacy often brings its own
complications. But the freedom from isolation and loneliness that intimacy brings is
well worth the effort.
Just for today: I seek the freedom from isolation and loneliness that intimacy brings.
Today, I will get to know “the real me” by taking a personal inventory, and I will
practice being completely honest with another person.