re: Tomorrow is a very big day for me

The argument a couple pages ago when Longhorn was an a-hole about saying you don’t need meetings or whatever made me think. While he certainly lacked tact and was pretty unnecessarily assholish, could he have meant that people can use AA/NA as a crutch and their addiction as a built in reason for their inevitable future slide?

It reminded me of a Tony Robbins(laugh all you want, the dude can be pretty brilliant) talk I heard once on identity—how you see yourself. There is a difference in thinking “I am a fat person” vs. “I am someone who happens to be fat.” If you see yourself as a fat person, even if you lose weight, it may be only temporary as that is how you see yourself—as a fat person.

Similarly, there’s a difference between saying “I am a drug addict” vs “I am someone who is currently addicted to drugs.” The latter—according to Robbins—has a better chance at lifelong success because he can eventually move past the daily struggle that comes when you identify yourself as an addict. That’s a heavy, daunting burden, knowing you have to struggle through every day for the rest of your life.

I’m not advocating for that over the 12 Steps. I’ve read the Big Book and been to enough meetings—turns out I was just a really shitty/problem binge drinker rather than an alcoholic(which, weirdly made me feel worse, like I didn’t have this disease to blame my behavior on, just my own terrible decisions)—to know it works for a ton of people. But not everybody. And my, admittedly, completely anecdotal evidence is that it almost never takes the 1st time.


Anyway, just thought it was an interesting alternative approach. At the end of the day, it all comes down to making good, disciplined, individual, little choices. Whatever support you need to make that happen, make that happen. Good luck to OP and all who struggle.