You may be familiar with the idea of a “dry drunk”, usually used in AA meetings to describe someone who has stopped drinking, but is still bitter, miserable, or angry, usually because they have made no other changes in their life other than stopping drinking.
Individuals living the “dry drunk” lifestyle are missing out on the best parts of recovery. Each individual’s recovery path requires doing the work of the program. It may be an SRWC program, an AA program, a SMART Recovery program, etc, or a combination of those or more. But they all require work, and the work pays off!
In the Work Sober program, for example, we build skills for recognizing and changing the inner dialogue that sustains shame and low self-esteem. Getting out from under the almost-constant feeling of failing at life, we can begin to look at our success, and where we want to go from here. When you have a goal, and when you can comfortable look at yourself in the mirror each morning, each other step gets a little easier.
That’s how the work works–in small, incremental changes, not one large change.
Small changes add up to big results.
What are the changes you made (or see) in your life that made a difference in your ability to stay sober?
