Recovery Month – Day 3 – Step One

I knew I was an addict by the way I felt sober.

— Unknown —

September is National Recovery Month.

My blogs will focus throughout September on addiction and its life-destroying tendencies. The writings derive from my experiences of battling addiction and living a life of recovery.


I wrote about ACT yesterday and will spend the next week sharing my experiences of the importance of Acknowledging the fact that a problem exists.


ACT leads to sobriety…

A – Acknowledge you have a problem, are powerless over it, and need help.

– Connect with a power greater than you and people with solutions to help you conquer your problem.

T – Take positive action every day by Acknowledging and Connecting.


As I mentioned yesterday, I will never forget my first experience with opiates. That experience led to more adventures, which led to a bad habit and an addiction.

The difference between a bad habit and an addiction is you can whip a bad habit on your own, and it usually doesn’t change who you are. Beating addiction takes help and turns you into someone you don’t want to be.

If I swore off opiates once, I swore them off a thousand times. I went from pure recreation to daily use and then to every couple-hour use.

I went from wondering if I was addicted, to knowing I was addicted, to not caring that I was addicted, to looking for ways to end my life conveniently.

The addiction process is insidious.

An addict never wakes up one day and says, “I think I will become an addict.” We make one wrong decision after another, to a point where our addiction finally gains a death grip on our life.

Addiction is cunning, baffling, and powerful.

Addiction is from the devil, focusing on killing, stealing, and destroying the addict and everyone in its path.


The first step in any 12-Step Program is Acknowledging we have a problem. We do this by admitting our powerlessness over whatever we are in bondage to and that our life has become unmanageable.

I had no problem taking the first half of the first step. I knew opiates and alcohol had me whipped, but I was in denial about how my addiction made my life unmanageable. I rationalized that I wasn’t that bad because I could still work and be productive.


It’s denial that kills the addict and alcoholic; it isn’t the chemical.

Tomorrow I will share a pivotal moment in my life when I finally gained clarity around the second part of step one.


These September writings are captured in my book, “Victory Over Opiates.” Click the title for more information.

John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

P.E.A.C.E.

Jay@EagleLaunch.com

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