There is the addictive cycle as described in Hazelden’s “A Guide to the Big Book’s Design for Living with Your Higher Power, the workbooks of Alcoholics Anonymous:
One. You feel restless, irritable, or discontented.
Two. You remember the good feelings alcohol, drugs or food brought in the past. The thought that you can drink and use like normal people becomes an obsession.
Three. This overpowering idea (obsession) leads you to take a drink, use drugs or compulsively overeat food and sugar in spite of past problems related to your drug use.
Four. You take a drink, use drugs or take that first compulsive bite of food or sugar. At this point, because of the allergic reaction, you crave more drinks, drugs or food and sugar. So you continue drinking, using drugs or compulsively overeating.
Five. What follows is a drug or drinking or compulsive eating spree that causes your behavior to go out of control.
Six. Afterward, you feel sorry (remorseful).
Seven. You make a promise (resolution) never to drink alcohol, use drugs or overeat food and sugar again.
When this happens repeatedly, it becomes the Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Compulsive Overeating Cycle.
As a compulsive overeater and sugar addict I know this cycle well.
Here’s how God and Overeaters Anonymous has helped me change this cycle as I worked the Steps and found abstinence. For compulsive overeaters and sugar addicts like me, I can attest that Abstinence comes with completing Step 9 as promised in the original, first edition of the Overeaters Anonymous book. It is a beautiful process, not easy or pain-free but net net overall just another small hill to climb before coasting downhill for the rest of your life as an integrated person, coming at life from within with your True Self, God, a Trusting Ego and your Eternal Child Within!
So this is my response to the addictive personality when I am abstinent and in recovery:
One. Life is life and there are going to be good times and bad times, crazy thoughts, wild emotions and feelings and only one body to sustain us in life. Getting outside of myself, my Sill Ego and accepting my powerlessness over food and sugar is essential for me. I am not a normal eater. I have a disease. I am a normal human being, none of us are perfect. I am of good character and with the exception of food and sugar, my willpower is very powerful. More importantly, being in relationship with God and submitting my will to do His Will with my life is extremely powerful. I seek inspiration in life and there is always power to be found if I have the right perspective. My TROML, Al-Anon, AA, OA and ACA life journey has been amazing. So thankful for being abstinent today and living life to its fullest through TROML!
Two. I remember to see the hook as well as the bait. I love nostalgia and remembering the good old days but I also remember, accept and deal with the impact that alcoholism had on me as a child growing up. My parents were good people but my father had a disease which was at its worse during my formative years. The disease impacted me in terms of emotional abandonment. My father stopped drinking and did not have another drink for the last 25 years of his life. He is a hero and inspiration to me and my Mom is a saint! If Dad can give up sugar in the alcohol I can give up sugar in the food.
Three. The only overpowering idea in my life today is my love, devotion and commitment to God to do His Will with my life. All other relationships and worldly pursuits, especially those generated by my Silly Ego are second or lower in priority. TROML, Overeaters Anonymous, Abstinence and the Twelve Steps brought me to a life of peace, joy and freedom and I will, based on God’s Will for me, doing everything possible to maintain my beautifully present now and eternal later life.
Four. I don’t take that first compulsive bite. I accept as reality having the disease of compulsive overeating and sugar addiction. I do have occasional slips when I choose to abandon myself and my relationship with God. Thankfully they are momentary slips and not drastic monthly or yearly relapses like in my past life. I choose to not live in isolation and seek help spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically from within, above and outside my self.
Five. My acceptance, love and compassion for myself first and then other human beings go out of control. I review my spiritual journey which starts with no contempt prior to investigation. I don’t know what will happen today nor is it my responsibility to control it. Like me it surely will not be perfect but how I think, how I approach the day will make it perfectly imperfect as long as I remain abstinent. Peace, joy and freedom TROML Baby!
Six. I have nothing to feel sorry for in my life. No poor me, pour me another milkshake to comfort me, woe is me thinking in my life. I live in my Splendid Spiritual Self with reasonable boundaries on utilizing my mind, emotions and body a directed by God. Today I learned that I need to take care of myself emotionally and can only do this with God’s help and my determination to stay spiritually fit in life.
Seven. The promises of Alcoholic Anonymous as written on Pages 83 & 84 of the Big Book are coming true for me and I am very grateful. “If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are half way through. We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. We will not regret the past not wish to shut the door on it. We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others. That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows. Self-seeking will slip away. Our whole attitude in life will change. Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us. We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us. We will suddenly realize God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves. Are these extravagant promises? We think not. They are being fulfilled among us—sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. They will always materialize if we work for them.”
The addictive cycle dissolves into the truth, spirit and joy of our human existence.
We have free will, we have choices to make with consequences to live out…
The power is within you from birth to live a normal human life filled with peace, joy and freedom. If one part of that life is diseased to the extent it is sickening the rest of your life then TROML as an umbrella program and the right Twelve Step process can help you resolve that in your life, God willing and God requested.
There are no easy answers in life but there are clear choices to be made with a clear, present mind and spirit.
I wish you well on your journey in life.
If I can help in any way please contact me now.
Have a TROML Day today!
Your Personal Revivalist,
Anonymous Andy
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