Freedom From All Unresolved Mental Issues

Chapter 11 on the Big Book (A Vision For You) starts by reminiscing about the early days of an alcoholic’s drinking and how it gave the feeling that life was good. But not so in the last days of heavy drinking and facing the hideous Four Horsemen, Terror, Bewilderment, Frustration, and Despair. The next line is: “Unhappy drinkers who read this page will understand!”

When I read that chapter I knew I qualified, as it was the blueprint of my life, up to that moment. What I didn’t understand was that drinking was but a symptom of a much deeper-rooted emotional problem. After many years of sobriety, I still had trouble articulating how one caused the other.

In the first paragraph of Step Twelve in the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions book, it talks about finding emotional sobriety. What emotions are we talking about? That’s what I wanted to know.

As a child, I had very little supervision, and I grew up in a dysfunctional environment. I did a lot of things that I was ashamed of, but I never knew how these things would come back to haunt me later ... Continue reading »