Member: Shannon S.
Location: Southern Cal.
Date: 6/11/00
Time: 11:17:11 AM
Shannon, alcoholic here. Wow, I guess I'm the first one here this week. How about gratitude for our topic. Attitude is everything in sobriety. A grateful day is a good day for me. Early in sobriety my sponsor suggested I make a grateful list. This still helps every time. I can't be hateful and grateful at the same time. Best wishes to all for another sober day. thanks for letting me share.
Member: Zip G.
Location: Texas
Date: 6/11/00
Time: 11:41:11 AM
Hi Shannon and everyone else for that matter. My name is Zip and I am an Alcoholic. Today I am greatful for my life and for my sobriety and all the blessings God has put in my life. I am not on a pink cloud. This is the real world and not everything turns up roses in my life every day. However, I have learned to do several things that help bring me back to reality (gratitude is reality) when I have the poor me's. I go to the local hospital 3 or 4 times a week and eat lunch in the cafeteria. I meet people who have real problems and I don't have to eat my mom's cooking. That is a win/win situation. I also make a habit of visiting the jail to see all my old friends. Ha! Thank you Lord. Another thing that helps me is meeting new people in the group and hearing their stories. It makes me realize how good my life is today. If I stay sober 16 more days I will have 12 years sober. The spiritual life is not a theory, we have to live it.(Page 83, BB) Love to all. Zip G.
Member: Brian B
Location: Dublin, Ireland
Date: 6/11/00
Time: 12:38:41 PM
Hi,Shannon, Zip & all, My nane is Brian B & I am a alcoholic. I am sitting hear at work waiting to get started & I have got a chance to read this meeting page. Thank god for my new way of life today, a life I want to learn to work my will with gods will thats all, you see I know that if I can do that every thing will be all right.
Member: Carol C.
Location: New Jersey
Date: 6/11/00
Time: 1:20:24 PM
Hi Carol Alcoholic - Gratitude is a wonderful topic for me. When I'm grateful everything works so much easier. The other night we were stuck on a bridge in weekend traffic and I said to my husband we are so lucky! We are at the top of the bridge! Look at all the traffic behind us. He said sometimes you amaze me with the way you find little things to be grateful for. Something that small has the power to set the tone of my day. I can be either pissed off I caught the bridge or see it the way I did. I quess that's also turning a possable negative into something possative. Sometimes I struggle with finding something to be grateful for so then it's time to look for something right in front of me, like my sobriety, or even my kids good health. My discease wants me to look for all the negatives and that can be very hard to get out of. Have a great week and thank you for letting me share.
Member: Marlene S
Location:
Date: 6/11/00
Time: 3:41:38 PM
Hi everyone I am still trying to get the guts to admit that I am an alcholic and can never have a drink again. I have not had a drink for 5 days and need your prayers to help keep me sober. This is my first time at this site, I never even dreamed it existed. Your comments have been so helpful. Please pray for me. Thanks
Member: DOUG
Location: OREGON
Date: 6/11/00
Time: 5:04:35 PM
I AM GRATEFULL IM NOT IN JAIL AND THAT IM STILL SOBER ITS BEEN ALMOST 4MO.S NOW.IM GRATEFUL AND NOT HATEFULL EXCEPTANCE.EVERYONE HAVE A SOBER 24! LOST IN ORE. [STILL]
Member: Jill M
Location: Florida
Date: 6/11/00
Time: 5:24:02 PM
Hello! My name is Jill and I'm an alcoholic. Although I've been drinking for years, my drinking has accelerated in the past year to the point of alienating just about everyone I love. I had a wonderful relationship with my ten yr. old son, but I've just about ruined that too. I used to be productive, but I'm not working now because I wake up hungover every morning and can't face the day without another beer and when I do work I can hardly wait to get home to pop a top. I'm grateful that tomorrow is a brand new day and with it comes another opportunity to be sober, (something I have'nt been in months). I'm also grateful for this website and whatever brought me here. Thank You for letting me get this off my chest. No one understands better than someone who's been there!
Member: angela b
Location: virginia
Date: 6/11/00
Time: 5:37:37 PM
angela alcoholic here. today i am grateful that my life is not full of the fear i felt while actively drinking. i was afraid to answer the door, afraid to answer the phone, afraid of being fired, afraid of going to work,afraid my family would find out,afraid i was going crazy. i'd drive around and watch people in there cars and think, "i wish i were them, they aren't full of fear. when i first came to aa all i wanted was to have peace of mind. today i have that peace and so much more. thanks aa. i know god put this program in my life and for that i'm etenally grateful.
Member: joe
Location: us
Date: 6/11/00
Time: 6:06:50 PM
hi joe a sober member of society today by the grace of GOD and AA-i am very grateful i have today,a good job,friends who you can depend on and talk to anytime--every morning and every night i thank him!!!
Member: Kent H.
Location: Knoxville,TN
Date: 6/11/00
Time: 6:48:34 PM
Hi folks. Haven't visited here in many moons. Good to see it's still going strong. Gratitude has always been my favorite topic, too. I am indeed grateful for many things, but here's the tragic irony: after 3 years of sobriety, I fell off the wagon 5 months ago. I really don't know why. Life threw me some curve balls, but that's happened before without incident. Was doing what I was supposed to do. I know recovery inside out; I was even an A&D counselor for a while. Go figure. Needless to say, one drink led to a few thousand more and now I am back at square one. Lost a wonderful girlfriend. Lost a great job at which I'd just been promoted, got kicked out of my apt., wrecked my car(grateful nobody else was hurt!), got 2 DUI charges, ended up in the hospital with severe DTs. Just got out after a week of pure Hell. Still pretty shaky and very depressed. So I am loveless, jobless, homeless(staying with one of the few friends I still have), sick, and facing jail time. Seems like when things start going well, I sabotage my recovery...it's happened twice before. I don't know why I do it. But guess what? I'm STILL GRATEFUL. I'm alive, so I still have a chance. Bless you all.
Member: Jarmo K
Location: Sweden
Date: 6/11/00
Time: 7:03:42 PM
Thank you four comments
Member: Andrew
Location: Calgary
Date: 6/11/00
Time: 7:56:03 PM
The 19th anual gratitude roundup just ended today. A host of great speakers reminded me of all I have to be grateful for. Thank God and all of you for the Life I have today.
Member: Phil S.
Location: Orando, FL.
Date: 6/11/00
Time: 8:16:57 PM
Hi,my name is Phil, and the one big thing I'm grateful for is my health. After 20 years of drinking I could start to feel it slip away. After 6 months of sobriety I now feel much of it comming back. There are many difficult things to contend with in my life,and feeling a change in my body and mind is very gratifying.
Member: Dorian H.
Location: Oakwood,Ga
Date: 6/11/00
Time: 9:13:51 PM
hello everyone...my name is dorian and i am an alcoholic..and very grateful to be sober...i'm praying for you marlene...how great that you have 5 days...i love being sober but i know how hard it is at first especially.....this is my first time at this site too...just happened upon it....i use to hate gratitude meetings in early sobriety....but now i love them,although i CAN in fact be grateful and angry or fearful or sad on many other feelings at the same time...thats one thing i've learned in recovery....sometimes i'm lots of feelings all at once.....i just dont drink no matter what....best wishes for a sober day....
Member: Catherine B.
Location: West of England
Date: 6/11/00
Time: 9:36:02 PM
Hi! I'm Catherine......grateful alcoholic. When I first came into the rooms I used to hear people say that and think "WHAT!! How can they be grateful that they're alcoholics??"!!!!!! Cos I certainly wasn't grateful. All I could see stretching ahead was a load of hard work on a daily basis: daily readings, meditation, prayers, admission of powerlessness, Step 10s all the time, carrying the message, getting to meetings, doing service.....however was I going to get it all done withour a drink?????And I had to do it for the rest of my life, for God's sake!!!!!! I was too old for all this stuff!!!! But I'd nearly died through my drinking, and that had really scared me, and I looked at some of the people in the rooms who were so alive and happy and "sorted" and I wanted what they had, so I did everything that was suggested, and I worked the programme, and I made gratitude lists all the time, and sometimes I didn't have the energy to write them all down, because the list just grew and grew.......and hey! it WORKED!!! And one day at a meeting I heard myself saying "I'm Kate and I'm a grateful alcoholic!" I've had an amazing week, applying for a course and been accepted for final interview. Masses of feelings flying around, lots of non-coincidences, definitely looked after by my HP....and tonight at the end of it logging in here and finding that gratitude is the subject under discussion, well, for me, that's my HP too. Because I am sober today, through working the programme and the 12 steps of AA, I have a whole new life ahead of me. How can I not be grateful for that?? I shared about gratitude lists at a meeting the other day; one of the guys there was really fed up. The next meeting he came up and gave me a hug and said "hey! that really worked, writing down the things I had to be grateful for!" It's really good to be here. Thank you for letting me share, and if you're a newcomer - Keep Coming Back.......it really DOES work if you work it.
Member: Molly
Location: Arizona
Date: 6/11/00
Time: 10:25:02 PM
Hi everyone, I am Molly and I am an alocoholic. I always love this topic and there have been some great comments posted....alot of food for thought. Zip way to go..almost 12 years..so cool. Marlene, 5 days is a wonderful start. We all started just like you one day at a time. You just have to want sobriety with all your fiber and being and it will happen. Kent, just like you I have had 3 years and 4 months...twice..I am not sure what happened either time. I know I get real bad about not using the phone when things get tough...and not going to meetings and wa la self destruction sets in. I am soooo glad you are back. Without AA I would be dead. I am so grateful a NY stock broker and an Akron physician got together in 1935 and persevered with this program. I did not know how to stop drinking..I wanted to...I promised a few ex's I would and I really meant it at the time. I have this cunning and baffling and powerful disease and AA is the ONLY thing for me that will arrest it. Not shrinks, not antabuse...nothing but AA. Being around other drunks and sharing my experience strengths and hopes and saying I am Molly I am an alcoholic....lordy I am getting on my soap box. I am eternally grateful for this program and what it has taught me...newcomers...don't drink even if your ass falls off..things will get better.
Member: Bill O
Location: Lee's Summit, MO
Date: 6/11/00
Time: 11:09:02 PM
I have heard, said, and believe that a grateful alcoholic is a sober alcoholic. Nothing to be grateful for? Are you breathing, do you have the ability to read, are there people on this site sharing their experience, strength and hope? The list is miles long!!
Member: Dan H
Location: bush Alaska
Date: 6/12/00
Time: 12:09:18 AM
Hi Everyone.....DirtyDan here. I have recently been doing some 12 step work in our little town. One little gal is having a horrible time and keeps slipping about every other day. Another guy that came to a few meetings blew his brains out after staying sober for 30 days and then slipped. At times I think I'm not doing any good with all this 12th step work....But I can certainly be GRATEFUL that it wasn't ME in that pine box that they buried yesterday and that it isn't ME that slips every other day!!! I will have 3 years sober on Aug. 1 and am grateful for my new way of life and all my AA friends. Thanks, DirtyDan
Member: Anonymous
Location:
Date: 6/12/00
Time: 12:28:15 AM
Hi everyone. I'm an alcoholic. Gratitude is always a good topic whether I'm in the mood to hear it or not. I've been in sober for over 8 years. I find it much easier to be grateful now than it was when I first came into the program. I couldn't see anything else except ME! Thank God you were all here to say "Keep coming back", "Meeting makers make it", "Stick with the winners", "Work the steps", "Get a sponsor", "Cease to be grateful, cease to be sober", etc..... I just wanted to say that when I first came into AA, I was so self absorbed. I took a lot from AA. AA loved me until I could love myself, gave me a higher power, and has kept me sober up until this minute. I am truly grateful although at times that can go right out the window. I am human and will never be perfect. Then I go to a meeting, talk with a sponsor or recovering friend and get back on track. My worst day sober is better than my best day as a drunk. One of the best rewards of this program, I think, is having the ability to be there for others. Giving without expecting anything in return. Thanks to you all.
Member: Roy N
Location: Chicago, Il
Date: 6/12/00
Time: 1:00:13 AM
Hello. Roy, alcoholic here. I guess I am grateful to be sober today. Went to get some sandwiches, located next to major liquor store. Got the sandwiches for me and my wife, skipped the liquor store. The temptation is still there, sometimes so strong. I passed it up today and I feel good about that. I thought about it later and realized it would have ruined my day (maybe 2, maybe 3) and changed the outcome of where I am right now. I am right in my head, clear in my thinking, and grateful to have AA with me. The nice thing is, I will go to bed sober. When I wake up it will be the start of a new sober day. Take care.
Member: ANGIE B.
Location: CHICOTA,TX
Date: 6/12/00
Time: 2:07:06 AM
hello i am grateful today for just being alive by that i mean awake and seeing that forest. anyone who has the awakening knows what i mean im also grateful for all of ya.
Member: Mark R.
Location: Boulder, Co.
Date: 6/12/00
Time: 2:18:19 AM
Hi All,
My name is mark and I'm an alcoholic...Soooo glad to have found this site. Although I am having a hard time with gratitude today. I was a sober member of A.A. for about three years but I have been drinking almost daily for the last three years. Last month I went on a week long bender. I took my brothers car and the company credit card and split. I almost died. I left a wife and five children wondering where Dad was. When I finally got the guts to come back I discovered that my wife of 14 years was through with my shit. I am living with my father now, have neuro-palsy in my right arm and my almost ex wife is already dating. I didn't drink for 5 weeks following my binge but yesterday I couldn't handle so I took 5 vicodans and drank a pint of 100 proof vodka, then smoked some weed. It is after midnight and I didn't drink today, so I guess I found my gratitude. Thanks.
Member: Chuck M
Location: Alberta
Date: 6/12/00
Time: 2:43:02 AM
I"m Chuck, an alcoholic
I am grateful to be free of all the negative thinking and feelings that made my life a living hell.
The action to the feeling of gratitude is step 12. I love to pass on our program of recovery to the suffering alcoholic. I try to be kind and considerate to my fellow man. It is so great to live in harmony with my God.
Peace and Serenity
Member: Sheri F
Location: Portland, ORegon
Date: 6/12/00
Time: 6:39:33 AM
Hi, I'm Sheri an alcoholic. Gratitude, I'm so grateful that I learned to be grateful for even the buttons on my blouse. Today I am grateful that my Mom lived long enough to see me clean and sober for 22 years. I lost Mom Sat. and am grateful to this program for teaching me that I don't have to drink to stuff the pain. I am able to handle the loss, the legal stuff, and I had the fellowship of the group worldwide standing there waiting for me to ask for help if I need it. Grateful that Mom just went to sleep to wake up in a MUCH better place. Thank you AA for giving me a new way of life and a way to handle even death. Yes, I'm called Gratitude sheri in my home group, haha. To the newcomers, gratitude is a word that has not been in our vocabulary but IF you keep coming back, you too can find this peace and joy that is beyond description. Thank you for letting me share my GRATITUDE for everything in my life, good bad, and ugly. Love and prayers Sheri F.
Member: Steve R
Location:
Date: 6/12/00
Time: 7:03:41 AM
Hi to all, and thank you all for your inspiring and wonderful comments. I'm Steve, and I'm grateful that today, for the second time, I have the insight and knowledge to say that I am an alcoholic. I am powerless over alcohol, and my life has become unmanageable. I've been in denial about that, and I'm so thankful that I can finally see it and believe it. Now, I intend to go enjoy another sober day.
Member: Fred M
Location: MD
Date: 6/12/00
Time: 7:57:27 AM
I'm Fred and I'm an alcoholic, grateful to be sober today. Gratitude is the key to my serenity and therefore, my sobriety. When I am troubled, I open a conversation with God and start listing to him all that I am grateful for. I stay in that prayer until I cannot think of any more things to list. The gratitude list is so long, the minor little problem that was bothering me fades into insignificance. The Promises have come true for me. I am truly blessed. I am so grateful for AA, this site, and all of the members who share. Thanks for letting me share. Love Fred
Member: Donna M.
Location: Muskogee, Ok.
Date: 6/12/00
Time: 9:52:32 AM
Hi Donna here a grateful recovering alcoholic. Great topic and one I need to here today. I'm a little down today because I had to set a boundry with someone I care about very much. So gratitude is a topic I will mediditate on all day thanks. Thank God and you people I'm sober today.
Member: Carla
Location: Texas
Date: 6/12/00
Time: 10:04:07 AM
Hello to everyone, Carla here I'm an acoholic and I am grateful that God has giving me the strenght to be able to say that!!! And to you Marlene {GREAT WORK}keep it up....I'm not that much ahead of you-15 days sober so I know how hard it is!!And for you Mark just remember you have to crawl before you can walk and wheather you are crawling or walking [GOD LOVES YOU]& he will listen to anything & everything you have to tell him [GOOD or BAD]I am not a church go'er but I do know when there is noone else to talk to HE LISTENS.So here is to another sober 24 to everone.............
Member: Kathy G
Location: Nassau County NY
Date: 6/12/00
Time: 11:19:07 AM
Hi all I'm Kathy and am happy to discuss gratitude - I had stopped drinking for a year thanks to AA but stopped going to meetings - husband objected and now I'm back again - I've been miserable drinking and hungover - I don't want to drink plain and simple - I'm going to work on it with a vengence - I have got to get some order into my life - Thanks for listening
Member: Bill M
Location: Louisiana
Date: 6/12/00
Time: 12:21:22 PM
Helo everyone...My name is Bill M and I am an alcoholic sobriety date...9-21-72. I am grateful today for the wonderful fellowship of AA. The program did exactly what my original contact with AA told me it would do. He said "I will introduce you to a bunch of people who will show you a way of living that you never knew existed". That is exactly what happened. This is a wonderful program for living sober and learning how to handle life on life's terms. Great meeting topic. One thing that I have learned througout the years. 'IT WORKS IF YOU WORK IT' For all I have learned through AA, I am grateful.
Member: JoAnn M.
Location: No. California
Date: 6/12/00
Time: 12:51:32 PM
Hi, everyone..My name is JoAnn and I am a grateful alcoholic. I am grateful..first to be ALIVE! for my SOBERITY! for AA! for a wonderful new sober husband!for a peaceful and serene way of life! for all the love in my life! I could never have that without following a few directions in the program of AA, a Higher Power, a sponser, the 12-Steps, the Big Book,and..on and on!!! How did this happen????ONE DAY AT A TIME! This time 5 years ago I was hitting my bottom...drank 24 hours a day..and, couldn't get my "head" drunk. Was in the process of losing everything. Ended up in the ER with an overdose of vodka. The two-by-four hit me on the head on the way to the hospital..I just can't do this anymore..and I haven't! I AM VERY GRATEFUL FOR THAT!
Member: John H.
Location: Chicago, Il.
Date: 6/12/00
Time: 12:59:23 PM
Hi everyone, Iam new at this, it's a great topic at being gratefull, because at times we do forget about what we have and not so much at what we're going to have, oh yea my name is John and Iam alcoholic and a drug addict. I am sitting here kind of feeling sorry for myself because I have'nt been to a meeting in a long time because I had to move away from the city into the subards and a meeting is only a train ride away so you all just helped me to get back in the grove again , thanks I will keep coming back, it is so much easiler then to stay sober then to go out and to come back, Everyone have a beautifull day.
Member: don m.
Location: california
Date: 6/12/00
Time: 1:03:43 PM
My name is Don M. I am grateful for: The feeling I get through the forgiveness I have learned to give. The total release of resentments that I used to cherish and guard. The abandonment of all negativity in my approach. The newfound "flow" of my decision making. My discovery of the sources of introjected shame that affected my sense of self. The discharge of a toxic shame in my emotional thinking.
All this has come from my decision to embrace what was right in my life and abandon that which no longer served me.
Member: Darren
Location: Idaho
Date: 6/12/00
Time: 1:17:29 PM
Hi all, My name is Darren and I am an alcoholic. I am on day two of sobriety and am grateful by the grace of god that the realization of my disease came to me before I lost everything or wound up killing myself or someone else. I see a very hard road ahead but I look forward to staying sober for the rest of my life, one day at a time. I think AA is just the vehicle to help me accomplish this.
Member: lena.M
Location: sweden, piteå
Date: 6/12/00
Time: 3:04:37 PM
thank you all to helping me being sober.
Member: Terrie H.
Location: OK city
Date: 6/12/00
Time: 3:08:27 PM
I'm Terrie and I'm an slcoholic, I'm very grateful for the program. I need more meetings and fellowship. I'm grateful for conventions. Happy 65th b-day to AA.
Member: JEFF B.
Location: TIGARD, OREGON
Date: 6/12/00
Time: 3:35:32 PM
STILL SOBER,I AM GRATEFUL FOR TODAY,HI SHERI F. IN PORTLAND.
JEFF B.
Member: Jamie B.
Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba
Date: 6/12/00
Time: 3:38:09 PM
Hi, my name is Jamie and I am a grateful alcoholic. Strange words indeed when used together. No one outside the Program would understand it - but what's more important - we do and even more importantly - I do.
I couldn't agree more with Angela B. in Virginia. I used to wish I was like everyone else driving around - "normal". Now I know better. There are people still hurting in some of those cars. One of the best things about AA is finding out you are not alone and better yet finding out that you don't have to go it alone either.
Thanks to the many friends I have met in the Program who make me feel "normal" now. I can actually look at myself in the mirror and I like the person looking back at me.
Member: Ron S.
Location: California
Date: 6/12/00
Time: 3:38:36 PM
Hi I'm Ron an alcholic. I'm grateful that I've decided to try and get my problem under control ...ie. no drinking. I'm a retread ... didn't drink for about 3 years ... then slowly began again .... figuring I was cured .. you know the lies we tell ourselves.
Member: HUGO M
Location: IRELAND
Date: 6/12/00
Time: 6:06:17 PM
HI I'M HUGO AN I AM A ALCOHOLIC I AM NOW SOBER THREE WEEKS AND IT FEELS GREAT HOPE TO BE LIKE TTHIS FOR A LONG TIME TO COME .I NEVER KNEW THAT THERE WERE OTHER POPLE FEELING LIKE ME .READING ALL YOUR COMMENTS MAKES ME FEEL THAT I AM NOT ALONE.THANKING ALL OF YOU HUGO.
Member: Kaye
Location: California
Date: 6/12/00
Time: 6:07:26 PM
Hi, Kaye Alcoholic. Been trying to stay sober for years. Have a couple months right now. Will keep trying.
Member: Corinne B.
Location: Camino, CA
Date: 6/12/00
Time: 6:25:07 PM
'Afternoon ((DMers))!! Corinne, Grateful Alcoholic here, there & everywhere!!
I can all too well remember my sponsor in Florida last year urging me to write at least 5 things I was grateful for each day, during a time when I couldn't and wouldn't do much else in AA, but not drink. I wrote them, all right, but didn't feel a one of them was really true. I suppose it was a useful tool for me at the time, but my depression and anxiety in those days was almost unimpenetrable. I felt it was a silly exercise in futility, but still I persisted in following directions. It was the least I could do, to at least tell her "Yes, I'd written the list."
They were the 5 same things over & over again - food, shelter, my disability income, not drinking, and a working car to drive. It certainly wasn't much, and I worked hard to come up with that list; very hard.
Today, I find my list is unending. At the top of my list: I am grateful to have had those 7 bleeding ulcers & the two transfusions that followed in 1998, and even for drinking 2 weeks after getting out of intensive care. Why? Because it helped me work Step One all the way through this time. I am even grateful for my Hepatitis C for the same reason.
I am grateful for good sponsorship, because it helped put me on the path to being able to help others recover, too. Why, in fact, just today, I had my first experience where someone asked me if I would be their sponsor. Now, if that's not something to be grateful for, I don't know what is!!!
Member: Melissa
Location: Canada
Date: 6/12/00
Time: 9:25:39 PM
Melissa, an alcoholic, I'm grateful that I've learned that on a day like today when everything big and small went very wrong, I can hug my sobriety to me and know that I am blessed and loved and in fact had a very GOOD day. I'm new and I'm learning and I feel very, very grateful.
Member: Dean S
Location: Phoenix, Az
Date: 6/13/00
Time: 1:53:31 AM
Hi!! My name is Dean and I'm an alcoholic.
I thank my HP, whom I call God, every morning for this day and for my sobriety. Marlene S, it might be that you can't really think of much to be grateful for, but when I first came to AA it was suggested that I think aboujt being grateful for the fact that I only had to do the things necessary to stay sober today. Just today - not the rest of my life. I'm not living the rest of my life today. I was told to not try to do the impossible. They said "do it the easy way", - just this day. It works - if it didn't work, I would not be saying that I'm grateful for my sobriety today.
I am grateful for my sobriety and all the great things that I enjoy today. Things that were not only impossible, but not even dreamable in the days before AA. Check page 83 in the Big Book for the promises of AA. One day at a time has worked for me since sometime in October, 1971. See why I'm grateful? It can work for anyone. I'm also grateful for newcomers coming into the fellowship because they remind me of what life was like for me before AA. Keep coming back!!
Thanks for your love. Thanks for my life. Dean
Member: Bonnie M.
Location:
Date: 6/13/00
Time: 8:22:00 AM
Hi! I am Bonnie, alcoholic! I know the topic is gratitude but please forgive me I am struggling so bad with a situation. I have been married for 14 years, I met my husband in AA, He had 12 years of sobriety and picked up a drink. He has been drinking for about 2 years now. I am ready to leave, being around alcohol plays such games on my mind, being an alcoholic. I just need to know if other people would have a hard time living with someone who drinks alcoholically. My old behavior keeps kicking in saying you can handle it, but I can't. I just need to know that I am not crazy that other people would find it very difficult to.
Thanks
Member: Bill S.
Location: St. Louis, MO
Date: 6/13/00
Time: 8:55:21 AM
Hi everyone, Bill-alcoholic. I am very grateful for being sober today. It's been over three and a half years since my last drunk! I do however wish that sometimes the wreckage I had done to myself and others during my drinking career could just disappear. The man that I am now is embarassed by the man I used to be. I have done the steps, and know that I am forgiven, but somedays I wish it had never happened. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? I know that this is silly fantasy type of thinking, I just wish I knew then, what I know now, and that it didn't take what it took. With peace, Bill.
Member: Sheryl S
Location: Henderson, NV
Date: 6/13/00
Time: 9:04:21 AM
Hi, I'm Sheryl, alcoholic. I am praying for one day of sobriety. Been drinking on and off forever. Yesterday at McDonald's, when the lady asked my 3 year old what drink he wanted with his happy meal, he answered "Bourbon and Coke." I wanted to sob.
I am grateful for finding this forum. I am grateful for starting to feel some hope.
How can a person have such a normal and an abnormal life all going on at the same time?
Thanks - Sheryl
Member: Aby
Location: London
Date: 6/13/00
Time: 9:43:29 AM
Hi- Aby here in London. Gratitude huh? Where to begin? I think most of all i'm grateful for the fact that today i have a gratitude list..and that i am even able to think about being grateful for everything in, around, out my life..cause without gratitude i have no acceptance and no serenity. Someone i love has gone away recently to do things in his life and it is taking a lot of praying, and generally handing over to my hp to get through..im feeling kinda noble for letting him go..you always let the ones you love go.If we are meant to be then god will guide back to each other, so for today i am grateful for the love we shared, for the time we shared it and for being given the chance to be part of each others lives if only for a brief moment in time.. I am alive, i have a wonderful strong god who loves me and is with me even though i turned my back on him- he helped me to turn round and become the person i was always meant to be... Amenxx
Member: Chris S.
Location: In God's Hands
Date: 6/13/00
Time: 10:17:24 AM
Chris S. I am a grateful, recovering alcoholic. Gratitude is a great topic everytime. To find it all I have to do is think back to my last days of drinking and then look in the mirror today. The single biggest change I see, is the presence of my Higher Power within me, then I feel a sense respect for myself and the world around me. No, my life isn't perfect, but it is as it should be today and my "problems" are the result of my own thought and action. I once read,"Happiness is not so much a destination, rather a way of traveling" God loves you and so do I.
Member: angela b
Location: virginia
Date: 6/13/00
Time: 11:31:47 AM
angela b. alcoholic here. bonnie may i suggest an alanon meeting.
Member: Tony L.
Location: Southeast, US
Date: 6/13/00
Time: 11:44:25 AM
Hello. Tony, alcoholic here. I actually do have a great deal to be grateful for including the fact that I'm alive. I had several months of sobriety and put myself in the position where I thought I could drink again. I have once again realized that it is not possible for me to drink with impunity. I'm back on the wagon and I am working on my first twenty-four hours. Even the past twelve have been something to be grateful for. Thanks for all of the comments. They have been an encouragement.
Member: trying
Location:
Date: 6/13/00
Time: 12:42:30 PM
hi everyone....i not sure what the topic is...but the worst thing about 7 o'clock is that it could be 7 o'clock in the morning or seven o'clock at night....sometimes it's hard to tell..
Member: carol h
Location: ohio
Date: 6/13/00
Time: 1:03:19 PM
Hi, I'm Carol and I'm an alcoholic. I'm grateful to Sheryl and others who keep reminding me of the impact my drinking is having on my children. I want to pretend that they're too young to know what's going on (4 & 6), but they're not. And I want to pretend that they'll always be there, but I could lose them if I keep up this insanity. I'm grateful to the woman at the last meeting I went to who shared that she no longer has custody of her son because of her drinking.
Member: Marilyn W.
Location: Bullhead City,AZ
Date: 6/13/00
Time: 1:58:22 PM
I,m thankful for 10 years of sobriety. I,ve done things in the last 10 years That would not have been possible while drinking. Thank you for being there for me. I love AA.
Member: Suzanne
Location: USA
Date: 6/13/00
Time: 2:03:09 PM
Hi, I am Suzanne, wife of an alcoholic. I have lived with this for 3 years and don't know what to do. I am thinking of leaving, but, I love my husband. We have liquor and bottles in our house, because he buys them. Of the bottles "on display", they are filled with water. He hides his other daily bottles (lots of bottles-- large bottles), can't control social drinking (with coworkers or family), drinks during the night (never in front of me), comes home drunk from work and blames me for not being perfect or nice to him. We don't have any children so my friends tell me to leave, but, I love him, the SOBER version. Can someone please tell me if he is to be helped, will it be ok if we stay together??? He told me last night that he needed help, for the FIRST time ever. I think that's a big step and I am proud of him. If he does join AA, can this relationship survive? I am strong enough to go either way, I just want to know what he'll need or not need, in order to get well. I hope and pray that someday he will be here, writing on this board, with his very own success story.
Can anyone suggest a first step for me, for when he wakes up from his latest episode???
I appreaciate your help and bless you all for your hard work and success!!
Member: alky
Location:
Date: 6/13/00
Time: 3:24:25 PM
Hey Suzanne, this is coming from an alcoholic I commend you very highly for wanting to HELP your husband and what he needs from you now that he has admitted that he needs help is...[UNDERSTANDING] because the road ahead of him WILL be rock hard. And if he is truly wanting to become SOBER he will need to understand it himself / thats where you will be needed the most..LOTS OF LUCK TO YA
alky herself.....
Member: Mark
Location: Brighton, England
Date: 6/13/00
Time: 4:04:17 PM
Hi, I'm Mark and I'm an alcoholic. I just want to say how grateful I am to all of you in this fantastic fellowship for keeping me sober and how grateful I am to the AA 12 step program for giving a new and fulfilled way of life. There is definate chance that without AA I would have no life at all by now and be dead and buried. By the grace of God I have another chance at life and I am not going to waste it. Just for today I will be unafraid, especially I will not be afraid to enjoy what is beuatiful, and believe that as I give to the world, so the world will give to me. Have a good 24 hours!
Member: Jill M
Location: Florida
Date: 6/13/00
Time: 4:08:01 PM
Hi Jill, alcoholic here again. I posted my first message here on June 11th. I was drinking a beer while writing, with tears flowing from my eyes. I'm VERY grateful that I've been sober since I woke up yesterday morning. THANK GOD and all of YOU. You've made me feel (for the first time) that it's possible to stay sober.. I'll check back in tomorrow. Peace
Member: Anonymous
Location:
Date: 6/13/00
Time: 5:10:51 PM
I protest by your glorying, for I die daily, many are my afflictions; I'm a man of sorrows and aquainted with grief! Sorrow upon sorrow has there been according to my trial, hardship and labor have been my lot. "Would to God I were never born" one would say who has suffered the like. Am I to be grateful? Nay, I'm not grateful for anything. Such an attitude you might exclaim, nevertheless it is so. One such as I becomes thankful to God, not grateful to the world, for gratitude is toward the world, thankful is toward God.
Member: Tori
Location: Colorado
Date: 6/13/00
Time: 5:12:42 PM
Hi Jill! You've made your first 24 hours!!! I know it's the hardest, but, 9 years sober and I feel great. my story now, 9 years sober, is that I have a successful career, a beautiful daughter and a considerate and loving husband. my story then, alky, blackouts, uncontrollable, denial, just the worst. AA and the 12 steps keep me going. I have accepted myself and will never let go. YOU CAN DO IT TOO!!!
Member: Eric Z
Location:
Date: 6/13/00
Time: 5:13:28 PM
Hi I'm Eric and I'm an alcoholic. There is so much that I am grateful for. I'm grateful for my family. I am grateful for my very dear friends who live next door. They are my family also. They have helped me so far beyond anyone else to get sober. I'm also grateful that I finally had a change of heart about drinking. I finally realize there is too much to loose. Stay sober.
Member: marjolein
Location: netherlands
Date: 6/13/00
Time: 5:46:17 PM
I'm very grateful that yesterday someone posted this site address http://www.rational.org/recovery/ It's great to know that AA isn't the ONLY way to give up drinking. I'm not knocking it - it obviously works for a lot of people, but for myself I don't feel too comfortable in an organisation which includes those who are forced to go there by court orders. Where is THEIR desire to stop drinking?? And I've never been one for group therapy... Anyway - 3 weeks sober now with just some online support and my own realisation that 'Hey - I don't hAve to drink to have a good time!!' ;-) I'm grateful for this revelation.
Member: Steve H.
Location: Dallas, Tx.
Date: 6/13/00
Time: 9:22:28 PM
I'm Steve, I'm an alcoholic, the most important thing I will do today is go to bed without taking a drink. I always find the irony of the program at the strangest times. I'm having one of my factual days, taking care of whats in front of me and nothing else. The topic is just what I need, if I forget how grateful I am I only have to look around me, family,friends, business associates. Sometimes I think they are more grateful for my sobriety than I am. I always try to remember, it's easier staying sober than it was sobering up. Happy Birthday to AA.
Member: noway
Location: noway
Date: 6/13/00
Time: 10:01:05 PM
I am amazed that within such a sober oriented organization not one person could respond to my comments posted on June 12, 2000 - I will never return to this site or to AA - your inability to respond to a "newcomer" is inexcusable - remain in your self centered world and pretend that you care about the next person.
Member: John C.
Location: Ripley, WV
Date: 6/13/00
Time: 10:32:48 PM
Hi all, my name is John and I'm an alcoholic. gratitude is a great topic. After spending several days raped up in all my problems I finally turned over the problems and God took care of them. I'm grateful that I have a God that I can depend on to take these things from me and guide me (something that I really needed). Every morning that I wake up I thank God for the day and ask for His guidance and strength and everyday God comes through for me as long as I let Him. Thank God I have Him to rely on because left to my own devices I would be drunk.
Member: Molly P
Location: Northern Arizona
Date: 6/13/00
Time: 10:38:32 PM
Hi, Molly alcoholic. I looked back over the posts and I think I know who "noway" is. If you happen to look back at this site please don't be angry. People here are just like people everywhere and get terribly caught up in their busy lives. Your post was probably just overlooked. I pray this finds you on day 4. I lurked here for a year before I posted. There is alot of good AA here. Alot of caring people. If you would like to get in touch my ICQ# is (gulp) 36121037. Maybe I can help. If not, please don't give up on us. You may not like all of us, but I bet you will some of us.
Member: Liz A
Location: Canada
Date: 6/13/00
Time: 11:28:20 PM
Thank you to evryone for all your comments. I called AA earlier this evening and found out where I could attend a meeting. I'm going Monday and am looking forward to it. I feel a lot more comfortable with the idea and a lot less scared about having my last drink, since visiting this site tonight. I am gratefeul to you all! Marlene S.- congratulations! Tony L. thank you for the warning. Jill M. - my first time here also, I'm glad I found it. I'll be back - often. No Way - maybe you should try again. Sheryl S.- are you my twin???? I've wondered for a long time how it could be possible to be "normal and abnormal at the same time". I'm hoping, through A.A., that I can realize my true "normal" and rid myself of this dilemna once and for all. Again, thanks everyone.
Member: Kate
Location: c.a
Date: 6/13/00
Time: 11:53:39 PM
Hi im Kate,an alcoholic,All i can say is thank God for such a wonderful gift,which is sobriety.If i were to be born this time last centuary,i would have died the horrific Alcoholic death that so many have had to before me.In fact that are still dying every day.Thank god forBill and Bob.Thank god for A.A.
Member: KEN
Location: TEXAS
Date: 6/14/00
Time: 12:01:08 AM
NOWAY BLOW ME ....................................................................................................................
Member: Tony R
Location: Bronx, NY
Date: 6/14/00
Time: 12:36:54 AM
Hi, Tony an alcoholic. This is my first time in this site. I have never sent a message thru the net before and I feel like I do when I sahre my experience, strenght, and hope in a regular meeting. Since most of the comments are about grattitude, I want to share mine. Since I first came to AA in 1994, I have felt so happy to be in AA and safe that every night(almost evry night) I give thanks to my Higher Power for bringing AA to my life. Everytime I go to a meeting I show my grattitude by helping another alcoholic. There no way I can give back all I have received in AA, but I keep trying by being there at an AA meeting. Thank you and God bless you all.
Member: Al C.
Location: Florida
Date: 6/14/00
Time: 12:59:10 AM
I'm an alcoholic named Al. Suzanne the organization you are looking for is called Alanon. It is an off-shoot of the AA program designed specifically for loved ones of the alcoholic. It is a wonderful organization and you will find the answers to all your questions there. Look in your phone book and/or newspaper for meetings near you. To all who are new to this sobriety stuff, please do yourself a big favor and go to a regular AA meeting: as in live-face to face. If it is not possible call the local AA hotline and someone will come see you if you'd like. While this site and others like it are a Godsend to many people there is no substitute for face to face meetings with recovering people who have been in the exact same spot as you are now. These are the people who will help you stay sober daily. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. I'm most grateful that I have a program for living today so I don't have to use alcohol to make it through my day. That program works and I found it in the rooms of AA.
Member: Michelle S
Location: Canada
Date: 6/14/00
Time: 1:07:18 AM
gratitude humm......well I'm grateful that I didn't drink today, though let me tell you I sure thought about it. I don't want to blow the almost 9 months of sobriety that I have, but for the life of me I can't figure out why I stopped. I thought that with sobriety and action and working the steps that things were suppossed to get better. So I prayed, and I prayed, not for anything specific, but just for mercy. God must have some wonky sense of humor or his goal is to take me out at the knees at every opportunity. I don't want to fight the good fight any more. I'm tired and have nothing else to give. So here's to hoping everyone else makes it another 24, pray that I will too...God could probably use another laugh.
Member: Jack B
Location: Cumbola, Pa
Date: 6/14/00
Time: 2:58:14 AM
Hi I am Jack a real alcoholic.Thru the Grace of God and the fellowship of AA, I don't have to pick up that drink today.If nothing else goes right for me today, at the end of the day I should be expressing my gratitude to God, because I have done nothing to merit this gift of sobriety. I am grateful to be sober and have an opportunity to face life on God's terms one more day.God has been giving me this grace for almost thirteen years now and for that I am eternally grateful. Thanks for a wonderful topic, my sponsor who passed away with 44 years sobriety always emphasized to me that humility would get us sober, gratitude will keep us sober.Works for me. God Bless all.
Member: !!!
Location: ???
Date: 6/14/00
Time: 6:17:16 AM
Someday Street is a one-way street that leads to the gates of hell, It's littered with broken bottles, and stories no one can tell. It's the street of human derelicts, the place of forgotten men, Who stagger and sway along the way, and are never seen again.
Someday Street is a sun-less street, where the days and nights are one, And each tomorrow brings pain and sorrow, till the life of men is done. It's a fearful street, a hidden street, that lives in each drunken brain, That screams and cries, and tries and tires, to find somebody again.
Someday Street is a lonely street, it's always dark and dreary', Where the eyes of men are dull and tired, and ever filled with fear. There's not a smile in that last cruel mile, but death in every block, And the devil smiles and the devil beguiles the soul he has in "hock".
Someday Street is an age old street, it claims, it maims and stays, Men toss and turn, sob and yearn for the memory of other days. Of days before they hit the street, when life was good and new, When each day and night was clear and bright, and dreams did oft' come true.
Someday Street is a hellish street, it's full of broken dreams, It smells of broken bodies, it laughs at drunken screams. It's a timeless street, a faceless street, it's men are faceless too, They're there to stay, till laid away in a box just six by two.
Someday Street is a jealous street, that holds it's victims fast, Each step you take, each drink you take, will lead to death at last. It's a dim lit street, a lying street, that fools each seeking heart, It shapes each one, and when it's done, it tears each one apart.
Someday Street is a one-way street, that lets few people go, I've lived on Someday Street myself, and that is how I know. The wino, the outcast, the big shot and the bum, The mack-a-roo, the B-girl too, I've swilled their wine and rum.
I know the garish lights, I know the hellish dreams, I know the alleys and jails, I know the cries and screams. I know the filth of Someday Street, I know the cry of shame, Because I came from Someday Street, a man without a name.
I crawled up, up from Someday Street, with all it's hell and pain, I've found a way to live each day, and not go back again. There was this man who drifted through, who told me there was a way, To leave the hell of Someday Street, that way is the AA Way.
I've not been back to Someday Street, in weeks, in months and years, I fear the hellish street no more, it's blackouts and it's tears. Some new friends showed me a path, a path I'll gladly trod. And for today the AA Way, helps me to trust in God
Member: marjolein
Location: netherlands
Date: 6/14/00
Time: 7:24:50 AM
couldn't find any comments by noway on june 12th... strange...
Member: angela b.
Location: virginia
Date: 6/14/00
Time: 10:32:09 AM
hi angela b. alcoholic. great poem !!!
Member: tony g
Location: ma
Date: 6/14/00
Time: 1:10:22 PM
last week was a bad one,i was in relapse thinkng i was feeling as if i could drink again,i let idle time and some bordom just run away with me.thank God for all the catch frases in aa,this to shall pass,get to a meeting no matter what,one day(or hour) at a time.ect..this made me think that if i didn't go to aa ,and talk and listen to other alcoholics,i would eventually be drinking again.i proved to myself that i can't do it alone,i need what aa has.i think the thing that i am most grateful for today is aa itself.i thank God i changed my thinking and got thru this bad period,i didn't drink.....and the beat goes on.....i'm tony,a grateful alcoholic
Member: LINDA
Location: GB CA
Date: 6/14/00
Time: 3:06:14 PM
What a great topic. I am grateful that I found the doors to AA, and that there were other alcoholics sitting in those seats welcoming me to their fellowship 35 days ago. I'm beginning to not take myself so seriously and to relax a little. Thank you for pulling me out of my miserable existence.
Member: LINDA
Location: GB CA
Date: 6/14/00
Time: 3:06:27 PM
What a great topic. I am grateful that I found the doors to AA, and that there were other alcoholics sitting in those seats welcoming me to their fellowship 35 days ago. I'm beginning to not take myself so seriously and to relax a little. Thank you for pulling me out of my miserable existence.
Member: jennifer
Location: south carolina
Date: 6/14/00
Time: 3:12:48 PM
I was told to keep an attitude of gratitude when I first came to AA. That I could do that by remembering my last drunk. The best place for me to remember that is by visiting detox. Detox last Monday was quite different from the one back in the 80s. Sure, it was the same building but that is where all simularities ended. Where were the big gray slobering dogs? How come there was no strange music coming from the walls? Nobody was speaking in German and trying to get me to confess to something. Yes, there have been many changes since that first visit. The best thing about staying sober is not having to get sober. Thank-you AA family for continuing to pass on the message of hope until my heart could grasp the miracle:)
Member: Rose G
Location: CT
Date: 6/14/00
Time: 3:55:52 PM
THIS IS MY FIRST TIME HERE, I'M SO GRATEFUL I FOUND THIS PLACE:
Hi everyone! My names Rose, and I'm a grateful recovering alcholic coming back. I had 4 years clean and sober and like Tony G. I thought getting sober 4 years ago was easy. I heard horror stories of people relapsing 3,4, 10 times,but I thought, I came out of treatment and stayed sober 4 yrs. No craving, nothing! I was so grateful to be sober. No more lies, no more hiding bottles, it just seemed so easy for me, then I began to think like Tony. Maybe I can just drink a little. Well a little led to alot and I picked up right where I left off. Now I have a hugh scar on my forehead, because I was too drunk to go get it stiched up when I fell over the dog and hit my head on a very heavy unmovable end table next to the couch. I have to look at that scar every day now. But that still wasn't enough to stop me. Only when I went on a binge and realized I was damaging my esophagus, I couldn't swallow for 2 days, I was so afraid to even get sick, I didn't want to vomit, afraid I would rupture it and bleed to death. Then I reached out again to my higher power and asked him to once again help me. I realized I was losing everything again. It was worse than it was 4 years ago. I was losing my job again, my family again, and I couldn't deal with that. I wanted those years back. So I've got 19 days sober now and I'm grateful that I can be proud of that. I know I need AA, I know I need all of you. Thank you ALL for being here.
P.S. Tony R, Bronx New York From your statement to NOWAY, Your heading down the road of RELAPSE. One of the biggest roadblocks to recovery is Saying mean things to someone, criticizing, making fun of someone, try being grateful, it works.
And for you NOWAY: I just got here, but if I were here on June 12th I would have responded to you, I know what it's like to be a newcomer. Please don't give up on AA, there are people here that care, come back. All my prayers are with you.
Member: Chris H.
Location: Florida
Date: 6/14/00
Time: 4:23:49 PM
Hi All--Chris here--Alcoholic/addict/bulimic--Boy-- DO I need to hear about gratitude...I have really been focusing on the negatives and thereby getting depressed...( depression is something that I struggle with)..I have also been eating out of control which is a dangerous place for me to be...being a bulimic...I have a physical disease that goes up and down...and I hve been focusing on the negatives of that rather than the positives of my life...I have two healthy children (18 & 21) A roof over my head---a marriage that has come so far--(from nothing after 20yrs., to now, we enjoy being together)---My health is SOOOO much betteer than 1 year ago...I don't know why I can't get out of the doldrums about it.... I know that God loves me and is healing me..The depression just gets ahold of me sometime...I do know that gratitude is one of the answers...I am so greatful for my sponser of 6 yrs. I don't know where I WOULD BE without her!!1What a gift Gad gave me in her...and all of the other spiritual guides God has put in my life...He has done so much for me in the past ---I just need to remember that and trust tha He will do the same in the future...Someone said that Fear is forgetting the great things God has done for us in the pas...Obivously, I need to hear myself say all of these things today..Thanks for the topic and thanks for BEING here!!!
Member: ANILEY
Location:
Date: 6/14/00
Time: 4:24:48 PM
I LOVE AA AND I THANK EVERYONE FOR SHERING, IT'S MY FIRST TIME HERE, I'M MEXICAN AND JUST HAD MY FIRST ANIVERSARY, 1 YEAR SOBER, I FEEL WITH A NEW HOPE OF LIFE, GOD BLESS EVERYONE...
Member: DOUG
Location: OREGON
Date: 6/14/00
Time: 5:10:45 PM
IM GRATEFUL TO BE ALIVE AND SOBER AGAIN TODAY. I PRAY FOR EVERYONE,ANOTHER 24 BECAUSE THATS ALL WE CAN DO HOPE.ONE DAY AT A TIME. DOUG
Member: MICHELLE
Location: TOTO LAND, KS
Date: 6/14/00
Time: 5:19:25 PM
BONNIE M. I REALLY FEEL FOR YOU, I TOO AM MARRIED TO A RECOVERING ALCOHOLIC. WE SAT DOWN WHEN WE FIRST MET AND MADE DECISIONS CLEAR MINDED...WE DISCUSSED, IF ONE OF US WAS TO GO BACK OUT, AND WAS NOT WILLING TO TRY THIS SOBRIETY THING AGAIN - THAT THE RELATIONSHIP WOULD BE OVER. I KNOW THAT SOONER OR LATER, STICKING WITH AN ACTIVE ALCOHOLIC WILL WEAR YOUR DEFENSE DOWN. CUNNING, BAFFLING, POWERFUL AND DAMNED PATIENT. I KNOW WHAT MY SPONSOR WOULD TELL ME RUN FOR YOUR LIFE, BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT IT IS FOR ME...WITHOUT SOBRIETY LIFE WOULDN'T EXIST FOR ME.
Member: theresa B
Location: canada
Date: 6/14/00
Time: 5:58:09 PM
terry canada hi everyone I'm grateful for everything that has happen to I'm really grateful for this site I thank god every night and morning for my sorbriety i'm going on 10 months sober and I thank god for that I alsothank Bill.W. and DR. bob who started this fellowship for that I'm for ever grateful yhanks for letting me share....
Member: JL
Location: The Beach, California
Date: 6/14/00
Time: 7:05:14 PM
Gratitude is a good topic for a newcomer like me. I came into the rooms of AA and wondered what is going on here? Why are some of these people saying that they are grateful? Just what is a grateful alcoholic?
After some time I began to get a clue. Ah now I get it. They are grateful and they are an alcoholic. I am now one of the grateful too. I have been given so much to be grateful for. I had a way of life shown to me that I had never known existed. Life without alcohol for an alcoholic is something to be grateful for. I could say that I am lucky, but that is not it, I had nothing to do with it and luck had nothing to do with it. All I had to have is a desire to stop drinking. I am grateful that all I have had to do is show up and take some simple direction and act on a few suggestions. Getting sober was not really any big deal. Staying sober has been the hardest challenge that life has thrown me so far. I am grateful that I was able to pick up a few tools and have the people in the rooms and the fellowship to offer me hope. Without AA I had no hope of sobriety. I am grateful that I have just stuck it out so far a day at a time with a faith that if it has worked for countless others it could work for me too.
At the end of a weekend I usually get a bit restless, I really would like to have a drink to end up a productive day and just unwind. My disease is out to convince me to just have that one, hey I deserve it! At this point I begin to recite a gratitude list. The reasons to be grateful always outweigh the reasons to have a drink and by the time I get to thinking about it, the craving passes. I am grateful to AA for the chance to put my life back together. In just a short while I am astonished at how that is happening. I go to bed and repeat to my higher power how thankful I am for the opportunity to go to bed without a drink today. Now that is heartfelt gratitude.
Member: Mary S.
Location: CT
Date: 6/14/00
Time: 7:20:29 PM
Hi everybody I'm Mary I had sixteen months sober yesterday and I am most thankful for that. I am thankful for the amazing support system and my family and friends. I am greatful that I am able to turn situations for me that I know are unhealthy. I am greatful that I can wake up in the morning and smile finally!
Member: Debbie
Location:
Date: 6/14/00
Time: 8:36:46 PM
Debbie,alcoholic. Good to know we all share the road to recovery. Recovery is not an event, but a process. I have been around the rooms for awile and am now attempting to put to use all the many things I have learned and heard all these years. I did rather well with the new way of life for many years. Just the change from the despair worked well for along time. Then about five years sober the "piper came to be paid". I had this sobriety and all the prestige and admiration I could stand,but somehow I was missing something. I could no longer rest on my laurels and spout it all out without feeling like a bleeding deacon. I found that my life was cluttered with all this "service work I was doing ,more to impress others than because I truly wanted to. Also, I found that I had to get help for my addiction to other alcoholics. Thus I found that all along I had been affected by all the alcoholics that had always been a part of my life. Thank God for Alanon, our sister program. I have doubled my serenity levels by all I learn about this other side of my disease. I truly am grateful that the wife's found a way to be all they could be too. We all have alot to be greatful for if we take a walk back to the hell we used to live in. Thanks to all. And remember...contempt prior to investigation.....
Member: Denise ls
Location: New York
Date: 6/14/00
Time: 9:10:49 PM
Hello Everyone!!
I hope this note finds you all well!! GRATEFUL!! That I didnt lose everything that I worked soo hard for. My wonderful husband,My four great children!! My home, My friends (my TRUE FRIENDS) My sanity! My LIFE!! BUT MOST OF ALL MYSELF!
The stress of everyday life can sometimes cloud what to be truely grateful for! Everyday to wake up without a hangover or other alcohol induced ill,I am grateful!My Gods love for me.I am grateful!That I can take his love FOR me and LOVE MYSELF, I AM GRATEFUL!
ALL GODS LOVE..HAVE A GREAT WEEK ALL!
Member: stephanie n
Location: indiana
Date: 6/14/00
Time: 10:06:56 PM
Hello! I need advice, my brother is an alcohlic since he was 17 he has been in programs & even on medication to stop his drinking. Here lately he is passing out almost everytime he drinks, I have pleaded w/him to stop that i would help, i think he wants to (he has a child now) but i can't get him to give up the people he is hanging around (who are all under age drinkers) he thinks they are his friends. I believe that he can do this but know that he is very depressed at times. What can I do to help?
Member: Doug K
Location: W. Michigan sand dunes
Date: 6/14/00
Time: 10:15:00 PM
Hi everybody, my name is Doug and I'm an alcoholic.
Thank you, God, for everything you have given me. Thank you for everything you have taken away. But most of all, God, thank you for what you've left me.
Fred H's favorite prayer. A copy of it hangs right here on my wall. He told me this prayer a hundred times, the last one was on his death-bed. Today, I actually understand it.
To !!!, great poem!!! Wish I knew how to make a copy of it without getting 20 pages of comments.
Good luck to all you newcomers, old timers, and to you who have the great misfortune of loving an alcoholic. May you know your God loves you all. Thanks
Member: Terri
Location: WI
Date: 6/14/00
Time: 10:17:10 PM
Hi Sharon & Zip: Thank You I am TJ Grateful Alcoholic. grateful to be sober another day I for one know My Sobriety is every thing. with out it I don't care about any thing. & it took the first 3years of fighting the program before a came willing to go to any length. now I am blessed we me back & all you wonderful people. Thank You so very much.
Member: Rose G
Location: CT
Date: 6/14/00
Time: 10:57:57 PM
APOLOGY!!!!
HI Rose here again, still an alcoholic,,,,Needing to apologize to TONY R, BRONX, NEW YORK...Please forgive me...In my message on 6/14/00 @ 3:55pm I made reference of you making a derrogatory statement to NOWAY...I read the wrong name on the message. My comments should have been directed to KEN, TEXAS,,,please forgive the faux pas, I'm so glad to know you've been in AA since 1994,,,I only hope someday, I'll have that much time clean and sober too, and with the grace of God I will. Please once again, accept my apology.
Member: brent a
Location: calgary, alberta
Date: 6/15/00
Time: 12:28:21 AM
hi there everyone my name is brent a and i am a grateful alcohoic and a drug addict.After been clean and sober for a few months I relapsed but you know what as I sit here and type this, I am sober.I have alot of people in my life today who care deeply about me and sometimes when I get on that 'pitty pot' I sit back and think of the amazing support I have out there! I have the choice today whether to pick up that drink or not and just for today I will not. thank-you for letting me share.
peace and love brent a
Member: Dave M.
Location: Willits Ca
Date: 6/15/00
Time: 12:58:36 AM
Hello I'm Dave Alcoholic, Very grateful to be alive alcoholic. One year ago today my disease and a gun almost took my life, By this time of night last year I was still in surgery barely hanging to life. I had bein drinking and decided to unload a revolver well I dropped it and it fired hitting me in the chest I lost half a lung , aquarter of my liver and my lfe changed dramaticly one family intervention 30 days in a recovery center and 24 hrs. at atime im sober today and ever so gratful for all the events that brought me to beleive in this simple program of AA thank you all Love to all And Keep coming Back
Member: Shelli
Location: CA
Date: 6/15/00
Time: 3:12:13 AM
Hi everyone my name is shelli and I'm a grateful recovering alcholic, An attitude of gratitude is a decision I attempt to make each and every day. I find that when I am in any other frame of mind I tend to miss out on a lot of good things that happen to me and I get far to caught up in the petty little stuff that drives me nuts, I usually end up feeling sorry for myself and hop on the pitty pot and then start stinking thinking, I'm surprised I haven't picked up a drink over the years as a result. Today I try very hard not to take my sobriety for granted and I try to focus on all the great stuff that has been given back to me as a direct result of AA and recovery, I even have the gift of a higher power in my life that I also approch with an attitude of gratatude and surrender, there are far to many gifts in my life to exspress each and every one but the biggest gift of all is you and what you have given me just by sharing this week thank-you for being there and being sober....smiles
Member: me
Location: somewhere
Date: 6/15/00
Time: 9:27:44 AM
anger right next to danger. im grateful i didnt kill my mother in law yesterday.
Member: Vern
Location: Okinawa Japan
Date: 6/15/00
Time: 10:05:32 AM
I drink to get drunk. People around me drink in a sociably responsible manner, mostly. Black-outs happen and I am always afraid afterward that I might have done something very bad, phone calls and knocks at the door cause fearful apprehension the day after a black-out drunk. My wife and daughter want me to quit drinking. I've been to AA before, years ago. I have done lots of bad things while drinking. After having a drunk I always go through a period of sole searching and depression but, after a day or two I'm ready to drink again. I know I'm an alcoholic but, don't really want to stop drinking but, I do really want to stop drinking.
Gratitude, my wife's crazy for sticking with me but, I'm very greatful she has. My children are simply awesome and I'm very greatful to have them but, I would like to keep them.
I got drunk last night. Worried my wife and daughter sick. I drove drunk, can't even remember the drive home but, somehow, again, I guess I didn't hurt anything or anybody. I haven't had any alcohol today and I plan on going to bed sober. I wish that AA meetings were more accessable around here, I checked around about a year ago when I was going through another day of DTs after a night of drinking, there are meetings but, too much traveling, and with work and my family I just don't have the time. Maybe this cyber meeting can help some but, I'm quite certain that alone this won't keep a beer or bottle out of my hands. I'm greatful that you care and I'm greatful that I could spill some of the bad feelings in my chest right now.
Member: sunny s
Location: New Bedford, Mass.
Date: 6/15/00
Time: 10:36:00 AM
Vern, I'm a member here and you are welcome here and this could be your home group. I have talked to a number of people in Japan who say that there just aren't meetings close enough to matter. People have gotten sober on reading the big book of AA and letters to another AA who helps them to work the steps. This thing is that powerful. Feed the part of you that wants to get sober. The other part is the alcohol working on your brain. Could you maybe make one big push to get to a meeting? Could you take a day off or find one on the weekend? Do they have weekends? If you could meet someone face to face who could sponsor you by e-mail, it could work. You might also need medical help to stop drinking. Do you have a Dr. who can treat withdrawal? If you have been drinking enough, stopping suddenly could cause life threatening problems. There is a drug called antabuse that some people found successful after de-tox.
Feed the part of you that wants to get sober. Don't give up. You don't have to die is a pool of vomit and piss. But, that is where this disease leads, or to jails and institutions.
If you are able to pray, ask your deity to help you to get sober. Keep asking no matter what happens. Help me to get sober. Help me to get sober. The other thing is to consider whether or not you would be willing to help other drunks if you got sober. If you are, tell that in your prayers along with... Please help me to get and stay sober. Excuse me, I've been waiting, please help me to get sober. Please don't let my children lose their dad. Please get me sober. Please help me.
I'm grateful to have sobriety today. I could be drinking and miserable. I'm grateful to have found the way out to a better life.
Member: Ray P.
Location: Aurora CO
Date: 6/15/00
Time: 1:27:32 PM
Hi everybody Im an alcoholic and my problem is Ray P.....Welcome to Vern...i can relate to the idea of wanting to quit, not wanting to quit at the same time. I was quickly introduced to the 1st step which says that I am powerless over alcohol and on my own I can't quit!!! So I began my journey with aa groups 7 days/wk sometimes twice a day...and one day it occured to me that i had not quit drinking but that for that day i had not had a drink, and that has stayed with me for a long long time....the reason I introduce myself the way I do is a reflection of that belief...God manifested in the form of an AA grp has freed me of the mental obsession for a drink so that I can learn to live reasonably happy without that drink...TODAY....Thank God for AA, and thank you for being there for me.....Keep coming back........... Ray P.
Member: Jackie W
Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba
Date: 6/15/00
Time: 2:09:00 PM
Hello Everyone, my name is Jackie and I am an alcoholic. I have an immense gratitude for the program of Alcoholics Anonymous for it has given me so many gifts. First of all it has given me the gift of sobriety. It has given me the gift of self respect and the respect of others. It has given me the gift of self esteem. It has given me the gift of love.It has taught me to love unconditionally, but more importantly it has taught me how to receive love. I feel truly blessed to have a terminal illness (alcoholism) that I can put into remission so simply (it is a simple program but not an easy one). All I have to do is go to meetings, read/live the Big Book, get a sponsor and not take that first drink! For I know, for me to drink is to die. Thank you for letting me share. Jackie
Member: GREGG G.
Location: KENNEWICK, WA
Date: 6/15/00
Time: 4:53:52 PM
Member: michael h
Location: chicago
Date: 6/15/00
Time: 5:02:23 PM
thanks for the great topic, gratitude is something that is always useful. like the guy stuck in traffic on the bridge who is able to enjoy yhe view and be grateful that he is ahead of all those cars behind him and able to enjoy listening to the radio -- instead of moaning and being mad at not moving.. my life is as good as my attitude is. i have real issues that i am dealing with and they are not fun. i've been sober 15 plus years and am now just dealing with some core issues - each of us in our own time - so it is tough and it can also be gratifying to be able to work through and deal with these issues.. defects/issues faced are less powerful than ones avoided and denied. at least i feel that way when i go to enough meetings and am in a grateful mood. God does watch out for us, even when we resist - thank goodness for that !
Member: GREGG G.
Location: KENNEWICK, WA
Date: 6/15/00
Time: 5:47:05 PM
KEEP COMING BACK, IT WORKS IF YOU WORK IT!
Member: Vern
Location: Okinawa
Date: 6/15/00
Time: 7:14:02 PM
Another day in contention with the person I trust least, me. No drink yesterday, We'll see if today I can say the same.
Member: anxious
Location: NJ
Date: 6/15/00
Time: 7:50:44 PM
this too shall pass this too shall pass this too shall pass this too shall pass this too shall pass this too shall pass this too shall pass this too shall pass this too shall pass this too shall pass this too shall pass this too shall pass this too shall pass this too shall pass this too shall pass this too shall pass this too shall pass
HELP!!!
Member: DOUG
Location: LOST IN OREGON
Date: 6/15/00
Time: 9:11:21 PM
thats what i kept saying in jail,I'VE BEEN SOBER FOUR MONTHS NOW,AND FOR SOME REASON I STILL FIND MYSELF SAYING THAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
STILL LOST IN OREGON
Member: Bobo
Location: Kauai, Hawaii
Date: 6/16/00
Time: 12:39:08 AM
Hi I'm an alcoholic named Bobo. I'm grateful to have feelings today. Even bad feelings are better than hiding inside a bottle from my feelings. When I used alcohol to hide from stress, anxiety and fear I also cheated myself out of all the good feelings too like love and joy and serenity. Granted I'm not real good at recognising or dealing with feelings because I stunted my growth with twenty years of drinking but that's what I have a sponsor for and all my A.A. pals. I'm grateful for all the love and support I get here. We all have these same feelings. You guys are the only ones who feel like I do and understand what I'm talking about. Mahalo (thankyou in Hawaiian) and Aloha
Member: liz
Location:
Date: 6/16/00
Time: 12:47:19 AM
Lets hear it for Vern!!!!
Way to go!!
Member: angela b.
Location: virginia
Date: 6/16/00
Time: 1:53:16 AM
anxious in nj, 4pm to 9pm use to be cocktail hour for me too. greatfully it passed.
Member: Vern
Location: Okinawa
Date: 6/16/00
Time: 2:01:11 AM
Thanks Liz. Anxious, I know how you feel. The drink is powerful and so easy, I've thought about it constantly. My mind keeps telling me I will eventually drink so I should just go ahead and give in but, if I do then the beer, wine, bourbon or whatever I decide to attach myself to will take me to a place I really don't like and make me a person I really don't like. I keep thinking about how I've maintained a decent career and my family's doing OK so what am I worried about. Forget the waking up one morning to discover I ran my car off the road and blew all four tires and bent the rims beyond repair. Forget throwing up on the living room floor then going to bed and pissing on the floor or at my sister in-laws where I drank until I passed out and went in my pants. Forget the times I've gone to the doctor saying I had the flew and couldn't go to work, when actually I was just hung over. Forget the hundreds I can spend on any given drinking binge that my family needs otherwise. The drink is awesomely powerful and I'm just me but, with you and the others I'm something much more capable. Anxious, Do yourself and me a big favor, don't drink today, I'll feel much better and so will you. Time passes and the temptation I think will become less as we keep our mind on each day as they come, one at a time. I'm right there with you.
Member: kk
Location:
Date: 6/16/00
Time: 7:37:28 AM
to dou k. of w. michigan sand dunes-try highlighting what you want to copy,then go to edit, click on "copy" then go to a word processing program like ms word then click on "paste"
Member: Kay H
Location: Maine
Date: 6/16/00
Time: 8:31:39 AM
TGIF. I am grateful that I won't be drunk at lunchtime today. Grateful that I won't have to take a nap to sober up by supper. Grateful that I won't drive drunk tonite. Grateful that I won't have a fight with my family about my drinking. Grateful that I won't have night terrors and sweats tonite when I pass out. Grateful that I can look at myself in the mirror this morning and say, "You don't have to drink today." Grateful for all of yu for teaching me to stay sober, not just dry, one day at a time. PS. I just celebrated my 9th year anniversary. I don't usually mention that, but I want to share it with those of you who are struggling today. If you do not have the first drink this morning, or afternoon, or tonite, you will not have the compulsion to have the second, and third etc. etc. I found that idea hard to understand in the beginning. But I chose to believe those alcoholics I met in AA, rather than those I met in the bars. Peace to all of us today.
Member: Paul
Location:
Date: 6/16/00
Time: 9:06:03 AM
Hi I am just realising after many years that I am an alcoholic.The comments I have read have touched me.Alcohol is destroying my life slowly.Today I have not drunk.
Member: STILL LOST IN OREGON
Location: STILL SOBER
Date: 6/16/00
Time: 1:38:23 PM
GOD GRANT ME THE SERENITY TO ACCEPT THE THINGS I CANNOT CHANGE, THE COURAGE TO CHANGE THE THINGS I CAN,AND WISDOM TO KNOW THE DIFFERENCE
I REPEAT THIS OVER AND OVER EVERY DAY,BUT FOR OVER TWENTY SOMETHING ODD YEARS,I REALLY DONT EVEN KNOW WHAT I'VE DONE OR WHERE I'M GOING,A JOB???? I'VE NEVER REALLY HAD ONE. JOB HISTORY, YEA RIGHT.SERIOUS MEMORY LOSS AT 43. ANY SUGGESTIONS???????? HELP PLEASE!!!!!!!!
Member: Jack F.
Location: MO
Date: 6/16/00
Time: 3:27:14 PM
Please help. If there is somone that can understand, I want to stop. Saginawjack@aol.com
Member: Laila
Location: Turku, Finland
Date: 6/16/00
Time: 5:51:17 PM
Hi everyone, I'm Laila and I'm an alcoholic. i'm actually grateful for that! Admitting that to myself, and seeking help from AA has given me my life back!
Yesterday i bought a flight ticket to Norway for the Scandinavian AA convention in July. I'm very grateful, my sobriety has made it possible to save enough money to go there. Nowadays I don't need to spend my money on getting drunk, I can spend it on being sober instead! This will be my first Scandinavian Convention. I'll get to meet my sponsor, who lives in Norway! I'm very grateful for that as well.
I'm grateful for this sober day. Thanks everyone! Love, Laila DOS 2nd Oct 1996
email oct296@hotmail.com
Member: Monica
Location: Califorina
Date: 6/17/00
Time: 4:17:59 AM
I am Monica and I'm an alcoholic. I am grateful that I don't have to drink again. It is easy for to me forget what it use to be like and when I get there I start losing graduite and developing a bad attiude. My life is so much better then it use to be when I was drinking I lose site of what brought me here, this I am told is what gets me closer to the next drink. This is why I keep coming back. I have not been able to go many meetings lately So I am glad there are sites like this to get me throught. Reading your comments has help me greatly. Thank you and god bless.
Member: Bonnie C 5/30/80
Location:
Date: 6/17/00
Time: 6:09:11 AM
Hi extended family, bonnie/alcoholic here (((ROOM-HUG))) so happy to be here with you tonight. Reading the posts really took me back. I can relate to all. Thanks ((shannon)) for the great topic *GRATITUDE* my heart is so full of it. To those who don't want to drink more than anything and are willing to go to any lengths to stay sober this is the program for you. Call AA in your phonebook, ask where the nearest meeting is and go. (90 meetings in 90 days at least) Talk with the person who answers the phone, tell them how you feel. They need you as much as you need them. This is a WE program. Get members phone numbers and use them, get a big book and read it, ask about sponsorship and start working the steps. Don't drink in between meetings. Now that you have found AA your excuse for drinking is nonexistant. You have found a way to stop and stay stopped. You are now responsible for your next drink. (thats what they told me at my first meeting) so 12 days later when my mother died, I didn't have to drink, nor when a yr later than that, when i had to place my child in juvie, nor 6 months after that when I left my husb. 3 children (10, 15, 16), home overlooking the ocean in San Diego, things, prestigous job, boat, toys - fled with my shred of sanity and slim hold of sobriety. For I knew if I didn't stay sober, I'd never be able to be there for my sweet babies, ever. Any lengths. I have lost/given up friends, boyfriend to a gal I sponsored, jobs, cars, sponsor, seen many friends die from this disease or just lose everything and become a shell because they hit a rough spot and decided to have just a couple, thinking they could make it back. married and divorced at 10yrs sober. house broken into, everything gone, no insurance. many ups, many downs but not once did I drink, drug or pill it away. As I was told, I embraced the pain that is the touchstone to my growth, wasn't easy but do-able. Thank God I did, for it did get wonderful. Today I have wonderful relationships will my children and 4 beautiful grandchildren. Good friends, good job. I don't have the things today that say I'm successful to the world however I love my life and wouldn't want to be anyone else on this planet. Pages 83 & 84 in the big book are not bullshit. I went to a meeting everyday for yrs, I didn't always follow directions but I didn't self medicate even when I was sabbotaging my serenity and in immense pain. I read BB pgs 60 thru 63 & 449 thru 452 everyday for 5yrs as suggested along with my other suggested reading. It worked and if it can work for my screwed up life, it will work for anyone, if you work it. Grateful, OH YEAH!! Dear God please bless all who venture here, love and hugs, bon --- bonzoc@webtv.net
Member: me
Location: somewhere in reality
Date: 6/17/00
Time: 9:59:09 AM
I am amazed by all of your stupid cliches and how this program has turned out a bunch of non actionable, lazy, bible thumping wimps. Cliches like, "this too shall pass" serve only to keep all of you just a bunch of weak little weenies. Yeah right, just sit back and do nothing and it will pass! What a load of BS that all is. And then you guys wonder why things don't work out for you! What a joke! If you want good things to happen for you and to be happy then guess what bozos? You have to do the ground work. You people and the program of AA need a huge dose of reality.
The practice of irresponsibility has become the norm here. "It's not my fault, I just turn things over to God" Another cliche promoting passing the buck without doing any work. And now we have the current topic of "gratitude." Just read 'Anonomyous' posting with all the bull shit cliches. What a load of crap! How about sharing some REAL ES&H here instead of posting lists and lists of what we are grateful for!!! Who the hell cares what any of you are grateful for! Learning how to stay sober is much more important than reading a bunch of stupid cliches and lists!! Get the hell over yourselves you weenies!
Member: carol h
Location: ohio
Date: 6/17/00
Time: 10:44:30 AM
How do I go to 90meetings in 90 days when I've got 2 small kids (4&6), a full time job, a house.... am I making excuses? Should I be saying I'm grateful for all of the above? I don't want to lose them. Help me
Member: carol h
Location: ohio
Date: 6/17/00
Time: 10:51:49 AM
Bonnie C
Thank you for your insight. I want to be where you are.
Member: Al C.
Location: Florida
Date: 6/17/00
Time: 2:31:53 PM
Dear Me, I can see how some of the things we say would seem trite and petty to someone looking from the outside in. Bottom line is, we have a deadly disease that is cunning, baffling, and powerful and without help it is too much for us. We have found a daily reprieve from that disease in the program of AA. Along with that we have discovered a joy and peace in our lives that some of us never had before. This is certainly a way that has worked for many people over the years and for myself and others that I meet it is the only way that has been able to achieve continuous, longterm sobriety. I'll leave you with another of our slogans-Live and Let Live. Peace to you my friend and have a good day.......Al
Member: Marcel L
Location: New Hampshire
Date: 6/17/00
Time: 7:00:50 PM
GRATITUDE! Has been a most beautiful change in our understanding of life for us alcoholic. Has made me become aware of life and all of it's benefits from my attitudes, my growth that is provided by our HIGHER POWER and my change of understanding just by saying "as WE under-stand, have created a new us
Member: Cecilia E.
Location: Texas
Date: 6/17/00
Time: 9:37:02 PM
My name is Cecilia and I'm an alcoholic. I'm grateful today that I can read the posts and try to reach a better place by hearing of your gratitude. I've been sober for quite a while, but I'm struggling now with a depression. I want to feel better but I can't just make myself. I hate to share when I'm down, but the reality of life in sobriety is that there are ups and downs. I can't just sound perfect when things aren't perfect. But the cliches do actually help; I believe that "this too shall pass," and that I have been helped by a Higher Power for all the years that I've been kept sober. I'm grateful for a sober day today, for the material blessings that make a computer and online meetings possible, and for the f2f meeting I will go to tomorrow. I'm grateful for my children's lives, and that I've been able to be present to them as a sober parent.
Member: Gary G
Location: alaska
Date: 6/18/00
Time: 2:13:29 AM
My name is Gary, Thanks for the subject. I need to listen tonight.
Member: Lou
Location: Salem, Oregon USA
Date: 6/18/00
Time: 3:02:42 AM
My name is Lou and I'm an alcholic. First time here, like the concept, but I wish it was chat.
Gratitude is something I am blessed with every time I wake up without a hangover. I've done that 176 times in a row, one day at a time. I feel wonderful and I don't have to worry about what I did last night, wondering if I messed up again. It's a really great way to wake up!
I am grateful that I still have a family. No children, but a very wonderul wife who should have dumped me a long time ago. And her family is great.
Had a great day today. Went to my sponsor's wedding. He and his wife renewed their vows on their 25 anniversy! It was so cool. My wife went with me and met my new AA friends for the first time. We had a wonderful day. Today was the first social event we had attended since I've gotten sober, very appropriate.
I have no drinking buddies to get out of my life, except for an occasional trip to a bar I drank alone at home. In fact, I have a ready-made support system in family, work, all aspects of my life. And for that I'm grateful.
Thanks for letting me share.
Keep comming back, it works!!!
Member: Vern
Location: Okinawa Japan
Date: 6/18/00
Time: 5:51:53 AM
3 days down and workin' on the 4th. Man, I've thought of, well I can't count, lots of reasons why it's OK for me to have some drinks. The fact that the thought of drinking is constant and that I REALLY desire it makes me all the more determined but, I keep telling myself to wait until nobodies looking. or. It's Father's Day, a few drinks should be OK. or. This too will pass (but, that's me telling myself that eventually I will have to give in, I always have). My wife is helping me, I'm grateful of that. You, just through you're own words of your lives are helping, I'm grateful of that. My daughter and son don't have to avoid me, I'm VERY grateful of that. I haven't spent who knows how much money drinking, I'm grateful of that. I'm not embarassed or afraid for what I may have done over the last few nights, I'm grateful of that. I haven't had a nautious hangover, I'm grateful for that. I've got another fistful right off the top of my head but, I feel better now so I'll stop. Thanks everybody, this Alcoholic appreciates you.
Member: Ray G.
Location: South Florida
Date: 6/18/00
Time: 8:00:38 AM
My nane is ray and i'm an alcoholic.I am grateful to still have my family and a job. I know if I pick up a drink I will lose every thing god has given me back in the past 4 years. Thanks for letting me share.
Member: AL K
Location: East Side,,, PA, Usa
Date: 6/18/00
Time: 8:36:25 AM
AL, alcoholic,, gratitude,,not to difficult to express for me at this moment, the obsession for alcohol and drugs has been removed,,,,I did not wake up this morning and have a desire to plan a run to oblivion and a spiritual death,,, I live in freedom at this moment,,Happy Fathers Day to all fathers, this is the first year for me with custody/visitation, I am thankful I am clean and sober,,,be well everyone,,, humility produces hope,,,is a reading that has helped me,,rightly relating myself to my Higher Power is a must, sometimes progress has been made, with setbacks,,,one day at a time,,,it is possible to not drink one day at a time, the tools and gifts from Dr.Bob and Bill W. are very real,,, and the fellowship can take us to a place of usefulness, in serving others, the lessons are never ending,,,thank you for being here for me,,,,AL
Member: Marcel A. L.
Location: NEW HAMPSHIRE
Date: 6/18/00
Time: 9:32:17 AM
Hallelua! I chose the topic for the week!!! How about PROCRASTINATION. Brings me back to my old way a life, way back when I was an active drunk. For me listening was the magic word yes-but... had a thick wall around me that had to be broken... for me it was broken with LOVE. One of the first things I HEARD was a speaker said all AA ask's of your is don't drink today---if you want to drink it's OK, but do it tommorrow, well every thing I did was tommorow, I never did learn to live in today yet. So this was right my alley. So since then I've learnt to procrastinate on not having a drink till tommorow. Started my 10th year of sobriety on the 9th of june, and haven't been in tommorow, seems like I'm aware that I'm in the NOW, it only worked for me when in practice what I heard. So keep coming and practice something different every day, and guess what YOU'L HAVE DIFFERENT results after PRACTICE
Member: angela b.
Location: virginia
Date: 6/18/00
Time: 10:16:08 AM
thanks "al" for telling "me" what i wanted to say
Member: Ken C
Location: Winnipeg, (Friendly Manitoba) Canada - eh!
Date: 6/18/00
Time: 6:20:43 PM
Two real ladies from my home group here in Winnipeg shared on this site during the last week. They were Jackie and Jammie. I am grateful to them for the great example they show in our meetings and I love them both. Even my wife loves them (as we have open meetings once a week) so it becomes a bit of family affair. Funny, when I first came to A.A. there were very few females attending meetings. Today, and especially on this site, there a lot more of you gals around, and as a guy (an old one unfortunately) I have always loved the other gender. But today, it is so good to both love and respect them - something I had trouble with before because of my own self centeredness. Once I learned that you cannot love and respect others until you can love and respect yourself, this concept started to make sense to me. And although it is father's day today, I want to tell all you gals that are having a hard time just now, that you are worthy of respect and will receive it to just the extent that you respect yourself by doing what you know is right. To see the transformation in people as they come to A.A. is wonderful, and for some reason for me, it is even more wonderful to see a woman turn into a real lady.
Respectfully yours - Ken
Member: Kathy A.
Location: Ontario, CA
Date: 6/18/00
Time: 8:51:46 PM
Hi, my name is Kathy and I'm an alcoholic. I am extremely grateful today that I am able to see the world again without the fog. I completed a treatment program on Friday, and am 25 days clean. What I am most grateful for, though, is that I have recognized and learned how to deal with my disease so early. I am only 19, and have known I had a problem for a while, but chose to ignore it. Well, I'm glad I had my eyes opened. The world is really a much more beautiful place when you are not stumbling around blind. This isn't easy, but the alternative, drinking myself stupid, isn't exactly a walk in the park either. I am grateful that I have a new chance at a life that still has a lot of good years. Thanks, Kathy
Member: Amanda L
Location: OHIO
Date: 6/18/00
Time: 9:00:03 PM
My name is Amanda. I am an alcholic. I have never said those words before to anyone. I am grateful that I have realized this. I have not gone over two days in 5 years without being drunk. No one knows. I feel like such a failure. From the outside, I am an attractive professional, single mother, good hearted and fun natured. On the inside I am an alcholic, terrified that if anyone finds out I will be humiliated and doomed an outcast. There is nothing I want more than to be sober. It is so hard though. I sit here typing, waiting on my boyfriend (a grateful sober alcholic for 10 years, who has no idea of my secrete) to call. As soon as we hang up I will pick up the bottle. I have the shakes so bad its hard to type. I wish I were normal.
Member: DonF
Location: NH
Date: 6/18/00
Time: 9:41:20 PM
Suzanne, (6/13 2pm) This is late and will be erased soon, but I'd like to say that Al's got it right, Al Anon is the place for you. Go there to find out how to be OK yourself, and take care of yourself, even if HE's drunk. You can DETACH your well-being and serenity from HIS condition. You CAN stop taking care of things and enabling him to keep on drinking. You can stop giving him excuses to blame his drinking ON YOU. This is classic, typical, (not unique), alcoholic family system you're enmeshed in. Simple but not easy. Sort of like just not drinking. Donaldo88@aol.com
Member: deb
Location: NW
Date: 6/18/00
Time: 10:57:42 PM
Amanda ~ I drank everyday for almost 30 years. I understand how you feel. I told my doctor, went to counseling and out-patient therapy and AA and have been sober 10 months. If your boyfriend loves you he will understand and support you. He might even know. When I became sober I was amazed at how many people knew I drank. Most admired me for getting help. love & serenity to you ~deb
Member: Greg T
Location: Aus
Date: 6/19/00
Time: 6:02:16 AM
Greg here I think (know)Im alcoholic and I am grafeful I found this site. I have read every comment including one form "me" and am gratful for them all even "me". I was once like that and I regret every day that I was. Regret begats gratitutde and so I feel imense gratitude to have seen some light at the end of a very dark tunnel. This is my day 4 and my it gets hard. I hope to be able to say day 5 or 6 or well I am grateful.