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I am just a bloke who got in
a mess with booze. I was helped to recover by
Alcoholics Anonymous and their Twelve Step
program. I don't claim to be anything special,
but I was shown the path to recovery and I
want to show it to others.
AA does not endorse this
book, but I hope you find that it contains
ideas and suggestions that help if you try and
adopt the program into your life.
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I have an image of my illness as a monkey. Not
a cute little fur ball of fun, but a devious,
clever and tenacious monkey (who happens to talk
as well). This image came to me when I used to
get home, open the door and "wham" a feeling of
dread and hopelessness would drop from the door
jamb and land on the back of my neck. It was an
empty home and as I entered, feelings of despair
and darkness seemed to wreath about me. In this
emptiness the whispered thoughts of how
difficult it would be to get through the night
crept into my mind. It was too much to bear.
Within seconds I changed from happy and safe
into lonely and scared. Clearly, there was an
invisible talking monkey waiting to drop on my
shoulder when I got home.
This might seem strange, but it helps me to
understand my thoughts if I put pictures in
place to represent ideas. A more clinical view
would be that I have an addiction that triggers
a subconscious craving, but I find the image of
a monkey trying to trick me into feeding it to
be easier to imagine and resist.
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