“I needed to stop spending so much time in the low-self-esteem room!”
—To the Newcomer.
There are so many problems we face when we get sober. We’re dealing with the wreckage of our past: trying to mend our relationships and finances, dealing with health and legal issues, and recovering from an insane lifestyle. It can all seem too much, like it’s beyond fixing.
We often hear in the rooms, “First things first.” Yes—our sobriety from crystal meth and all other mind-altering substances must come first. We can get a job and make a lot of money, but if we’re not working our program, how long can we hold on to any of it? We can get into exciting new relationships, but if we make them more important than our recovery, our experience shows that we’ll most likely lose them—and everything else.
Our rooms are full of stories of addicts whose lives became better and fuller because they worked the Steps and got involved with the fellowship. Day by day, sobriety didn’t seem as important as all the exciting new things they were doing. The results were usually the same: relapse and a return to old behavior. We can learn from their experience and decide to keep recovery our No. 1 priority.
Affirmation: I’ve worked too hard to let anything come before my recovery. Today I will put sobriety first.