Living a sober life – this actually has very little to do with the idea of not drinking. Of course, when you are living sober you technically are not going to be getting drunk. But for a real alcoholic, how can this ever hold up in the long run if they are actually deep down wanting to drink inside? But they can not realy sustain this, as usually an alcoholic will go back to the booze before they reach such a level of desperation. And please understand that for a true alcoholic, suicidal desperation can be a very real thing.
Alcoholics are passionate people. They love to get drunk and they love the way it makes them feel and it becomes the purpose of their life. The problem is that it eventually quits working as their tolerance increases and it becomes impossible to “get happy” anymore. Because alcoholics are filled with passion, they need to find passion in their recovery as well. If you were to remove the drugs and the alcohol from their life then the alcoholic is left with nothing; they can’t become excited about living without resorting back to drinking.
Because of this enthusiasm, it goes to show that any drunk who has learned how to stop drinking must be doing so with passion. This is the answer. Not behavior modification or counseling on Tuesdays and Thursdays or even 12 step programs, but passion.
Passion is what fuels the success in a life of sobriety. Passion is the key to living sober.
Realize that 12 step fellowships do work really well for some people, but only if they have a real passion for the program and for their life in general.
Do this test: ask any successful recovering alcoholic if they are as passionate about life in recovery as they were about drinking. They will of course tell you that they are. Otherwise they would not still be clean and sober. They would be drinking.
