Wisdom Of The Rooms - 2020

[bluidkiti]

July 13

Quote of the Week

"The problem with isolating is that you get such bad advice."

By the end of my drinking, I was all alone. Unlike some of the stories I hear about people drinking in bars, I preferred to drink alone in my home. My friends were gone, my family wasn’t inviting me over, and it was just me and my alcohol. After months of listening to my own best thinking, I had run out of options and was at the end of my rope. By some miracle, I was able to reach out for help, and my journey in recovery began.

While I have worked the Twelve Steps several times over the years and labored hard to turn my character defects over to God, I still find that my default mode is to isolate. I stay in, turn off my phone, and binge-watch movies I’ve seen a hundred times. When I do, I am cut off from others and from my Higher Power, and that’s when my best alcoholic thinking starts again. What I’ve learned is that it never has anything good to say.

Today, I do the things I learned to do early in sobriety to keep from isolating: I have a sponsor, I get commitments at meetings, and I say yes when asked to participate. I also answer the phone these days and am willing to help another. In other words, I continue to take contrary action because, as they say, “An alcoholic’s best thinking treats loneliness with isolating.” And when I’m isolating, the advice I get is all bad.