People with a history of addiction are acquainted with loss. We’ve lost jobs, health, money, relationships, respect, trust, dignity, etc. Some have lost some and some have lost all.
We had our reasons. Tons of reasons. But looking more closely in that mirror, we realized that these reasons were all excuses that we uttered so much we actually came to believe them.
The truth is we were stuck in our addiction and we didn’t know what to do. Until we surrendered. We waved that white flag on that bold day and began the process of recovery.
Recovery gave us a lot of things back. And then some. We got our edge back. We could think again. We rediscovered our confidence. Recovery gave us the ability to “intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us.”
And some of us have realized dreams we never thought possible. Not only did we get lost things back, recovery gave us gifts beyond our wildest dreams.
But here’s where things can get scary. It’s easy to forget some of the most basic and rudimentary aspects of our recovery.
The careful attention we once paid to our precious recovery gets lost to the pursuit of all these new things we’re going after. The things that once fueled our recovery like meetings, vital relationships, steps, etc., get relegated to the back.
Maybe you’ve heard it said, “You will lose anything you put before your recovery.” Why is that? Because recovery takes attention and work. It requires vigilance. The disease may sleep but it never dies. And it may very well wake up at some of the most unsuspecting times. Often in the good times.
The reason people often say that we’ll lose anything we put before our recovery is because a lot of people have learned that very lesson in the hardest ways. Their sad stories stand as a warning to all who go after shiny things instead of putting recovery first.
Enjoy all the amazing gifts of recovery! But let’s never forget that it can all go away tomorrow.
Source: Impact Recovery
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