The Long Road to Recovery

The large pass to retrieval, From a despairing State of brain and Body Michael A White ENG 211 Professor Geoff Pope March 14, 2010 The presbyopic Road to retrieval 2 The gigantic Road to Recovery, From a Hopeless State of Mind and Body dipsomania and the disorder of habituation turn over been spoted in devil strong that whole different displaces of the spectrum for as languish as men and women learn been losing swan of how much and when they toast. champion end of the spectrum is the immoralist point of view, which claims the alcoholic as not having morals (Gary, 1999).When describing alcoholics, they begin also been do itn to c alone them sinful or moral weaklings (Gary, 1999). end-to-end history, the alcoholic has been ridiculed, as described by Gary Stofle in the article The moral philosophy of Alcoholism Society has ascribed to these views as evidenced by the f piece that alcoholics energise been lock uped just for being alcoholics in the past. At wor st, alcoholics eat up been killed or left to die beca fleshly exercise of societys views and from a lack of k veracious awayledge c erstrning treatment of drink as well. At best, alcoholics use up been laughed at, scorned, pitied and/or run tabu of townspeople (1999).These views of the alcoholic have cause a great m some(prenominal) to relapse, and even die, when altogether that was needed was a little understanding of the complaint. The biggest problem with baging this view of addiction is that it buns be potentially fatal for the alcoholic of The colossal Road to Recovery 3 my caliber. The former(a) end of the spectrum that I hold to be truer, yet remedy dont agree tout ensemble with, is the view of the Amoralist. The alcoholic mustiness also understand that he is not responsible for the things he said or did when he was pot adequate to(p).The personal addiction ascendenceled his behavior, and because he is powerless over the addiction, he cannot be held respon sible for it (Gary, 1999). My invention in this essay is give my freshman-hand experience of the disquiet and despair that the unsoundness of alcoholism can cause, and how if you ar resulting to do whatever it takes to end the pain and the hapless, eachone can be relieved from the same hopeless ground of mind and body as I was. My name is Mike and I am an alcoholic. I am responsible for the things that I have make while being flush.What makes me an alcoholic is that when I drink, I dont discern how much I exit drink, or what I will end up doing while I am loaded what I mean by that is when I consume alcohol or any other drug, I release my addiction all over again, and I am at the mercy of it. I lose my power of choice, betwixt doing the right things and the wrong things. When I am loaded, in that respect be scarcely three places that I can end up jails, institutions, and death. The grand Road to Recovery 4 there atomic number 18 three main stand fors regarding t he ailment of addictioncolon the early spirit level, the middle stage, and the end stage.C. H. Angel writes, During the early stage of alcoholism an individual becomes more dependent upon alcohol. If a person has a nerve-wracking daylight, alcohol will be consumed to alter his or her mood. Alcohol is used to relieve stress on a regular basis (2007). I remember this stage clearly, this is when I was just toilsome to fit in and be one of the cool kids when I heretofore had the power to control whether or not I got inebriated. (Keep in mind that when you cross from stage to stage, there is an imaginary line that you cross.You dont know when you argon slightly to approach it, or even when you have crossed it, solely it comes and then it goes. ) The middle stage is the point where a person desires alcohol more intensely. A person starts drinking more alcohol at one sitting. The person clearly starts losing control over his or her drinking (Angel, 2007). When I got to this point i n my vitality, my thoughts and actions were controlled by alcohol and drugs just or so all my actions were consumed with the thoughts of using. What I mean by that is everything I did I unceasingly had thoughts of when and where was I going to relieve oneself my next fix.The Long Road to Recovery 5 Angel describes the end stage as the individual is obsess with drinking. The individual drinks to the exclusion of all other people and all other aspects of his or her vitality. The individuals problems with alcohol are apparent to everyone around that person. The mental, emotional and physical health of the individual erodes rapidly in the end stage. Serious problems are present all around physical health, mental health, financial, inter-personal relationships, financial and effective (2007). When I hit this stage, my life, and my familys life got turned upside down.I couldnt hold down a job, nor did I want to, I had been to jail countless times, my family wanted nothing to do wit h me, and my children, didnt even know who I really was. I myself didnt even know who I really was. But for the mercy of a loving god, and a deception place of Alcoholics Anonymous, I was able to gain control over my addiction, and I was relieved from a hopeless state of mind and body. What my life was wish well I am not exactly sure as to wherefore I became an alcoholic, and I might not ever know wherefore I was afflicted with a disease that there is no cognize cure.But the fact remains I am, and I will endlessly be one, and I am ok with it. I had a acquire who The Long Road to Recovery 6 bopd me dearly, and a step beat who, as bulky as I could remember, always made me deal for his approval, attention, and even his love. I am not saying that he didnt love me or anything of the sorts. But I always felt alike(p) I was in a competition with my sister (who is biologically his) to get a piece of him all to myself. I grew up never get together my biological father, and stil l to this day I have never met him, and now it is too late, because he has been dead for a couple of years now.My mother isnt an alcoholic, but my biological father did lose his battle with his disease of addiction in 2004, so the provided thing that I could safely assume is that I got the gene from him, but since he is gone I will never know for sure. For the some I had a dangerous childhood, nothing to traumatic ever really happened to me, I weard a sheltered, uneventful life. I lived in my childhood home with my parents up till the day that I graduated from high nurture in 1997. I was always surrounded by people who loved, and cared for me. So I dont completely understand where I went wrong.When I hit my bottom, I had been battling my addiction for many years. I had been in jail over and over again. For those suffering from the disease of alcoholism it seems to be an almost universal truth that forwards things can get The Long Road to Recovery 7 better, they have to get wor se &8212 sometimes a lot worse (Buddy, 2009). That was completely true for me every incident by itself was never enough to part with doing what I was doing. Buddy writes, Alcoholism is a progressive disease there comes a point at which even the most dedicated drunk decides that there just might be a problem.Alcoholism does not stop in one place. It doesnt hit a certain stage and then level off. It keeps deepening, mending him physically, mentally, morally and spiritually. On all of those levels he keeps getting worse until finally he hits bottom (2009). Then after years of abuse, to me and my family, it all came to a head. On October 2, 2002, my house got raided for the manufacturing of methamphetaminescomma and that was the end of life as I knew it. As a result of the house getting raided, my kids got taken away from me, and placed with my parents, because I had failed them miserably as a father. Warped lives of blameless children is what my sponsor used to tell me and, boy, wa s he right about that. My daughter was a year old and my son was two months old when they were taken away from me, because I was a danger to them. It is only by the grace of a loving god that nothing had happened to them that I couldnt repair. The Long Road to Recovery 8 As a result of mine and my ex-wifes addiction, my son is autistic. He is high functioning, yet he is still autistic, so the poor decisions that I had made, will affect him for his whole life.I spent 110 days in county jail, till I was released from jail on February 26, 2003. Even after I was released from jail, I still continued to drink and use drugs, until I quit laborious to masquerade party the pain that I felt, and tried to do something about the pain I had caused. So on March 20, 2003, I quit trying to control my life, cause my best decisions got me into the situation that I was in, from that day to this one, I have not taken a drug or a drink to fog any seven-day. What life is like nowWhen I quit trying t o control my life, and let someone else take control, my life got better, I am not saying that it got better overnight, but it got better. On June 6, 2003, I was canvas into impatient treatment at a place called American behavioral wellness Systems, in Spokane Washington. That is when I started to get control of my demons that I had been assay with for such a long time. That is where I had learned about myself, and my disease of addiction. I spent 3 months there working on the things that brought my life crashing down around me. The Long Road to Recovery 9While I was in treatment, I took responsibility for my actions, and the constipationd that I caused. I quit trying to blame my circumstance on the people around me, and I came to the identification that all of the things that went on in my life, had one common denominator, and that was me. Once I found out what made me tick, what I wanted out of life, and how drugs and alcohol played a detrimental role in ever attaining any of those things. I learned what I needed to do to get all of the things that I wanted out of life and most importantly how I could do it without drugs and alcohol.Too much personal testimony for this research-related paper. While in treatment, I started to repair some of the damages that I had put my children and my family through. In most cases, it took time to heal the wounds. As for my children, I had supervised visits with them, while they still lived with my parents. Once I had completed impatient treatment, and moved to Yakima, I had visits with them once a week till, on February 2004, after 18 months of living with my parents, they came to live with me again. The only reason that they were able to do that was because I was no longer a anger to them. The day they came back to me was the greatest day ever. I have to admit, that I was really scared about the whole deal, because I wasnt sure how to be a father, a sober The Long Road to Recovery 10 father. Then I came to the realiza tion, that when I was loaded I wasnt a father anyways. Today, I repair the damage that I have caused by not creating anymore pain. I am the best father that I can be to my children forthwith, and as long as I dont get loaded today, they will never have seen me or remember seeing me loaded.As for going to jail, I havent been back since the last time that I got out in 2003. I took me to get clean, to realize that the only time that I had ever gone to jail was because of drugs and alcohol. So for today, I am a single father of three beautiful children, who love me with all of their hearts, no matter what I have done in the past. They know what I have done, because I dont lie or hide who I was from them. They know that I have made mistakes, and they have forgiven me, and they love and accept me for who I am, and not who I was.If you think that you might know someone, who is suffering from the disease of addiction, as outlined in the DSM-lV (Burge & Schneider, 1999) The Long Road to Recovery 11 1. repeated alcohol use resulting in a failure to fulfill major role obligations at work, school or home (e. g. , repeated absences or poor work procedure related to alcohol use alcohol-related absences, suspensions or expulsions from school neglect of children household) 2. Recurrent alcohol use in situations in which it is physically hazardous 3. (e. g. impulsive an automobile or operating a machine when impaired by alcohol use) 4. Recurrent alcohol-related legal problems (e. g. , arrests for alcohol-related disorderly conduct) 5. Continued alcohol use despite having persistent or recurrent social or interpersonal problems caused or exacerbated by the effects of the alcohol (e. g. , arguments with spouse about consequences of intoxication, physical fights) If you see any of these signs, dont be afraid that you are going to hurt their feelings, because it is not about sparing their feelings, it about conservation their life.The Long Road to Recovery 12 The most impor tant thing before an alcoholic can be approached is that they show signs of a zeal to change. If the signs are not there, any attempts to make them change will fail. The discretion to change doesnt just happen, it takes time, and the time that I talk about is presented in steps. Precontemplation (not ready for change), contemplation (ambivalence about change), preparation (planning for change), action (the act of change) and maintenance (maintaining the new behavior) (Burge, Schneider, 1999).Not everybody stays off of drugs and alcohol on their first try. Relapse is common in the recovery process. This usually occurs when the alcoholic doesnt feel as if he or she had a problem. But if they are truly an alcoholic, they will eventually realize that they are, and they will ask for friend. There are many places that a person can get help to solve the problems of addictions. You can go to impatient treatment, outpatient treatment, or just go straight to the rooms of alcoholics anonymo us. Here is a list of some places where you can go in Washington for help Good 1.American Behavioral Health Systems, residential treatment services are The Long Road to Recovery 13 located in the Spokane Valley at 12715 E. Mission Avenue, Spokane Valley, Washington, 99216, www. abhsinc. realise 2. Schick Shadel Hospital 12101 Ambaum Blvd. S. W. Seattle, Washington 98146, Tel 1-866-938-6280 3. Sundown M. Ranch, 2280 State Route 821 Yakima, WA 98901-8302 (509) 457-0990, www. sundown. org My recovery from the disease of addiction was long and painful for me, but there is no comparison, nor would it be fair to compare the pain that I went through to the pain that the people in my life felt.The wreckage that I caused has taken a long time to repair, and I will continue on this road as long as I repair the damage that I have caused and dont slip back into active addiction. If it wasnt for the grace of a loving god, and the magical place of Alcoholics Anonymous, I would be able to be a fa ther to my three wonderful children, be a son to my mother, or be a productive member of todays society. The Long Road to Recovery14 References Gary, S. (1999). The morality of alcoholism. Retrieved Feb 28, 2010, from mentalhelp. et Angel C. H. (2007) period Alcoholism stages-understanding the progression of the disease of alcoholism. Retrieved Feb. 28, 2010, from ezinearticles. com/? Alcoholism Progression-of-the-Disease-of-Alcoholism Buddy T. (2009)period Hitting bottom, usually it must get worse before it gets better. Retrieved, Feb. 28, 2010 from About. com Burge, S. K. , and Schneider, F. D. , (1999) Alcohol related problems Recognition and intervention. Retrieved Feb. 28, 2010, from www. aafp. org B- 86/100 = 129/150