3 Simple Steps to Permanent Sobriety

I am a real, hard-core alcoholic and addict. The kind of crazy as a bed-bug type of drunk that some in my homeroom was betting against ever getting sober. I know because they told me when I picked-up my five year medallion.

Often times I wondered how as messed-up as I was, how I was ever able to achieve permanent sobriety. One day I called my sponsor to ask her what I did that was so right, when so many others had not made it. She said “Oh that’s easy, you followed directions. When you came in, you were like Humpty-Dumpty, running ‘round like the rest of us, putting the pieces back together again. Nutty as you were, you were very good at taking suggestions and following directions’.

Well of course I was good at following directions, I was terrified not to. I knew where my best thinking kept getting me! After much contemplation, I realized that even though following directions was important, it wasn’t the only reason. There were two other critical action steps that I had developed along the way.

The one essential prerequisite through out my sobriety has been my desire to want to stay sober. Simply put, I WANTED it. More than anything else, I desperately wanted too live a happy, normal life. I wanted to discover the experience of happiness and true joy in life. I read the Promises and knew that was how I wanted to live my life. I wanted it because I knew that if I continued drinking and drugging, I would die. So for me, there was no choice. I could stay sober and live or I could use and die. Real simple.

The other pre-requisite is discussed in the preamble of How it Works, Chapter Five in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous. There it clearly states that “Rarely, have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. Those who do not recover [are] usually men and women who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves.” Honesty begins with self-honesty, and is the first spiritual principle we begin to practice in Step One. It is so critical, that it’s the only condition I demand from anyone before I commit to guiding them through the Steps. The spiritual principle of honesty forms the foundation our sobriety is grounded on.

Anyone can achieve permanent recovery if you: sincerely want it, begin to practice the spiritual principle of honesty to the best of your ability and if you are willing follow directions. That’s how many of us who have achieved permanent
sobriety have done it and how you too can do it!

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