http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/
Hi L - this is the Amazon uk link to Facing Codependence. Pia Mellody.
I found it helpful. After about 3 years in recovery from alcohol I started to feel crazy and read that book. I then started going to CoDA about 5 years in. I hit a rock bottom with it. Despite my denying I needed CoDA it became a life saver.
I didn't realise how much underlies addiction for me. The alcohol or other addictive behaviours are merely symptoms. So whilst totally believing my need go AA etc I know the work has been an ongoing process. And wow how amazing it is.
It is the work that means life is for living. I just need to keep the priorities in order.
My own sponsor wants me to put my recovery with FA first. I'm fighting so I do really relate to you.
Trying to find a balance when I have full time work and long days with that - up at 5 am to say prayers, half hour quiet time, call to sponsor, write step 4, and have breakfast to leave by 6:30. Then I'm not home usually until 7 - prep my meals for following day, meetings Wed and Fri (Sats as well but that's more manageable), study my degree, have relationship with George, see friends, on Sunday telephone meeting, personal interests.
Flipping heck and so committing to 3 meetings a week can seem too much and one of those is to be FA - Sat am either London or Brighton.
But you know I absolutely know I cannot keep abstinent without help. Well I tried it for years. So I'm guessing it would still be the same soon reverting to gradually picking up. I'd probably manage for a while. I'm pretty sure. I do not want to take the risk of losing my abstinence.
There are plenty of times when I think I'm not an alcoholic or a drug addict. Who knows??! But I know I have this mental illness.
Have you read Step one in the little red book?
I really had to take a good look at the mental illness element. It's taken me many years to really get an understanding.
For me it manifests in negativity and self hatred - strongly.
That then can manifest as fear and dishonesty, inc people pleasing, and controlling behaviour and so on. I love the little red books way of describing the steps. I read each step slowly and repeatedly.
Anyway enough already .....
Before getting completely ensconced in codependency - ensure you're really settled in step one. That's experience not judgement.
I know well that you have no doubts about your problems ie the chaos or unmanageability. How acceptant are you that you're an alcoholic and therefore powerless? What does being an alcoholic actually mean. Not trick questions just things I think worth exploring. Sometimes I have to ponder this without analysing it. Ask others.
I can go on and on and on.
Anything to deflect from writing step 4.
Some of what I say is ideals. I wish I did my recovery how I say it. But it's talking about it that reminds me what I don't do.
I need to be firm with George about my meetings commitments, my studying and my time with friends. I don't think he'll like it. But I need his support if we can be together. This required me to be honest and boundaried. I am afraid though. Afraid it'll be too difficult or he'll get moody. Just how much I try to keep everything okay for everyone else but st my cost.
I want to be more empowered. Otherwise I get resentful. I am an alcoholic - its not all of me but it is a part of me. That part needs certain things. As does other parts of me, the fun lover, the artist, the professional, the curious, the nature lover, etc etc.
Takes effort to fulfill all parts of me but all need attention sometimes some parts more than others.
Thank you for letting me write all of this.
Not essential reading. Just a really useful share for me
This was a email I drafted but didn't send. I didn't think it appropriate in this form.
You see I am consdiering FA and all the "rules"
I am sure I am interpreting things with a whole host of history attached. I see it though as being required to ask permission to live my life. I don't want to have to check in with anyone to make a decision to go to a different meeting. I don't want to have to check in to say that these are my plans with G and besides they can change and I like that spontaneity - sometimes the changes are not to my liking admittedly and I don't know how to say that without pissing him off ad then spending a week with sulks from him.
I don't want to sponsor. I don't want to be told I can't sponsor someone in AA who asked me. How honoured I feel to have been asked. It's amazing.
I don't want to try and get to London or Brighton on a regular, fixed basis. I can't always afford it. And yet I think I hear that I am being told to prioritise this. I am struggling financially as it is. And yes every so often I spend irrationally. That's true but sometimes I want to be able to do that.
I don't want to lose my food abstinence. But I do feel angry and stroppy about some of these things.
I think my sponsor got fed up with me and when she said "you've got things to think about" it sounded dismissive and somehow seemed like I'm being naughty and told off. It probably wasn't like that but that's how I've perceived it.
I think as well it's important for me to express my truth. It may not be what people want to hear and no longer means I'm the good girl. But these thoughts are my truth. If I don't express them then what? It'll all be inside me unsaid and I think that's far more dangerous.
I think as well that it's a sort of testing of the boundaries. Is it really okay to be me and have my say and not get barracked for it. Or punished with abandonment. I'm half expecting G to withdraw gradually. I'm too much trouble. Costly in time and energy. It was impossible to speak openly and honestly with B. She just is that very strict ma'am. That didn't work out for me in the end. However I'm very gratefuil for the recovery I've gained through her support. And with G I have more food and am putting on some pounds. I need to but it's scary too.
I forgot to tell her this monring how much I weighed in with 120.6 pounds. Which is 1 pound less than when I used SS's scales. I was going to step on them as well to see if things are very different on those from last week. How confusing. How annoying.
The anorexic thinking is rife. I don't want to be bigger. I can feel rolls where I didn't thave them last week. It's probably in my imagination.
I wonder of this is contributing to me wanting to leave FA.
Not to mention I am writing Step 4, my dad has angrily stopped me from contacting him or the hospital more than once a week. There is little news. I have felt hurt and angry and even dramatic about this. And yet I also feel some relief and even some acceptance after 52 years of trying to get his approval.
And then there is G. I have had little contact. The contact I've had is sporadi. I'm imagining he's been staying with D and doesn't tell me since his friend P said his big mistake was in telling me. If he goes underground and secretive then it makes it all the more suspicious. All this goes thorugh my head. INstead I need to trust him. If I don't trust him it will all be destroyed within me. I am missing hi.
Yet I am also questioning whether I want to be with someone who is so work shy and doesn't have the drive to earn money. He wants to doss about all day in Elstead with D. And claims that he has tis love for the dog. I wonder if the dog represents what he cannot have fully with D. If D's husband died would they then really get it together? Is he lying to her and to me? Is he spoinning me lines so that he can just have both situations? If it si like that he's a player and it's not what I want. But I just have to believe him. He says he needs time but to be honest there's never going to be any change. I don't want to be in a relationship where he is lying to me and has this closeness with someone else. I wouldn't do it to him - or would I? I want to have my friends. I just don't want to run away from life to be with them. That;s what I see of him. Avoidance and going there to avoid. Then he can come to me, have sex and avoid life in another way.
Or is this all in my head? I have to keep trying to find ways to push it away. I become obsessed with it and distracted.
Can I learn to accept it?
Ths evening there's been a few almost nothingness texts. What's that all about? Is he staying there hence there's little signal - sporadic. But would he tell me the truth if he is staying there? Should I ask him?
Did he ask what I was doing to find out if it was all clear to go to the meeting with D?
I just don't know if I believe him and yet have to keep putting that aside.
Aaaaargh
Crazy making. I dislike my insecurity.
Please HP help me to stay away from all of this craziness.
Bliss
XX
Hi L - this is the Amazon uk link to Facing Codependence. Pia Mellody.
I found it helpful. After about 3 years in recovery from alcohol I started to feel crazy and read that book. I then started going to CoDA about 5 years in. I hit a rock bottom with it. Despite my denying I needed CoDA it became a life saver.
I didn't realise how much underlies addiction for me. The alcohol or other addictive behaviours are merely symptoms. So whilst totally believing my need go AA etc I know the work has been an ongoing process. And wow how amazing it is.
It is the work that means life is for living. I just need to keep the priorities in order.
My own sponsor wants me to put my recovery with FA first. I'm fighting so I do really relate to you.
Trying to find a balance when I have full time work and long days with that - up at 5 am to say prayers, half hour quiet time, call to sponsor, write step 4, and have breakfast to leave by 6:30. Then I'm not home usually until 7 - prep my meals for following day, meetings Wed and Fri (Sats as well but that's more manageable), study my degree, have relationship with George, see friends, on Sunday telephone meeting, personal interests.
Flipping heck and so committing to 3 meetings a week can seem too much and one of those is to be FA - Sat am either London or Brighton.
But you know I absolutely know I cannot keep abstinent without help. Well I tried it for years. So I'm guessing it would still be the same soon reverting to gradually picking up. I'd probably manage for a while. I'm pretty sure. I do not want to take the risk of losing my abstinence.
There are plenty of times when I think I'm not an alcoholic or a drug addict. Who knows??! But I know I have this mental illness.
Have you read Step one in the little red book?
I really had to take a good look at the mental illness element. It's taken me many years to really get an understanding.
For me it manifests in negativity and self hatred - strongly.
That then can manifest as fear and dishonesty, inc people pleasing, and controlling behaviour and so on. I love the little red books way of describing the steps. I read each step slowly and repeatedly.
Anyway enough already .....
Before getting completely ensconced in codependency - ensure you're really settled in step one. That's experience not judgement.
I know well that you have no doubts about your problems ie the chaos or unmanageability. How acceptant are you that you're an alcoholic and therefore powerless? What does being an alcoholic actually mean. Not trick questions just things I think worth exploring. Sometimes I have to ponder this without analysing it. Ask others.
I can go on and on and on.
Anything to deflect from writing step 4.
Some of what I say is ideals. I wish I did my recovery how I say it. But it's talking about it that reminds me what I don't do.
I need to be firm with George about my meetings commitments, my studying and my time with friends. I don't think he'll like it. But I need his support if we can be together. This required me to be honest and boundaried. I am afraid though. Afraid it'll be too difficult or he'll get moody. Just how much I try to keep everything okay for everyone else but st my cost.
I want to be more empowered. Otherwise I get resentful. I am an alcoholic - its not all of me but it is a part of me. That part needs certain things. As does other parts of me, the fun lover, the artist, the professional, the curious, the nature lover, etc etc.
Takes effort to fulfill all parts of me but all need attention sometimes some parts more than others.
Thank you for letting me write all of this.
Not essential reading. Just a really useful share for me
This was a email I drafted but didn't send. I didn't think it appropriate in this form.
You see I am consdiering FA and all the "rules"
I am sure I am interpreting things with a whole host of history attached. I see it though as being required to ask permission to live my life. I don't want to have to check in with anyone to make a decision to go to a different meeting. I don't want to have to check in to say that these are my plans with G and besides they can change and I like that spontaneity - sometimes the changes are not to my liking admittedly and I don't know how to say that without pissing him off ad then spending a week with sulks from him.
I don't want to sponsor. I don't want to be told I can't sponsor someone in AA who asked me. How honoured I feel to have been asked. It's amazing.
I don't want to try and get to London or Brighton on a regular, fixed basis. I can't always afford it. And yet I think I hear that I am being told to prioritise this. I am struggling financially as it is. And yes every so often I spend irrationally. That's true but sometimes I want to be able to do that.
I don't want to lose my food abstinence. But I do feel angry and stroppy about some of these things.
I think my sponsor got fed up with me and when she said "you've got things to think about" it sounded dismissive and somehow seemed like I'm being naughty and told off. It probably wasn't like that but that's how I've perceived it.
I think as well it's important for me to express my truth. It may not be what people want to hear and no longer means I'm the good girl. But these thoughts are my truth. If I don't express them then what? It'll all be inside me unsaid and I think that's far more dangerous.
I think as well that it's a sort of testing of the boundaries. Is it really okay to be me and have my say and not get barracked for it. Or punished with abandonment. I'm half expecting G to withdraw gradually. I'm too much trouble. Costly in time and energy. It was impossible to speak openly and honestly with B. She just is that very strict ma'am. That didn't work out for me in the end. However I'm very gratefuil for the recovery I've gained through her support. And with G I have more food and am putting on some pounds. I need to but it's scary too.
I forgot to tell her this monring how much I weighed in with 120.6 pounds. Which is 1 pound less than when I used SS's scales. I was going to step on them as well to see if things are very different on those from last week. How confusing. How annoying.
The anorexic thinking is rife. I don't want to be bigger. I can feel rolls where I didn't thave them last week. It's probably in my imagination.
I wonder of this is contributing to me wanting to leave FA.
Not to mention I am writing Step 4, my dad has angrily stopped me from contacting him or the hospital more than once a week. There is little news. I have felt hurt and angry and even dramatic about this. And yet I also feel some relief and even some acceptance after 52 years of trying to get his approval.
And then there is G. I have had little contact. The contact I've had is sporadi. I'm imagining he's been staying with D and doesn't tell me since his friend P said his big mistake was in telling me. If he goes underground and secretive then it makes it all the more suspicious. All this goes thorugh my head. INstead I need to trust him. If I don't trust him it will all be destroyed within me. I am missing hi.
Yet I am also questioning whether I want to be with someone who is so work shy and doesn't have the drive to earn money. He wants to doss about all day in Elstead with D. And claims that he has tis love for the dog. I wonder if the dog represents what he cannot have fully with D. If D's husband died would they then really get it together? Is he lying to her and to me? Is he spoinning me lines so that he can just have both situations? If it si like that he's a player and it's not what I want. But I just have to believe him. He says he needs time but to be honest there's never going to be any change. I don't want to be in a relationship where he is lying to me and has this closeness with someone else. I wouldn't do it to him - or would I? I want to have my friends. I just don't want to run away from life to be with them. That;s what I see of him. Avoidance and going there to avoid. Then he can come to me, have sex and avoid life in another way.
Or is this all in my head? I have to keep trying to find ways to push it away. I become obsessed with it and distracted.
Can I learn to accept it?
Ths evening there's been a few almost nothingness texts. What's that all about? Is he staying there hence there's little signal - sporadic. But would he tell me the truth if he is staying there? Should I ask him?
Did he ask what I was doing to find out if it was all clear to go to the meeting with D?
I just don't know if I believe him and yet have to keep putting that aside.
Aaaaargh
Crazy making. I dislike my insecurity.
Please HP help me to stay away from all of this craziness.
Bliss
XX
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