Came to believe that a power could restore me to sanity.
I wanted to know did the program work, after sixteen years am I restored to sanity? Was I insane when I arrived? When was I restored?
I had to do a lot of research to find out some answers to my questions. What I found is that first of all sanity is not a medical term, it is actually a legal term. “Insanity is considered poor health of the mind, not necessarily the brain as an organ (although that can effect mental health), but rather refers to mental defect, disease, or disorder of mental function processes such as reasoning.
What is Reasoning? Reasoning is the mental process of drawing conclusions from observation, facts, or hypotheses. (the evidence) Thus insanity refers to a defect in our ability to draw conclusions from facts.
The 7 characteristics of insanity are:
1-Social Withdrawal
2-Deterioration of Personal Care
3-Inability to perceive oneself as separate entity
4-Rapid shifting of thought and topic
5-Autistic Absorption
6-Hallucinatory symptom, delusions
7-Depersonalization
Yes indeed when I arrived to AA as a raging alcoholic, full of anger and fear, and not knowing how I would be able to go even a day without drinking, I was indeed legally insane. Number 6 was the only one that I would of not qualified for. I was not hallucinating although I was definitely delusional.
Today, I no longer would qualify for any of the above, although I still am working on socialization, I am doing much better than I was when I arrived:-) Today, I am legally sane, and therefore responsible for all my actions. Today with the help of the people around the tables, and by working the twelve steps of the AA program, I am sober and the program works!!
Sarah emailed me the other day asking me when would be an ideal time to hire a recovery life coach. First of all I have to say that there are many times when a life coach can help you out during your years in recovery. Ideally, I most enjoy working with clients who are recently transitioning from treatment to home. This gives you the time you need for you to focus on your treatment. While in treatment you have a whole host of issues and concerns that come up, you are beginning to understand your individual addiction, the way you act out with it, and the way in which it has affected not only you but the people around you. Treatment looks back at whats been going on for you.
While life coaching starts here in the present and looks forward with you, asking you to begin to look at life through bigger eyes! Life coaching steps in to work with you on how to see situations in your life as opportunities and with many many possibilities then you have ever thought about. What are your dreams and goals and what were the obstacles that kept you from obtaining those things, and how do we remove those obstacles and support you in reaching and experiencing your dreams?
While life coaching is ideal for the person who is in their first year of recovery, it also serves those who have been in recovery for many years. Face it, at some point in recovery, life can become overwhelming, things that perhaps were not completely dealt with as they came up, have an odd way of compiling and creating a sense of crisis for even those who have years and years in recovery. We all have heard the stories of those who relapsed at fifteen, seventeen, and twenty one years sober! It happens and it happens more than we would like to admit!
I often work with people who have been in the AA program for years, and find themselves lost and not knowing what to do about it. It is a perfect time to seek outside support, and a recovery life coach who has been in the program is someone who can help you in ways where others can not. A life coach can add some energy and juice into a flat recovery life. Working with a coach will enable you to find new ways of seeing yourself and your life, by challenging you to take bigger steps, to step out of your comfort zone while still supporting your recovery! A recovery coach can breath new air into an old worn out program…and offer it the excitement of being renewed and help you to stretch and grow in your life!
It is believed that a recovery life coach is the ingredient which propels a person in recovery to live a life that still holds excitement and enough drama to keep them engaged and thriving in their recovery! So, if your recovery life seems to lack luster and begins to feel boring and is not satisfying your spirit, perhaps it is time for you to seek outside support and work with a recovery life coach!
