Hi. My Name is......

[justanobserver]

Wishing you all a safe and sober Memorial Day weekend. Please remember the reason for the holiday - the sacrifices made by those in war.

 

[Citizen of the Kingdom]

Hi my name is lorene. I first went to AA 20 yrs ago or there abouts. For 3 yrs I followed the steps the best I could. I was very fortunate that I had people pick me up, take me to AA dances and talk the steps to me so I wasn't even aware I was learning. But before that I had no idea there was another way to live.
The 11th step (the one about clearing the slate every nite to God. Think it's 11 maybe 10) was what helped the most because I woke up not feeling guilty each morning.
Anyway, have a great weekend. Don't quit..surrender..

 

[justanobserver]

Hi Lorene - glad you stopped by. I think its step 10 you may be thinking of:

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.

am having a off and on weekend. on line for a bit; off line for a bit - phone calls with family, etc.

hope yours is a good one too!

 

[Citizen of the Kingdom]

Hi Lorene - glad you stopped by. I think its step 10 you may be thinking of:

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.

am having a off and on weekend. on line for a bit; off line for a bit - phone calls with family, etc.

hope yours is a good one too!

Continued to take personal inventory and when wrong promptly admitted it. Right. Still haven't learnt that one properly yet.
God bless all of you and I still say, don't quit...surrender...cause He's there for you.
Well, have a great day and take care.

 

[vja4Him]

Hey guys! I'm 24, married, 1 kid. I was addicted to weed for about 5 years. It controlled me so much I didn't feel like there was a way out. God delivered me from that, soverignly. Now I drink. It's wierd, I used to hate drinking. But now I drink everyday, Vodka and diet coke. I smoke cigarettes too. I want to quit, but simply am not able to take the bordem. To compound the problem I stay up late, can't go to sleep early. I'm left bored hours on end. I truly drink out of bordem. I truly hate sobriety. I know this is wrong, but I don't know what to do. I want to stop. Is there a such thing as Christian AA. I would like support groups to be Christian, based not secular based. Thanks guys

Hello -- My name is Jim. I'm a grateful child of God, and I'm recovering from many addictions and life in general. I just became a single father in January of 2005, trying to raise my children on my own, which has proven to be a big challenge!

My two boys and I attend a program called Celebrate Recovery, at our home church, Big Valley Grace, and another church, Shelter Cover.

Our home church has a great program for the kids. My youngest son goes to Rock Solid, and my oldest son goes to Life Hurts God Heals (junior high and high school). They have been learning tools to help them with their struggles, which has been a tremendous advantage on their road to healing. Praise God, we are all on the road to recovery!

At Celebrate Recovery, the program begins with fellowship and food for about one hour, then an aweswome time of worship. Shelter Cover has a live band. After worship, there is testimony one week, then teaching the next week. Next is the small groups, and after the group time is more fellowship and desert.

I have made so many friends, have had lots of fun, like this past Saturday, Celebrate Recovery sponsored a barbeque event in the park. Lots of homeless people showed up for the event. There were lots of fun activities for everyone. You can check out some of the pictures I took here:

http://www.vjandrews.com/Activities/GraceadaPark2006.html

You should check to see if there is a Celebrate Recovery program nearby, and if not, start a group of your own, or find someone who will start a Celebrate Recovery program. You can order the kit to get the program started.

Celebrate Recovery is a Christ-centered program. There are many people who come from AA and other groups. I keep hearing all the time from people that they enjoy the Christ-centered program much more. They don't hear the profanity that they are used to hearing, receive spiritual encouragement, learn Biblical principals, and have good fellowship in a safe and friendly environment.

God bless!

 

[justanobserver]

Jim - I just sent you a PM. we might be sorta neighbors. I emailed a guy named Steve (??) of Celebrate Recovery there at Big Valley over a year ago about some CR info. small world. maybe an old prayer just might get answered after all.

 

[New Creation]

Great pictures Jim! Looks like it was a blast!

 

[justanobserver]

hello all. just enjoying a 90 degree day here in CA, well, sweating while enjoying the day. as others here (to include myself) have mentioned, as wellas AA, theres a christian "version" called Celebrate Recovery. I been to one some years ago when I liveed south of where I am at now. I remember enjoying it, walking thru the door to a place where there was about maybe 50 or so recovering drunks and addicts that welcomed me. I rememebr feeling at home, a place amongst others that no one else wanted either.

Here it is, some years later (6 yrs actually) and I been looking, have emailed the leaders of hte meetiungs (2 are about 15 miles north and 1 is about 20 miles south) and when you aint got the wheels to make the trip and no one is from where your at to give you a lift....

can be frustrating. BUT AA is on the other side of town so its all good. About a 30 minute mountain bike ride away. I do have a 74 Chevy Nova POS with about 300,000 miles (really!) that on a good day will start and get me to the store or to work if its raining but am hoping a Celebrate recovery will start up here in my town.

Just posting thoughts. nothing really going on but random thoughts. waiting for my ex to call at/around 5pm to talk about when my boys can up for a visit (need dates so I can put in for vacation). anyhooooos, suppose ioughta go and gather up my scattered thoughts, end this post, check a couple others and log off.

remember, one day at a time

 

[New Creation]

The strangest thing happened to me on Friday as I shopped for our weekly groceries.
I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes about 6 weeks ago and have had to radically alter my diet since then. I'm not allowed white bread, white rice, chips, french fries, cookies, cake, chocolate of any kind, pie, raisins, fruit juice, honey, ice cream, yogurt, and basically anything else that tastes good.

So I'm walking through the grocery store and walk slowly by the aisle with all the baked goods and just stared at them. And I SWEAR I wanted a sweet as badly as I EVER wanted a drink. It was a bizarre feeling.

 

[justanobserver]

looks like I get my boys the 3rd week of August. The cool thing is they support totally my recovery and program. They only knew me the few times when I was home (they was small boys then) from deployment with the Army as sonmeone who was drunk all the time or going to the store to get booze or coming back from the store with booze or heading to the bar or coming back from the bar or......

They went a couple of the Celebrate Recovery meetings in Arroyo Grande, CA with me (the ex came as well), had pizza and went to eh dependant support meetings that were being held while I was in the regular meetings. But they remember being welcomed, friendly folks, everyone was smiling, and their dad sober.

this was a couple months after I came home from military rehab in Jan '00. Thier program was like going thru boot camp all over again. But I had since slipped, got shipped out of the area, eventually discharged, really began drinking again and the added problems of being introduced to Meth.....

so now I been clean for about 3 yrs, sober for almost 2 and 2 boys that when we talk, first thing they wanna know is "am i still sober"? My ex and I talk alot about the times then and she is starting to understand that it wasnt her, it was my desire to get drunk or stoned and the lack of control to do anything about it.

anyways, like I said to my sons last night and to my daighter that called out of the blue (she is almost 23) and again to my former wife and to all here at CF and the world: I give no exscuses for my actions orpast nor do I attempt to justify where I went and what al I done while under the influence. All I can say to any and all is my deepest apologies and the desire for forgiveness.

In the meanwhile, I am continuing in my foward prgression in life.

 

[New Creation]

How long will the boys be with you Norm?

 

[justanobserver]

How long will the boys be with you Norm?

Hey. they will be here in Aug for about a week. whats funny is that their mom might come up with them as well. she asked if she hasnt found another job if she could take a break and come uo too and well, I was married to her and she is close to a best friend I got so, heck yeah! come on down! (well, actually it would be up since she lives south of me...).

got a prayer request for her in the non christian prayer section here about her getting a new job. her job ends on 30 Jun due to funding.

 

[justanobserver]

The strangest thing happened to me on Friday as I shopped for our weekly groceries.
I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes about 6 weeks ago and have had to radically alter my diet since then. I'm not allowed white bread, white rice, chips, french fries, cookies, cake, chocolate of any kind, pie, raisins, fruit juice, honey, ice cream, yogurt, and basically anything else that tastes good.

So I'm walking through the grocery store and walk slowly by the aisle with all the baked goods and just stared at them. And I SWEAR I wanted a sweet as badly as I EVER wanted a drink. It was a bizarre feeling.

oh wow! Is it kinda similiar to like going thru withdrawels or "jonesing" for a hit? Do you go thru ups and downs of extremes with your blood sugar and maybe thats when the urge hits? Or perhaps it may be attributed to your hormonal changes and the baby saying "HEY! feed me sweets!"

I am type 2 diabetic and gotta watch my diet as well. Now and then I will get the urge to get stupid and get ice cream, cookies, candy, etc all the while knowing it would set my blood sugar thru the roof and subsequent migrain headache.

 

[justanobserver]

thought it would be nice to once in a while stop by my own thread and make a post!

Doin OK, havent really been bothered by urges or thoughts (well, ok, been hot the past few days and a cold beer image did dance across my mind's view briefly). Just thinking of my sobriety and the spiritual side of it and how its something I been avoiding like the plague. What I would like to get to or be a part of, its just not here where I live.

I know I need to give my spiritual side some serious thinking and consideration. I do mostly agree in that a lot of the success in the sober walk is when the spiritual is involved working with the emotional and the phsycological and physical. Just got some things that need working thru and right now, He aint in a hurry to help work thru them.

One thing I have been neglectful in mentioning and perhaps I am wrong for not acknowledging but whern I did come to the desicion that morning on 6 Sep '04 not to drink anymore, I did ask God that if He was willing and felt like it if he could help me in stopping drinking.

Well, I havent had a drink since then so its only right and honest to give thanks to Him - thank you God for the help.

 

[Harlan Norris]

While scrolling thru the threads, I just noticed that the Recovery Folder is now open to non christians. I for one greatly appreciate Erwin and Staff for this as I believe it will benefit those that have dealt with alcoholism; be it still drinking, been sober and want to chat or a dependant of an alcoholic or just to share.

There is no particular purpose for this thread except to perhaps welcome all to share if you so desire and say hello. You dont need to say your name.

With that said;

Hi. My name is Norm and I am an alcoholic, been sober since 5 Sep 2005. Just wanted to say hi.

may write more later but just wanted to get a thread started in this new folder.

Congratulations Norm, I'm Harlan,sober since Christmas 02.

 

[justanobserver]

Congratulations Norm, I'm Harlan,sober since Christmas 02.

Nice to meetcha harlan. And will share in congratualting you on your sobriety as well.

 

[justanobserver]

Just checkin in with the thread to say howdies to any and all that may stop by to read. Wishing all continual sobriety and to those that still struggle - you aint alone - theres plenty of friends here you can PM and talk to.

 

[justanobserver]

some days are ok, some days are good and some days, well, some days....

there are times when I just want to quit the fight and in my mind I can taste the vodka/soda or am enjoying the coldness of a beer (its just over a 100 degrees right now). Then my mind hits the rteality mode and reminds me of how one leads to 2 leads to 4 leads to 12 and more.

Hi. My name is Norm and I am an alcoholic.

Now and then I just need to say that outloud and be it just me listening or the whole world - I dont care - but I need to say it and read the words and hear it in my mind. I need to remind myself of the next day after the last evening before and emoty wallets and dried puke and urine and black eyes and dried bloody nose orfriends that wont talk to me again and I am left to wonder what I did that I cannot remember.

Hi. My name is Norm and I am an alcoholic (and an addict - might as well say it all).

laters.

 

[justanobserver]

havn't posted or even been on line here much lately so figger to at least pop in and say howdies and I am still clean and sober. its a work in progress.

 

[PrairieGurl]

Hi my name is Wendy I'm and alcoholic and addict.
I have been drink free for 3 days (including today) and drug free for 34 days.
I was just at my 3rd AA meeting yesturday.

Thanks for starting this thread Norm.

On my way to complete FREEDOM !